Pumpkins-A-Go-Go

Last night Mike and I carved pumpkins! It was my first time, and I loved it. Sticking my hand in and grabbing all that goo was not my favorite part, but I was proud of myself for not letting Mike do it for me, even when he offered. I will not be called a pumpkin pansy. :) Anyway then we lit them and they cast cool shadows on the wall, which would not be captured in pictures, but you can imagine them. And then we toasted the pumpkin seeds and ate them while watching Scrubs! It was a pretty fantastic night and we will definitely be making it a tradition--which makes Mike very happy, because he has been begging to carve pumpkins for a really long time.

In case you are wondering, the pumpkins are so small because Mike bought them yesterday when he left work, and all the big pumpkins were sold out. It's okay--they look a little goofy with the candles visible, but it was probably easier for me to start on a small one. Next year we'll get started earlier.

Poop.

Today I went to get Hannah up from her nap and found her sitting up in her crib (can you tell where this is going?) with her diaper not on her body, but in her hands. The diaper was full of poop, and she was covered in it. So were her teddy bears, her sheets, and her blanket. I just about died. There was too much of the poop to spot clean her, so I just picked her up (very, very carefully) and took her to the bathtub. I took out all her bath toys so she wouldn't poopify them, washed and re-dressed her, then stripped her bed and dumped everything in the washer. I texted Trent and he said "wow, that's a first!" Awesome! Yay for firsts. :)

Thanks for Thanksgiving, by Julie Markes and Doris Barrette

Thanks for Thanksgiving is Hannah's new bathtime book, and it is adorable. It's basically a poem of things a kid is thankful for, and that part is cute, but the really amazing thing about the book is the illustration! Doris Barrette is the illustrator and I just think every page of this book is gorgeous. This is one of my very favorite pages though. I just love the leaves.


In semi-related news, this article came up while I was searching for a picture of the book for this post, and I thought it was interesting, if a little harsh. I have had many of the same thoughts. I don't believe that we should stop celebrating Thanksgiving, because after elementary school for most of us it's not about the Pilgrims anymore, it's about being thankful for all the wonderful things we have. There is nothing wrong with a holiday like that. But taking Thanksgiving out of it, I will admit that I have a hard time understanding why we glorify and idolize the founding of this country the way that we do, when it came about through the slaughter and displacement of an entire people who had the right to be here when we didn't.

So it's gonna be one of THOSE days...

Woke up this morning and discovered Mike is sick.
It's raining, again. And somehow I still don't own any shoes that aren't flip flops or made of canvas! Strange.
Before he leaves Trent says "She got to bed pretty late last night, so she should sleep for a while." The instant he's gone I hear her, definitely not still sleeping. Now she's been up for an hour and has not stopped crying for one minute of it. I'm sure it's because she's still tired but she won't go back to sleep. Can't take her outside to play because it's soaking wet... Awesome.
Oh well. At least I have Cash Cab. :)

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins--9/10

Catching Fire is the sequel to The Hunger Games and I might have loved it even more than I did the first. I certainly read it faster (not that the first one took me a long time). I started reading at approximately 9:00 pm yesterday, and was done at around 3 this afternoon. This was not by any means uninterrupted reading, but I can tell you I didn't put it down any more than I had to! The plot is absolutely chock full of unexpected twists and bombshells, and it was so exciting that I told Mike he had to stop talking to me for a few hours while I finished. (He didn't, but he made a good enough effort. :) ) I really can't summarize anything because the whole plot is one big surprise, so I will just tell you that I loved it and I am so depressed that there isn't even a definitive release date yet for the third one, at least not one that I've been able to find. 

As my dad would say... "Gag me with a wooden spoon."

Oy. Do you know what I'm sick of? I'm sick of commercials and ad campaigns like this:

Love. It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru.

No, I'm pretty sure what makes a Subaru a Subaru is that little LOGO on the front of the car.

"...and that's why with Duncan Hines, a cupcake is never just a cupcake."

Okay, but... yes it is. That is exactly what it is. Just. A. Cupcake.

Everybody knows somebody who loves a Honda.

...So?

Honda. The power of dreams.

Really? How did I not know this before?? I could have realized so many of my dreams if I'd just bought more Honda products before now! (Saw this on an ad for portable generators.)

Also those sickening, sappy State Farm commercials, or the Walmart commercials that make it look like you'll spend tons of quality time with your kids and have the happiest family ever if you shop there. Yick.

Stupid commercials. I hate advertising.

Home Appliance Symphony

I kind of love this commercial.

