Taking Care of the Creepy Crawlies...

Fair warning if you hate spiders, in particular large hairy ones stay away from today's post. I repeat don't look at the following videos.

We have a fair number of tarantulas around here in the summer. I caught a video with my camera phone the other day while the kids were riding bikes. Just in case you are freaking out about my kids riding near tarantulas, they really aren't dangerous and don't want anything to do with you. Even at fairly close range (I had to get close with my phone) it took no notice of us.

As you may recall last fall I posted a picture or two of my lovely friends the tarantula hawks who are in abundance again this year.




In fact I thought that poor tarantula is doomed hanging out here the open because just that morning I had tried to photograph an actual tarantula hawk dragging off a tarantula in my garden. I was so excited since I knew what they did but had not got to actually witness any of the process. Alas my pictures did not come out so I was very excited when my husband called me out back to see another one last night.

In both cases it was apparent the tarantula was paralyzed and one almost feels bad knowing it's fate as a live feeding chamber for the tarantula hawks young. You can read all the gory details on DesertUSA if you want. As I finished filming this my dog came over and decided to stick her nose in the hawks business and she got upset and charged us. I hear the sting is painful, although not poisonous, so we backed up quickly.

I love insects they are so interesting!

Turf Dad who reformed his ways and refused to tag anyone with this meme since the swine flu is going around. Me, I already have the flu, although the doc says not the pig kind. Even still I am virtually on house arrest and no one wants to be around me. So I have taken a lot of stupid quizzes on FB this week. I thought I would go ahead steal this meme for myself since I was racking my brain to find something to post.

1. Who is the hottest movie star? Coincidentally this question would coincide with a quiz I took on FB this week, and luckily I had the opportunity to pick five because just one, that is hard for me...

If you had form a team to save the world who would be in it? by Nora

Aragorn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maximus Decimus Meridius , Wolverine and Leonidas ¡Esto es Venezuela! Tomaaaaaa!.

2. Apart from your house and your car, what’s the most expensive item you’ve ever bought? Probably our TV, we got a new one this week with our tax return and quite frankly the sticker shock for even a middle of the road flat screen is still killing me. It is nice to view TV without the lines and and fuzz though.

3. What’s your most treasured memory? Again, a hard quiz to pick just one. These little babes have been on my mind a lot lately. Zach at a few months and Max right after he was born.







4. What was the best gift you ever received as a child? A favorite family story is how one year at Christmas I really wanted a Crayola caddy. I asked my Nanny (grandma) to get it for me and she had presents wrapped under the tree I shook them and knew one was my crayola caddy, then bragged about it. Christmas morning came and I opened my presents and there was no caddy. She had hid it since I was being such a brat, she did give it to me later.

5. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made? Again only one??? Usually about August I ask why I agreed to let my husband move us away from Ruidoso, a cool little mountain town.

6. 4 words to describe yourself. Goofy, Weird, Kooky and Offbeat. (in a good way I hope)

7. What was your highlight or lowlight of 2008? Highlight was watching my family grow and heal. I often stop and think what life was like a mere two years ago and marvel that we made it through. Lowlight, well nothing seems that low now.

8. Favorite film? Ohh again hard to choose. One of my all time favorites is So I Married an Axe Murderer. I quote it often.

9. Tell me one thing I don’t know about you. Is there something someone doesn't know? As I kid I was obessed with rodeo clowns and I ran around town in my cut offs with bandandas tied to the belt loops. I didn't wear clown make up though. Unfortunately I think I was in fourth grade during this phase which I find disturbing now.

10. If you were a comic book/strip or cartoon character, who would you be? I didn't really read comics as a kid. Unless you count Archie. I dig Hawk Girl though.

Cinco de Mayo

no, nO,NO!

Lately I have cme to a conclusion, I have a problem and the problem is saying No. I have mastered telling my kids no, however when it comes to adults I am not doing so well.

What that really means is that between my volunteer obligations, picking up new ones because I can't say no, baseball practice and a new job. I just had to let blogging go by the wayside this last month.

Yeah I said a new job. Again with the no thing though, someone asked if I would be interested in a temporary job or if a knew someone who would and I said sure I would do it. The timing is great I should be done in May or June. So I am working on filing for a large petroleum company. In general it is easy, I get to jam to my music all day through my mp3 player and the extra income will come in handy in the months to come. Plus I have my foot in the door if I want to continue working there, assuming they have any jobs. (Although, some of the companies in the area have been doing cut backs or laying off so I am not holding my breath.)

Bad part is I am stuck in a cubicle all day, and actually found myself muttering the other day when I couldn't listen to may favorite internet radio station show, because they blocked the url. I worry I may turn into that guy from Office Space, you know the one muttering about his stapler. Thankfully I have a top of the line Swingline on my desk. Although I am on my third cubicle so far.

Plus the added bonus, I get to run into all kinds of people from back in the day, including one of my best friends from grade school. And I have tons of dirt on my supervisor, I have known her forever our moms are best friends, so you know I have a free reign.