random thought about spiders in my office ...

the outside of my office bldg is crawling ... literally. and, there is a gap between my window and wall, large enough for a spider to set up her net right there: inside my office. no good. yesterday, a nice man came to spray my window area, inside and out, to keep the spiders at bay.

but, as i walked from the train to the office today, i noticed all these beautiful, big, spiderwebs on the hedges and ivies along the way. those spiders happened to be born (or have landed) in the perfect location, the beverly hills of spiderland. but, the spiders on my window, by the same luck of the draw, landed in what could be called a favela. the spiderwebs that they can build are scrawny, patched, and susceptible to mudslides (aka, window slides, vacuum cleaners, and poisonous gases).

for a moment, as i admired the dewey spiderwebs on my way to work, i felt sad for brining in the destructor of the spiderwebs.

but, i got over it pretty quickly.

['Drops on spider web' On Black by Massimo Pelagagge, http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=469662135&size=Large]

I love translated signs. So much room for entertainment.

MLM took this pic at the Oakland Zoo, perhaps in front of the bat exhibit. It made no sense to me at all when I first read it. Then, husband translated it: "Please, do not let your children stand on the barriers or pull on the net. Thank you."

I love the random use of accents - as if saying: sprinkle to taste.

It is really amazing that the Oakland Zoo - in California for Pete's sake - would not have proper spanish translations ... because I'm pretty sure that even California-born-spanish-speakers wonder what "gross" or "total" one could possibly be pulling on. "Neto" means gross or net, as in net weight or gross error ... it does not, ever, mean "net" as in the thin net between me and dangerous animal.

SFMom challenged me (and a whole bunch of other readers) to navel gaze by picking 3 books lying around the house and sharing the names.

yeah. tough thing to do when most of the last 15 years of book collecting is safely living at my parents in Mexico. i guess what these books reveal are a bit of what i've been able to recollect of that me ...

1. Caravan of Dreams, by Idries Shah - actually a book i found at Cody's bookstore in Berkeley last summer when HJ, NS and I were living in the dorms, and represents the way of life I learned at home. when i looked for the link to the bookstore, i discovered it closed this past June! sigh.

2. Mujeres de ojos grandes, by Angeles Mastretta ... an old favorite book of short stories about amazing women - and it offered a new way of looking at 'lo cotidiano' ...

3. A tour of the calculus, by David Berlinksi ... kinda speaks for itself, and a most entertaining read (does that reveal that i am a geek?)

Hard to stay within three ... wonder what would happen if I had to pick one? Eeeck.