First item on the agenda: I got my Mini Moo Cards today! FINALLY! I decided to order only two photos for the batch this time instead of fiddling around with the 20 or so last time. There were so many different photos to choose from that I was showing the whole collection every time and people couldn’t decide which one to take. The choices are now narrowed down to two: wedding glasses with (Fancy and Rod’s) rings in them, or a spouting geyser in Iceland. There’s a lot more information in the back, though: my Toronto and Vancouver phone numbers, one email address, two website addresses.

I took a photo of them on my computer in low light and high ISO to test the noise on the D300. It looks pretty noisy here in a larger size, but according to the EXIF data it’s at ISO4000, f/2.8, 1/320s. Not bad. I tested the noise reduction utility in Capture NX on this photo and it works quite well at <15%, better than using Adobe Camera RAW.

In other banal news, it’s SNOWING. Here’s what the tree in the front yard looks like now versus six days ago:

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I was expecting my business cards to arrive today, but I got something better — a package from Germany!

Iris really outdid herself this year, it’s not even the middle of NOVEMBER. She mailed a fabulous care package: a big letter, scads o’ treats, photos, and a fantastic card made out of photos from their wedding. I’ve been WORKING, WORKING, and WORKING lately so this was a very welcome interruption to my day.

I wish I could show you what I’ve been working on, but I’ve got about five projects on the go at the same time and none of them are finished… I’m resurfacing over the weekend for Loy Krathong (Thai Thanksgiving) tomorrow and brunch on Sunday with some errands in-between, but otherwise it’ll be me in front of this computer pushing pixels around until I’m done!

Behold, Beano on his perch of choice. He jumps up on the back of my chair and hangs over my shoulder while I work. Sometimes he’s gassy and I regret I ever let him get into the habit of sitting beside my head. I put up with it because he’s about eighty years old in cat years. I don’t have the heart to put a damper on his fun all the time.

At random times of the day, up pops a pair of ears, a furry head and a pink nose through the crook of my arm:

Sheesh, cat, can you let me work in peace?

Begging to sit in my lap, as per usual. The problem is, he doesn’t lay down — he likes to sit up and watch the screen and totally get in the way. It’s cute, but not productive for me.

Half an hour later…

The Beano-cam. He sat quietly in my lap for about 15 minutes, watching the screen while I worked around him. Still in the way, but at least he didn’t move around. I think he got bored of graphs, he wanted more news and pictures.

I think it’s hilarious that in a 24-hour period three people stopped by the House of Fielding to get costumed up for Halloween. Between David’s stuff and mine, I reckon I have enough materials to outfit at least five people!

In the photo above, Natalia’s sporting the djellaba I bought in Morocco last year. This is the first photo I’ve taken of it. Look — I even made her a force field!

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Months and months ago I was speaking to some people about their photos only being on Facebook, which would require me to reactivate the Facebook profile I had up for all of 10 minutes last year but couldn’t delete, only deactivate. I still don’t want a Facebook profile, but it kept coming up that I couldn’t view people’s photos unless I was on Facebook, so this is my solution. Actually, I set up the profile at the beginning of August but that’s about as far as I got before the summer became even more hectic than it already was.

Today I finally added some photos and filled out Beano’s profile a wee bit, enough so people could figure out who he was and wasn’t just some random cat adding friends through Facebook.

In Real Life, Xena will be the first one to greet you at the door (except in my case, it’s usually Beano). Beano’s not immediately friendly with most strangers, he’s quite shy. Maybe that’s why he’s got the Facebook Profile and not Xena — he needs to build his social network. Xena’s a black cat, though, with zero markings and less recognisable in a tiny photo. When you see Beano’s little tuxedo cat face in the icon, you’d know right away it’s him.

If you know Beano in Real Life, add away! (If you don’t know Beano or ‘The Human’ in Real Life, don’t be offended if Beano doesn’t accept your friend invitation because, like all cats, he’s a pretty choosy feline…)

I often see Beano looking at himself in this mirror. (Taken with the Canon A520 for stealthiness.)

If there is dust, it will find Xena.

Your laundry activities are cutting into my nap time. Please reschedule.