600 Posts

This is my 600th post, and as the number gets higher it is getting increasingly difficult to think of commemorative things to post. So, for my 600th post, I am just going to make a list. I am going to go through the alphabet and for each letter, choose a book that I love. And when I say "a book," I mean probably a few books, depending on the letter. I thought about restricting myself to a certain number, but I don't want to have to choose between favorite books, so I won't. If you ever want ideas for something to read, any of these books are a good bet.

Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery

Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko

The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler

The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver

Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns

Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis (series)

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart

Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card

Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss

Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Garden Spells, by Sarah Addison Allen

The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

Harry Potter, by J.K. Rowling (series)

I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith

Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott

The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen

Julie & Julia, by Julie Powell

The Kitchen God's Wife, by Amy Tan

Kabul Beauty School, by Deborah Rodriguez

Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (series)

The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Lee Stewart

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis

Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God, by Louise Rennison (representative of all the Georgia Nicolson books)

The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norman Juster

Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander (series)

Q, by Luther Blisset

The Queen's Fool, by Philippa Gregory

Quidditch Through the Ages, by J.K. Rowling

The Ruby in the Smoke, by Philip Pullman

Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier

The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy

The Truth About Forever, by Sarah Dessen

Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe

Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld

The View from Saturday, by E.L. Konigsburg

The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt

Wishful Drinking, by Carrie Fisher

A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeline L'Engle (series)

Xingu, by Edith Wharton

Xenocide, by Orson Scott Card

You Can Heal Your Life, by Louise Hay

Zenotchka, by Anton Chekhov

The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee

Disclaimer: The books for the letters Q, X, and Z are not favorites--I just couldn't think of any period, so I looked some up. A couple of them are short stories, so I read them, and I intend to read the novels at some point.

I was going to do movies, actors, and bands too, but I decided against it. My commemorative posts are getting less and less creative, I know, but what can I say? Maybe I'll come up with something fantastic for 700.

Turns out you can buy happiness. It comes in the form of jeans that fit.

I have just had an experience that I have not had in at least... six or seven years, if I've ever had it before. I'm not really sure. I took five things in the fitting room to try on, and I loved every one of them. I bought four of the five, and left the fifth one because it was a pair of sweatpants and I am shopping around for those. The other four were three sweaters and one shirt, and I love them all. I was grinning like an idiot in the fitting room.

This was by myself while Mike's at work. Earlier, Mike and I went shopping because yesterday my last good pair of jeans tore in that same way all my jeans do (the horizontal rip on the inside of the leg). He also needed a new pair of work shoes and another pair of khakis to wear. We found him shoes and pants, and a pair of jeans besides. I found three pairs of jeans that I love, something that hasn't happened in at least five years. Old Navy, you are my new best friend.

What a fantastic day.

Want to know something bizarre?

Okay. So Mike got out of class early last night, and we decided to go see Whip It at the theater in Plano. We both really liked it, but the whole time we were trying to figure out who one of the actors was and it was driving us crazy! She looked really familiar, and we talked about it the whole way home trying to figure out who she was. I looked her up on IMDB on my phone and read through every movie and TV show she'd been in, and none of them were it.Then I looked at the bio, and saw the words "Juliette and the Licks." I scanned through the rest of the

(very long) bio and found what I was looking for--she was the lead singer of the band who opened for Muse when we went a couple years ago! Of all the random things. I thought that was pretty great.

As long as I'm on the subject I would just like to say that Whip It = my favorite role for Drew Barrymore... ever. I like her but sometimes think her movies are a little bit lame, and this was a really different role for her. Also loved Kristen Wiig as Maggie Mayhem, and Alia Shawkat as Ellen Page's best friend. It's pretty much just a really fun movie, and you should go see it.

I Miss Utah

Who would've thought? But there you have it--I am really missing Utah now that it's fall. Everyone has been talking about or posting pictures of their trips out into the beautiful mountains, and it reminds me of lots of our own similar experiences, and how fantastic they were. In contrast, here in Dallas we have had humidity, mist, fog, and more humidity. Some days have been freezing and wet, and some--like today--have been muggy and hot. We went on a walk the other day for about fifteen minutes, and when we came back... well, you should have seen my hair, and that is all I can say because I didn't take a picture of it. We're going back and forth between the air conditioning and the heater in our apartment, and deciding what to wear in the morning is risky. It is sad. If we can't be in the mountains, I wish the weather would at least make up its mind about whether it's still summer or moving into winter.

