After dropping off the kids at preschool this morning, I came home to find this menacing my garage. At first I thought someone had graffittied an X on my garage door or marked it for demolition or something. I could see it from the street and our driveway is, I dunno, 50 feet long? As I continued driving up the driveway (and almost smacked into the garage door), I realized what it really was...
I just hope it's not poisonous. And, I'm SOOOOOOOOOO glad it wasn't in the house.


Let me tell you why... The other night we sat down for dinner and smack in front of the napkin holder was a dead-looking cricket. "Is that thing alive or dead?" I asked. Then, as Aaron stood up to look at it, it jumped STRAIGHT AT ME!!!! Being the reasonable adult that I am, I screamed louder than I have in ages and ran away. Then, of course, we all laughed at me. I think it must have come in with the outdoor toys when we were preparing for the hurricane that hardly happened. So, if that was only for a lousy cricket, can you imagine if I'd found this guy in my house!!?!!!

Editor's Note: It appears that we have here a Argiope aurantia, aka Black and Yellow Garden Spider or Writing Spider. It's hard to see her web against the white door, but if you look closely at the second photo you can see a heavy zig-zag pattern. That's why she's nicknamed the Writing Spider ('cause that sort looks like writing and/or it was thought to be used in communication with other spiders). Evidently she's physically harmless (though she's sure doing wonders on me psychologically). You can read more about her here and here.