Eulogy

Neith has gone home. Tonight I took the hound out at about 6:00, in the wild, cold and blowing snow and saw Neith slowly making her way from her little corner. I watched as she painstakingly started to make her way down the wall of the porch. An hour later, I took the hound out again (yes, he pees a lot) and Neith had finally made it to the ground. I watched as she determinedly pulled herself into a small pile of snow. I took the dogs out again about5 minutes ago, and Neith is gone, completely entombed.

She never laid any eggs, and C and I were honestly surprised she survived this long with all the freezes we've had, and she hasn't had any food in many days if not a couple weeks. I am grateful to the service she provided in removing the insects from our vicinity, and to the help she provided in my overcoming arachnophobia. I am no longer afraid of that particular spider, and I am sorry she did not get to pass her genetic material on to another generation.

Goodbye, Neith.

Updates and Randomness

The spiders are both still alive, and since we've only had one freeze they don't seem to be suffering for want of food. Neith has not laid any eggs, so I don't know if/when she will but I will be keeping an eye out to have an idea of her remaining life.

J has learned how to pull himself up to his knees, and sometimes will stand up (supported, of course) for a few seconds until his legs get tired, but he is definitely showing an interest in it! He is also a champ at sitting up from crawling around. It's amazing to me how much more toddler-like he is becoming, and how much less baby-like. He has fortunately not lost any interest in breastfeeding (yay!) so it looks like we can continue to nurse for at least a year. I am, however, counting down to when I can quit pumping (<2 months!) when he turns one.

C and I had a date on Friday (#12). We went out for coffee at this cool local place that we usually like, that has live music on Friday nights. Their coffee was not very good, the service sucked, and it was so loud we could hardly have a conversation. I overall enjoyed myself, but C didn't have that great of a time, unfortunately. Well, at least we went out and spent time together without the baby! That counts for something, right?

We are going down to see C's parents on Thursday to get our Christmas card pictures taken, which I normally would wait on since I do respect the turkey but Snapfish is having this great deal on holiday cards that I just cannot pass up! (Enter CARD08 at checkout, get your first set of 20 4x8 photo cards for a penny each! Good through Nov 23.) So naturally, that entails figuring out what C and J will wear, since I already know what I am going to wear. I think we will have to go consignment store hopping and find J something cute since I will not pay $20 for an outfit that he will wear once.

Do Spiders Hibernate?

Sweet Neith (dear god, did I just call a spider sweet?!) lives in a reasonably unsheltered corner of our porch. It is very cold here tonight, and I am a little concerned that she will perish. Bud at least has siding to hide under, Neith wouldn't fit any more than a few legs under the siding. She is currently huddled up in a pathetic little blob in the corner (in the picture below, she is the little blobby thing; sorry for the craptacular picture quality). I hope she survives the night, and then when it warms up tomorrow she will find a place to hibernate. Do spiders hibernate?
Ok...following a quick Google search, it seems that Neith and other spiders of her ilk (orb spiders and some others) do not, in fact, hibernate. They live for one year, lay their egg sac, and die during the winter. Sad.

On a related note, tarantulas do hibernate, and some females have been found to live 30-40 years! I think that Bud may be of a hibernating variety as well, but since I am still not sure what kind of spider he is, I don't actually know that.

Another Spider Buddy!

Apparently Neith has the upper part of the porch covered as far as bug control goes, so a new, smaller spider, Bud, has moved in. I don't know if Bud is actually male, but I have decided that he is. Bud takes care of any bugs that happen to get near our doorknob. I actually watched him catch a mosquito a couple of nights ago; it was very interesting. Unlike Neith, who weaves lovely "traditional" webs, Bud seems to take the more minimalist approach and made a small, maybe 1" wide web that spans a corner for a few inches. The mosquito walked up the corner and was trapped under the web, at which point Bud struck and dragged the bitey bastardess to her doom. Bud seemed to enjoy his meal. I am currently researching what kind of spider Bud might be, but here is a picture of Neith's cousin, who looks very much like her. Same color and markings. It's pretty easy to see where the species gets it's name, huh?