6/28 - Alien Gremlin wonders about Wonder Ice Cream

Wonder Bread does not have much wonder in it, but we'd hold ice cream to higher standards, right?

Gremlin Alien also enjoyed a free lunch (thanks, Raj!)...

... and did *not* enjoy the free cockroach twice his size (thanks, BART!).

The twins wondered what kind of spider this was at Mama's, so we looked it up in our book.  It was a black widow!!

1/11 - Luke Skywalker Angry Bird finds a sign of the times

There were some good signs around the city today.  Can you read them?

Luke Skywalker Angry Bird found a spider bigger than the Force.  Or perhaps just much hairier…  Luke….  I am your spiderrrrrrr….

11/18 - Weekend fun: Roller derby edition

It was my team's last bout of the season.  We were hungry for another win, and were preparing for this bout with an intensity that was new for us.  I was also preparing a mountain of snacks and toys to keep the twins busy during the bout, in case they were not into watching me skate...  That morning, there was a most excellent good luck spider in the kitchen and a good luck rainbow in the sky when we hit the road.

The bout was in a vintage roller rink that was leaking from days of rain.

The other team was better than us and hit harder.  They had plays that foiled us multiple times.  We lost by a heap, but what we won was better than points.  We came together as a team in this bout, communicating, devising new strategies on the fly, and we were hitting b*tches like never before.  (And we participated in the other team's flash mob, dancing Gangnam Style at the top of the third jam in the second half.)  As far as I'm concerned, we were winners that day.

And I was a hero to my biggest fans.  :)

A million thanks to Kingpin for his kid wrangling assistance.  (And for being outraged at the officiating!)

Photo credit: Thank you, Russell Reno Limprecht!

10/10 - Yellow Jack holds on

This morning, the big spider was on the floor of the living room.  I wonder if she fell down or climbed down to play with the grasshopper?  Yellow Jack decided he wanted to ride on her back.  She told him, 'Hold on!"

I am still sick today.  Yellow Jack wanted to take his temperature too, so he climbed on top of the thermometer.  Silly little jack.

10/08 - Yellow Jack exceeds the time limit

He liked finding yellow things on the way in to work, especially this yellow parking meter.

I wish there were a time limit on my morning meetings.  4 hours straight seems a bit excessive when one’s sick...

Yellow Jack thought my lentil soup was a murky swimming pool and was going to use the spoon as a catapult to sproing in there for a dip until I yelled, “Stop!” (My coworkers wondered why I was yelling at the soup.)

Going after this cold with both barrels (they call it Tom YUM for a reason):

Odd bug behavior edition:  I noticed there was a grasshopper in the house.  Of all the places to go, s/he made a beeline for the Halloween spider/spiderweb decorations on the fireplace.  Of course.  S/he seemed to take a special interest in walking on the rubber spiders, through the web (I got queasy at the thought of having to untangle one of those spindly legs), and finally landed like a bow on the big spider's head.  So pretty.  Here s/he is, being the spider's parrot?  Yarrrchirp.

5/22 - Parasaurolophus reminds us that we're all connected

Or to watch out for giant orange spiderwebs…

Parasaurolophus wanted to eat a rainbow for lunch, so we thought these flowers might do.

3/02 - Spider Ring finds a heavy-duty web

It’s the age-old feud between PowerPoint and Excel charts…  Looks like Excel has lost this round.  Spider Ring does not like crashing.

We saw these big metal counterweights(?) on the sidewalk and looked up to see where the cable attached to them started – it went all the way up to the top of a skyscraper!  Spider Ring wanted to climb right up it, but I am way too afraid of heights for that.

11/03 - Pine cones that look like roses

We found these cool pine cones on the way to school, and picked up a bunch on the way home.  Now what do we do with them?

Here  here are some nifty art projects -- Lil' Gal with her stick mummy and the spiders she and Lil' guy made at school (his is the cyclops).

