A new menace.

Just a side note: there is something incredibly beautiful watching a steaming cup of coffee. Not to mention the glorious smell. Ok.

We have a new menace. It's black with a little red hourglass on the back. That's right-black widows! We found the first ones in the garage, which is understandable because we weren't careful boxing up everything and there were plenty of places to hide. But then we found one out on our deck. And another one on our porch (I almost stepped in it). And then we cleaned out the kids play equipment, which had been left to fend for itself after we declared the backyard off-limits after momma nearly stepped into the spider. We brushed it off, sprayed it with bug spray, left it for a while. Damm and the kids went out to play later, and as the Orclette gets off her tricycle to head inside, a black widow crawls out of the foot pedal (it's a plastic Dora tricycle, not a metal one). That was all sorts of creepy.

And before you ask, yes, they are black widows. Myself, my mother, his mother, have all asked Damm where the hourglass was because there's an imitation spider out there. He won't answer that question anymore. He knows what a black widow looks like.

We are going to call our landlady. I'm a bit concerned about her response. Our neighbors, who don't have kids and are not dirty, called for the annual bug spray that was usually provided. They were told that their house was probably dirty and that's why they have bugs, and no she wasn't going to spray their house. Yeah, I'm shocked too, and worried that somehow we'll get the same response. But in that case, we're just going to call our lawyers. Don't you love that? I can actually say that now, thanks to the National Guard. I have a lawyer.

We haven't seen any in the house, and we have begun taking precautions. No piles of clothes on the floor, shoes have been moved onto a shoe rack, no open boxes. But still-to a healthy adult the bite isn't fatal, but to my kids? Can't be allowed to happen.

Anyway, that's the menace that has taken over our backyard and garage. Hopefully soon we'll be able to report that offensive action has been taken and those areas reclaimed.