Memorial Day 2010 - "Flags In"

Memorial Day. A day to honor our fallen service members. This is Memorial Day we give you a glimpse into a long-standing tradition observed at Arlington National Cemetery:

Spc. Athiambo Onyango of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), places an American flag in front of a grave stone at Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day weekend.

This tradition, known as "flags in," has been conducted annually since 1948. Every available soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry participates, placing small American flags one foot in front and centered before each grave marker.

Arlington National Cemetery

A rucksack filled with small American flags ready to place at gravesites. The 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) began their rounds to place a small American flag into the ground in front of every grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery for the upcoming Memorial Day observance. (Photo by Adam Skoczylas).

A Soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) measures one foot with his boot, and places a flag in front of a grave marker at Arlington National Cemetery.

Please remember to take time to honor our fallen service members. We thank God for these men and women this day and every day!

The Army of Four

All photos and descriptions courtesy of the U.S. Army

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats. Zimmie here with Serene Scenery Sunday. Dave's here, too. ("Woo, everybody!") There was some not-too-serene stuff going on in our AO this week, so we figured the two of us would tackle restoring a little tranquility back into Ao4 HQs.

Part of the not-too-serene stuff had to do with this:

"I wonder if the neighbors know those guys just did that...?"

They're coming our way. Siberianly speaking, I can't wait. I love watching bipeds work. Mom has said stuff about not being able to get "someone" to concentrate on doing his business (I have no idea what that's about) and her head being ready to explode. Hmm. That last one doesn't sound too serene at all, does it? Let's move on quickly!

How about this:

"Oswald at 12 o'clock, Zim!"

"Got the hare in my crosshairs, Dave!"

Ha roo roo roo! I've got to make sure Ammy sees that one. "The hare" in my "crosshairs". Ha roo roo - oh. Why did seeing Oswald make my mom feel serene? Apparently it's because he's over in the neighbors', yard, taking out all of their vegetation instead of ours. Sorry, neighbors!

In full bloom this week - our honeysuckle! How about a collage?

It smells incredible! I can't resist sticking my snooter in there. I have to be careful, though - this guy and a lot of his friends find it irresistible, too!

He's the Bee's Knees!

Cool little guy, isn't he? But Mom makes sure I admire him from a distance. I have no idea why. For a bigger view, click here!

That's about it for Serene Scenery Sunday. I sure wish I could share the honeysuckle fragrance with you. It's positively dreamy! (Hmm... dreamy. That gives me an idea about what to do next...)

Play bows,

Zim (and luv from Dave ... who apparently has abandoned helping me with this post and is already in Dreamland!)

Two! Two! Two Posts in One!

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me, Dave. Sorry we didn't get a post up yesterday; time totally got away from us and so Stormy said I should make this post a two-in-one. What pressure! I think I'm up for it, though.

For Photo Finish Friday, I was going to post these cool pix of me playing with my Squeaky Tennis Ball. Remember you saw me about to catch a pop fly on Wednesday? After I caught it, I ran all over the yard with it. Here I am, running toward my mom. Umm... I mean toward the north.

Me. Dave.

Then Mom moved, so I ran to her from the other direction:

Me again. Still Dave.

It was so fun! She did lots of throwing and I did lots of catching and running and bringing it back! I love my Squeaky Tennis Ball!

Speaking of balls, the moon is shaped like a ball. (Stormy said I should go for a good segue into the second part of the post, and that's the best I could come up with...) It was full the other night - did any of you see it? Mom took a bunch of pix you can see in her FlickR set for sky stuff; here's the best one:

Full moon from 27 May 2010

It sure looks like a ball, doesn't it? I wonder if the moon squeaks? Ha woo.

Luv,
Dave

A Bug

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me - Ammy! Before I get to today's post, the answer to the question so many of you asked yesterday is "Yes!" Davy caught his squeaky tennis ball. If you look closely, you can see it up about a foot above his snooter, right where the tree starts in the background!

Speaking of looking closely and feet (well, a foot...) ... I was out in the front yard the other day, checking things out...

"BUG!"

...when I spotted a bug in the grass. It wasn't a remarkable bug, but it did remind me of a joke I'd just heard.

"You knew this was coming, didn't you?"

You do want to hear it, don't you? OK, let's go!

A guy decided life would be more fun if he had a pet - an unusual pet! - so he went out and adopted a talking centipede (you know, one of those 100-legged bugs). It came in a little white box to use for its house.

He took the bug home, found a good spot for the box, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to church with him. He asked the centipede, "Would you like to go to church with me today? We'll have a good time."
But there was no answer from his new pet.
This bothered him a little bit, but he waited a few minutes and then asked again, "How about going to church with me?" but again, there was no answer from his new friend and pet.
He waited a few minutes more, thinking about the situation, then decided to invite the centipede one last time.
This time he put his face up against the centipede's house and shouted, “Hey, in there! Would you like to go to church with me and learn about God?"
This time, a little voice came out of the box saying, "I heard you the first time! ...I'm putting on my shoes!"

"Hee hee hee!"

I hope they're slip-ons. This could take a while!

