Spider! Screams, photos, and - finally - battle!

So okay...this is NOT my usual blog.  

And it is not for the faint of heart.  Graphic pictures ahead!  You've been warned.  Continue at your own risk.  Blah Blah Blah

Let me first state my position.  I try really hard to not kill any creature.  I cry when I step on a snail.  If a spider is not dangerous, I will let it stay in my apartment - much to my daughter's dismay.  She is a definite arachnophobe.  She can't even look at PICTURES of spiders, let alone the huge one that was in our apartment this week.

It was always my understanding that this type of spider was a wolf spider.  Let me tell you a story.

We lived in a house approximately 2 miles from where we live now.  Nice house...new subdivision...loved it.  We rented this house for close to 5 years.  After we had lived there for awhile, a spider took up residence in our entry way closet.  It was a fairly large spider...maybe the size of a nickel with it's legs.

It was a very sweet spider...until it wasn't.  It stayed in the closet and only peeked out from under the door.  We never saw it venture away from that closet.  

Until one day, my daughter was sitting on the couch watching tv and glanced over to find the spider sitting beside her on the arm of the couch.  Needless to say, mayhem ensued. 

Previously I had Googled spider types that were common in the Sacramento area where we live.  I swear that the search resulted in me finding pictures of this very same spider and it was labeled a wolf spider.  It said they were very shy spiders who would always avoid a human. I would also swear that there was more than one article with pictures stating this.  

I had flat out refused to kill it until it challenged my authoritay by sitting right beside Adie.  Not only did it sit beside her, it escaped into a cat-created hole in the couch.  We actually ended up giving the couch away because Adie could find no peace with it in the house.

Fast forward to this week where a HUGE spider of the same type was found in my room by Adrienne.  She actually remained remarkably calm (relatively speaking).  I was in the bath tub at the time and despite her entreaties, I took my sweet time to get out and see this "monster" spider.  

It was HUGE.  And over my bed.  So what did I do?  Acting off of my believe that this was a harmless, shy spider, I got a box and the Swiffer and tried to knock it into the box from the top of the wall where it preferred to reside.  

It didn't work.

The spider seemed quite cagey and quick.  So I decided to get my camera and take some photos so I could use Google image search to verify what type of spider it was and whether or not it may just live with us.  I was a little reticent to let it live in the apartment - for obvious reasons.  But I did want to relocate it somehow.  

With my daughter yelling at me for taking pictures instead of killing it, I took a couple photos that turned out pretty nice.  I used the best one to do the image search.

This is it's backside.  I think.  I actually like that pretty green mark.  

These are the image search results I got from Google.

Ummmm...not a match but thanks for trying.  lol

So I turned to twitter and with various wonderful people helping me out, determined it was probably a Jumping Spider.  It is the HUGEST jumping spider I have ever seen.  We have them here all the time, but they are much smaller.  This one was probably 4x the size of the ones I am used to. 

So I got off the internet and decided to take another photo (my daughter was still yelling at me for this).

And the spider went into the vent.  ((((((((((((((((((((((

Hoooo boyy.  I REALLY heard about it then.  haha  So just closed my vent and hoped that was the end of it.

Of course it wasn't.

Today at about 3pm I walked into my room and there was the lovely spider (it is quite pretty in a VERY scary way) right above my bed.

So of course I went and got my camera.  :-)

Look at that!  It's pretty crazy.  and hairy.  It has a flower on it's butt!  wow.

This was Adie through the incident.  Haha!  Can't say I blame her.  

Well, right after taking the photos, the damn thing dropped down the wall right in front of me.  It was on a web so it looked very spidermany.  But scary!  I had to kill it.  Luckily I was wearing boots.

Sorry little spider!

xoxo 

Had a Suite, Suite time at the Sharks/Blackhawks Game! 2/1/14 Part 3

So my arm is finally a lot better.  It still hurts and gets numb when I type too much, so I probably won't be doing as much typing in this post.  

Quick Recap since it's been over a month:

• Went to San Jose
• Gave Blood at the Sharks & Stanford blood drive
• Won tickets in a penthouse suite & a parking pass
• Sold the tickets I already had
• Bought a mystery puck and it was Alex Stalock
• Watched warmups on the glass
• Drooled over Patrick Sharp while talking to two dudes from Chicago

And then we went up to our suite...where we had a nice view of the banners.  #SoPretty

This is what the ice looks like from our corner suite.

Yeah, I had a "leaner" and yes, leaning DOES matter if you sit in front of someone in the upper level at the Tank.  Luckily for us, she switched seats with someone when the game started so she wasn't in front of us.

Sharkie!  

...O'er the La-and of the Freeeeeeeeeee!  And the hommme of the...brave!

I liked the view of the flags with the shark head.  An angle you don't get to see every game.

According to a sign in the suite, it is Marty Havlat's personal suite which he donated to the Stanford Blood Center.  That was cool because I am a big Mach9 fan from back in the day. 

Several people besides us wrote nice messages to Marty. I wonder if he really saw them? Of course, me being me, I told him he was really handsome.  Here's a closeup of the sign #GingerPower! 

Don't worry Sharkie, I yelled quite a bit.  Couldn't talk very well for a few days.  Sharks ended up winning in a shootout with my three FAVORITE players on the Sharks scoring!  Pavs, Patty, Jumbo.  It was awesome.

After the game we headed back to our free Marriott room to relax and get a good nights sleep for our Mystery Spot adventure the next morning.

xoxo

Folie a Deux - Blackhawks at Sharks Part the Second 2/1/14

It's okay to be a little crazy about both the Sharks and the Blackhawks.  

No, really!  It is!

And I am, so imagine how stoked I was to get the free 

penthouse tickets to the game!  

