Why, WHY do wasps like my house so much? You can go outside at any given time and find one or more mud-daubers' nests in progress, either right on the bricks or along the windows. What is this? Is there a sign on my house, written in Waspish, that says "Sceliphron caementarium welcome here"?

I just knocked down an enormous, multi-celled nest yesterday on the back porch. As I was doing so, several larvae fell out and some insect-like things I took to be dead wasps. That's funny, I thought. So they build a nest and climb into it and die? Fortunately for me I did not discover until more than 24 hours later that, no, those were not mama mud-daubers. They were spiders. S.P.I.D.E.R.S. Apparently the wasps paralyze spiders and then stuff them into the nursery for junior to feed upon at a later date.

God, I love nature. [/shudder]

By the way, that's the kind of decorating tip I'd really like to see on Martha Stewart's new show. Your baby could be the only kid in town with a room packed with arachnids. Just think what a conversation starter! Of course, most of the conversations would consist of, "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" and a lot of running and shrieking, but that's the price you pay for being avant garde.