Eragon, by Christopher Paolini--6.5/10

I am not quite finished with this book, but I have only one disc left out of fourteen so I feel like I can offer a pretty good assessment of it. I have been reading Eragon, by Christopher Paolini, who was fifteen years old when he wrote it. (Fifteen!) This fact, when I discovered it, both surprised me and explained several things about the book. Like the sometimes too philosophical and not quite real dialogue, and the fact that Eragon is a whiny argumentative brat who drives me a tiny bit crazy. To be fair, I think a good part of this is the fault of Gerard Doyle, who reads the audiobook; many of Eragon's lines wouldn't be irritating at all if I had just read them in my own head, because I wouldn't have interpreted them as whiny.

That said, I am enjoying the book quite a bit. I checked it out from the library one day when I had finished with Artemis Fowl and was waxing desperate for something on audio to listen to while I cleaned, and Mike has been bugging me to read it for at least a year now so I finally just stuck it in the CD player to appease him. It is quite a bit longer than the other books I've listened to, so I am very ready for it to be finished. But it's a good story and even more impressive when you remember that it was written by a teenager. It's not exactly advanced literarily speaking, but it's a fun story, so if you're into the fantasy genre you'll probably enjoy it. 

Nothing

I don't have any concrete thoughts for a post, but I haven't posted in a few days and just wanted to put something up here. Also I have a lot of feelings right now, but they aren't translating well into thoughts that I can write down, but I just want to be saying something. So I'm posting, even though I'm not really saying anything.

We're at the library, which is closing in ten minutes, because Mike had online class tonight instead of on campus. Now we are probably going to go to Olive Garden, because we are both feeling like it and finally have money again. The last few days have been kinda rough emotionally, and I think we just need a break.

I am very jealous of everyone having babies right now. I am watching my aunt Miki's new baby, Liron, one day a week now, and I had a really hard time giving him back today. It was ridiculous but I just kept standing there and every time I would go to put him in the car seat I would say "oh no, not yet! just another minute" and cuddle him again. Ridiculous.

I have been having really bad headaches lately too. I go through phases; sometimes I don't have them for a few weeks or even a month or two, but usually I have them every day or every other day. I have had these headaches ever since elementary school and I'm not sure what causes them but I suspect it's my back. Mike has been massaging my shoulders for me the last few nights and it hurts like the devil but helps the headaches a bit.

And he's buying a book online right now that he's been looking everywhere for, and as soon as he's done we're going to go, so I'm gonna pack up. Theeeeeee end.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky--10/10

Fantastic. Highly controversial, but utterly fantastic. This book deals with really serious issues, and it deals with them honestly; it's written from the point of view of a teenage boy who writes letters to an anonymous friend, so it's basically like a diary. The main character is such a sweet, good-hearted, introspective, very self-aware boy, and the issues the book brings up are so real, and dealt with in a very mature, philosophical way. Parts of it were hard for me to read because of how serious they were, but I just loved the character so much I wanted to keep seeing what happened in his life. I absolutely see why people freaked out about it, but I also think that they missed the point. One thing I will say, though: I don't think that having a teenage protagonist automatically makes a book adolescent lit, and I do not this one should be categorized as Young Adult. Aside from all that, The Perks of Being a Wallflower will make you think, and if it doesn't have you emotional at more than one point I'll be very surprised. 


Update after a second reading almost a year later: Everything I said before, only more. I gave it a 9 before, but I am now changing it to a 10. 

Some Things

1. I am annoyed about edited movies. Yes, most of them were terrible editing jobs and not worth paying money for, but some of them were amazing and I'm really distressed that you can't buy them anymore. We'll probably get a ClearPlay DVD player at some point, but there are still some major issues with that. For example: I have seen the edited versions of Love Actually and Bridget Jones' Diary (among others) and absolutely adore them. I need to own them. But I do not like the idea of buying them unedited, because even though we'll be watching them edited, we would still own them unedited. And I am not okay with having a collection of R-rated movies. So what do I do now? Grr.

2. I don't know how this hundred has gone by so fast, but this is my 592nd post so that means it's time to be thinking commemoratively. What can I do for my 600th post? I can't even imagine a list, or anything like that. If you have ideas I will super appreciate them.

3. I have been reading How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster, and I am finding it kind of boring. I like to peruse the summer reading tables at bookstores and libraries because they tend to have a lot of excellent books on them, and I kept seeing this one around and finally picked it up at the library a week or two ago. It's not bad, but I just don't find it very engaging; I've been reading for a while and am still only three or four chapters in. Since I am in the middle of/waiting to start several other fantastic books, I may give it up.

4. I am a little bit insane, I now realize, because I have actually been wanting to read the Wheel of Time books again. The thing is that I wanted to read them all before the first of the last book(s) comes out, but it comes out this month and I don't know if I'll want to wait that long before I read it. (The first time I read these books it took me almost a year.) We're talking almost 10,000 pages here. I could wait; it's not like it's Harry Potter, there probably won't be too many people going around blabbing about the ending or anything. But it would drive Mike crazy, because he'll want to talk to me about it. He really struggled while I was reading the series, and by struggled I mean constantly gave things away because he didn't realize I hadn't gotten there yet.

