JC Dill

I started dating someone a month ago. (More on him later. :-)

We met thru OKCupid. Things have been going very well with us – it was time to update my status with OKCupid from “single” to “seeing someone” since I’m not interested in meeting or dating anyone else. I realized I also needed to update my profile on many other sites: Tribe, Orkut, Friendster, Match, etc. It was rather surprising to discover I had such a wide “footprint” on the internet.

I’m visiting my father in Carmel Highlands. As I sat watching TV (a rare treat since I don’t have a TV myself anymore) last night a dark shape suddenly fluttered into and around the room.

A bat!

This house has always been blessed with bats flying by our windows, especially when we have friends over and everyone is playing musical instruments. However, this was the first time one just materialized *inside*. The bat flew around for about 10 seconds and then went back down the hall. I followed, and realized that it must have come in from an open unscreened window in the upstairs room (formerly my mother’s sewing room, now being advertised as a “secret garret”) and from there in thru the open passway into the back bedroom, and from there into the house. I closed the bedroom door to contain the bat within the rooms where it could find its way back out thru the open window.

Having a bat in the house is such a blessing. We (my sisters, my father) all think of Fran when we see a single bird suddenly up close, as if she’s still here with us, sharing with us. My father and I both had the same thought about the bat, it was Fran being with us, checking in.

It’s not at all surprising this happened on 6/6/06 either.

jc

p.s. ^w (as seen in the title of this post) is geek for “I’m erasing that last word” – it comes from the early text editors where you used control characters.

I’m visiting with my father in Carmel Highlands. I thought it would be nice to make muffins for breakfast, so I bought a mix last night. This morning as I’m rummaging thru the kitchen cabinets (his last GF managed to rearrange everything to the point that nothing is where it was when I last lived here) looking for muffin tins, I realized that if he still had some (maybe she took them with her, she took a lot of his things when she moved out), I wasn’t going to find them.

OK. On to plan B: pancakes

Oops. The pancake recipe calls for egg, he has no eggs. OK, I know how to adapt, I can use a mashed banana as an egg-like binder. Pancake batter is now ready.

I washed the griddle (it had some grease splatters on it), put it on low and seasoned it with oil. It looks like it has a nice patina, just a little oil is all it will need, right?

Wrong. When I went to turn the pancakes they were STUCK.

Uh oh. OK, on to plan C: scrambled pancakes!

They actually turned out pretty well. Maybe I’ll start a trend!