Rock on, my badass sister.

We have now reached the time of year where on Oh, Please we blog about spiders.

This year, there is a big spider that lives on my gas grill. She spins her web between the leg of the grill and the little wooden countertop area on the side. She doesn't hang out in her web--she lurks in the corner, tucked behind the tubular steel of the grill leg.

Last weekend, S and C came over both days to help me prep and paint my house. (Yes, this is a carryover project from last summer.) On Saturday, I grilled a big salmon filet, and part of it fell onto the lava rocks, where it has been attracting lots of yellowjackets, three of whom Ms. Badass Spider has now trapped, killed, and wrapped up for future consumption.

I don't know what kind of spider this Ms. Badass is. The big yellow yard spiders generally hang out in the middle of their webs, rather than lurking behind a support, so I don't think she's one of them. She also seems more brown/black than gold/brown. But she does spin a very symmetrical web.

In other spider news, this morning I disturbed one of the crazy Giant House Spiders (see last year's August archives) amongst the clothes pile on the floor of my bedroom.