A Boy and His Fox

AJD and the Fox have been together for more than a few years now - not as long as Seal and I have, but a pretty long time - longer than I've known AJD.  The Fox is a mysterious fellow.  He's involved in the Wild Republic, and of high rank; this we know.  But he's not actually a member of the local chapter.  He's around because of AJD.  The Fox doesn't belong to AJD, exactly, but he seems to have decided that he ought to be around him all the same.

This picture of the two of them together might be my favourite picture of AJD.

AJD and I aren't roommates anymore.  It's sad; he's one of the closest friends I've ever had, and I'm going to miss him like crazy.  I'll miss the Fox too, and the way he likes to be kissed between the ears.

Everybody

I mentioned a few days ago that I'm moving.  AJD is not.  It's sad but true.  So we really wanted to get one big picture with the entire local chapter of the Wild Republic (both retired and active members), the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy, the Wild Mythic Federation, and us, before I leave.  Here we are, immortalised by our intrepid photographer friend ML.

After ML had taken this, we realised that somehow Seal was missing.  Obviously this would not do, so I got up and found him and talked him into being in the picture.  Seal's not camera-shy, but he's retired, and accordingly tries to avoid anything suspiciously big and official.  This position is understandable, as he's not just any retiree: Seal was president pro tem of the Wild Republic Senate for fifteen years until he decided to retire - not just any fifteen years, mind you, but the most prosperous and well-run fifteen years of its entire history.  He is legendary: one of their greatest political figures of all time.

But when he thought about it some more, he decided we were right: this occasion was worth making an exception for.  So here is another picture with everyone, Seal included.

Look how Barry is so eager for centre stage that he's blocking my face.  That's so very typical of Barry.

Mass Snuggling

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'm just going to give you the picture:

AJD says he highly recommends participating in group snuggles of this nature, if you can find an opportunity.

Dancing

I mentioned a little while ago that Omri turns out to be a bona fide dancing bear.  Laszlo, who is a trained tap dancer (he was never a professional, but this was mostly just because he wanted a career in government), was delighted when this came up in conversation.  So the two of them have taken to dancing in the evenings most days.  Here they are:

Some caution is required in dancing with Omri, since he's got pretty impressive claws, but he and Laszlo seem to have worked that out.

Omri's pretty good at other types of dancing, too.  He was pretty excited when he found out that AJD and I have been going salsa-dancing lately, although disappointed to learn that bears aren't allowed to go.  But he offered to help AJD figure out a few tricks.  It's much harder to go social salsa-dancing as a beginner when you're a guy.  Girls have it easy; you just sort of let the guy twirl you around and try to stay on the right foot.  Guys are expected to know how to do the twirling.  Here are Omri and AJD practising.

AJD says that there are obvious readjustments in technique when one is salsa-dancing with a bear, but not so many as you'd think.

Omri's first love, naturally, is vaudeville, so he and AJD have been having some fun with that too.  I took this picture last night when they were working on their rendition of "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear."*

* This song, interestingly, is sort of the reverse of "If You Could See Her Through My Eyes" from Cabaret, if you know what I mean.

Recreating Snow White

Approximately a year ago, well before it occurred to us that we could use a camera, AJD took advantage of an afternoon nap I was taking to give me what was simultaneously the most adorable and most surreal moment of my entire life to date.  We have endeavoured to recreate it for you.

What happened was approximately this: I had fallen asleep on AJD's bed, and while I was asleep, he convinced the entire Wild Republic to encircle me.  I was sleeping with someone the original time this happened; we didn't remember who, so in the reenactment Sir Theo did the honours, as he's the hardest to fit into a circle.

Here's the same thing, from a slightly different angle.

AJD was very proud of this idea and its execution.  He was particularly proud of his ability to withstand the temptation to wake me up, and left me to wake up on my own.

And so I woke up, surrounded by inquisitive furry faces.  If you've never had this experience, I strongly urge you to get someone to help you remedy the fact, because there's really nothing quite like it.

After we had completed the reenactment, we discovered to our chagrin that Navarre had been omitted from the fun; he'd been playing around on AJD's computer and missed the summons.  He was very disappointed, and AJD was very jealous because he hadn't got to be the one in the middle of the circle, so I swapped places with him and we let Navarre be featured in the middle.

Sir Theo later took advantage of the gathering to deliver a rather lengthy address on the topic of meadow vole politics.  This sounds really dull, but the animals seemed to find it entertaining; at least, none of them cut out early.

Anyway, so there you go: the cutest and most surreal moment of my life, recreated photographically for your pleasure.

Who was that masked aye-aye?

AJD and I spent the Fourth of July weekend at a house party with awesome people down in College Park, MD.  We took Gilly, Barry, and Zebulon with us.  Gilly and Barry wanted to go because they already knew a lot of these people from the Winter Party over New Year's; I think Zebulon was just curious.

The second night of the party, there was a masquerade ball outside on one of the lawns.  Neither Gilly nor Barry felt like going, but Zebulon wanted to go, and he and AJD came up with an idea for a joint costume.  See:

Aye-aye + captain.  The fact that there was a mask that actually fit Zebulon was an unexpected bonus.

Zebulon had a great time at the party.  He spent some time hanging out with Men of Mystery:

and also with pretty girls:

He showed a definite partiality towards hanging out with people whose costumes matched his own, so we can add "has a bit of a vain streak and a strong sense of personal aesthetics" to the list of things we know about Zebulon.

Ingenious

So I've spent the last month or so basically mired in dissertation.  Fortunately, AJD had other company to keep him entertained.  It turns out that Alfredo is really good at Ingenious.  Here they are, contemplating the board.  (It's Alfredo's turn.)

They're pretty evenly matched, but Alfredo won this particular game.

It was a good game, though.  You can tell by how tight the board is.

AJD and The Eleventh Hour

There's a lovely book called The Eleventh Hour, by Graeme Base, about an elephant who has a party for his eleventh birthday, with his ten best friends and eleven games, only to find that someone had eaten the entire birthday feast.  The reader has to piece together the mystery based on clues in the illustrations.

It occurred to AJD that some of the denizens of the Wild Republic might appreciate The Eleventh Hour, particularly Barry and Rusty (the characters include an elephant and a tiger), and the younger ones.  So he snagged Barry and the juveniles and started reading, and it turned out everyone else was interested too.  The winter animals even came back from their snow-watch vigil.

Notice how Leprosy has appropriated a prime position for himself, and how Plouie seems to have misunderstood where the action is supposed to be.

He had to turn the pages himself; it would have been cuter if the others had helped, but they were too enraptured.

Afterwards, of course, the reading party turned into a general cuddling party.  I love how happy they all look.

Angel Joe and Navarre are ensuring that Nicodemus doesn't get too near to the book.