Scary!

After a week of "warming up" the costumes (Tommy is so funny!) and a night full of trick-or-treating, friends, and good times, I managed to not get a single photo of a certain Anakin Skywalker and his sidekick, Optimus Prime! I got the camera all ready, and then left it on the counter. Grrrr!

But, not to worry, because I did get this SPOOKY picture from Erik! I wasn't home on Friday evening, but while I was out, Erik found this guy standing in our hallway.

On our way to football** early Saturday morning, he told me, "You should have seen the enormous spider last night in the hallway!" Forgive me, but I've seen Erik's idea of "enormous spider" before, and so my reaction was mild, indeed. "Hmmmm...pretty big, huh?"

Later, he posted this picture on his Facebook. Oh! I think I see, now. On Saturday evening, as we headed home from Halloween fun, the boys slept in the back seat and we talked about the spider.

Me: Holy cow, that was some spider!
Erik: Oh yeah.
Me: Were you scared?
Erik: Um...kind of just surprised. I thought it was a scrap of yarn or fabric, and I went to toss it out!
Me: Gross! What did you do with it?
Erik: I got it in the jar and then set it lose in the field at Lior's house.
Me: [Mental note: ascertain whereabouts of said jar.] Oh. Where do you think he came from?
Erik: Well, it doesn't seem like the kinds of spiders we see around here. I thought maybe he came in with the boxes of apples? [GROSS]
Me: That's so sad. I hope he's okay.
Erik: You do?
Me: Well, yeah, if he's not from around here, he might freeze or starve or something, like he can't really live around here.
Erik: Are you kidding?
Me: Isn't that sad, that he's all alone, with no other spiders just like him?
Erik: [Incredulous now.] I don't know, Mia, do you want it to lay a thousand eggs and start a colony in the field next to our house?
Me: I guess not, but it seems so sad. So lonely for him. He'll probably die alone.
Erik: [Rolling his eyes.] Perhaps this will be the culmination of a great journey for him. Maybe he'll look at the sunset, think to himself, "I can't believe I've finally made it to here" and then die peacefully, knowing he lived a full life.

Okay...okay. Jeesh. I'm sensitive, what can I say? It must a genetic disorder, because I remember my dad trying to console my niece when she was about Scotty's age. He had smoked out some gophers that were destroying his lawn, and one of them (quite large) managed to stumble into the yard, during broad day light, before keeling over. Stone cold dead. My niece wailed, "The gopher! It's a mommy gopher and now she's dead! Her babies can't find her!" Over and over. Of course there was no evidence whatsoever that this thing was even female, let alone a matriarch, but my dad had to do some pretty fancy footwork to get out of this one. She was way worked up.

I didn't cry, but it was close.

** Football. So, Tommy is playing flag football this season, and it's a BLAST! It's a totally casual league, formed by a bunch of dads whose kids weren't really into playing soccer (Tommy qualifies) and so they play non-touch, flag only football. Tommy caught the winning touchdown pass on Saturday! Good times, good times.