Upon Arriving Home After My Vacation...

Two very interesting occurrences happened within minutes of my arrival back to my apartment after more than a week's absence...

1. I found a very dead spider just inside my apartment. This led to some great intrigue. Yes, I do believe that the only good spider is a dead spider, but why did he have to die in my apartment? Couldn't he have died just as easily elsewhere? How did he die? I wasn't about to conduct an autopsy. I just flushed his remains and tried to think happy thoughts. But it did occur to me that perhaps there is a large tarantula-like spider living under my couch. And while I'd like to think that the spider merely starved to death because I keep such a tidy space and that there are no insects or other creatures that the arachnid could feed off, I know better because of occurrence number 2 below.

2. I found a very-much-alive large cricket in the dining room. They're back!! Yes, I like to live in the fantasy world where the first cricket I found a month ago or so was merely a lost cricket that had mistakenly meandered into my place because he didn't stop to ask for directions. However, that does not appear to be the case. Two cricket sightings in a month is not quite an infestation (like last year's battle), but it is still cause for concern. I have called the maintenance office, and the pesticide company is coming out for a visit next Monday.

I can still hear the pest guy from last year... “Ma'am, I think they are just getting in underneath your door.”

Me/aka Ma'am: “That's an interesting theory, but don't you think I'd notice 49 crickets hopping in under my door?”