In the evening the pup curls up in the kitchen in front of the radiator and we go in the living room and sit catatonic from wrangling her all day. We put a baby gate up between the two rooms and a blanket down on the kitchen side, since that's what we did with Opal. Opal would lay there happy to see us, happy to chew a chewy. This dog isn't having it.

Ginger whines and whines and we try to ignore it. Eventually she gets on her kitchen bed with her ass toward us and sulks. (We peek over the gate to check on her and she scowls.) The other evening she sat quietly at the gate and the next thing we knew she was coming over the top of it with a grin. In a flash she was racing through the living room toward Opal's old bed. She dove on it and curled up, as if to say I'm not budging. Opal was willful, but this dog is like nothing we've ever seen. She's now in the living room part time. Like us, it's better to work with her than solely dictate what she can do.

2014 is kicking in. A new dealer I'm working with sold a drawing and that shipped out yesterday. I love selling a drawing at the start of a new year. It always feels good.

Sunday morning I baked a coconut bread, which is really a cake, but if you call it a bread you can eat half of it in one sitting. I adapted the recipe slightly from Bill Granger's original:

2 large eggs

1 1/4 cups (295 ml) milk

1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups (315 grams) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon table salt

2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar (I use turbonado; use a little more if you use white)

5 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) sweetened flaked coconut (I use unsweetened)

3/4 cup chocolate chip bits

6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, melted

Butter and flour for baking pan, or a spray oil

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Add sugar and coconut, and stir to mix. Make a well in the center, and pour in egg mixture, then stir wet and dry ingredients together until just combined. Add butter, and stir until just smooth — be careful not to overmix.

Butter and flour a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Spread batter in pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, anywhere from 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Cool in pan five minutes, before turning out onto a cooling rack.

Serve in thick slices, warm. You can also serve it toasted, with butter and confectioners’ sugar.