I was able to sell the tickets I had purchased months ago and it pretty much financed the entire weekend.  Including...wait for it...wait for it...  My Alex Stalock Mystery Puck!!  Woot woot!

So instead of rushing to the ice, we headed for the Sharks store to see if they had any more Pavelski USA tshirts.  They did, but only in youth sized.  Lucky for my kid, she can wear youth sizes.  So I bought her one.  

I  was out of luck.  :-(

I left her in the loooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg line to purchase things in the store and headed to the ice.  

There was, as usual, a large contingent of Blackhawks fans but they weren't down by the ice.  Mostly they were by the tunnel where the visiting team come out. 

I settled in to wait for warmups and took a few pictures for practice.  Here's a picture of the visiting team's pucks:

While we were waiting, we started talking to the guys whose seats I was sitting in.

They were Blackhawks fans, a father and son.  It was the son's 21st birthday and his VERY cool father had bought him the 2nd row seats right next to the visiting bench.  They had also traveled from Chicago and were spending a week out here.  He had also rented a Corvette.  I was extremely jealous and tried to get him to adopt me, but to no avail. 

The four of us had a lot of fun talking until the players came out.  And then it was PHOTO TIME!  

I'll warn ya...as usual I took many, many photos.  I believe I ended up with 52 including the ones posted above.  I'll probably split this into two posts.  But we'll see. 

On to the photos!  Out came the Blackhawks.

Of course I had to document my first Sharpie sighting of the night.

And then my mystery puck dude, Stalock!  And Nieto.  And Patty the Olympian. 

How did I miss that Bollig is so very handsome?

Oh captain, my captain!

There's some wicked reflection on that Jumbo photo.  Sorry.  Someone must have cleaned the glass.

There were  a lot of Olympians in the house.  

Kaner!!  I kinda love him.  

So intense.  lol 

This was pretty funny.  There were a few Sharks fans who  were banging on the glass and yelling for Patrick Sharp to look at them so they could take a picture.  He glanced their way but seemed careful to not fully turn.  Then he lifted his jersey and said "what's that" meaning they weren't wearing 'Hawks jerseys.   

 Then he started laughing at them.

Pretty cute. 

Don't really know how the Blackhawks fans feel or how he's even playing but it was nice to see Versteeg again.    

 Funny face

"Carry me Ladd" will always be one of my favorite quotes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, watch this video.

I wish the Sharks did stuff like that.  

Anyhoo, back to le fotos.

Goalie Masks!  Love.Them.  Here's Crawford's.

 Too bad the straps cover the artwork.  It's a painting of one of my favorite sculptures.  End of the Trail by James Earle Fraser. 

 

That mask is just plain sick.

I'm going to finish this post up with a picture of three of the Sharks Olympians (No Nemo)

And on that note, as soon as this Ice Dancing competition is over, I'm going to bed.  All this typing is making my arm hurt and I'm having trouble pushing the spacebar.  haha  And this is just a MINOR sprain.  

Good night kids. 

xoxoxo

Blood Clots and Black Holes - Happily Giving Blood @SJSharks Blood Drive 2/1/14

Some mood music...

Hi again!  I'm always behind the eight ball.  But who the fuck cares, right?  Well, sometimes I do.  Sometimes.

Anyhoo...had an amazingly fun weekend last weekend so wanted to share before TOO much time goes by.  

I've been looking forward to this weekend since September when I bought my San Jose Sharks vs. Chicago Blackhawks tickets.  And then I heard the Sharks were having a blood drive the morning of the game RIGHT when I was due to give blood!  It's a bloody miracle!  

Public Service Announcement:  Don't google image search "bloody miracle" unless you want to see some truly disturbing things.

Alrighty then...  

The second best thing about donating blood at the Sharks drive (the first being that you're saving lives...duh) is you get in to see the morning skate.

So we originally planned on leaving Sacramento at 7:30 to get there by 10:30.  Of course that didn't happen.  It was too hard to get out of bed on a Saturday morning.  So we left at 8:30 and consequently missed most of morning skate.  Adrienne told me it was more than likely an optional skate anyway.  Turns out it wasn't, but it's okay. 

But we did get to see the tail end and a few players:

One Direction - Story of my Life - Opinion

I really, really love this song.  Like so much.  And I confess that although I am as old as dirt, I cried at the video.  

Hockey! Sharks Season Opener - 10/3/13

I've got 54 photos to post here so I'm going to keep the chatter to a minimum...(but I must say I was experimenting with colors in a lot of these pictures.  Subjects are not always as orange as they appear.  Although some are (I'm looking at you Doug).)  

Cliff's Notes:

Canucks (BOOO) at Sharks (YAAAY HAPPY)

No Adrienne (SAAAAADDDD)

Street Fair:

Sacramento Walk to End Alzheimer's - My Walk for my Mom, Beverly Halford 10/5/13

On October 5th, I was privileged to participate in the Sacramento Walk to End Alzheimer's.  I walked on behalf of my mother, Beverly who has had the horrible disease for some 10 odd years now.  She used to love Elvis Presley so I'll include some mood music that she would appreciate.

Fittingly, the day was absolutely gorgeous.  They passed out promise flowers in different colors to signify how Alzheimer's has affected you and to signify a promise to Honor, Care, Remember, and Fight.

There are four colors:

Blue:  I have Alzheimer's 

Purple:  I have lost someone to Alzheimer's

Yellow:  I am supporting or caring for someone with Alzheimer's

Orange:  I support the cause and a vision of a world without Alzheimer's

I have to say...it was such a beautiful and uplifting experience.  Hard for me to believe when it stems from such a truly horrific disease for both the person who has it and their loved ones.