Prayers for my Wire Fox Terrier Please

My daughter has posted a wonderful note on her blog about our Wire Fox Terrier, Tucker, who might not make it through the night. He will be 14 on October 26th and has far outlived the vet's prediction after surviving Mast Cell Tumor removal. Maybe he'll surprise us and spring back after getting some rest, but his breathing is labored and he can't hold his head up, so for now we've put him to bed and will try to get some sleep ourselves. I would appreciate your prayers, both for Mike and I as we go through another loss and for Tucker's comfort. Please go look at his pictures on her post and also on his blog.

New Blog Hop

After this nice lady followed me on Blog Frog I hopped over to her blog and she was doing a blog hop, so I hopped along! Won't you join us too?

Sunrise over Topeka

Sunrise over Topeka taken with my old, not-so-high-tech cell phone. Right before I took this picture the sky was all sorts of shades of cotton candy pink, cherry red, luscious peach, lemon yellow (are you hungry yet?) reflecting on soft billowy clouds. Then all of a sudden this huge orange ball appeared from behind the capital dome and was just too good to pass up. Even though I'd much rather be home than at work, it's mornings like this that make me thankful for working on the 8th floor of a downtown building across from this awesome architectural marvel!

Mushrooms around the Topeka Statehouse

Last week a co-worker and I noticed a bunch of odd looking things poking up above the mulch surrounding the trees on the grounds of our Statehouse. Of course the first day I didn't have my camera with me, so I remembered to bring it along the next day. The first pic shows some pretty standard clumps of mushrooms.

and the next one looks pretty standard too

but the next two pictures made our minds wander a bit and caused so much laughter that we almost drew a crowd. I can't tell you what we were thinking because this is a G-rated blog, but for a couple of old ladies we sure had some fun! She tried posing these because in one day's time they had totally wilteed, then when we did finally come across one that wasn't wilted she just HAD to add those two ball thingies.

I am sitting here at work paralyzed by a statewide network outage. Everything that I do relies on the network. Since I can't work let me t

We have Monarch caterpillars!

Just as I had hoped when I discovered the milkweed growing next to the driveway, we finally got some monarch caterpillars! They sure chewed through that stuff quickly! Here's some pictures to enjoy.

Red sunrise before the storm.

Pictures of the Crane over the Topeka Capital

Our Sunday paper had some awesome pictures of the huge crane over the capital along with a story of the operators and project. I decided there's no way my pictures will come even close to their professional quality, so here's a link to the article:
http://cjonline.com/life/2010-09-11/statehouse_journey_into_height

The crane over the Kansas Capitol is ready for operation!

The first picture was taken last Thursday. I was off work Friday and Monday, then forgot my camera yesterday, so no pics of them taking down the erector crane (red one on the left). You can see how tall the tower crane (blue) is as it soars above the Capitol building. We've been told they will be using the crane to haul things up to the dome for renovation to the inside. Here are some quick facts about the dome from http://www.kshs.org/places/capitol/dome_tour.htm

Dome Facts

The state legislature approved the dome in 1881 and the construction began in 1885. There are 296 steps leading up from the fifth floor to the top of the dome. The bronze statue of the Kansa warrior, Ad Astra, was placed on top of the dome in 2002. It is 22 feet and 2 inches tall and weighs 4,420 pounds. The outer copper dome extends approximately 75 feet above this inner dome. The copper sheeting covering the outer dome turns green when it oxidizes. The inner dome is composed of glass panels.

The tower crane almost ready for operation.

The east side of the Capitol currently under renovation.

Two metallic creatures soaring high above the city, like the birds they are so aptly named after.

This morning at sunrise, the lonely blue tower crane missing its red friend.

What a gorgeous site! The clouds looked as if they were dancing with the new blue creature.

Last, but not least.... yes that IS a porta-potty on top of the Capitol!!! You wouldn't believe how many times I heard someone ask where the guys would use the toilet, so I just HAD to show this! We're still not sure how the crane operator that will be in that little box with its own air conditioner will take care of elimination needs. Maybe a very small porta-potty. Anyone know the answer?

Attack of the pear-eating moths, flies, bees, wasps & ???

When I came home this evening I noticed a bunch of pears had fallen out of the tree during the 40 to 50 mph winds yesterday, so I dropped my purse and lunch bag in the house and traipsed outside with a big bucket in hand, hoping for a few edible selections. I salvaged about six of them, the rest going under a few bushes to feed the local wildlife, then grabbed my camera to capture this incredible site. This one mushed pear must have been exactly the right degree of rot to attract all the local moths, flies, a bee or two and even a few wasps. None of them had any interest in me while I was invading their private feast, well except for a few small moths who seemed interested in my pants or socks. I couldn't resist shooting a couple of the moths enjoying the purple butterfly bush. Not sure where all the butterflies are, but the moths make nice pictures too, don't you agree?

Did you know eggs could explode?

As many of you know by now I am blessed with a husband who likes to cook and also one who respects my need for down time when I get home from work. Now that he's back to teaching again he also has things that need to be done after work, so yesterday his mind wasn't completely focused on the task at hand... well at least not the one boiling on the stove. I knew that he was boiling eggs for me to take to work and from the far end of the house (it's not THAT big...) I could smell a faint odor of something overheating. He was in the room next to me working on school stuff, so I asked if he was still cooking the eggs and I guess he didn't hear me because the next thing I knew I heard a big POP! He must have really been in to his school work because not only did he ignore the smell, but also seemed oblivious to that explosion. YES I said EXPLOSION!!! Not like the one in Coffeyville when the condo Emily and I were living in blew up, but a very loud POP anyway. So I walk in to the kitchen to find egg EVERYWHERE!!! No I didn't take any pictures (silly me!) because I was more concerned about picking up the egg bits off the floor before the dogs got to them, shell and all. Got the stove turned off and the burnt pan set in the sink and proceeded to walk BACK down the hall to fetch Mike (still oblivious?!?!?) to finish the cleanup job (which I ultimately had to to later as I continued to discover huge chunks of egg and shell everywhere.) So what's the verdict? We, at the young age of 56, have officially become OLD PEOPLE!!! YUPPERS, where's the hidden camera that will be used to post funny videos on YouTube of us old people putting our cereal in the refrigerator, milk in the cabinet, eyeglasses in the freezer (not yet, but we're headed in that direction!) and exploding eggs on the stove?!?!

Stay tuned for further reports of unidentified objects flying through the air in our humble abode.....
Cheers!
Sharon