Figures

Had to go to the Uni today, to do a make-up session for the Excel class I am teaching. Only one student even showed up - an A for her - but we couldn't even get anything accomplished. The email server was supposed to be upgraded today, but it seems that the IT people have taken the entire network offline. What a waste of a trip. Once, it might have not been any big deal to pop into LA and back. But with gas prices the way that they are, it seemed like such a waste of money.

I am sitting at my son's PC and watching a little spider run around on the desktop and monitor. My son says his name is Ted and he hopes he catches anything that tries to get his machine. It's funny, but I used to be so afraid of spiders, until I lived in this house. This place has about 3/4 of an acre of field in the back and there is plenty of wildlife. We seem to be home to quite a few daddy long-leg spiders. Supposedly the most lethal of spiders, it is safe to humans because their fangs cannot penetrate human skin. So, we have have allowed, over the years, hundreds of these guys to make homes all over the place. Living with them has made me less freaked out by other spiders, and hence my new-found tolerance for Ted. I have even tried to pass this live-and-let-live approach off to my younger students, by catching and releasing all the spiders we find in the classroom.