Ahah! It appears to have been the fact that I had precisely 0 bytes free on C drive (an extraordinary feat that I achieve with alarming regularity) that led to Abe's sulkiness. Having now remedied this, I and Abe are both happy.

In the process of remedying this, I have, as previously stated, been cleaning out my grossly overpopulated inbox. It's highly amusing (and not, in some areas, like old emails from A), but by far the oddest stuff comes from J². Don't just take my word for it, though... I'll find some examples and post them up.