round #2! just a quick one to say, lucia has laid her second clutch! =)yes, i owe everyone pics and please be assured that i have taken some! but i'm drowning in work so it'll have to wait!in the meantime, let me leave you with a snippet of the stuff i have been cracking my brains over. i'm so glad i'm done with this bit. i only hope they don't recite other parts of the scripture in later episodes!天之道損有餘而補不足是故虛勝實不足勝有餘其意博 其理奧 其趣深天地之象分陰陽之候列變化之由表死生之兆彰不謀而遺跡自同勿約而幽明斯契稽其言有微 驗之事不忒誠可謂至道之宗奉生之始矣假若天機迅發妙識玄通成謀雖屬乎生知標格亦資於治訓未嘗有行不由送出不由產者亦然刻意研精 探微索隱或識契真要 則目牛無全故動則有成 猶鬼神幽贊而命世奇傑 時時間出焉五藏六府之精氣皆上注於目而為之精精之案為眼 骨之精為瞳子筋之精為黑眼 血之精為力絡其案氣之精為白眼肌肉之精為約束裹擷筋骨血氣之精而與脈並為系 OMG OMG! i barely had time to breathe all day!so, i didn't want to post this any earlier in case i jinxed it or in case i guessed wrong. lucia has been hiding away in a very thick nest for the past few weeks, emerging for a meal every once a week or so. i have been praying that she has laid eggses. and from her voracious appetite, uncle john and i both thought it was entirely possible.so! weeks have been flying by. still no sign of bubs. i do remember that hyllus diardi bubs take a super long time to emerge, but there was also the possibility that lucia hasn't mated at all. i did notice that the first time she came out for a meal, she was visibly thinner.yesterday, she stood outside her nest and just stared at me all day, following my movements. i thought she had something to tell me. i feared that she was trying to tell me she needed a mate.guess what i saw this morning?two little ones! =) venturing out for the very first time. my new kids on the block. if i was in the habit of squealing, i would have squealed. but i wasn't, so i merely stared at them with saucer eyes and beamed like a crazy person.momma lucia has been transferred to a new home so i can deal with the bubbas without freaking her out. she is extremely fat from a recent cricket meal and still seems to be hunting for more food, so i think she will have at least one more clutch. poor little dear is trying to find her way back to her old nest, unaware that she is in a different little world now. i'm so sorry sweetie!i can't believe how blessed i have been with this very lovely species. first it was lucy, found by uncle john, and came to us already gravid. she gave me the most wonderful spideykids, and they grew up beautifully. tiga and lucien were the largest adults of their kind ever spotted. they all had such fantastic, individual personalities. unfortunately, being a more delicate species, mating attempts were not successful and lucy's genes could not be continued. lucia came to me when i was missing my wonderful furry darlings, once again found by uncle john, and amazingly, once again gravid!i'm loving 2009 so far. and it's only going to get better.=) a guest! it started to pour and from the corner of my eye, i saw a familiar scurrying figure outside my window. rain was running down all around her and she was trapped. she was actually on the wall outside my window and it wasn't easy to reach her, much less coax her into a container to shelter, but i did (with some extreme contortionist actions, two long-handled brushes, some wire, a container and a piece of paper).she is a fat little girl who looks like she's carrying eggses. i might give her a temp room to have her bubbas in safety and lots of food. not sure what she is yet... will have to consult uncle moo! the ebay song! freakin' hilarious!so i was on the phone with paypal and they put me on hold. i hear this familiar tune come on and it was the boy band song that everyone knew... oh but no... wait! it's not! i couldn't believe what i was hearing suddenly and sniggered all through waiting time!so i had to find it on the internet.am guilty of being a sniper myself.=P lucia eats! as promised, here is a little movie of lucia eating a moth, made to 'surf' by moby, approved license from mobygratis.com.=) in the making i have the cutest footage of lucia eating a moth meal and i'm currently waiting for a reply from moby to use one of his tracks available for non-commercial use. thanks for the site, matt! =) muted sigh.youtube has muted lucien's videos due to music copyright issues. just when i thought it was safe to use felix the housecat since he wasn't so.... mainstream. sigh!i'll have to find some boring generic royalty-free music.=\ justice unserved? some of you may remember alex. here are the entries that would refresh your memories:[please say a prayer][appeal for witnesses][the visit][wtf?][bad news][schtuff][last visit][he's gone][the last goodbye]so... there has been a verdict. and a fine. and, i do not think that i agree with it. money can't bring alex back, for sure - but a year's jail?! for fuck's sake! is it okay to commit murder if your weapon is a vehicle? is it considered "reckless driving" when the man accelerated on purpose, and jammed the brakes on purpose, with another human being on the bonnet?