Just Nicky

When I grow up I want to be a Grup April 7, 2006

Grups

(found via Girl Detective)

Down in a hole April 6, 2006

There’s a Gillian Welch lyric I was going to use for my title, but I can’t remember it properly and the above is the best approximation I can manage.

I seem to have hit a bit of a pot hole this week. I’m choosing to blame an extended hangover from the migraine. This morning I think I might have hit the bottom of it.

I made Finn cry. I cried. I made Mark cry and I made him late for uni. I’m cold, chilled to the bone and I can’t get warm. The heater is on and I’m all layered up. The thought of going outside just makes me shiver.

This will pass.

Identifying Spidey April 4, 2006

I did a bit of research online today to try to identify our visitor. I was getting worried because I could see nothing that looked like him/her and I was starting to wonder if he/she may have come from far away and just how far away that might have been.

Then I found this page. I’m certain that Spidey is a female wolf spider with babies on her back. Hundreds of them. The second picture on the page is a dead ringer minus the egg sack.

This puts a different complexion on the idea of leaving her there. At some point hundreds of teeny tiny wolf spiderlings are going to leave the mothership and head off to make their fortune in the big wide world. They’re too close to a window and a door for me to be happy about that.

I don’t want to kill them and, even if I did, there’s no way I can kill her and all the babies. The catch and release doesn’t seem as simple as originally thought, though. One large spider is easy. Lots of little spiders is less so. This going to require some thought.

Creepy Crawly visitor

This guy is hanging out on the wall outside our sliding door.

I’ve never seen a spider quite like him/her. The markings on its back look like it should be hanging out on a the bark of a tree, hiding from birds. And it’s quite large - not tropical large, or huntsman on Bean’s ceiling large, but large for here.

Much as I would like to just leave it there, it can’t stay. I’m fascinated by it and just keep stopping and staring at it and, eventually, Mark’s going to be too freaked out by it to leave it. Killing it is an unpleasant idea and not just because I don’t like killing things needlessly. I suspect it wouldn’t go quietly. So I think it will be a catch and release operation, perhaps down by the creek where there a plenty of trees and bark to hide in.

Migraine April 3, 2006

ugh!

Today has been a day of knitting accompanied by Dr Phil & Oprah - about the maximum mental stimulation I can manage. Thank God every day isn’t like today.

Foozle vest take 2 April 1, 2006

Knitted last year:

Undone and reknitted to do a better job of the neck and arm holes