Honey! There's a spider in the dining room!

Yes, there really is a spider in my dining room. And her name is Marla.* She's just a simple Mexican rosehair -- a common tarantula. And she's very friendly. Well, when she's not hungry.

I've had Marla for about three years now. She's still growing. She was a replacement actually (don't worry -- she doesn't read my blog, so she'll never know). Lance was my previous rosehair. He/she was an awesome pet that one time went nearly a year and a half without eating. No reason, really (well, none that was evident anyway -- Lance was never one to really open up), he just wasn't eating. He had an entomologist at The Ohio State University perplexed. Lance lived more than 13 years before he gave up the ghost. I could tell he was dying. He just kept getting slower and slower to the point where he could barely move fast enough to catch the crickets unless they happened to crawl right under him.

So Marla's here now. And she's very cool. Ever have a spider the size of your palm crawl on you? It's awesome and creepy and weird all at the same time. You should try it.

*She's named after the supporting character in one of my favorite movies of all time: Fight Club.