Alicia: Let's talk about creepy visitors that WON'T go away!

I drove across the country from Norfolk, Virginia to California when it came time for me to change duty stations. My ship was on deployment, so I flew out from the Seychelles and days later I was driving across the country with our pets in my SUV.

Justin met me in Texas and drove the last few days with me. It was a great reunion after being apart for almost a year! When I got to California, it was late at night and I was still dealing with the weird jet lag and the surreal feeling of not being on the ship anymore. When we got to our new home at 2200 at night and found black widow spider in the back yard! Justin took care of it while I went into over protection mode with our dogs. Spiders really creep me out - add poisonous spiders and it just takes it over the top. I had put the incident out of my mind until last night when I found this:

 Yuck!! I tried to kill it, but it skittered away and is hiding somewhere near the outdoor outlet. No sir, that is not cool! I am happy enough to let bugs do their own thing, but not when they want to do their thing near my house.

Sam is true to her German Shepherd nature and it always trying to go after anything that she thinks doesn't belong in our house. She is a master at chasing shadows and laser dots! (They never stood a chance) I am going to keep the dogs supervised outside until I can find the spider again and kill it for good. I just hope this isn't an indication of a bigger spider infestation problem!