[victim's parents to get $135k]shocking. a little discovery about myself. =)this arvo, i was chatting with mother. we were talking about education options for the little ones (my niece and nephew) and the convo led to the past - when my elder brothers and i were little ones ourselves.since childhood, i have always known that i was a little different from my family. my family is very traditional chinese, while i... i am like a weird little hybrid of a westerner raised with chinese ethics. i was the only one whose natural mother tongue was english instead of mandarin, even though mandarin/chinese slowly became my other first spoken/written language much later on. and i have always wondered why but never thought it was something that could be explained. i got an answer today.when he was a kiddo, my eldest brother went to a community centre for pre-school classes. mother found that to be unsatisfactory because they were terrible at teaching english. they only had one language teacher who taught both english and chinese languages, and was only competent in chinese. so, when my second brother came along, he went to the same class for half a year before mother found out it was happening again. she immediately insisted on moving into our new flat then (ahead of schedule) so that she could enroll my second brother into a PAP (government) kindergarten class. that turned out a little better, but mother knew it wasn't ideal.so when i came along, she put me into a private christian kindergarten. the fees were the most expensive, but we had english teachers and chinese teachers who were good at what they taught. and that was how i turned out the way i did.when i got to primary one, it was there that i met the first of a chain of english teachers who loved me and doted on me. mrs soh gave me my first book, a hardcover enid blyton, 'circus days again', to encourage me to keep up the good work. i didn't quite understand why we needed to actually study english. to me, it was just something that came naturally, a tool of communication. i didn't know how to study for english exams, and i always did well (not the case for math, science and chinese though). i remember one day, it must have been in primary two - we had some english test papers marked and mrs soh wanted to reward the top scorers. she brought a huge bag of plastic animals! the top few kids could pick one animal each from the bag, and i was the first to go since i had the highest marks. out of all the exciting, large animals like the giraffe, elephant, tiger etc, guess what i picked? i picked the smallest animal in the bag - a little bunny. =) mrs soh asked me if i was sure and i nodded vigorously (because i didn't like to talk). the boys were so happy that i left the big animals for them!as i grew into a teen, there were many english teachers i met along the way, feared by my classmates, but somehow always had a soft spot for me. i used to think it was because i was the disciplinary master's daughter in primary school - but i was a nobody in secondary school and it still happened. so i guess that wasn't the reason.these mentors moulded me with their wealth of knowledge, and because i did not fear them the way my peers did, i was receptive to their guidance.as i think of countless things that happened as a ripple effect of that decision to send me to a better kindergarten, i am extremely grateful to mother for everything she has done for me. i am not just grateful. i am amazed, that one decision at the right time of a child's life, can truly shape his/her future in ways you can never imagine.what would i be doing today if my path had been different? pastry pals the blueberry muffin loves the chocolate chip muffin.=) forgetful me i brought my little fish net out while running errands, thinking i would go to the field to collect some meals for the spideykids on my way home. i set the net down while sitting down at a counter while picking up something, and promptly forgot to take the net with me when i left!by the time i realised it and turned back, the shop was closed.tried to find an aquarium nearby to buy a new net but there were none to be found. sigh. came home and told mother about it. a few hours later, she remarked that she thinks there was one in the storeroom. lo and behold... there was! a really old one, on the brink of tearing... but still would work nonetheless! and i then remember we used to have an aquarium of large angelfish when i was very very little!will test the 25-year-old net tomorrow in the morning. goodnight, livejournal!