I remember that scarf they made out of golden orb silk. Stunningly beautiful.

SO not clicking Billytea's link. No.

I would love to visit Australia. Just with no spiders.

I would love to visit Australia. Just with no spiders.

I recommend southern Australia. (Incidentally: Sydney has the genuinely venomous funnelweb spider, but in all the visits I have made to Sydney in my forty-plus years, I have never seen one outside a zoo, not even once.)

The spider in question is a golden orb spider, or Nephila.

Really? Because I was going to go with Acromantula.

Spiders fascinate me. Over *there*.

Have a wonderful trip, sarameg!

Funnel web was caught in the house where I was staying. Fun times.

Ugh, creepy as fuck and still mad adrenalized.

Woke up a few minutes ago to hear this loud repeated banging/thudding sound. Couldn't figure out where it was coming from or what it could be--was it from the townhouse next door? Why would someone be repeatedly dropping or throwing a large object at 3:30AM?Hoped it would stop, since it woke me up.

Then suddenly the doorbell started ringing, repeatedly. I thought "is it a neighbor? Is the house on fire?" and came downstairs, looked out the peephole...and saw someone in a black helmet (like a skater helmet). And I said "WHO IS IT?" and he said "me". And I was like "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" and ...he walked away. But then a minute later as I was still looking out the peephole, he walked back up my porch, opened the screen door, and looked about to start ringing the bell again, but then walked away. I was like "WTF, where is he going? To go bust in someone else's door? Or one of my windows? Is he drunk or crazy? WTF"

Ended up calling 911 and they said they're sending cops to come look (from my peephole, I can tell he's not still on my porch, but not if he's gone). But freaky scary. And now I can't sleep (plus the cops are supposedly calling or knocking once they've looked, and no idea how long it'll take before they're here).

GRRRRR. Don't fuck with me crazy people.

While we are promoting our favorite religious orders, I have to plug the Sisters of St. Joseph, who, at my college, were all Ph.Ds and scholars-- very smart and kind. Sadly, I am pretty sure the goup in rochester will die out in the next 20 or so years. I think the youngest one is in her 0's by now.

I would have become a nun, for the very worst reasons, had I been Catholic. The professors lives seemed perfect to me- study, work, help people and have no worries about a roof over your head, clothes on your back, etc. Although I did actually hear that their families had to buy their clothes, not the order and they gave their salaries to the order.

That is really scary, meara. Good to call 911!

Yikes! Waiting for follow up, meara. I hope they found the scary person.