Wednesday, October 6 2021

Dear Journal,

Good morning, everybody. Happy Wednesday. I find it hard to believe it's only Wednesday today. It feels like we've put a full week's work into things - how disappointing that we've only moved the needle halfway. I guess we're just going to have to double the effort to make it to the weekend. Better double the coffee too.

Sip. I really shouldn't be complaining. I don't even have a full work week ahead of me. My company is giving everyone the day off on Friday to recharge. Besides, Wednesdays are wonderful days. Today, after I run my gauntlet of meetings, I get to take Rodney to ice skating class. I look forward to sitting alone in the bleachers in the chilly arena, contently watching Rodney glide around the ice. Afterwards, Rodney and I like to watch spider videos until Marissa finishes dinner. Tonight is chicken and wild rice soup. To commemorate my love of Wednesdays, I penned a cartoonish drawing of Rodney gliding around on the ice, wearing his spider-man helmet and navy blue bicycle hoodie, of course.

Today will be a busy day for Rodney. He's the one who has to do all the work out on the ice - I just get to watch him. Additionally, we can tell that the hustle of his new early morning school routine is catching up with him because he's actually started to fall asleep during his quiet time.

The change in routine must also be playing tricks on his brain. Yesterday, while collecting Rodney's dirty clothes bin after his nap, Marissa found an unexpected mess. The little dimple formed by the plastic handle of the laundry bin was filled with pee. The clothes in the bin were wet, and there were pee droplets leading back to Rodney's bed.

"Somebody peed in my hamper," recounted Rodney. Marissa and I cracked a smile.

"That's so weird," I said. "Did you see who it was?"

"No," said Rodney, shaking his head. "It happened while I was sleeping."

"Well, we can rule out me," I said, jumping on the opportunity to exonerate myself. "I'm the only one in this family that didn't take a nap today. I'm not the one sleep-peeing in Rodney's hamper."

"What are you talking about?" said Marissa. "There was pee in the handle, and you two dudes are the only people in this house that could physically do that. You pee standing up."

Point taken, but still no conclusive evidence.

It would be easy to accuse Rodney of peeing in his hamper, especially with the dribbles leading back to his bed. But last time I checked, we live in the United States of America, and in this country you are innocent until proven guilty - even if that means leaving the sinister naptime hamper peeer at large for the time being.

Enough pee talk. Time to clear the palate with some pictures of homemade bread. I haven't posted a picture of bread in a while, and that's because now to keep up with increased demand for school lunches, we bake it so often that we don't have time to care about how it looks. We make a loaf every other day, and I don't even take the time to score it before shoving it into the oven. But the best part about not caring about how your bread looks is that every now and then for no discernible reason, it comes out perfectly.

How did your Tuesday go? We had a quiet day. Marissa took Miles out shopping for more roach supplies. As he napped, she worked on the roach bin - using a soldering iron make a clean rectangle cut all around the lid. She'll eventually fashion a screen inside a metal frame and glue it in its place. Admittedly, this prototype for the roach bin is way more sophisticated then what I was picturing. But then again, I'm not the one that got fast-talked into breeding cockroaches in our home. I have to think that fashioning the roach bin the way she likes is helping her regain a sense of control over the situation, so I'm just going to keep my mouth shut.

"I think we're officially weird animal people," said Marissa. She said this while leaning back in the dining room computer chair with a browser window open to a care sheet for leopard geckos. A gecko makes sense to me - if we're going to bother keeping a colony of worms and roaches around, we might as well get another creature to help control the population.

I had my own contemplative time at the craft table last night. Preparing three new juvenile spider enclosures, I discovered my own unexpected appreciation for hot glue. Using only cocoa fiber, spagnum moss, and cork bark, I fashioned three cozy spider homes that I've very happy with. Let me give you a tour.

I call this first one mossy.

I used a dremmel to hallow out the little chunk of cork bark, and I cut the back half so it would fit snuggly into the corner. After covering it in a shaggy layer of moss, I continued the theme by dispersing little pieces of it into the dirt floor. I think this will be the new home of the Grammastola pulchripes, an exotic colorful little spider. The moss is great for holding onto moisture and retaining humidity, so I think the little guy will appreciate it.

I call this one levels.

With only a flat piece of cork bark to work with, I propped it up underground and used it as leverage to create an inch high step in the middle of the enclosure. Some of the wood is exposed in the lower level, which will hopefully invite the velvety black Grammastola pulchra to burrow his own way to safety.

I call this one leaves.

I made this enclosure with the Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens in mind. This will be the first heavy webber in my collection. I used hot glue to cover the surface of the cork bark with fake leaves and buried it underground like a planter. This little guy will have to figure out where to burrow on his own, but I think he'll appreciate all the anchor points for building his own webbed tunnels to get around.

What do you think? If you were a spider, which house are you moving into?

That's what I got today. Thanks for stopping by today, have a great Wednesday everybody.