This is a Green Lynx spider that was on the front porch handrail. Christie must have scared him out into the open when she was planting new flowers in the window boxes. Apparently, this spider does not spin a web, but rather pounces on its prey like a cat. Thus, the 'lynx' in its name. It is a very voracious butterfly hunter. He is a little smaller than a fifty cent piece. The legs at the point of attachment are the thickness of a pencil lead in a standard No.2 wooden pencil. Very intimidating spider, especially knowing he jumps on his prey.

This guy was having lunch on a bumblebee in our Rosemary. The whole feast lasted approxmately 3 minutes. He was quite interested in what I was doing as I got clsoe and personal to take this picture. Every move I made, he followed with those beady, shiny, bulbous eyes.

Here is a cool spider that has been moving to a new location every morning at our house. Apparently, it has not found the best place catching prey yet. It is very considerate and dismantles all traces of the old web before rebuilding somewhere else. The web usually stretches a span of 2.5 feet at the outer circle with guidelines spanning over 10 feet.

I have upgraded my blog template. Now you can subscribe to my blog and receive an automated notification every time I update. Maybe this will encourage me to write more often. The link to subscribe is all the way at the bottom.

Here are some pictures as promised. This the mess we made in order to make it all our own on the day we move in. Popcorn comes down much easier than the work remaining to be done. We still have paint colors, carpet, and stone tile to pick before we can paint. We want to paint before we carpet. And the stone tile may just wait until a later time. It's all very exciting though. I spackled a bunch of nail holes and sanded some rough spots on the master bedroom ceiling tonight. Little by little, we get closer to the completed project...

The first weekend of owning our new home has passed. Since we closed on Wednesday, Oct. 3, we have been busy with the help of Christie's parents removing all of the popcorn ceilings. It was messy task, but went fairly quick. Very surprising! The white powder filled 8-10 yard bags weighing anywhere from 30-80 pounds. So much popcorn. The ceilings all need to be touched up where of the nail holes became exposed, but other than that, the ceilings are in great shape. The corners where they meet the walls are clean and sharp. Once all the spackling touchups are done, we will prime the ceilings and begin the painting. All of the ceilings, crown moulding, baseboards and walls need to be painted and updated. During that process, we will have the carpet spaces measured and quoted for new carpet. What is in there is 15 years old. Time for a sprucing. Be looking for a picture of the popcorn removal. I should have it up soon. Still in the camera.