1 A fellow spider-lover?! I never wulda thunk it!! Tarantulas can be very graceful, I think, especially when they're doing that slow-dance thing. But they really do move very differently from regular spiders. We have the most fabulous spiders down here. Just exquisite.

2 When I get more than one per room I start escorting them outside. And, of course, I periodically clear out the old cobwebs from the corners, to cut down on that "Addams Family" look. But how could one not want a few spiders around? They eat the kinds of insects that carry human disease. How could that possibly be bad? And there's nothing nicer than an ambitious and well-executed web.

3 You and I are opposites - I love lizards but am much less than fond of spiders.

4 And K., as I recall, likes both

5 Don't worry, little Spider; I am indifferent With my housekeeping. >>>Zen Master Kobayashi Issa (Better, but sacrificing the exact form for the English) Don't worry, little Spider; I'm an indifferent Housekeeper.

6 Oh, I do! Actually there aren't too many critters I DON'T love. I have a lizard pin, gold with emerald eyes, that I wear almost always. It's my Lucky Lizard, and it's one-of-a-kind. I only take it off for stuff like landscaping. While I work, I sit in my yard and talk to the lizards. Feed them bugs, too. I met my neighbor Peter when he first moved in because I heard him in his own back yard - talking to his lizards. There is one kind of spider I've been killing. I forget the name, but it has a very odd mannerism where it kind of hangs and bounces up and down? When they bite, the venom makes a weird bruise, very irregular, that suddenly completely disappears a couple days after the bite. It can really hurt, too, and the darn things have been crawling all over everyone's house the last few years. I just took pix of a very beautiful huge garden spider the other day, out on plant rescues in a woodsy area. There was one spider on one side of a tree trunk, and a twin, two trees down. They make a huge perfect web across trails, so people frequently make their acquaintance by suddenly running into a huge spider sitting in the middle of its web, in the middle of the air it seems. Right around nose level as you walk down that trail. Housekeeping? Funny thing is, most spiders themselves are really great housekeepers. You know who else is? LMA!

7 Ha! I talk a good game, but I'm afraid lately I do a lot of the wrong kind of nesting. There's messy nesting, and neat nesting. After trying for the latter for years, I've sort of settled into the former . . .