Sleepyhead Gets Frisky (ish)

So when I fell asleep on this air mattress last night, I had my laptop on the right side of the pillow, and a cluster of creatures to the left: Sir Theo, Seal, Sir Tristan, Lady Faraday, Magick, and Sleepyhead.

Partway through the night, I woke up to find Sleepyhead on my right.  He appeared to be peering under my sheet; his head was mostly under it.  Shockingly, he was very clearly not asleep.  In fact, I don't think I'd ever seen him so awake.  I, however, was mostly asleep, as well as vaguely certain that if Sleepyhead felt hyper, I should not deter him; so I patted his rump and went back to sleep.

When I woke up this morning, Sleepyhead was lying there fast asleep with his head pillowed on my laptop and his back to me.  I've fallen asleep on my laptop before and it's not very cuddly, let me tell you, but he didn't seem to mind.  I moved him over so that his head is on the pillow now; he didn't wake up in transfer.  All that activity must have done him in.

I conjecture that Sleepyhead got up in the middle of the night to play with my laptop and fell asleep before he could sneak away again.  So far I haven't figured out what he was doing; there weren't any incriminating websites up or anything.  Maybe he was playing Dominion.

Temporary Digs

So we made it to NYC.

I don't have a real apartment yet; I'm just subletting a place for about two weeks.  It doesn't have furniture, which is kind of interesting.  Turns out that the building I'm in is an official historic landmark, because Duke Ellington used to live here.  There's a plaque on the front of the building and everything, although you can't really make out the words in this picture.

Barry's going to be really jealous.  He loves jazz, and he's a particular fan of Duke Ellington; but he stayed behind in the Southern Domicile.

Mimsy and Khamsin are NYC natives, so they're pretty happy to be back.  Khamsin really wants me to take the kittens to Central Park.  When he and Mimsy were still living in the museum, Khamsin used to peek out the window and the park and fantasise about sneaking out late at night and scampering around without anyone being the wiser, but he could never figure out how to handle the locks, so it didn't happen.

The very first thing we did once we had moved everything into my temporary room was open all the boxes.  Much as they all like each other, we figured they'd probably had enough of each other in close quarters for a while.  They were pretty eager to get out of there and explore the new place.  Here they are emerging from their boxes.

The box captains immediately held a meeting to confer about how the trip had gone.  

Consensus appears to be that everything went about as well as could be expected.  The kittens were rather fractious; Beppe yipped the whole time; Zebulon was apparently convinced that they were travelling through a wormhole and gave a long discourse about how the physics worked; Plouie kept forgetting that they were travelling in boxes and freaking out all over again; Magick and Murchison had a confusing conversation that no one else in their box could follow and which was presumably in code.  Pretty much business as usual.

Meanwhile, everyone else was exploring.  The kittens, Beppe, and a bunch of others immediately ran all over the living room.

You can just make out Hrithik preparing to climb up on the radiator back there; it was the highest point he could see.  He's currently settled on the shelf in my closet.  Cami and the polar bears were really interested in the Internet cables.  Rusty and Navarre took advantage of the newfound space and adult distraction to start whaling on each other again.

Not everyone went quite so far afield.  Gilly, of course, immediately laid claim to the air mattress that AM left in here for me.  That's an iPod he's got there; he was quite adamant that there was no room for it on the bed. 

At first, Gilly was convinced that I'd made his dream come true, and given him his own mattress; he was crushed when I explained that it was meant to be mine.  Then he was newly encouraged to see how empty the place is - surely, he said, now is the time to invest in dozens of mattresses - and disappointed when I told him that this place isn't really ours and that the actual tenants would probably be kind of freaked if they came and found we'd flooded it with mattresses.  He tried to convince me to agree to flood our eventual place with mattresses, but I fobbed him off with a story about how NYC has really tough mattress regulations.  Please do not tell him that I made this up.

Zebulon and Nicodemus checked out the view from my bedroom; it's a pretty nice one, although you can't see much of it in this picture.

