Here's another spider incident for your reading pleasure: When my wife and I were first married almost 29 years ago we lived in a small apartment in an old stone home. The heat was provided by the huge, old fashioned water filled radiators. The only thermostat for the home was in the apartment of a lovely, little old lady who apparently, could never get warm, so while Joan & I were at home, we usually had to open the windows a bit so as not to get overheated.

Our 1st Christmas in the apartment, my wife and I bought a beautiful live tree a week before the holiday, and went all out decorating it. Between Christmas and New Years we visited her parents for 3 days, and upon our return, we were greeted by our formerly beautiful tree standing there with not one needle left on it. Mrs. Hoffman had really cranked up the heat while we were gone, and it got so warm that the tree dried out and dropped all its needles in only 3 days. We were heart broken, and decided that we'd never get a live tree again.

Well, a little over 3 years ago, we built our dream home out in the country, and decided to get a live tree for the 1st time in 25 years. Friends of ours have a tree farm and picked out a very nice one for us. We dutifully brought it home, decorated it, and it looked great.

A few days later, I was laying on the sofa, and looked up at the ceiling where I saw little black spots. Closer investigation showed the spots were actually 100s of baby spiders. Apparantly, there was a nest in the tree, and the warmth of the house caused them to hatch out.

I don't know what kind they were. It doesn't matter. They were spiders . Did I mention that Joan hates spiders more than I do (if that's possible)? For the next week or two, I had to get out the shop vac several times a day and suck the litter creepers up.(Hint-don't just vacuum them up, put a few moth balls in the canister. This kills them). Guess who doesn't get a live Christmas tree any more? Did I mention I hate spiders?