That Just-Spayed Look

What with sexed-up frogs and steamin’ compost heaps and stuff, Spring is fair bustin’ out here at the Maison Des Girrafes. One sign of sap having risen that we want to prevent is the fecundation of golden retrievers, which is why Heidi took a day trip to the vet yesterday. I had to drive her, as Heidi hasn’t learned how to steer and use the pedals at the same time. Here she is, helpfully showing off her abdominal scar, and the surgical lampshade she wears when I’m not there to stop her groping herself. (She’s a dog, you see, and she can do these things). Poor thing! She’ll be a bit post-operative for a few days, which is why it’s helpful that I’ve taken a few days off to work at home on a nice little freelance project, which I’ll tell you all about some other time. Here is a rare glimpse of my wearable office ^TM in which you can see my current lash-up job – on the left is my brand new secondhand iMac running OS-X 9.3, cost me all of £100, CD drive not working, but that’s what outboard CD drives are for. On the right is my much-abused Dell Inspiron 6400, only two years old but keyboard knackered, which is why I use a cheap USB ‘board on this. My handy Asus Eee (bottom left) is currently being used as a coffee-cup rest. One problem with the Eee that limits its utility is its poor battery life, even with a juiced-up battery (or so I have heard from Dr B. O’H. of Helsinki). This is one reason why I am fascinated by Brian’s blog post on technology, in which he describes the Selwyn electronics digimemo – a kind of electronic notepad with a formidably good battery life, just the thing for scribbling notes on trains for my next book – or for whiling away on the sofa as I nurse a convalescent dog.