Nicky is so excited to be here.  Like, he's beside himself.  He's always wanted to see NYC, and this is like his dream come true.  Apparently the whole way over he was pestering Seleucus about whether or not they make 'I <3 NYC' shirts in goat sizes.  Seleucus, who has never been to NYC and really doesn't care much about it (or any city that isn't in Bactria), told him rather shortly that they don't, but Nicky was apparently undeterred because he asked me the same question.  And he keeps announcing 'I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!' like out of the blue.

Not everyone took advantage of the chance to explore.  When the box captains were meeting, Jasper realised, upon saying that Sleepyhead had slept the whole time (such a surprise...), that he hadn't seen Sleepyhead leave the box, and sure enough, he was still asleep in there, curled up with the electronic equipment.  Jasper tried to get him to come out and eventually gave up.

You wouldn't think electronics would be so cuddly.  I fell asleep trying to cuddle my laptop once, and it left a dent in my forehead.

Plouie was pretty excited about the whole thing.  He was hopping around and making squee noises and stuff.  But what had him excited wasn't quite what you'd think.  Check it out:

He comes all the way to a new apartment in a new city, and what interests him is my vegetable steamer.  I'm like, 'Plouie, seriously, it's the same one we had in the old apartment,' but it didn't get through.  After this picture was taken, he started flippering through the rest of the box of equally familiar items.  I wonder whether he'll ever notice the rest of the place at all.

You'll notice that the Mini Republic is nowhere in evidence.  That's because they're having a slightly different adventure.  A bigger one, in fact.  They're all staying a luxury hotel for a month or so, and should have great stories to tell when we're reunited.  Gyork is really excited.  He's from NYC too, like Mimsy and Khamsin, and he's looking forward to showing everyone his favourite places: The Gempire State Building, the Statue of Gliberty, the Gbronx...  He wants me to take everyone to see the Gnicks play once basketball season starts, and the Gyankees of course.  The temporary place is actually quite near Yankee Stadium, as it happens, although I doubt I'll make it there.

Anyway, so we made it here, although we won't be in this specific "here" for very long.  Further updates will follow, although I no longer have access to a camera (the camera we use is AJD's), so there might not be many photos for a while.

Bluh bluh Moving.

So I'm in the process of moving, which is one of my least favourite activities in the entire universe of activities.  Moving always transforms me into this insane evil demon bitch while simultaneously depleting me of all energy.  Ugh.  I'm really lucky that I have some awesome friends who have been lending me a hand.  Otherwise I'd have withdrawn my live savings, gone to Rome, and thrown myself off the Ponte Vecchio, I kid thee not.

Anyway, so after a few hours of stuffing things in boxes and reviewing logistical plans with AJD, I kinda conked out on AJD's floor.  While I was lying there, Quixley realised that I was wearing his colours and climbed aboard.  He knows a good aesthetic when he sees one, and he'd had at least conversation with us on the beauty of the black/white contrast, so he knew that we appreciate such contrasts too.  Here we are:

Then AJD and Quixley, being awake enough to have active brain cells (unlike me) had an even better idea.  Sleepyhead is both the right colours and the right affect.  So AJD retrieved Sleepyhead from the south room and he and Quixley swapped places.

I was aware that they were doing this; I don't think Sleepyhead ever noticed, even though he was moved from the south room to the north room and back again.

So yeah: moving is hell.

Natural Disasters Edition II: Hrithik Saves Greater New Jersey

The worst of the storm is over, anyway, and Alfredo has rescinded the evacuation order.  The Wild Republic is now emerging from the closet.  They appear to be no worse for the wear, but they're all a bit cranky.  Being crammed into close quarters like that was evidently an experience:

• Rusty complained most of the time because he wanted to watch the storm.
• The kittens got bored and sang a lot of 'One Hundred Bottles of Beer' whenever Jasper's attention was diverted.
• Cami and Angel Joe were pretty terrified the whole time.
• The Wild Parliamentary Monarchy delegates, plus Seleucus, Leprosy, and Desmond, spent the entire time having a spirited intellectual discourse on the nature of reality, which everyone else felt wasn't really in keeping with the gravity of the situation.
• Omri spent the entire storm trampling all over everyone in an effort to find Alfredo's clipboard, which (it was later revealed) Parsley was sitting on.
• Quixley, deprived of his usual dosage of caffeine, was pretty grouchy the whole time.  You can't really blame him, I guess, because he was worried that he'd have to configure the computer system all over again.
• Nicky fainted, but he got better.

