Web games

"Sometimes you're the windshield;
Sometimes you're the bug."

-- The Bug, Mary Chapin Carpenter



Now that all the Spider-Man 3 hype has died down, I offer a testament to the fact that I officially live under a rock: I barely noticed the first Spider-Man, and I didn't even know there was a Spider-Man 2.

Speaking of spiders, "Charlotte" has taken up residence in the bathroom. I told Zoe this was the same spider that inhabited our kitchen last week, but I know this is not true, since the kitchen spider was big and black, and the bathroom spider is small and brown.

It's amazing how tolerant I have become of spiders now that I have no one to kill them on demand.

I'm also trying to teach Zoe to not kill bugs for sport. I've caught her tramping on ants on the patio, and I've tried to explain to her that outside is their house, that's where they live and we should have respect for that... blah blah blah. I'm sure she turns her back on me and rolls her eyes. I hope she does anyway; I hate to imagine a bunch of kids running around on the playground at recess screaming, "Zoe's mom likes BUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGS!!!"

We (I) humanized the spider and named it Charlotte, since Zoe watched "Charlotte's Web" a few weeks back and I caught her crying in her room just at the point where she realized Charlotte was about to bite the dust. (What IS it with kid's movies these days?? Why can't all the main characters come back to life like Wile E. Coyote?)

Charlotte has caused little disruption in our lives so far, but it's oddly reminiscent of my days in Florida when I would come home from work a couple times a week and find an exhausted palmetto bug floating helplessly in my toilet.

I will not hesitate to flush Charlotte if she becomes even a little disgusting. My guard is up.