MissMeliss: Escribition

Because sometimes I like to be snarky, but it's a tone that doesn't mesh well with this blog, and because I've been encouraged to let my dark side out to play a bit, I've started yet another blog. LiveJournal folk will notice that as of yesterday, it's the new blog that is feeding to , which means that hey, you're not getting duplicates of this stuff!

Whether you read LJ or NOT, however, I invite you to take a dip into Snark Infested Waters. Eventually, as I become more comfortable with the tone, the content will become darker and more sardonic, and after the Blogathon (by the way, have you pledged? I'm only $85 from making my goal!) I'll be playing with podcasts as well.

And on that note, I'm off to church. Happy Sunday.
Happy Last Day of July.
Tomorrow, my month begins.

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Saturdays, the Sci-Fi channel runs “b” movies, monster movies that are just as cheesy, as anything my parents might have grown up with, and while the monsters sport cgi blurs instead of zippers, at least the underbellies of tumbled trucks no longer read “Tonka.”

Today the theme is “vampires.” I love a good vampire story, but it's JULY - high summer â“ and vampire movies are best suited for dreary drizzly autumn and winter days, when your imagination works with the weather to turn windown leaves skittering across the pavement into the scratching of someone clawing their way from the grave.

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In one corner there is the mosquito, buzzing annoyingly, constantly being batted away from the tender flesh it seeks. In the other corner, a yellow and black argiope spider, beckoning from her zigzag web. What ensues is not a prize-fight, but a duel to the death.

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“The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.â — Edwin Way Teale

I am the first to admit that my relationship with spiders goes beyond mere sqickishness to full-blown phobia, but even so, when this latest guest arrived in my back yard my first thought wasn't to kill it, but to identify it.

Rana helped me with that â“ it's a black and yellow argiope, an orb-weaver also known as a “writing spider,â and I can't help but wonder if she's here to remind me to write more and angst less.

In any case, research has told me that she'll likely stick around as long as we let her, feasting on ants and mosquitoes, and that she isn't venomous. And yes, she IS a she, the males are apparently tiny.

Legend says that if a name is written in such a spider's web, the person so named will die, but so far, all she's spelled is ZZZZZZZZ. Perhaps this is a reference to the sound of buzzing insects? We can only hope.

It should be noted that I took this picture from about seven feet away. Getting closer would have required stepping on an ant hill, and I'm not inclined to do that. We will, however, attempt some night shots so the flash will illuminate the rest of the web.

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Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses front doors, please?

I'd really like to be able to include a different front door (they won't be identified) with each of my posts for the upcoming blogathon, so please, take a picture of your front door (or any front door on a house on your street) and send it to scritture@gmail.com, ASAP.

(I won't be doing anything but saving the doors to my hard drive, before the actual 'thon.)

And hey! Pledging is still open!

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I saw this at Kristen's blog, and had to try it. (I don't do quizzes very often, and publish the results even less frequently, but it made me laugh.)

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.

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Clay made this button for me, because he's a really nice guy, and a great friend, and yeah, okay, it's only a BUTTON, but I'm so groggy I can barely TYPE the word “button” let alone make one.

Thank you, Clay!

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