By far the most notable happenstance, however, is that Hrithik insisted on meditating the entire time, because he was convinced that in this way he could keep the destruction outside to a minimum.  Naturally this began to wear on everyone else's nerves almost immediately, but with his Jeopardy! track record, no one could really make a compelling case against him.  Zebulon probably could have, but Zebulon, either in a show of Team Malagasy solidarity or because he's crazy, decided to take Hrithik's side.  Team Malagasy has pull, I'm telling you.

Now, of course, Hrithik is claiming sole credit for the fact that the entire eastern coast of the United States hasn't disappeared Atlantis-style beneath the waves, despite the fact that even the most alarming of the pre-storm predictions had not mentioned this as a possibility.

Oh - one other thing.  Sleepyhead managed to sleep through the entire hurricane, and quite possibly never noticed himself being evacuated to the closet at all.  Apparently this how giant pandas respond to natural disasters.

It's still a new record

Okay, the fun's over.  Sleepyhead has fallen back to sleep, and Seal is upright again (he says he has a pounding headache).  It's still not clear whether Sleepyhead's unusual wakefulness was the result of Pedro's examination or not, but either way he appears to have reverted back to normal.  He stayed awake for a good forty-seven minutes, though - very impressive by his standards.

Out of Character

Hmm.  It seems that Pedro's examination had an unexpected result: Sleepyhead is awake right now.  He's been awake for all of fifteen minutes!  Look at this.  He stayed awake long enough for the event to be captured on camera.

You may be wondering what exactly Seal is doing upside down like that.  He says he's trying to encourage Sleepyhead to stay awake by being particularly entertaining.  I'd say I hope Sleepyhead appreciates how many creatures have inverted themselves for him lately, but I know he doesn't.

To be fair, this may not be a direct result of Pedro's efforts at all.  Sleepyhead didn't actually wake up while he was being examined, so it may have been coincidence.

Pedro's Working Vacation

Pedro recently took his turn in the south room, having earned a bit of respite from kittenish antics.  It proved to be a working vacation, but I would like to stress that this was entirely Pedro's own idea; no one pushed him to work while he was off.

This was Pedro's first tour of south room duty, which meant that it was his first encounter with Sleepyhead.  All of Pedro's medical instincts went into red alert when he realised just how much sleeping Sleepyhead does on a typical day.  'No healthy panda ought to sleep this much,' he informed me, and immediately set about trying to get to the bottom of this.

Sleepyhead, however, is not a particularly cooperative patient.  He'd apparently decided that he wanted to sleep on the floor between my mattress and the nearest bookcase, and he had himself wedged in there pretty good, with the result that there was no room for Pedro to really get in there with him.  Pedro's principal technique in diagnosis involves judicious sniffing; he requires close proximity to his patients.  Naturally there was no chance that Sleepyhead would come out on his own, either, and Pedro is too small to move him around if he's not helping.  Magick was on south room duty too, but he refused to get involved, although he watched the proceedings with something suspiciously akin to amusement.

So, after grilling Seal for about twenty minutes for a full description of Sleepyhead's habits (which Seal tolerated very good-naturedly), Pedro sort of hung himself upside down over the edge of the mattress and went to work.  This must be a terribly awkward position in which to conduct medical examinations, so he deserves commendation for his devotion to his medical calling.

This is an unusually good picture of Magick.  Usually attempts to photograph him just result in a sort of Shapeless Black Void, because his fur is so very black, but this picture does a pretty good job of showing his silhouette.  A Black Void in Silhouette is much more demonstrative than a Shapeless Black Void, don't you think?

