I think I'm Turning Japanese

The other day we received a package from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who live in Japan. This was quite exciting since we weren't expecting anything, and we couldn't imagine what it was. Well, turns out it was flu masks.

I was quite excited as I had been wondering to myself how does one get their hands on these masks. (Apparently not an easy feat. Chika said in her letter that it took 3 months for her to get them after she ordered them. Yikes!) I have been catching everything that goes around at the school, and I worry that I carry it back around. These masks would solve both issues.

Well, if I were allowed to wear them at school. Our principal will probably nix it as it may scare the younger kids. Still, I can wear them while I'm out and about which can't hurt any. As you can see below, I already gave it a test run!

Finally Fall

Well, it finally decided to go backwards around here and turn into fall. I thought for sure it would skip right over this year seeing how it started snowing at the end of September and didn't let up for two weeks. Then we had a very short Indian Summer. Now, finally Fall.

The Brewery Building

This is a series of shots I took of the Brewery Building. It's currently being demolished in favor of a brand new set of complexes. I can't quite make heads and tails of the architect's statement, but it seems they may be aiming for commercial buildings with apartments above them or something similar. You can see some historic photos of the building by clicking on the link below.

Historic Photos of the Building

Love the fancy no smoking sign on the side of that shack. I guess it gets the job done.

Fall at the Museum of the Rockies

Last weekend my family and I went to the Museum of the Rockies. We practically live there. This time, however, we were looking for a water bottle my son lost while he was there for a class. No luck. However, I did finally see the exhibit of World War II photos they are currently running. It's awesome. While there, we took a stroll through the Lewis and Clark exhibit outside, and I took these shots showing that even Autumn has its moments of beauty.

Leaves and Twigs

These are some more shots I took once the thaw set in again. It's interesting how once ice begins to melt, it will leave a frame around the object it had covered.

Winter Came Early

This is a series of shots I took when it snowed in early October. As evidenced by the crab apple and the rose blossom, even nature wasn't ready for winter.

You Find the Oddest Things - Part 3

This is from our visit to the City of Bozeman Landfill. The photos are from the pile of white goods. I'm not exactly sure what they do with them. It was quite the interesting tangle of items. I focused on what I considered to be the more artistic shots.

The first photo is a refrigerated display case. You can see the thermometer at the top of the case. I also know this because it's the type of case that the melon stand I worked for used to put the older melons in to keep them fresh a bit longer. Don't ask.

Then I found some very large Coca-Cola display cases. The logo on the last one dates to 1969. Wow! I would have guessed early 70s. You can see some other interesting Coca-Cola slogans throughout the years here:

Coke Slogans

My husband thinks that the Coca-Cola display cases came from the convenience store on Rouse that just closed down. If so, they had them a long time.

The Bizarre, The Beautiful and The Unseen

The Bizarre

Just in time for Halloween. While doing some last minute weed pulling about a month ago, I found this headless bee. I have no idea what happened to it. It looked like something had eaten out the insides and left the shell.

The Beautiful

The next day it snowed. I went to see what my roses looked like and found them frosted with ice.

The Unseen

The same day I found the bee, I accidentally kicked over this log in my flower garden. And I found this hornet's nest. Fortunately, long since deserted or squashed. In this case, what you can't see can hurt you.

Monster Mushroom with Baby

This is a mushroom that I saw while on my hike at Hyalite Reservoir. This thing is huge. And as you can see, already growing a baby mushroom. Even the snowfall did not dislodge it from it's place.

Hyalite Reservoir

Friday I decided it was a good idea to get over my cold / flu / whatever illness is trying to run me down by going outside. Well, my mom always did tell me go outside and get some fresh air, so I did. It was a gorgeous day out. I lucked out in that I was feeling better, my son was at a class about insects and I had the day off due to a school planning day. I felt even better after the hike.

Below in order are a scenic view of Hyalite Reservoir, a spider I saw high tailing it across the snow (Well, it was cold, so he was moving rather slowly.) and a Least Chipmunk. Notice his cute fat little cheeks full of food.

Mess of the Month - October

Well, what a difference a month makes. Yup. This is more like it. To be fair, I've had some sort of cold / wanna be flu thing. I just got over it. Also, the guys are due some credit for last month's neatness. If they don't help, it goes straight to chaos. They do OK, but they need me to do my part which hasn't happened so you see where it goes. Since I've been feeling better, we're slowly claiming back bits of the house. Check out September's Mess!

Boy Scout Outing

Our Boy Scout Pack gets together once a year to do some fishing at a local pond. I took the plant and the reflection photos at that outing. My husband found the cocoon while refinishing my son's swing set.

Out with the Old

They've begun tearing down the drive through behind First Security Bank. We were on the way to the library, when my husband spotted it, so we stopped for some quick shots.

Just a general shot of construction materials.  If you look really close, you can see the wrong way sign still on the drive through divider.  It's definitely the wrong way now.

I like this shot because you can see where the windows were.  It gives it an extra haunting and empty feeling.

This shot shows the back of the building with the walls torn down.  Chris didn't think they had taken anything out before beginning.  It does look like there may have been some computers or office equipment left behind.  It could just be that the counters were left intact, so you have the impression that equipment was left behind.

A Video of Flying Ants

I couldn't figure out how to put a video into Blogger because that option isn't showing on my tool bar since I updated my editor.  I think I have to go through YouTube, but I thought they wanted to have all the rights to my video.  No thank you.

So if you would like to see a video of the flying ants at my son's soccer practice, click on the link below. Be patient, it takes a couple of minutes for the video to show up.

Flying Ant Video

You can find the original post here:

The Ants Go Flying - Not One by One Either

Late in the Season

Well, as the snow storm we had the other day proves, summer is definitely over and we're very close to putting a fork in fall. Here are some late season shots.

My husband noticed the lady bug had made a shadow. I get so focused while I'm shooting that I often don't notice such details sometimes even after I've looked at the picture on the computer.

The hornet was on our swingset while we were sanding it so we could restain it. I put arrows to point out the paint flecks. If they got there from sanding or from it trying to eat into the wood to build a nest, I'm not sure.