The Chill has officially arrived, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to enjoy the outdoors after work. Got in a good walk to the pier with Mary last week.
Thought of Dad when I drove past this guy:
Last week was Google’s 20th birthday, and our office celebrated with a 90’s-themed shindig.
On Friday Mary and I hit up the Juanita Farmer’s Market, on its last day before closing down for the year.
The following day was a sports day. I’d gotten tickets for us to see the BYU-UW game in the evening, but my friend offered us one of his two tickets to a Sounders soccer match at 1pm, so I picked up an additional ticket and we made a day of it.
At least we got one in before the game was done.
On Tuesday Mary and I went with a friend from the ward to a speaking event by one Kacey McCallister, who at a young age became a double amputee. He now does Spartan races and motivational speaking. We heard him speak at our WAYSAC conference earlier this year, and he was great both times.
This evening I went with Mary to this same friend’s place out in Carnation (prompting what I’m sure is a very tired joke at this point on the way out – “What in Carnation?!”) to play some games with her and her family. We went through quite a few – Coup, and Exploding Kittens, tying up the evening with Dominion.
Before leaving her house I loaded up my car with some cat supplies. She’s under the weather and living at her folks’ place, leaving her two cats alone at her apartment. I volunteered to let them person-sit me for a week or so till she’s back on her feet. Thinking of it like a trial-run, as I’ve always thought it’d be nice to have some feline company around here. So we’ll see how that goes.
So a bit of backstory. Some weeks ago I was sitting on my couch late at night, when I noticed some movement on the carpet. I looked across and saw the largest spider I’ve seen since coming back from Australia, creeping its way towards me. I bolted up and told Alexa to brighten all my house lights while I figured out a strategy. I had to go to the kitchen to get something to trap it, but I couldn’t let it out of my sight in case it sped off somewhere and I lost it; if that happened I’d just have to set up a sleeping bag in my car and set fire to my house.
So it’s a Mexican Standoff between me and the spider, for like a solid five minutes. Then he makes a move forward, I stomp my feet to get him to turn around, he skitters towards the dining room table, and crouches beneath a chair. I notice my Resistance game on an end table and grab the top lid of the box. As I creep forward to place it down on the spider, it starts scurrying towards the wall. I toss the box over and it comes down right on top of its target.
I didn’t feel like trying to dispose of it, so I let it sit there. A day turned into three, until eventually Mary came by and I had enough hands to make sure that even if it booked it after lifting off the box I could still catch it with the vacuum.
Unfortunately since the box was opaque I never did get a good shot of the critter, and regretted the hasty disposal.
That is, until today, when I came home to this lovely dude chilling right next to where I keep my shoes. How lovely.
Earlier this week I had a regular visit from pest control and they said it’s normal for spiders to be more active at this time of year since it’s their mating season. A few more weeks of increased spider activity and then things should recede to normal levels.
But until then. Ew ew ew.