Anyway, I'm sorry to report that Pedro's efforts were largely for nothing, as he was unable to find any signs that Sleepyhead's persistent somnolence is the result of a medical condition; in fact, Pedro pronounced himself completely baffled.  His recommendation is that Sleepyhead consult a psychiatrist.  Sleepyhead, who seems perfectly satisfied with his life, is rather unlikely to do so of his own accord; but Alfredo has been lobbying for an on-site mental health professional, so if his campaign is successful, Pedro might get his way.

Photographic Support for a Previous Post

In my most recent post, I mentioned that there have been some eccentric happenings in my room lately: Gilly is reading Beppe the first volume of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (Beppe really likes the parts about wolves), and Sleepyhead mysteriously ended up on one of my bookshelves.  I can now offer photographic evidence.

Here you get the sort of panoramic view, loosely speaking.  (You can see bits of Humphrey, Lady Faraday, and Seal in the foreground.) 

I'm still not quite sure how Sleepyhead got up there, but I have vague suspicions which centre on Sir Tristan.

Here's a closer view of Gilly and Beppe:

Beppe's still in my room; the others (except Sleepyhead and Seal) have returned to the north room.  He can get away with this because he's the youngest here.  The other young ones are here for an education, but he's really here because he's Alfredo's son, although the plan is that he'll be educated here once he's old enough.  He picks up a little here and there (it would be hard to avoid), but he's not formally a student yet, apart from his singing lessons.  So he's not missing anything by being in here, and the others get a chance to breathe.  Beppe is sort of hyperactive, being a puppy and all.  Alfredo is going to want him back soon, though.

A Spectrum of Pandicity

We introduced Gilly to Hrithik tonight, which had two positive consequences: Hrithik got over being angry with me over relocating him, and they really hit it off.  They have a lot in common: both tree-dwellers, both game lovers, and both possessed of awesome ringed tails.  Their bond was forever sealed when Gilly joined us to watch Jeopardy!  He spent his formative days at the MIT Mystery Hunt, so he likes that sort of thing.

Red pandas also have some things in common with foxes: shape, colour, tailness, that sort of thing.  So, in a manner of speaking, there are only two degrees of separation between ring-tailed lemurs and foxes, and if you put the three of them together, you get a spectrum.  

I shall now produce the proof: here are, from left to right, Hrithik, Gilly, and the Fox.

Here's an aerial view, so you can see their tails:

We finally broke down and told Gilly that Sleepyhead is also a panda; this confused him utterly, because clearly, he says, Sleepyhead is a bear.  He was satisfied only when we agreed to refer to Sleepyhead as a panda bear rather than simply as a panda.  For all that, they get along pretty well.

Here's Sleepyhead on his own; it's not his best angle or a very good picture, but it gives you an idea of his habitual affect.

Here's a better one:

Note that Gilly's tail is in both pictures.  Gilly has quite a lot of tail, so these things happen.

I Think My Ermine Has Problems

The new ermine - who has an improbably pink nose and a first-rate tail - may have some problems.  Clearly there's an interesting backstory there, only I haven't learned what it is yet.

A lot of the time when you buy a new animal, it arrives with its whiskers taped, so it didn't faze me when I noticed that the ermine's had been taped.  But when I went to take the tape off, I discovered that the tape couldn't be removed without removing a lot of fur with it.  As I was unwilling to remove any of the ermine's fur, the whiskers are still taped.  This implies to me that someone, somewhere, has done something very nasty to the poor guy.

This impression is further borne out by a general consideration of the ermine's demeanour: he's wary and watchful and seems slightly traumatised, and he's the first animal who has taken Sleepyhead's narcolepsy completely in stride (he just seems to appreciate having someone unthreatening to cuddle with).  Possibly he'll be feeling less shell-shocked when he's less jet-lagged, and I do think he'll get along well with Cami, but I'm kind of worried about him all the same, and I'd really like to know what happened. 

All the details are currently obscure.  I'm not even sure whether something happened to him recently or whether it happened a long time ago.  Maybe he's so wary because it was very recent; maybe it was a long time ago and new situations dredge it up.  Whether the ermine's trauma has any connection to his dual citizenship is another point of mystery.  None of this is clear.

