We just returned from a week-long trip back home to Ohio to visit the family. Now, some people would hire a housesitter to look into things, collect the mail, etc., while they were gone, but not us. We don't have pets that need looking after, and our mailbox is a slot in the front door, so there's really no need. We just lock up and leave.

The occasional thought crosses my mind whenever we go on an extended trip that it would be really easy for someone to invade our home while we're away and clean us out. So far, that hasn't happened, and I hope the trend continues.

However, this time, I discovered upon our return that an uninvited guest had been living in our home while we were away!

Now I'm going to change the subject.

By the time we got back from our trip, it had been over two weeks since the lawn had been mowed. I meant to do it before we left, for as many of you know, we have a very juicy lawn that quickly gets unruly if not regularly mown. A month ago, I put "weed n' feed" on it to kill the weeds and fertilize the grass, so it's been growing pretty quickly. The week that we left on our trip, it rained constantly, so I was unable to mow it before we hit the road.

When we returned last night, the lawn was about as high as I'd ever seen it, so I knew I'd have to mow it tonight if the weather allowed. I got home from work tonight and it was still nice and sunny out, so I went right upstairs to change into my mowin' clothes.

When I went to put on my work boots, there was something in the toe of my left boot. I turned my boot over and shook it, and out fell a dead bat.

First thought: "Is that--? No, can't be!" Then a strange numbness settled over me and the full realization of what this thing was lying on my bedroom floor. The opening scene of the Batman Begins trailer went through my mind; images of hundreds of bats flapping through my bedroom. I'm not a very squeamish person, but I think I was a little horrified that I'd touched it with my foot, even though I had a sock on. Ew!

So then I got some TP and scooped it up (carefully not touching it.) Upon closer inspection, I determined that it was, indeed, a dead bat. What it was doing in the toe of my boot, I have no clue. It had to have crawled in there while we were out of town; I don't think it could have been dead for more than a day or two-- it didn't stink yet but it was pretty stiff. How it got into the house in the first place, I still haven't the foggiest idea.

Anyway, Senor Bat is now in the kitchen trash, and will be making his last journey to his final resting place courtesy of Penn Waste tomorrow morning.

Gri"the thousand-leggers still creep me out more than bats"shny