So, first of all . . . thank all of you who came by to check out my new header. I appreciate it. I’ve gotten over 500 hits today which just about blew me away. I appreciate all the help . . . a lot!

Now, for the fun stuff.

First, look at the yummy wool I’m spinning. Lovely purples, blues, and just a hint of burgandy. Anyway, it’s soft and lovely, and coming along very nicely. I’ve only got about 4 oz. of it, and I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m done with it, but . . . it’s nice to spin!

Let’s see, what else?

Well! I’m so glad you asked!

So, tonight, there I was, calmly sitting, knitting and watching TV, when there was a small flick of a thump on the back of my chair, right near my ear. What could have hit my chair? Mom is sewing, Chappy’s asleep in front of me . . . I don’t have any stitch-protectors balanced nearby that would have made a similar sound (not to mention, how would one have fallen next to my ear?). . . So, naturally, I’m curious.

I twisted around to peer down over the arm of the chair . . . and . . . yikes! A spider. A big spider. As in, about 2.5″ across. Just sitting there, calm as you please, on the wall by the baseboard. The darn thing almost fell on my head! I’m not usually spider-phobic, but this was too close a call!

And so, I carelessly said something like, “Oh God.” Which made my mother turn around to look . . . and there you go. Pure chaos. She squealed and jumped up. Chappy jumped up and started barking. Mom called for Dad and ran for the vacuum cleaner, and by the time he got downstairs . . . Where’d the spider go? How does such a huge bug disappear so quickly??

Dad and I start dragging furniture out of the way–the chair, the table, the folded crate against the wall . . . the couch . . . Chappy’s toy box . . . We’re running out of things to move, and no sign of the spider anywhere. Mom, meanwhile, is standing there with the vacuum cleaner hose, poking it into the field of play every couple seconds, with all the demeanor of a soldier in hostile territory. Chappy is running around, loving this new Move-the-Furniture game and jumping up on the chair so he can look, too. Finally, Dad and I turned the chair over and there it was! Clinging to the bottom of the chair. Mom sucked it up, shouting, “I’ve got it! I got it!”

Phew! Things went back to normal. We slid all the furniture back into place. Mom got a drink of water. I folded up my knitting (not exactly in the right frame of mind anymore!). And (this is the best part), as I sat down, I noticed that the TV show was just coming back from commercial break. I called (quite calmly, you know) to Mom, “It’s back.” She jumped back in the room, “What? It’s back!”

I did of course explain, but for some reason, she was rather jumpy for the rest of the night….

Now, I’ve got to go and log in the latest additions to my library . . . Sometimes I really wonder if I have a Problem . . . but, really! I have a book habit to support!

Oh, and one other thing. I’m reading “The Power of One” on ‘Maryellen’s recommendation.

At the beginning of chapter two, there was this paragraph, which I rather appreciated:

“Nanny and I had a good old weep on the last evening at home. She packed my khaki shorts and shirts and two pairs of pajamas and a bright red jumper my mother had sent from the nervous breakdown place. We laughed and laughed, in between crying of course, because one sleeve was about ten inches shorter than the other. Nervous breakdowns probably do that sort of thing to people’s knitting.”

And on that note . . . good night!

Tags: Family, General, Knitting/Spinning, Reading // 2 Comments »