I don't think the other members of the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy delegation were in any way responsible; the black panther is clearly dangerous, but I don't think he had anything to do with this.  They all, including the panther, seem very protective of the ermine.  This implies that they know his story, or some of his story, but they haven't said anything about it.  Poor little fellow.

He's in very good hands at the moment, though.  Few things in life are more therapeutic than cuddling with Sleepyhead, and the ermine seems content to do that for the rest of the day.

Nocturnal Events (sort of)

Sleepyhead has become more lively of late.  I don't mean to suggest he's been awake more than in the past - as far as I can tell, he hasn't - but that he's started sleepwalking.  Yesterday I looked over and saw that he was on the floor, on his feet, about three inches from the mattress, staring blankly at the bookcase.  Totally asleep.

These hijinks, such as they were, were sufficient to alarm Parsley, who, by the time I went to bed, was utterly convinced he'd somehow lost him.  He was hanging off the head of the bed, frantically searching for Sleepyhead.  Since my mattress is actually on the floor, a quick glance must have told him Sleepyhead wasn't there, but Parsley was concerned enough not to notice.  Then he fell off entirely.  He was extremely relieved when I returned Sleepyhead to the bed safe and sound.

Today, Sleepyhead didn't do any sleepwalking.  Parsley is sort of hovering over him; I can't tell whether that's a factor or not.

South Room Duty

AJD and I have different circadian rhythms: he's a night owl and I'm a lark.  We've learned the hard way that we have a tendency to screw up each other's sleep cycles, so during the week I usually end up sleeping in my room rather than his.  Every Sunday, when I migrate back to my room, one or two of the Wild Republicans come with me.

I never choose who is going to be posted for duty in my room for that week, because I'm not capable of choosing between my animals.  Ask me which of them is my favourite, and I will reply that I don't have a favourite, but I have a special soft spot for Sleepyhead and Plouie and Cami and Mahler and Seleucus and... before long I will have produced a litany of the entire populace.  My favourite animal is whichever one I happen to be holding at the time.

The reasons behind the assignments are not entirely clear to me.  Sometimes, AJD asserts, the animal with south room duty volunteers simply because he likes me.  This was the case with Parsley (the okapi), who is on duty this week.  Other times there seems to be more to it than that.  For the young ones, south room duty seems to be a break from study (for them), with an additional bonus in some cases as an opportunity for the adults to have one less rambunctious youngster around.  For the adults, it's sometimes a sort of working vacation, and sometimes a bit more.

Alfredo and Beppe had south room duty together last week, and this was both an opportunity for them to re-bond after their separation and a chance for Alfredo to get a bit of a break before throwing himself into preparations for the arrival of the delegation from the Wild Parliamentary Monarchy; as leader, most of the work falls to him.  Alfredo tends to use south room duty as a chance to confer with Seal about stuff - what, I'm not privy to.  Conferring with Seal, and sometimes even the private citizens, is apparently part of the point at least some of the time.

Sometimes Murchison is posted here, which is particularly intriguing.  He's a secret agent of some sort, and he doesn't believe in time off, so whenever south room duty falls to Murchison, one has to suspect something is up.

Sleepyhead has permanent south room duty.  I don't think this was planned; I think that initially the idea was that he'd be in here until his jet lag wore off.  Since he's been here almost six months and is just as jet-lagged as he was at first, I've taken his presence here as permanent; it's a good thing Seal has a certain fondness for him.  The other animals vary dramatically in their reactions to Sleepyhead.  Khamsin thinks he's really boring; Vim thinks he's confusing; Cami is worried about him; Tibby thinks he's unusually enlightened; Seleucus returned from his last south room duty feeling like his sense of reality had been warped; some of the others just ignore him; and so on.

Parsley hadn't had south room duty in a very long time - long enough that I don't think he'd met Sleepyhead before.  He clearly falls into the "Sleepyhead is good for cuddling" camp, which is good, because Sleepyhead took an immediate shine to him.  I conjecture that south room duty for Parsley - this time, at least - is going to be purely a mission of R&R.