The late August date is the only one I absolutely could not make.

I did not see the bird eating Spider. I did see an exhibit with lots of spider webs, but I think that was when I wasn't feeling well.

Tomorrow I'm taking my cameras to get developed and the pictures on disc and I'll put them up on my yahoo photo page as soon as I can.

I can't make any of them, if I want to go to Maine, and have Nilly visit time, since I will be out of vacation time.

This makes me sad.

What other amusement parks are in that area? By area I mean I'll drive up to 4 or 5 hours to get to one. I'm thinking if the dates work out right I might need to take a week off and hit a few and then hit the Par-Tay in the midst of all that.

The spiders (not behind glass!) squicked. me. out.

They're actually pretty cool. Orb spiders rebuild their web every single day, and eat the old one to recycle it. IMagine having to reconstruct that every morning.

BTW, someone asked about how spiders evolved the ability to spin webs. I found out some more info; from the fossil record, it seems that spiders first developed silk to make egg sacs. At this time, no insects flew, so they didn't need webs to catch prey, they just ran it down or ambushed it. The ability to produce silk then evolved to allow a spider to anchor itself to a given point; so when it jumped after prey, it could return to its hideout by climbing the silk instead of having to take a potentially longer route. As more and more insects developed flight, leaving the lines strung up between landing points meant spiders could occasionally catch a few insects wihtout even trying. From there, developing the webs we know today is just a matter of refinement.

One of my favourites is the bolas spider, which doesnt' spin a web. Instead, it produces just a single line, with a sticky blob at the end. Then it swing it about its head and tries to whack passing insects with it. (To make sure it has insects to whack, it emits a pheromone mimicking the smell of a female moth.) I like to imagine them wearing jaunty caps, and possibly speaking with a French accent.

(would it be appropriate to post a quick note in Beep Me or Press to alert people who might be interested in this gathering but who aren't following this thread?)

Yes, I think so, Kristin.

Okay so a plan is forming in my head. New England and the surrounding area has many many amusement parks, and I'm a total junkie for them. Most of the parks are Six Flags, which means one season pass will cover all the admissions. I've already got my season pass from Magic Mountain earlier this year, so I'm set. I'm looking at doing something like 5 parks in 7 days, and then ending at Kristin's party. Anyone else stoopid crazeee enough to join me on this?

I'm looking at Kennywood, Six Flag NJ, Six Flags New England, and then the others are still in research.

Anyone?

I'm looking at Kennywood

Wow. That takes me back. I was in Pittsburgh from kindergarten to second grade. I think we went to Kennywood.

Depending on how much studying I'll have done by then and how much time I can take off, I might want to join you, or at least meet up with you for Six Flags NJ. I love amusement parks.