Hawaii House Pets

Since I've come back to the island, I have had quite a few uninvited house guests. It stared with the spiders. They like to creep in the corners of the apartment and scare the heck out of me at random intervals throughout the day. This morning, as I took a drink of my water bottle, I looked up and locked eyes with a monster of a spider. In my moment of pure fear, he seemed about the size of my palm, although looking back, he was probably a lot smaller. Thankfully, I've come to be very aware of where I keep the Raid and sprayed that mammoth of a spider. He immediately fell off the wall and did a death crawl into my favorite boots. After shaking him out and them crushing him with that same boot, the spider would just not die. So, I bravely picked him up and flushed him down the toilet.

With Hawaii roach situations, I am not nearly as calm or brave. Just last night, as I was sitting on the couch enjoying some chocolate covered macadamia nuts, the king of all roaches squeezed under the screen door and took a flying start for my face. Luckily, that Raid bottle was within arms length and I sprayed and sprayed until that roach was in a puddle of poison. With tears in my eyes and my heart pounding, I picked it up with a paper towel and tossed it out the door. For the rest of the night, I had to breathe through my shirt because the Raid stench was unbareable, but there was just no way I could keep the door open in case his roach buddies decided to avenge his death.

Not all Hawaii house pets treat me so badly, however. Just this afternoon, it seems I've finally adopted one that I can live with. Meet Derek:

My own personal dino! He lives in the side burner of the grill on the balcony, which is the only reason he is allowed to stay. He's the biggest lizard I've seen to date and for my sake, I hope it stays that way because he doesn't seem to be afraid of me at all.

He even let me take a close up! As long as he stays outside, I think we are going to be great friends. Maybe he can even help me with my bug problem...