=) lucia arrives! john came by and brought my new furry girl! =)this is something i observed of salticids. when their vision is less than crystal clear, they tend to be less jittery and frightened. it's like looking at the world through rose coloured (murky?) lenses. no clear vision = no sight of enemies. like an ostrich with its head in the ground. teehee!so, lucia was very calm in her little takeaway tub, happy and oblivious.when i opened the lid, she had a sudden whiff of the world around her and everything suddenly became crystal clear! she panicked, scuttled out of the tub, jumped onto my hand, bounced off and landed on my desk, then jumped onto my hand again, and bounced off again, and made for my imac screen.so i decided not to try to get an open pic of her for today and just put her in her new home instead. i'll try handling her again when i get some cricket meals for her, make her fat and play with her after that.she is slightly smaller than lucy and lucien were, but is very sprightly and healthy. she is more happy exploring than lucy was, even though both were adults brought in from the wild. lucy used to spend a lot of her time hiding and staying very still, doing the 'you-can't-see-me-if-i-don't-move' thing.lucia has chosen a nice little spot for her hammock between the fabric leaf and the ceiling, spun her bed, and turned in for the night.i feel normal again. i must admit that i have been feeling a little out of sorts when the last of my hyllus diardi passed on. that would be bib, by the way. she left about a week after her big sister, lucien.thank you, john! she is so impossibly cute.=) goodbye, 2008 2008 has been a difficult year for many people i know, including myself.other than the horrific hailstorm that was the plunge of the world's economy, friendships, partnerships, and relationships also seemed to be falling to pieces everywhere. mindboggling things happened. people fought. people judged. people put themselves on pedestals. there was too much negativity in 2008.there are words i wish i did not express in 2008, because i was judged and crucified for them. people took sides in a situation that did not involve them directly. while i am apologetic for what i should not have said to one person, i did not think it was fair for others to cast their judgment, because my words were not meant for their eyes, especially since they do not know me well enough to read them in the right context. true, the intended recipient did not read them in the right context either, but that ultimately was a problem between the two of us.the matter blew out of proportion and it was a few weeks of hell.but there is a silver lining in every dark cloud after all. there were people who stood by me, who believed in me. i guess you really see the true nature of people in times of adversity and hardship. you really know who your true friends are.thank you, all of you. even the ones who walked away, or judged, or cast your stones. for you have shown me who the ones i should truly treasure are. thank you.i am also thankful for my wonderful family, who have been so very awesome in their unfailing support.2008 has given me some very hard lessons. i am not perfect, nor have i ever been. but i am happy to take the fall and learn the lesson. i know there are people who still have misconceptions about me, but i am not going to waste time dwelling on negativity. life is too short. i will take my learnt lessons and do my best to live my life as a good person. people who judge me are not worth my time.yes, i am so glad 2008 is over.in 2009, i will cherish my people - my folks and all the ones who are keepin' it real.happy 2009, livejournal.=) a sneak peek of lucia! i made a little moofie with the little clip from john! =)it was my first time using the imovie on this imac. yup, this is why i have not done any more vids of lucien even though i have so much footage of her - i have not had the time to familiarise myself with the new imovie and it's very different from the old one! i think i have the basics down now. look out for more vids of lucien soon!isn't lucia a cutie?i will be catching up with john this week. can't wait to see my new girlie!=) OMG! OMG OMG OMG!new spider! john! two days ago! yay! OMG!i'll leave you with that. i'm going to try to sleep now. teehee!okok... john is back from HK and has a new spideykid for me, that he caught two days ago! before i even told him we need to go lucy-hunting! how uncanny! i was just waiting patiently for his return, which i didn't think would be so soon. and then suddenly he's back! and then i tell him we have to find me another lucy, because all my hyllus diardi have passed on and i'm having h. diardi withdrawal symptoms... and then he tells me, oh i have one and you have can her! OMG!i almost cried when i watched the little vid he took of the new girl. =)what do youse think of the name lucia?