The Spider

Day 325 (Wow! That means I only have 40 more blogs to write to complete the year!)

Yesterday we had our second Aragog sighting.

For those that don't know, Aragog was the large spider character from the Harry Potter books and it seems like his American descendants live here right outside my home. Typically we get about 5-10 of these large visitors but this year we have been very fortunate to have only had two. I blame the large snake that stalks our house.*

We were coming home from going shopping and I was opening the door with my key when suddenly Kristy uttered this fearful noise. She claimed it was not a scream, and it wasn't one exactly but it was still some sort of yell. I knew right away that it was some sort of insect. Either a large spider or something that will sting me. So I turned away from the door ducking my head and proceeded to run over my son.

I can handle any type of bug or vermin. Snakes? No prob. Wasps? No prob. Mice? No prob. Spiders? HUGE problem.

On the top of our door was an Aragog. I remember that I had left the back door opened so Logan and I retreated there. Kristy grabbed a stick and knocked him off the door and then she bravely stabbed it and retreated danced away.

She didn't see that the spider jumped up after she poked it and it ran right in the crevasse of the door. Logan came out with the bug spray and I doused it. So far we have not recovered his body. That is because we are too afraid to look.

*True story. We have a snake that lives around our home.

Movie Night!

Day 117

Watching movies with my family and friends must be some of my favorite memories because I certainly remember them crystal clear. So here are a collection of some of my favorite memories while watching movies.

My first movie experience was in 1977 with Star Wars. My dad took my sister to it first and came home and took me when they went a second time. I don't remember much about it but from what my dad said, I couldn't take my eyes off it.

Now when the sequel The Empire Strikes Back came out that was another story. I was so excited to see it. I sat in my chair taking it all in until the Wampa hit. And suddenly I was on my dad's lap.

Raiders of the Lost Ark was the next one I saw in the theatres and I am glad that my parents took me. I think parents nowadays try to hard to shield their kids too much from enjoying things. In order for you to enjoy the good, you have to experience the bad. Raiders was a dark film but even though I was young, I enjoyed it and it didn't make me into a serial killer or anything. The one thing that I remember about going to see Raiders of the Lost Ark was my dad. My sister and I were sitting together apart from my parents. Suddenly during the film my dad bolts up and leaves the theatre. About ten minutes later he came back but sat by me and my sister. At first I thought he was mad at mom for something but it turned out that he thought he had peed his pants. He was holding his Coke between his legs and the moisture collected from all the ice melting and he thought he had an accident. He didn't obviously but was so embarrassed that he sat by us instead of mom.


That was not the end to embarrassing moments in the movie theatre. My dad and I decided to see Arachnophobia (even though we both HATE spiders). We saw it at a dollar theatre and there was only a few of us in there. During the movie, I thought it would be funny to reach around and flick my dad's ear. It was a great idea, I flicked his ear and popcorn went a flying! I thought my dad was going to kill me.

Back in the day, you could rent a VCR and some movies from the local Mac's store (which is like a 7/11) and my dad and I decided to get Aliens. That has got to be one of my all-time favorite movies and it left me breathless. At the end of the movie my dad was turning off the TV and he put his hand up his shirt. He turned to me and said, "That was a pretty intense movie eh?" And then suddenly he thrusted his hand out from his shirt like a chestburster! I about hit the roof. And my dad wonders why I like to scare him all the time! I got it from him.

You wanna know what awkward is? Try watching Predator 2 with your mom. She loved the first one but that second one had some scenes that no kid (no matter how old they are) should watch with his parents.

That was a cool thing about my mom, she liked action movies. You know what one of her favorites is? She called me one day and said she wanted to go see Face Off that weekend. My mom was way into it, partly because of John Travolta. Luckily for me, there wasn't any Predator 2-type scenes.

My sister on the other hand is very "hands on" when you watch movies with her. My arm was bruised for days after watching Con Air with her. Every explosion and gunshot, my arm was swatted by my sister. She shouldn't watch intense movies like that. Con Air was not even that good!

I took Kristy to go see Jurassic Park II. During the scene where all the raptors were chasing the people, one popped out from under the fence. I knew it was coming and everyone screamed when it happened. Well, their scream scared the snot out of me. So right after the audience screamed, I screamed. The girls in front of me turned there heads back to look at me and I pointed to Kristy sheepishly.

Kristy's brother-in-law Aaron and I went and saw The Blair Witch Project together. We must have been hyped to see it because we got scared even before the movie started. We were in the theatre just chatting when suddenly this girl pops her head in between us and asks us for the time. Aaron jumped back and that made me jump back even further! The girl laughed at us, I am positive that she did it to us on purpose.

But I think my all-time favorite movie experience was with my friend Lared. Joel and I took him to see The Phantom Menace. Now Lared has always been one of my most expressive friends and he was a Star Wars fan and he was really hyped up. Toward the end, when Darth Maul killed Qui-Gon it really hit the fan. Out of nowhere we heard this hair-raising "NOOOOOOOOO!" followed up with this heart-wrenching "ARRRGHHHH!" It was Lared. Joel and I sat back in our seats trying to contain our laughter.

I cannot wait for Logan and I to watch more movies together. From past experiences I should be in for a good time.

Split Rock Cave Horror

Day 94

I was not much of a Boy Scout when I was younger but occasionally I would go with the guys in our neighborhood on some camping/scouting trips. I like the outdoors but I am more of a city guy. I can spend time outdoors but not for long times. A week is about where I hit my limit.

One of these week-long summer trips was down in Southern Utah. We were going to hike some of the canyons in the Canyonlands. For those unfamiliar with the terrain, it is extremely dry, hot and rocky. We drove down the hundreds of miles in the summer time and it was miserable. We spent about eight-nine hours cramped in this family van and the air conditioner was going out. But we finally made it.

(This is not the actual cave but it shows how big the mouth of the cave was.)

We were going to stay the night at Split-Rock Cave, which is exactly what it says. It is a huge rock with a split right down the middle and has a cave that goes all the way to the end. We were all tired of being cramped in the van and so a bunch of us went into the cave for shade and to stretch out. This cave was big. You could have driven the whole van into it easily.

We all walked into the cave and journeyed all the way to the end. The crevasse was a few feet wide at the beginning but by the time we got to the end, it was only a inch or so. It was nice, cool and dark at the back of the cave. A few of my friend sat down but I remained standing. We talked and one of my friends, Danny said how creepy being at the back of the cave was. As a joke I thought it would be funny to nonchalantly pick up a small stone and chuck it behind him to freak him out. I picked up a rock without anyone knowing and threw it behind him. It hit the wall and rolled to his back.

And that is when we ALL freaked out. As soon as the rock hit the wall, the wall started to spread out and move away from where the stone made its impact. Danny and my other friends that were sitting jumped up away from the wall. Everywhere we looked the walls were moving.

And in a scene ripped right out of the movie Aliens I looked up at the crack in the ceiling which was only a foot or so above my head. The sun light was creeping in so we could still see a little. In the crack was thousands of spiders all crawling over each other.


(I was going to post of pic of a bunch of spiders but that wigged me out too much!)

And we ran more like Girl Scouts than we did Boy Scouts. And we refused to stay the night in the cave even though that nest of spiders was deep in the cave. Our Scoutmasters were furious that we had to find another place to stay the night. But there was absolutely no way I was going to stay in that cave and get my face eaten off!