Itsy Bitsy, My Hindquarters

Tea: Caramel Lapsang

Music: Weezer, "Buddy Holly"

Time: Almost midnight.

A number of cool things happened today and tonight:

1. Not only did I get in a hike with my son, but the forage was most excellent. We got grasshoppers for supper. (Yes, you read right. We're insectivores, from time to time -- well, at least the males in the family. The females do much nose-wrinkling and making of the "eww" sound. The recipe's from Oaxaca, by way of Brooklyn.) We also got a few pounds of acorns (yep, those are edible too) and a handful of hickory nuts that the squirrels somehow missed. I'm going back next week with a big basket to get more acorns, look for more hickory nuts and fill out the remaining space with black walnuts.

2. The weekly arts outing provided much interesting viewing and conversation. Don't ask me to pick the best of the night -- as far as I'm concerned, it was pretty much a continuous highlight. (On the "latest news" front, Spencer Musser -- who opens the front room of his Columbus Park apartment as Yakamoz Gallery on Third Fridays -- now has a website.)

But the coolest thing that happened today was totally unplanned. It happened during the grasshopper hunt. My son made a grab for a likely-looking specimen in some long grass. It jumped away -- straight into the web of a freaking huge yellow-and-black spider (scientific name: Ginormis holicrapus). Within seconds, the insect was neatly packaged in silk for later consumption (and the spider had a great story for his buddies: "I was just sittin' there, mindin' my own business, and this giant sent me food.") And there we stood, repeating "Whoa ..." over and over.

Okay, so sometime my inner child is kind of ghoulish ...