*dances around the room* mom's pressie! just a quick one before i'm out the door...it's mother's birthday today! and while she does not believe in celebrating birthdays, i have been hiding her pressie since it arrived from the US 22nd december. and i have been planning the whole thing for months with my friend linda in new york. we had endless discussions on various options and sizes and whatnots! we finally decided on this floral striped tote because i remember mother once commented that these flowers were very pretty, when she saw my smaller pouch version of this design. the tote style was chosen so that she can put her file of songsheets in it and take it to choir class. =)it was tough holding back from giving it to her for christmas, especially since she saw me wrapping pressies for my friends. iron willpower, it took. but i did it and all is good.maybe i will make her do a modeling pic some time. teehee!mom: it's too nice to bring to choir class.jv : but you need to bring a bag anyway, right? why not bring a nicer one?mom: true.*mom fiddles with tote*mom: how much did it cost?jv : i'm not telling you!*mom giggles*mom: okay... thank you! teehee funny exchange with vanessafrida :VF: i've not updated for a month!JV: i've not updated for months!VF: yeh, and you have a permanent account!JV: actually, because i have a permanent account i don't feel so bad. i don't feel like i have to make the most out of my monthly fees!:)just kidding. i promise i will get back into regular posting in the new year. mmmkay? 12 hours in the last 12 hours, i have:1. springcleaned my entire room2. cleared the clutter that has been on my floor since may3. reorganised my entire desk and made it work at last4. re-setup my jvc5. planned the contents of my new cabinet6. modified the height of my shoe racks7. made the wires of the electronics on my desk route a better way8. wiped every single surface i could reach9. changed a leaky tap10. individually wiped and dried every key on my keyboard, my mouse and all the groves in my windowsnumber 9 was an unexpected event. as i stood at the bathroom door at 9am, leaning on the wall as i watched mother remove the tap that suddenly turned leaky in the middle of the night, i was marveling to myself that she was such a superwoman. and then... she couldn't connect the new tap onto the pipe underneath. oh well. she is still quite super anyway, i thought to myself as i crawled under the sink. when i gave the spanner a final twirl, i realised that i won't be thinking about leaving the country for awhile.i have discovered that the best way to springclean is to do it while completely zombified. i threw out so many things that i could not have thrown out otherwise, but should have done months ago. why did i not do this earlier? it was so easy.i have also discovered that wet wipes are my best friends when battling dust. of course, they are less environmentally-friendly than the usual wet rags, but for a major clean-up once in a while, wet wipes produce amazingly pristine surfaces. i didn't use up many - probably about five purse packs for an entire room. and not once did i sneeze during the clean-up.it is amazing what 12 hours of constant cleaning can do for the soul. salsarina was right. springcleaning is very important to one's life. to springclean your environment is to springclean your life. an email just came in from my boss to say i'm one of the top four performers this year. i guess my braincells didn't die for nothing on those blasted documentaries. it is funny how everything is falling into place... in my room and in my life. i'm not superstitious but every time i do something like this to my living space, some good energies would come back to me. uncanny.i have been up for 24 hours. i am incredibly beat, but incredibly at peace with myself. i'm finally ready for the end of the year.and now, i shall go and fall over in bed.i hope everyone has been well. i miss you all. :) r.i.p. my beautiful baby she slipped away quietly in the early hours of saturday morning, 22 nov 2008.she left without saying goodbye. perhaps she thought it was less painful this way. perhaps, because she didn't say goodbye, she is still here by my side, in the air around me.at this point, i am still unable to put her in the ground where munster lies. she sits here in front of me, seemingly resting. but i know she is no longer in that shell. she will no longer perk up, and peer earnestly at me, or clamber up onto my hand with her furry little paws. she will no longer do her funny little dance that so many of you have come to adore.she has gone through so much in the past few months. and survived each time like the trooper