Monday, November 12, 2012

A Girl and Her Glitter

Our cat Nala has proven that she can be trusted to be let out in our fenced in back yard and not leave it. The only time she has broken that deal is when there were holes in the fence large enough for her to walk right out (but behind plants and so not readily visible to unsuspecting humans). We are so accustomed to letting her in and out - she paws at the back door to be let in - that we sometimes have to announce out loud that "I just let the cat in/out" or we forget her state (cue Schrödinger reference). The last couple of days have been such. Yesterday Reena told me as I was arriving home and she was departing that Nala was out. OK. When it was time for me to leave later, I called for her. Normally she comes bounding right in unless she is in stalk-mode on a mouse. I walked the entire back yard, which in November has few concealing areas. No sign of her. I closed the back door and made a walk-through of the house. No sign of her. Too bad, so sad, kitty, because it was about to rain (hard) and if she was out she was going to get wet. When I arrived home again later, there she was, in the house after all. Same thing happened today, but this time I have been home the entire time. Where the heck is she?

I looked in all the usual inside places where she naps, and a few once upon a time places. Nope. Then I noticed that one of my bags of photo studio props was spilling out onto its temporary location on the guest bed. Then I remembered that a week earlier I had redirected Nala when she was trying to get into that very bag and kneading (and purring loudly) on the big piece of black tulle with purple glitter.

DS3_5012

Sure enough, there she was. She had wormed her way into the plastic bag, dislodging the tulle, for her nap. My snapping a few pics made her ear flap but otherwise didn't disturb her. I have never had a female cat before, and her ongoing love affair with fabric and general girly-girl traits never fail to amuse me. Thanks for another hearty laugh, Nala!

Oh, and as an aside, here was the sun coming in my living room window at sunrise this morning. Golden hour indeed! This lasted for about three minutes.

Sunrise Light (DS3_5007)

Read the rest of the post!

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Friday Night Lights

A friend celebrated his birthday Friday night by playing a gig in the lounge at Bandung restaurant. It's not a great venue for music, and they don't have any lights or sound system. Apparently Jeff brought his own, and while it was not a big multi-angle setup it provided a sense of being in a club. Somehow, they also had a fog machine and lasers.

DS3_4687

He was primarily accompanied by Anapaula, a delightful singer who immigrated from Brazil. For a couple of years my wife was in a Brazilian pagode band with these two. Also sitting in occasionally were Graham and Chris, and a fellow I met just that night named Ryan.

DS3_4690

DS3_4694

Everything added up to a pretty fun night, even though I had to leave early to catch up with some other performer friends who were out. It is a tough life to be a social animal!

DS3_4713

Happy birthday Jeff!

Read the rest of the post!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Queen of her Domain

What IS it with cats and baskets? Our cat Nala ignores all furniture, rarely sits on anything that isn't fabric and is largely uninterested in anything designed to be a cat toy. But if I leave the laundry basket unattended for more than a few minutes and BAM!, she is in it. Of course, it seems there is an added bonus if there are still freshly-laundered clothes in it.

DS3_4649

In this case, I had just done a load of sheets and mattress pad and used the basket to carry the damp sheets outside to hang on the line (you know, that free clothes dryer that is banned in many neighborhoods) leaving the basket there for retrieving them later. When I let Nala out it never occurred to me that she would pay any attention to it. There are mice to hunt! She went right to it, jumped in, and sat there stately overseeing her domain for about 20 minutes.

No wonder 44.8 percent of the total traffic on the internet is dedicated to funny cat videos.

Read the rest of the post!