re: Want to see my little friend?
Dang...it just occurred to me I haven't picked up my mantis egg cases for this year. Hope there's still some left.
Your little buddy is one of the jumping spiders I see around here. Some have zebra patterns, and there's a bright red variety that's really cool-looking, but I haven't seen one of those in a while.
These spiders are distinguished from other spiders by actually having very good eyesight--note the two "headlight" eyes common to this variety.