Petuti did her first video chat yesterday with grandma Munhall.

You can see larger photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mmunhall/sets/72157607040993302/

And, while I’m at it, here are some captures from her second video chat.  This chat happened today with grandma AND grandpa Munhall.

The medium-length answer: The domains where Dorrie’s blogs live (denver-rrc.com and denver-rrc.org) expired unexpectedly.  Without going into details, I’ll just tell you that renewing those domains is going to be a pain in the ass, so we bought dorriemunhall.com. So, Dorrie’s personal blog is now at dorriemunhall.com.  The Restaurant Review Club blog isn’t back up yet, but it will be shortly.

The long, detailed answer: I’ll save that for another day.

This poor, old curmudgeon has been with Dorrie (and now me) for more than a decade, but her age and poor disposition have done her in.  I’m taking Gink to the vet this afternoon for a date with the “big sleep” unless someone in a drug-induced bout of sympathy claims her.

She has not been happy with the new addition to the family and has taken on urinating on bathroom rugs and anything she can find in Anna’s room.  We’ve had to keep every door to every room closed for the last three months to keep her away from her favorite marking areas.  It doesn’t help that she vomits every other meal onto the carpet and we’re spending a fortune on Woolite carpet cleaner.

She’s always been an unfriendly and unapproachable cat.  Dorrie adopted her from the Humane Society and without Dorrie, this cat’s life would surely have ended long ago.  She’s had an otherwise good life for a nasty cat that will not tolerate humans.  Nevertheless, putting a pet down is hard no matter what the circumstances are.

I’m sorry, Gink.  I really am.

I generally don’t photograph weddings.  It takes a special type of person to be able to shoot weddings well and enjoy doing it.  I’m not that type of person.  I made an exception for Ken and Angie’s wedding since the event was small and informal and the bride and groom were genuinely cool people.  When it was all over, I shot nearly 600 photos in four hours, had one of the best meals ever (at the Flagstaff House), and made enough money to buy a new lens that I’ve had my eye on for a while.  And, to be honest, it was actually pretty fun.

The exposure I’m getting with this show is tremendous. I really don’t have any idea how many, if any, pieces I will sell. I invested a lot of money on frames and materials — not to mention time — getting ready for this show, so I’d really like to see a few pieces sold just to cover the cost. But, even if I don’t sell anything, hopefully the exposure will generate interest or make my name slightly more known around the photography community.

The hanging itself did not go very smoothly. I was scheduled to hang my photos after the restaurant closed on Saturday afternoon. I had my car loaded up with all the artwork and tools I was going to need and arrived at my scheduled time. A managerial change, however, caused a problem with the scheduling so I had to come back the next day (Sunday) to hang the artwork. This was a minor annoyance, but it resulted in a bigger problem. I left the artwork and tools in my car overnight and parked the car in the garage. When I arrived at the restaurant on Sunday, there was a thin film on the inside of the glass on the frames. After a mild anxiety attack, I decided I was just going to have to dismantle and clean the glass on each piece before hanging it. Luckily, my friend Andrew came with me to help and he took on that task. (I’m very thankful for Andrew’s help, by the way. I could not have hung all these pieces without help.)

I don’t know for sure what that murky film was on the inside of the glass. It looked like the prints degassed while in the garage overnight. That would be strange considering each print degassed in my studio for over a week - seven times the recommended length of time to properly degas an inkjet print. Perhaps the conditions in my car and the garage caused the additional degassing. It still bothers me that it happened and I want to know precisely why it happened, but I’m going to have to live without that knowledge for now.

In the end, every piece was cleaned and hung. The 100-year-old brick that I hung the photos made it impossible to get each piece aligned just right, but I was happy enough with the results. If you happen to visit the Delectable Egg and see my prints, be sure to let me know what you think. Better yet, buy one. Or two.

I just posted some new photos of Anna on my Flickr site. Take a look. (There are many more than the five you see here.)

Flickr now supports short (90 seconds max) video clips. The reason for the short duration is that the video support is for “long photos”, not video of the kid’s school play or of your wedding. I love this idea, and it’s something I’ve pondered for quite a while: a way to capture and show - like a photograph - a scene over a period of seconds or minutes. I’m thrilled that Flickr is doing this.

I took this crappy video with my mobile phone. It’s not much, but like the camera embedded in the phone, the video capture is convenient and fun to play with. You know what I’m thinking? VideoPhone365.

Of course, I have a few clips of Anna taken with the videophone. They’re here in this Flickr set.

Here are some additional photos.