Scrambled eggs are so simple that most people don’t know there’s a way to make them. I have often seen people break eggs directly into a hot frying pan and stir frantically until they had a pile of tough, dry crumbs. This does not produce a yummy meal, but scrambled eggs can be very yummy.

Eggs
1 tbs milk or water per egg
Butter to taste
Salt and chili (not cayenne) powder
Cheese (optional)
Heavy frying pan (use a cast iron pan for more nutrition unless you can taste the iron)

Melt butter in the frying pan on medium-low heat.

Beat the eggs and milk or water gently with a fork. You aren’t going for perfect uniformity and you certainly don’t want froth.

Pour the eggs out into the frying pan… and don’t touch them. Not right away. If you want you can lay thin slices of cheese in the liquid egg at this point. Let them cook gently until the bottom 2-3 mm are set. Use a spatula to gently push the set egg into a heap in the middle of the frying pan, letting the liquid egg flow back out to set. Continue until all the egg is set.

Sprinkle with salt for taste, chili powder for looks.

Eggs cooked this way will be soft and delicious. If soft eggs aren’t your thing, put a lid on the frying pan and leave it off the heat for a few minutes to let the eggs continue to heat.

Eat with hot buttered toast and maybe ketchup. Ketchup sounds scandalous, but scrambled eggs are comfort food. If you loved them with ketchup when you were a little kid, then let yourself enjoy the ketchup now.

One of the ducky things about a beloved who works at home is that you can receive cheery mid-day pictures like this one of Plume in her bed next to Mark’s desk.

Plume and I were walking through the park at 6:30 this morning, arguing about whether it was better to plod slowly along the paved path or bound gaily through the pond of snow-melt that takes up a good part of the park at this time of year. In any case, we were getting a good look at the pond of snow melt and the many, loud, associated seagulls. And then a pair of ducks waded into the pond and started swimming.

In case you’re wondering what’s so special about ducks, take a look at my neighbourhood:

Ducks might be nothing special for you, but they are very special for me.

Thanks, Plume! (Without whom I would have been reading the internet instead of going for an early-morning walk. With ducks.)

I’ve received the following invitation:

Mr. L. Jacques Ménard, O.C., Leaders’ Circle President

is pleased to invite you to a cocktail in honour of your contribution to the success of Centraide of Greater Montreal’s Campaign 2009 and in recognition of your title of Leaders’ Circle Partner.

This event will also be an opportunity for you to meet with volunteers responsible for allocating funds to agencies.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
BMO Financial Group, Bank of Montreal
___ St-Jacques Street, Montreal

And here’s the best part:

Invitation valid for two people.

Let me know if you want to be my date. If you’re interested in how charity works, as a donor or most especially as a recipient or interested bystander, this is an opportunity to watch the benevolent wealthy schmooze and to talk to the people who take their money. It’s also an opportunity to drink free wine. Both donors and volunteers will be dressed like donors (i.e. like rich people) and last time I went there were also representatives of agencies who were dressed like funding recipients (i.e. like grad students).

I’m not rich, but I donate because I’m not an artist or a parent or activist or even a particularly good friend — any of the many ways that people normally contribute to their communities. I try to go to as many Centraide events as I can because I’m curious about this whole charity/philanthropy thing that I participate in while philosophically objecting to.

If you’re curious too, please come with!

Came back from Toronto at midnight last night and discovered an e-mail from Plume’s rescue organization saying that it would be a while before their local vet could spay her, so would we mind very much taking Plume right away and getting her spayed later by one of their vets closer to us?

Hee! We’re going to pick her up tomorrow morning. She still has a cough and she hasn’t been dewormed, so we’ll have to keep her somewhat separate from Poupoune for a week or so. I called our vet and confirmed that Poupoune’s bordetella vaccine is up to date, and scheduled Plume for a general physical and deworming on Monday.

I haven’t had to live with a bouncy young animal in about twelve years. Back then it was Poupoune, who was a quarter of the size of Plume. It’s going to be disruptive.

Good.

We went on a four-hour shopping trip to le fin fond de nulle part this morning. I think we got a dog.

We saw her on petfinder.com yesterday, filled out the form online and got an appointment this morning. We took her for a walk, she’s a real sweetheart. (And a puller.) Trouble is she has kennel cough, and she needs to be spayed before they can let her go, and the vet doesn’t want to spay her until she’s over her cough. So the rescue is going to keep her another couple of weeks until they can tidy everything up to their satisfaction.

Now we’re trying to figure out what to call her. So far we are considering “Online” (because that’s where we found her, and because that’s where we are about to be spending much less time), “Plume” (because she has feathery ears), “G7″ (because yesterday they pledged to cancel Haiti’s debt) and “Paysanne” (because she’s a country girl).

ADDENDUM:
Plume it is. (Thank you Martine! Your enthusiastic vote assured us it wouldn’t be kétaine, like, say, Princesse.) We’ve contacted the rescue and they have started to call her Plume already, in anticipation.