Death by Heart Attack

It's amazing how ever since I created the "near death experiences" label I seem to be having a lot of them, and all centered around Hannah.

I'm sitting on the couch, reading, minding my own business while Hannah plays with the dogs. She brings something over to me, and I look up to see that she is holding a bug in her hand. A very black, very leggy, fairly small but still terrifying bug. I just about had a heart attack. I grabbed her hand and made her drop the bug, then took her to the sink and poured practically half a bottle of anti bacterial soap on her hands. Then I draped two folded paper towels over the bug, grabbed the kitchen tongs, and threw the bug away.

Awesome. My heart is still pounding.

Cheeky Monkey

Found in one of my cousin Sara's Facebook albums. It made me laugh.

Camping on the Balcony

Last night Mike and I slept on the balcony. It was amazing. He put down some flattened cardboard boxes, and then we took the cushions off our ridiculously large couch and made a bed out of them. We brought our pillows and a comfy fuzzy blanket, and I lit our new wonderful fall-y candle and put it inside the door so we could see it from outside. It was chilly and raining, and with the candle and everything it was just amazing. We ended up going inside around 3:30 because Mike was uncomfortable, but I was actually really comfortable and could have stayed there all night. It was fantastic.

Read in 2009 (January--September)

I've been keeping track of all the books I've read this year, but the list is getting so long that I don't like having it in my sidebar anymore. So, I have decided to put the list into a post and have it recorded thusly.

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code--Eoin Colfer
The Last Olympian--Rick Riordan
The Battle of the Labyrinth--Rick Riordan
Envy--Anna Godberson
Boys Adrift--Leonard Sax
The Titan's Curse--Rick Riordan
Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident--Eoin Colfer
Artemis Fowl--Eoin Colfer
Night of the Soul Stealer--Joseph Delaney
The Sea of Monsters--Rick Riordan
The Amulet of Samarkand--Jonathan Stroud
Curse of the Bane--Joseph Delaney
The Lightning Thief--Rick Riordan
Revenge of the Witch--Joseph Delaney
Rumors--Anna Godberson
The Sugar Queen--Sarah Addison Allen
Anne of Green Gables--L.M. Montgomery
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society--Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
The Luxe--Anna Godberson
The Poe Shadow--Matthew Pearl
The London Eye Mystery--Siobahn Dowd
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey--Trenton Lee Stewart
The Black Company--Glen Cook
The Moon Opera--Bi Feiyu
The Mysterious Benedict Society--Trenton Lee Stewart
The Sojourner--Marjorie Rawlings
Cheaper by the Dozen--Frank Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
First Boy--Gary D. Schmidt
Seventy-Seven Clocks--Christopher Fowler
Pigs in Heaven--Barbara Kingsolver
The Bastard of Istanbul--Elif Sharak
The Bean Trees--Barbara Kingsolver
If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period--Gennifer Choldenko
Lock and Key--Sarah Dessen
Skulduggery Pleasant--Derek Landy
The Shipping News--E. Annie Proulx
Ramona the Pest--Beverly Cleary
Every Soul a Star--Wendy Mass
Mary Poppins--P.L. Travers
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great--Judy Blume
Ramona the Brave--Beverly Cleary
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing--Judy Blume
Maniac Magee--Jerry Spinelli
Frindle--Andrew Clements
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret--Judy Blume
Ramona Quimby, Age 8--Beverly Cleary
Mary Poppins Opens the Door--P.L. Travers
The View from Saturday--E.L. Konigsburg
Bloodline--Kate Cary
Bloodline: The Reckoning--Kate Cary
Impossible--Nancy Werlin
City of Bones--Cassandra Clare
The Dark Side of Camelot--Seymour M. Hersh
Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones--Brandon Sanderson
Hate That Cat--Sharon Creech
The Hunger Games--Suzanne Collins
Wintergirls--Laurie Halse Anderson
Al Capone Does My Shirts--Gennifer Choldenko
All the Windwracked Stars--Elizabeth Bear
Wishful Drinking--Carrie Fisher
Love That Dog--Sharon Creech
The Hours--Michael Cunningham
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks--E. Lockhart
Digging to America--Anne Tyler
The Wednesday Wars--Gary D. Schmidt
Breaking Dawn--Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse--Stephenie Meyer
Elantris--Brandon Sanderson
New Moon--Stephenie Meyer
Fablehaven: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary--Brandon Mull
Twilight--Stephenie Meyer
Does My Head Look Big In This?--Randa Abdel-Fattah
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets--J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone--J.K. Rowling
Hitler's Daughter--Jackie French
Tortilla Flat--John Steinbeck
Book of a Thousand Days--Shannon Hale
The Whipping Boy--Sid Fleischman
The Westing Game--Ellen Raskin
Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians--Brandon Sanderson
I Capture the Castle--Dodie Smith
Speaker for the Dead--Orson Scott Card
The English Patient--Michael Ondaatje
Postcards from the Edge--Carrie Fisher
The Hound of the Baskervilles--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Little Brother--Cory Doctorow
Stop in the Name of Pants!--Louise Rennison
Ender's Game--Orson Scott Card
Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret--Obert Skye
The Tin Princess--Philip Pullman
The Tiger in the Well--Philip Pullman
Flower Net--Lisa See
The Shadow in the North--Philip Pullman
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant--Anne Tyler
The Poisonwood Bible--Barbara Kingsolver
Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo--Obert Skye
The House on Mango Street--Sandra Cisneros
The Ruby in the Smoke--Philip Pullman

