Unfortunately, Brandy died last November (cancer—she was 13, which is a good lifespan for a Siberian Husky, so I don’t feel that she was taken from me before her time). Since such work as I now do is done at home, my cat Spice (a blue-cream—picture on my homepage) comes to work with me by virtue of simply being here. I would let Noal, the scruffy outdoors cat in, but Spice will want to run him right back out again. When, hopefully soon, there is another Malamute or Siberian Husky about, then she too will come to work :-)

The French Calendar should appear just below the big “The Virtual Stoa” at the top. It does on my browser, at any rate. And today (Friday) is, of course, the first day of the New Year…

I would. And I used to do it, too, when I lived close enough to work to walk her there. It is true that one of the sociology faculty called me a “hippie”’ for doing so. (I was the system admin for a modest size departmental computer system.)

I think I’ve been talking like a pirate, on and off, for about three years. I started for ITLAPD a few years back and never really stopped. Also my housemate did her dissertation on pirates and our fridge wears a pirate hat. Is it okay if I carry on? Particularly since I missed most of this year’s event due to sitting in a silent archives reading room. Bah.

(Actually, I only talked like a pirate with one work-colleague yesterday, and that was in the pub after work, rather than at work.)

At the vet I go to — though not so often this year, as Enkidu’s four feet have been in better working order of late — they’ve taken down the big Dog Incontinence poster, and I’m pleased about that. I didn’t like being made to think about Dog Incontinence while I was worrying about my cat.