she was. in time to come, i will list her adventures, in memory of her.when i wrote for munster, the words flowed freely. words do not flow now, for there are no adequate ones to describe how i feel right now. this was a baby i raised from the day she emerged a newborn spiderling of 2.5mm, to her full adult glory of 1.5 inches. from the very night i picked her out of lucy's litter, she made an impression. she spun the largest and most beautiful hammock i'd ever seen a newborn spideybub spin - not on their first night, not on any night thereafter. her siblings made little haphazard beds out of random silk threads. some even slept standing on the walls.lucien had a very calm and deliberate nature, that i noticed from her baby days. she never changed. she never panicked. she never rushed about in terror, the way her siblings sometimes would. i also noticed that she was sometimes rather oblivious to things around her... it's almost as if she was frequently daydreaming. perhaps this contributed to her lack of fear. she simply didn't know what fear was all about.she grew up into the most beautiful spider. countless hours we spent, as she explored her fascinating little world of camera and human hand, nightly for many months. every evening, she did her funny little dance and did the rounds - jumping from hand to camera, camera to hand. it was the most incredible feeling to have her on my hand... this amazing little creature that you've watched grow up bit by bit, pattering on your skin, peering into your eyes.as she aged, there came the day she lost the ability to walk on the walls. with that, she needed to be fed. i don't know how much bad karma i have earned, but i have crippled many a cricket to feed my little girl. she could no longer jump, with the loss of grip, as she could not launch herself off a surface anymore. she basically had to walk up to a prey and just grab it. when she started to lose fur from the top of her head, the same way her mother did, i knew she was getting really old.the few times i had her out on my hand again, it pained me to see her aging. she struggled to cling on to my skin, and i would turn my hand so she would always be on top of it. i even managed to stage a few situations for her to jump tiny distances, since she was able to grip very slightly on my skin. i knew she must have missed being able to jump.and even though she was no longer a good-looking bub or young lady, she would always be my very beautiful baby girl.two days before her departure, i fed her a concussed cricket as usual. she was rather distracted, and it took a lot of coaxing to get her to grab the prey. five minutes later, i was surprised to see that she had dropped it. she washed her face and wandered around again. it took another bout of coaxing to get her to take the cricket again. five minutes later, she dropped it again. i then thought she might not be hungry. it never occurred to me that it was the first sign that she was fading.goodbye my little lucien. thank you for being such an amazing spideykid. you have given me so much joy, and so much wonder. at times, there was grief, when i worried for you. but you would always pull through. you have bonded with me in a way i never thought possible. we have had so much good times, you and i. i'm going to miss you so very, very much. and i didn't think i could love a spider this much, but i did... and still do. you have etched yourself so very deeply into my heart, my baby girl. i doubt anyone is ever going to fill the very large shoes you have left behind. all eight of them.my little movie star, my furry darling, please rest in peace now. please know that i will never stop missing you. bib's baby pics these were taken 24th nov 2007, almost a year ago.she was such a wee little thing. :) she hunted very well, so i never expected her to grow up a problem child. as she got older, she became really, really shy. she refused to hunt her meals when her sibs would, and sometimes at night when everyone was sleeping, i would spot her standing outside her hammock with the meal firmly in her fangs.nonetheless, she grew up into a beautiful adult spideykid, my little delinquent.at some point a coupla months ago, i noticed that she had balded quite severely. i took it as a sign of aging, as her mom lucy was balding in the last few months of her life. however, by some miracle, bib has shown no signs of deterioration. so, other than looking a little less pretty, she seems to be still healthy today.that said, some of my kids did leave me very suddenly (while some did slow down a little), so it's hard to tell if the end is near, really. hopefully, she won't leave without saying goodbye. clubpets volume 28 here it is at last. sorry for the delay! :) happy days and this