This morning, I met a spider that rivaled the size of a .50 cent piece in my bathroom. I'm not sure if he was moon-bathing or just napping, but he was curled up on the softest bit of porcelain that he could find.

This delivers a number challenges, although primarily:

- Which is more ideal, the kitchen sink or the hose in the backyard, with regards to showering?
- How long can I go without drinking to avoid the inevitable?
- How can I trick one or both of my dogs into believing that spiders are treats?

And to that -- how can I trigger their instinctual understanding of predator vs. prey? Dogs, you are big and spiders are little. Pretend you're hungry -- you're good at that! Search deep within yourself, pups, and find that hunter instinct.

More pressing at this point is the following - he has disappeared.

I am equal parts delighted and horrified at this. He's no longer in my bathroom and that's a real positive, but where the eff is he?

***

In other news, I had to turn on my heat last night. Cheers to kickin' off the energy bill nice and early this year. Thursday delivered fall like a court currier delivers a subpoena and I was all -- nope, that's not me, wrong house, sorry, wrong address, nope nope nope -- but it knew better and taped those papers to my front door so I couldn't avoid it, bringing 50-degree weather and the first batch of chili for the season. I don't know -- it's kind of okay. Cozy and whatnot. The dogs are not all about it though. Or rather, Ralphers is not into it. I let them outside and even when they both haul ass to get out the door, Ralph feels the brisk, skids to an immediate stop and woofs a pretty sassy "hail no" before making a crisp military turn and coming right back in. He's got old bones, you know?

Jack's really just worried about patrolling the squirrels that dominate our yard, so weather doesn't deter him. NBK, unless we're talking about large spiders.



***

So this weekend already feels pretty good. I woke up really early this morning, which hasn't happened in a long time. Like 2:30am early and it took a good hour to go back to sleep. I was a little disgruntled about it because I usually have to make myself false promises to get up at 6:30 for work. Promises like, "if I get up now, I'll have time to take a shower." Or "if I get up now, I can drive to work and not have to teleport." Or perhaps the most telling, "if I get up now, I won't have to decide between brushing my teeth and brushing my hair. There'll be time for both!"

Those are promises that are sprinkled with a tasty dash of stupid, but I don't like to get aggressive with myself that early in the morning, so I sell it as positives. If I were more coherent in the AM, I would remember that I need to do all of those things so getchoazz outta bed.

Anyway, I read a little, instagrammed a lot and eventually fell back to sleep. I was up again around 7am and my house was clean by 9am, so I'm going to suggest that was a win.

***

Before I go, I want to share this. It's a friendly reminder to keep on keeping on that I think is valuable probably every single day. And it's written by a talented writer that I just really enjoy and find to be totally share-worthy.

Happy weekending!