"There were a lot of spiders in Minnesotta"-as told to me by my mother

My family just got back from our annual trip to the cabin in Minnesota. A wonderful retreat and a week filled with complete relaxation, fishing, swimming, hiking, good food, and family time. My sister will be quick to point out that I have missed it for what, four years now? Anyways, mom sent me an interesting email from Minn. that got my attention. It read: I have an interesting story to tell you when we get home.

So once they got back to Iowa City, we cranked up the Skype and this is what I heard.

"Well this year there were lots of spiders in Minnesota. One night when I was doing dishes I kept feeling something tickling my feet and I was getting ready to brush it off with my other foot when I decided to look down to see what it was."

At this point she pauses because she knows and is tickled beyond belief that she is about to tell me something extraordinary and I have a pretty good inkling what is going on here but she is so excited to tell me. So she continues.

"Guess what it was Laura."
"No. I'm not playing this game". I already knew what it was and i was no longer interested in story time with mommy, i wanted to go nigh nigh.
"Laura, what was it?"
"Not telling Mom."

"Laura it was a little snake licking my feet." Ok folks, shows over. If you know much about me at all you might recall that I am deathly afraid of snakes. I DO NOT tolerate anything about them. Their pictures scare me, when they come on t.v. i run into the other room, and even if I see the word i have trouble touching the page the word is on.

Again, she goes on. The shock value had worn off and I was now ready to try to listen again with squirmy worms in my stomach the whole time.

"Well I kind of yelped and started jumping and running over to the other side of the room, yelping all the while." The other people in the living room started to figure out what was going on, and there was much scrambling up and running to the door. My brave Dad took note as to where it went, between the stove and the counter. So the troopers did what any natural humans would. They turned on the stove in hopes that he crawled (snakes are always male) into it and we can now bake him. If you're beginning to wonder if we have a fascination with killing pests without actually touching them you're correct. I killed a leech with a canoe paddle one year up there. Also see my earlier blog about the 'roaches.

So they couldn't find the snake but they did notice a big hole under the sink that went into the ground where there some minor construction going on the week before my family arrived.

Back up a few days, the family is around the fire pit and Holliday has yet to come outside to join them. She stomps up to them and she says, "Um, SOMEbody put a rubber snake by my shoes and it's kind of freaking me out so now i don't want to go get them". We all know what that was now.

So the next day? after the dish washing/stove incident. Holliday and my nephew Joel are at the house alone and they see one in the bathroom. So Holliday and Joel go down to the dock to yell there heads off to Dad whose across the lake in the boat fishing. Dad comes in with a stick and a net and with barely any blood on the floor scoops up the snake and proceeds to drive with the kids across the lake to dump him (again, male) into the lake.
I am not interested in going to Minnesota next year.