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I am so very behind on posting.  There are features on each of the newbies coming, I swear!  But first, I have to share evidence that my best friend is as insane as I am.  Check it out - it's terribly cute.

Erev Easter

It's become something of a tradition for AJD and me to watch Monty Python's Life of Brian on Easter.  The idea didn't originate with either of us, although I don't remember who came up with it.  Anyway, since he's up in Massachusetts this weekend for a concert, maintenance of the tradition fell to me this year.  I need to spend most of today working on my dissertation, so I opted to watch on Erev Easter instead.  Desmond (who is Jewish) and Tibby (who is a Roman, sort of) watched with me.  Good times.

The Wild Republic Salutes the Philadelphia Flyers

One of the other things ASD and I did while he was here was go to two hockey games.  (We took Stal to the first one, actually, by virtue of necessity.)  The Flyers lost them both, the first in sudden death shootout and the second because their stupid captain hit a guy in the head with his stick three minutes before the end of the game , so the Bruins scored on the power play and we didn't have a chance to tie it again.

Anyway, so part of the fun of going to a Flyers game is that you get to wear all your hideous Flyers garb, because our colours are orange and black.  For some reason ASD and I only ever end up rooting for teams that wear orange and black; not sure what that's about.  So, since ASD is a good sport about these things, here we are in our hideous Flyers paraphernalia with the three orange-and-black denizens of the Wild Republic:

Gilly fell off my shoulder almost as soon as AJD took the picture, which is why my head is at that angle.

Goings on in the South Room

The plush component in my room at present is dangerously near to capacity, with some moderately amusing stuff going on.

First, Twilby is in here helping me with my dissertation, which is dangerously near to its deadline.  He's here because he's good with doctoral students (having advised many in his time) and my advisor refuses to see me.  (Really.  He has an official policy of not seeing me; he thinks it will make me write faster.)  Right now, Twilby is asleep on a pile of books on my desk with his little feet in the air and one of his wings splayed out.  My dissertation is wearing him out too.

Also, Sir Tristan and Lady Faraday came in here to get some alone time.  Right now they're actually having some.  When they first came in, Lady Faraday was totally fascinated by Sleepyhead, and she decided she just had to figure out what the deal was.  She ended up hanging out watching Sleepyhead while Sir Tristan had conversations with Seal, Seymour, and Casper and took naps.  I think he felt neglected.

Then Sleepyhead somehow ended up asleep on one of my bookcases, on the third shelf from the floor.  I'm not really sure how he got up there, although he appears to be content enough.  Sir Tristan, therefore, is happily cuddling with his lady.  It's not clear whether or not this is suspicious.  If it were Magick rather than Sir Tristan, I'd say it was definitely suspicious.

Meanwhile, Gilly and Beppe have discovered the shelf below that one, which has most of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time novels.  They haven't budged since.  Gilly's reading the first one to Beppe right now - there are lots of wolves, so Beppe is enthralled - and when he feels like his throat is getting sore from all the reading, they stare eagerly at the books instead.  This is great, because it means Beppe is kept out of trouble; he typically has enough energy for an entire litter of puppies.  Gilly is also young, but more responsible.  He can be trusted not to eat the book - and not to let Beppe eat it either.

snow snow snow

More snow.  I peeked into the (still absent) AJD's room.  The snow animals are absolutely delighted.  The non-snow animals look suspiciously hungover, with the exception of Reggie, who is alert and upright.  It wouldn't surprise me if river otters are immune from the less pleasant effects of alcoholic overindulgence.

In further news, Sleepyhead has fallen out of bed again, and the ermine is staring down at him with great concern.  I continue to be concerned for him, as he's been here long enough for it to be absolutely clear that his issues were not the result of jet lag.  Also, Hrithik still hisses at me when I try to get near him, which hurts my feelings.

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.