Notes from Last Night's Movie Previews

I have determined that I will not be seeing The Lovely Bones when it comes out. I haven't read the book, but I've started it, and was thoroughly depressed in the first chapter. I would have still seen it, though, except that I've learned that the murderer is played by Stanley Tucci. I adore Stanley Tucci, and know that I will never be able to get him in that intensely creepy role out of my head if I see it, and so I will not.

Also--The Blind Side, with Sandra Bullock. I don't know much about the movie aside from the preview, but I will tell you that I was sobbing ten seconds into it. The preview. The preview made me cry. I really don't think there's much else to say.

Update: Or, Why I Still Love Julie

Janssen's comment on my last post prompted a Google search, since I didn't actually know that Julie Powell had another book, and I wanted to find out about it. The first thing that came up was this article, which explained things, and first of all I say that I agree with the author completely.


In reference to Julie's affair, the only thing I have to say is that yes it's disappointing, but sometimes good people do disappointing things, and that's just how life is. I still love her personality and her book, and I respect what she accomplished. I can see how the knowledge might ruin her for some people, but it doesn't for me.

With Butter, Anything is Possible: Julie & Julia, by Julie Powell--9/10

I just read Julie & Julia, by Julie Powell. It was amazing.

I feel sad that I had known nothing about this story before, because it's been going on since 2002, and I would have loved to follow Julie's blog as she wrote it. Which brings me to the first thing I want to say: my favorite thing about reading this book was knowing that Julie is a real person, and that everything she's writing about happened in the last few years. It somehow created a very personal feel, so that I now feel like I want to go hang out at her apartment (which of course she no longer lives in, since it was a "crappy outer borough apartment"/"industrial wasteland," but that is beside the point).


So. This is a fantastic book. I've been dying to see the movie for weeks and still haven't, but I'm actually planning on going tonight to finally get it done. (Mike doesn't know this yet, but he will. He's coming too.) Back to the book, though--I wish I could recommend it to everyone, but Julie Powell has quite the potty mouth and I know not all of you will appreciate that, so I won't. But if you won't be completely turned off by the language, then I absolutely recommend it.


The amazing thing about Julie & Julia is that it's not just a book about cooking--not even close. It's a story about a woman who very nearly drove herself and her husband crazy with a year-long project that completely changed their lives. It was about her ability to accomplish something huge, something that looked crazy to other people (and to herself), but for some reason was important to her and so she did it regardless. And for me, reading it, it was about how amazing it is to just be. To be aware of all your imperfections, to see yourself really clearly and know that you maybe look a little deranged to everyone else, and to just accept life the way it is.


I'm planning on writing a post about this on the Lovely Blog, actually, because it was such a great experience for me, so I won't go into too much detail here. I hope a lot of you will be able to read it, though. It's worth it.


[Update: Here's the Lovely Blog post that was inspired by it.]

There is an Assassin Loose in the Front Yard

This morning I apparently woke up in some kind of Amazonian alternate universe, for when I arrived at work, I nearly walked face first into this:

What?? It is a spiderweb bigger around than my entire armspan, and I am 90% sure that was not there when I left yesterday. If it was, someone must just reallllly love me, and somehow prevented me from getting smacked in the face with the Gargantuan Spider of Death. And if it wasn't, then holy fast and scary spiderweb building Batman, is all I have to say. I told Trent and he went and knocked it down, so as far as I know the spider is now running amok in the front yard, probably burning villages and leaving disaster in its wake. Yikes.