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.

He's got my back

I had kind of a rough night last night, but this morning, when I woke up, I had a few moments where things were okay. 

My habitual sleeping posture is on my right side, or on my stomach deviating towards my right side, and usually curled into a semi-foetal position.  I almost never end up on my left side or my back unless I'm really having trouble sleeping.  This morning, I woke up on my right side to discover that Magick was spooning me.  He was lying against my back with his paws hooked over my left shoulder.

You know, that really felt good.  Magick is a good person to have your back like that.  You know he's got pull, and you also know that if he decides he has your back, he's not going to let you fall, and he'll be willing to fight dirty on your behalf if the situation seems to warrant it.  Nor does it hurt that any girl would love to wake up and find herself with a guy like Magick, either, or rather a human version of him.  I sure would.

One is inclined to remain dubious.

Zebulon might be officially posted here, as the on-site legal counsel, but this doesn't mean that his legal services are reserved exclusively for Alfredo's chapter.  Thus far he hasn't been needed here in his official capacity, and his services are too much in demand for it anyway.  So, for that matter, are his ambitions; Zebulon apparently wants to argue in front of the Zoopreme Court someday.  Consequently, Zebulon will be periodically disappearing for an afternoon or so, in order to take care of this independent legal business.

Yesterday was Zebulon's first case since he came here, and he dressed for it before he left.  This means that, while we still haven't seen him in action, we've seen what he looks like when he's ready for business.

I must be completely honest and say that the result does not particularly inspire confidence.

After Zebulon left for court yesterday, Alfredo spent the rest of the afternoon lying down with a cold cloth over his head in an apparently vain attempt to relieve his pounding migraine headache.  He is more convinced than ever that Zebulon is somehow going to exacerbate the inevitable International Incident of Alfredo's gloomy anticipations and then ruin Alfredo's career and probably the entire Wild Republic in the process.

This is really getting ridiculous

I missed most of Jeopardy! tonight because I stayed late at work, and this is a shame, because it was a very eventful game.  Not only did a college student win $48,000 without breaking a sweat, either.  

When I got home, the Double Jeopardy round was not quite halfway over and Laszlo and Navarre were downstairs watching with AJD, Gilly, and Zebulon.  This was, naturally, due to the effects of Hrithik's alarmingly effective meditation routine.  Laszlo had won an honourable mention because the winning contestant's anecdote was about getting in-between a female moose and her offspring (moral of story: this is a bad idea).  And Navarre really cleaned up, because there was an entire category about lions in the first round.  It's not clear whether this counts as a five-game win or as winning one game five times, but either way, this is an unprecedented accomplishment.

Hrithik, naturally, is claiming all the credit.

This is on top of AJD's recent discovery, mentioned in the comment thread on an earlier post, that the conference he's attending next month has sessions on the dialectological situation in Madagascar.  We'd joked before about Murchison needing to monitor Team Malagasy for suspicious behaviour, but it must be said that since Zebulon got here and Hrithik started meditating, things have been strange.  What is next, and what is going on?  Madagascar gets to host an Olympic games?  Madagascar suddenly becomes a world empire? 

Tibby On Guard

Today was a very important day for Tibby: he received his first ever official training assignment.   See, here he is standing guard.  Alfredo is checking to make sure he's doing okay; he was keeping an eye out more or less the entire time.

Now, of course security detail is not Tibby's projected career path.  He is slated for a career in diplomacy, and since he has the best of credentials (yes, I know it's a Republic, but imperial blood does still open some doors) and the beginnings of an excellent record, he's likely to end up where he wants to be.  But everyone has to start somewhere, and the Republic takes seriously the idea that its fledglings ought to be familiar with as many of the different roles played by its personnel as possible, especially if they're headed for an elite career.  Guard duty is a very typical first assignment.

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.

They Call It Puppy Love

When Beppe likes you, he doesn't really leave it much in doubt.