Jiggy Jumpins

This week a wee jumping spider took up temporary residence in our bathroom. Because jumping spiders are the coolest things on eight legs, we let him stay and named him Howie Jiggy Jumpins. (Spoiler: he died today, of natural causes). Did you know that they have eight moveable eyes that can see in technicolor and into the UV spectrum?! They don't build annoying sticky webs, and they will boldly stand their ground when challenged by humans ten thousand times their size. Also, our spider hung out on the counter in front of the bathroom mirror, and he could see in the mirror! We know this because he tried to catch the reflection of things (we played some tricks on him to test his reflexes). He seemed to like dancing from side to side watching his own reflection. A dawning of self-consciousness, perhaps? Half of Rachel's preschoolers can't hardly see in mirrors. Alas, spiders are short-lived pets.

Let that story be testament to how exciting our past week has been.

At one point Jake--reluctantly grocery shopping--found a huge box of donuts on clearance. Jeff was at work at the time, so Jake hid the donuts and made an elaborate series of treaure hunt clues, including: "Thoughts come quicker/ You're more adept/ At finding answers/ Once you've slept" and "Beneath your pillow/ You will test/ But upon the turntable/ You'll find your quest." The clues cleverly required Jeff to run from upstairs to downstairs several times, and he didn't much appreciate the journey, until he finally located the donuts in the oven. Unfortunately the boys left the box cosily in the oven, until Rachel made pizzas the next day and melted the whole shebang.

And finally, Rachel and Jake made a bold attempt at exercise on Sunday by hiking a few miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. If you've never heard of this trail, you must not live around here. The trail stretches from northern Washington through Oregon and nearly the full length of California. It takes about 3 months to complete; Rachel's boss at the preschool hiked it on her honeymoon. We're not quite up for 3 months on foot through the rugged mountains, but the portion we did was to a lookout point allowing 360* views. Of course, that means layer upon layer of mountains in every direction. Pretty kickin, and mandatory for first-time visitors to Ashland. Some photos below. [We'll post a few more in the Misc. Ashland album.]

The peak to the left is Mt Ashland. We were hiking on a bluff east of Ashland. This photo faces straight West.

It looks as though I would fall about 2000 feet off of that cliff, but really, I could only fall about 6 feet. And then roll down 2000 more.

Brown Mountain (straight north) is front and center. It looks like Mt Doom, about six miles high. There are mountain bike trails on that thing. Jake has a crush.

Jake overlooking the Rogue Valley.