Power, Mercy, Justice

Well, the cricket appears to be dead. It has not moved in several days. It is still whole, however. I guess I'll have to find something else to feed Sally. Anybody got suggestions?

I don't have all that much to say...nothing much new here. So I figured I'd share a little something that was shown to me this morning in our family devotions time. We're reading through the Psalms, and this morning's was Psalm 62.

Once God has spoken; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God; and
lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord, for You recompense a man according to his work.
Psalm 62:11-12

Right there in one breath we have power, mercy, and justice. And so I had to wonder why those three things were put together by themselves. It was then that I understood that only He has the power to bring about true justice, and since He has that power, He also has the power to be merciful. When you look at it that way, it makes sense to put the three things together, that power is His, and mercy is His, and justice is His. And only His.

Just so you know, I am planning to start posting a monthly devotional, hopefully on the first (or, at least, the first few days) of the month. So my next post will probably be October's devotional. Well, I need to go now, so I'll close here.

Argiope Aurantia

No, I did not sneeze. I really did title it Argiope Aurantia.

Let me back up to explain. You see, Sebastian is no longer Sebastian. Sebastian is now Sally. Because we found out he is actually she, and she is an Argiope aurantia. Here are a few nice pictures that I found on the Internet that are identical to her, because I could not get a very good quality picture. Frankly, I'm scared to let her go free long enough to take a picture of her outside of her jar, and besides, our camera takes lousy, fuzzy close-ups. So here are some pics:



And here is a great website where you can read all about Sally and her family...or, should I say, her genus and species. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Argiope_aurantia.html This really is a very informative site.

The Argiope aurantias are often called writing spiders, because of the zigzag you see in the web, called stabilimenta. They are also among the spiders known as the common garden spiders.

And in case you were wondering, I chose the name Sally just because it was a handy girl's S name, and I used to have a spider named Sandy that I ended up releasing because she had babies. And yes, I could have named her Sebastiana, but since I have a friend with a very, very similar name, I figured it would be better just to name her Sally.

The spider I had before, Sandy, used to gobble up crickets very happily. So since I got Sally, I got her a cricket the other day. Not only did she run away from the cricket when he ran into her, but a little later I saw her at the top of her sticks in the jar while the cricket was halfway up. The prey chases the predator? Hmmm. So then the other night I'm in bed reading, getting ready to go to sleep in a little while, and I hear this little *thunk* noise against glass, which was rather odd. I didn't see anything that could make such a noise, so I kept reading. Pretty soon I heard another *thunk* and looked over just in time to see the cricket swing through the air on the end of Sally's silk strand and slam into the glass: *thunk*! As far as I know, the cricket is still alive, although it has not moved all day. It is still completely whole, though. Maybe she's just not hungry...or maybe she doesn't like crickets... I don't know what I'm going to feed her now, but I do know I've got a sadistic spider in my jar!

Fun, Fun, Fun

Yeah, really. We just spent some time at Oceanside Beach again. Very fun. Very cold, too...very, very cold!!!! School has started for me, but not too intense just yet. And I got a new spider -- his name is Sebastian and I believe, from what the man at the reptile store said today, that he is a St. Thomas Cross spider. Anyway, he's very handsome, sporting a black body, yellow squiggly lines, and an impressive set of fangs. I need to do some research now and find out how poisonous he is. All spiders are poisonous to some degree, but only a few are poisonous to humans...and at any rate, however poisonous he is, I'm certainly not letting him sit on my arm! He's very handsome, but he does give me the creeps...just a little bit... Well, that's about all to say. When I get a good picture of him, I'll post it...unless you'd rather I didn't!

QS Headers

OK, take a look at these:

Bazooka 1

Bazooka 2

Christie 1

Christie 2

Curlz 1

Curlz 2

Invitation 1

Invitation 2

Invitation 3

Scribble 1

Scribble 2

Signboard 1

Signboard 2

Let me know which one you like, and what you want different about it. :)

Nothing Much...

Literally. I'm just letting you know I'm alive. That's all.