was what dot was peeping at...i opened up lucien's jar and joined it with a larger container, similar to the one lucy used to live in. i would sometimes let lucien be in this playpen for a day, every other day. it looked like so much fun, climbing and jumping around. yes, she had enough space to jump!how i wish i could cure her of her slippery disease. lucien's little sister little dot (who wasn't so little actually, she was about an inch) has since passed away, but here are two pics i caught of her back in july, peeping at her sister lucien who was exploring a nice big jar i'd put her in for fun. this was before lucien lost her ability to hang on to plastic walls.i was caught off-guard when dot passed away. i was half-expecting dot to outlive lucien, because she ate less and developed slower. i wonder if we would ever get advanced enough in bio-science technology to be able to diagnose and determine arachnid illnesses and causes of death.rest in peace, little dot. you have been a sweet little kid. i wish i got to say goodbye. les bouchons it has been more than a year since i posted a food entry.what better choice to break the silence with than one of my favourite places for steak and fries? :)last thursday, i brought one of my galpals, kate, to les bouchons @ ann siang road (6423 0737). i know they have opened another one by the river, but for some strange reason i'm just drawn to the original outlet familiar to me. but then, that isn't so strange, i guess. i'm a sucker for familiarity.everything was so comfortably familiar. i believe the salad serving size is a little bigger now than before, even though the bowls are the same, they seem to have become more generous in filling them up. still love the salad dressing, which has a hint of mustard and horseradish. love the little bread rolls, which remind me of the ones i used to buy in frozen packs from coles in melbourne. simply divine while piping hot from the oven with generous globs of butter. the extra-tender beef fillet was as good as ever. my medium rare was an awesome pink juiciness which melted away in my mouth, just like it used to. and as any patron of les bouchons would verify, their home-made fries are absolutely out of this world - just the right blend of savoury and sweet. what's even better is that they are served freeflow, if you can even finish the first giganormous serving, that is! i finished more of them than i ever did before. kate's plate was almost empty as well. it was truly satisfying.we washed it all down with a glass of house red each. total damage was approximately $110.this place is tiny, so please be sure to make reservations before heading down! :) memory lane it was a long, long walk. and it was good.i went back into my archives of 2005. wow. it was amazing to get reacquainted with your older (younger?) self. suddenly, i am reminded of who i used to be, and who i truly am. i think i may have lost touch with a part of me in recent times, and i have rediscovered myself again.i have missed being candid on my journal.i am amazed at how my journal has evolved, from a mishmash of my life and nonsense to endless food missions to the invasion of my wonderful spideykids. as my beautiful lucien peers at me and wipes her face in that adorable manner that only she is capable of, i must say, my spideykids have had such an incredible impact on my life. so much so that it almost drowned out everything else. it was so easy to tune out to everything and not have to deal with it all. but it is time to stop running away. it is time to find my balance.hello LJ. i'm back. wtf is wrong with LJ?it's crawling like a million snails.it's no wonder i find it hard to update as much! exhaaaaaale lucien lives!*happy dance*she has lost the second leg on her right, so it's not really obvious unless you count her legs. she was wobbling around at first but seems to have found her footing with her seven legs now. for the first coupla hours, it looked really bad because she wasn't used to the strange sensation of missing a leg - she seemed to have problems controlling all the legs on the right side and would sometimes drag the third leg and fourth leg along instead of stepping. she is walking quite naturally today.a big thank you to uncle moo and uncle john for the quick response after her accident, and to everyone who has shown concern.:) a day of horror my precious girl has lost a leg. the danger now is that she may bleed to death, because spiders' blood doesn't clot. uncle jeremy says she will be safe if the leg broke cleanly off, if not i have to amputate the remainder... i do see a tiny section but i'm not sure if it's just a protrusion from her body. uncle john said to apply cornflour to the wound to stop the bleeding, which i have done (with slight difficulty... she got so much flour on her it was a little funny despite the grave situation). she has crawled into bed and now i can only hope for the best.so, what happened was... lucien's siblings have been slowly dying off. scout was the first to go. but that was expected because he seems to have inherited weaker genes from lucy, being the second batch of her kids. he was only half the size of tiga. the next to go was dot. lucien's little sister, whom i actually expected to outlive her, was found on the bottom of her jar, at a precise angle where i couldn't see her. she might have been dead for a coupla days. :( i'd thought she was hiding in her bed during the days when i didn't spot her. after that, tiga started acting funny. he began to have long periods of staring into space. this is one of the first signs of the end. he's still alive now, but has been less and less responsive. i have done a farewell photoshoot of tiga today. i think he will leave us late tonight or tomorrow.so, with all these in mind, i realise that time waits for no one. if i want lucien to have kids, maybe i shouldn't wait any longer? yesterday, i fed both lucien and her potential bf, pip the pirate boy. first attempt to introduce them had pip seemingly stalk lucien from behind, instead of dancing to get her attention. i panicked and separated them. then i offered  a cricket to pip, who refused it. so he wasn't hungry and trying to stalk lucien to eat her. ok. i thought maybe he was just getting nearer before going about the normal antics. so i put them together again.lucien is a little blur. she has always been a little blind to certain things. she hardly saw pip at all. pip stalked her again... and then just grabbed her with no warning! they tangled into a ball... and i almost had a heart attack. she flung him off after a gruelling few seconds that seemed like an eternity to me. then i separated them at once.i didn't see anything amiss until i saw lucien's furry leg. by itself. :oi checked her at once and saw her with only three legs on one side. it wasn't one of her front legs, so that's a good thing. there was a huge blob of clear blood on the jar where the incident occured, so i freaked out. uncle john said that should be normal... so i'm trying to stop freaking out.i still can't believe what happened. i'm so upset with myself. i should have taken the first attempt as a sign and stopped there.my poor little girl.:( sigh she's sliding around again today.:(guess it was too good to be true. i'll have to build her a new home asap. a miracle! a miracle! somehow, somehow, my little darling recovered overnight.i'd put her jar by my bed because i was so worried last night. wanted to check on her whenever i happened to wake up. i woke up to the wonderful sight of her, standing on her jar wall, peering right back at me! what a relief.i still have absolutely no idea what happened. but i have a coupla theories.first theory: she has a habit of webbing her jar up excessively. thus, she might have gotten used to walking on webbing. all the kids do it, but she does it the most and the fastest. they do this as a natural reflex, to pin web strings down everywhere they walk. however, because of the confined space, the stray webbing actually irritates them as well. haha. they would get annoyed and rub their legs like someone wiping dust off themselves. anyway, because i can see it annoys them, i would periodically clean off the web-wallpaper from everyone's jar. so perhaps, during the last week, lucien might have gotten more used to the webbing than usual. and when i wiped it off, she suddenly couldn't adjust to the smooth walls. then somehow, overnight, she readjusted.second theory: she might have been a little spooked by the cricket i offered her. which is weird, because she hadn't eaten in about a week and usually hunts very fast when she is hungry. she refused to hunt or even go near the cricket. her last meal was a mealworm. maybe she'd forgotten how crickets look like? anyway, i wonder if she'd lost her footing because she panicked. at one point, i was holding her jar, and she was floundering around like a fish out of water. that was when my heart broke. she tried to jump onto a wall and fell right back. then she looked up at me helplessly. i felt so, so sad.in the past, sonic had lost his grip a few months before his passing. he never recovered from it, although it didn't seem to have harmed him in any way. lab also reports that many residents live for many years after they lose their grip.i was going to build lucien a horizontal home. i think i will do it anyway. she is fine now, but i noticed that she isn't as sure-footed as before. strangely, she seemed to be tripping over the webbed areas today instead.