Scrabble update: Grandmother and I finished our game from last night.  I won -- 356 to 205.  Can I get a "booya" up in here?

10/31 - Boo asks "Are you a banana? Or just happy to see me?"

A fitness club was giving away Halloween bananas today. It’s not often you see someone in a banana costume!

Boo tried to surprise Pumpkin Spider by jumping up and yelling “BOO!” but his little ghostie elbow got stuck in her web.  (We got him out.)

I saw a few grown-ups dressed up in costumes when I went out to get some lunch, but nobody at work is dressed up.  OK, Jeanine has on some monkey ears.  I’ll try to get a picture of her…  Rats -- she's already taken them off.

Here are the twins at the start of trick or treating.  Lil' Gal is a Dalmatian, and so happy to be allowed to be a dog IRL.  She is wearing a red collar we made together.  Lil' Guy is a Madagascar Penguin (Rico, if you know them).

All was going really well, minus a few trips over little penguin webbies, until we reached That House.  You know -- the one that's all into making it really spooky.  There were about 4 costumed kids, hiding in spots along the passageway to the front door, that leapt or reached out as we passed by.  We'd done so much work with the kids, especially Lil' Gal, to make Halloween less scary for them.  And these kids scared the bejeezus out of her in about a minute.  I have never heard her scream like that.  Poor kid.

The worst?  Not one family member at That House apologized to us.  The dad (?) on the sidewalk didn't warn us that his house was not for littles.  He didn't once tell his kids to ease up.  When Lil' Guy bravely made it to the front door, hoping to get extra candy for his sister, the teenager handed him a bowl full of candy wrappers.  (Lil' Guy thinks he did get candy for Lil' Gal -- please don't tell him otherwise.)

Overall, I think Halloween went well.  Lil' Gal was consoled with some candy treats, and we got to have a good talk about Mean Kids and how rotten it is to be around them.  But she's also been up about every 20 minutes tonight...

Happy Halloween.

3/10 - City Building wants to eat Orange Spider for breakfast

Don't worry -- I grabbed him out of the way.

We found rain and flowers when we went out looking for lunch. Orange Spider + orange flowers = pretty.

3/09 - Darby and the broccoli as big as her head

Um, Darby? There's something on your head...  A spider hat!  How lovely and fashion forward!

I think broccoli look like little trees, but Darby thinks they are full-size.

12/08 - Spider in the Umbrella Garden

My coworkers are drying out their umbrellas in the Pirate Annex across the way from me.  Spider thought it looked like a garden of umbrellas.

Later, I thought Spider looked like the Kraken, as he climbed aboard my pirate snow globe.  (Spider has a history of looking like a scary sea creature, you may recall.)

11/12 - Torta wants to fly

If caterpillars can grow wings and fly, why not spiders?  Why not us?

Bob the Pirate/Builder left his pirate accessories at my desk, but came back for them later on. He's being a pirate at Robert's desk now.  (We take turns playing with him -- Bob, not Robert.)

Torta had fun playing pirate until the parrot got tangled up in her web.  Squawk!!

11/01 - Waiter, there's a spider in my fruit salad...

I don't know what these workers were doing with this ladder, but it was super tall!  Tonno wanted to climb, too.  (Mommy did not.)

Waiter, there's a spider in my fruit salad...  Oh!  It's just Tonno.  Hopefully she likes melon, because I do not!

From Michael:  Here is a pic of someone that might be a friend of Tonno's. I almost ran into him/her on a run yesterday.

ps.  Yay Giants!!!  Yay city!! JOURNEY!!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dejm8vJ2pUA&feature=share

7/28 - Spidey and the Super Web

Spidey found this "web" by the escalator at the train station in the city.  He wanted to climb and climb, but we had to get to work.

This is actually a ceiling with a LOT of windows at the food court.  Spidey thought it looked like a big web.

Michael made the spiders their very own web to play in!  Look how much fun they're having!  Thank you, Michael!