Love,
Ammy

Wordless Wednesday

Luv,
Dave

I'm In The Mood

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me - Amber! Zimmie received this really cool award from our very sweet friend (and his bestest friend!) Huffle Mawson; it's the Mood Ring Award.

Isn't it pretty? She gave it to Zimmie because blue reminds her of him. He used to wear a blue collar - and that's still his signature color! We're now supposed to present this to four friends who remind us of the four colors in the mood ring: blue, pink, green and orange. Stormy thought we should each take one of the colors and go from there!

Stormy chose pink and said pink reminds her of our dear little friend Star. Not only does she look really pretty in her pink outfits and accessories, but the cross her mom made that we won was surrounded in pretty pink paper.

Zimmie chose blue and said blue reminds him of Sagira and her beautiful, icy blue eyes!

Davy chose green and wanted to present it to the Dughallmor Beagles! It is Lyme Disease Awareness Month and Rosie, Gabbi, Snoop and Alfie are helping to get the word out by sporting a green ribbon on their blog and are encouraging everyone to be on a tick preventative!

Those are all great choices, aren't they!?! And that leaves orange for me. I had to do a little study of the color orange first; I'm not up on my colors like Dave, Mom's Guide Dog for the Color Blind.

"This is orange? Ohhh..."

"I don't really care for orange foods."

I don't. Carrots, cantaloupe, mangoes, peaches ... I just don't care for those things. And they're all orange.

But then Davy told me that so are sweet potatoes and pumpkin - and I DO like those!

"Really? You aren't trying to kid a kidder, are you?"

He said they're more of a burnt orange (I think that's professional Guide Dog for the Color Blind talk!), but that they're still technically orange. So then I thought maybe I could think up something that's burnt orange and maybe that would remind me of someone.

"Burnt orange... burnt orange..."

And Davy said to please hurry up and not eat my carrot so he could have it and then go out and play football. And it hit me!

The Cleveland Browns' color is sort of burnt orange! And our friend Tanner, despite living with a HUGE Pittsburgh Steelers fan, loves the Browns!!! Hee hee hee! I know this will make Joe Stains really happy. Hee hee hee!

A big thank you to Huffle Mawson from Zim and all of us! And again, we pass this lovely award to Star, Sagira, the Dughallmor Beagles, and Tanner! (With apologies to Joey Stains.)

Love,

Ammy

Golf Channel

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me, Zim. Do any of you get the Golf Channel? I took Mom on a little adventure yesterday (one of us needed a little extra exercise... I don't want to say which one!) and I discovered the Golf Channel! Out in the open! Seriously! There we were, walking along, when I saw this:

"Wowzers! Look at that!"

It was like the Golf Channel right there!

"I wonder if there's anyone famous out there!?"

Dave's favorite golfer is Charles Howell III. He doesn't know much about his record, but really likes his last name. Ha roo roo roo! Then I remembered that Dad was out golfing ...

"Dad? Ha roo?"

... but Mom said he wasn't playing here. I got comfy anyway:

"Wow, what a great channel!"

It was tons of fun; I do love to people-watch! I was real quiet and everything but Mom kept muttering something about "get UP, Zimmie", but I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it. Besides, I let her get a couple cool profile shots.

Me (Zim) in profile - the blue-eyed side. Or Sibe. Ha roo roo roo!

Here's Mom's favorite:

Me (Zim) enjoying the Golf Channel

I think this is even better than the Golf Channel we get in the house.

Play bows,

Zim

Serene Scenery Sunday - Peony Edition

Tail wags, dear pups and kit-cats. Stormy here with Serene Scenery Sunday. This week, it's all about the peonies growing out in the front garden. They are in full bloom now and are such a happy splash of color - let's take a look!

Here is a collage of some of the deep pink ones.

We really have no idea what kind they are; these were given to Mom by a friend as little roots, so like the Lilacs in the southeast corner of the backyard, they are all Skidmore Peonies. Ha roo roo roo!

Aren't they a great color? There are some light pink Skidmore Peonies:

Please click any of the pix to go to our FlickR album for a closer view. You can also visit our Garden Pix set for individual shots, if you'd like. How about one close up?

I hope that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Speaking of fuzzy... how about just one more photo?

Me. Stormy.

That was Ammy's idea. It made her giggle and feel happy.

Have a serene Sunday!

Tail wags,

Storms

Can't Decide...

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me. Dave. So Zimmie and I took Mom on a really cool walk up by the golf course that you can see from Ao4 Headquarters yesterday. It was really sunny and warm and windy and stuff, so we got to go all over! It was really exciting. Mom took the camera and everything. Only... we went on a cool adventure and all we got was this one photo:

Zim and me (Dave) - the original!

Just one! Can you believe it?!?! One little discovery of some coyote poop, and Mom put the camera away and concentrated on nothing other than what we were "getting into". Or trying to. Woo.

So anyway, she played around with different effects on that photo and we couldn't decide which one we liked best... so I thought I'd show you all of them and let you decide!

Here's one with a cool border:

Zim and me - framed!

Is it just me, or do we look like we're breaking through a paper bag? Then there's the cartoon version:

Zim and me as cartoons

For more info on Astro Jetson, please click here.

How about something more serious, like a pencil sketch?

Zim joins me in being a black and white.

Or maybe a watercolor?

Zim and me, as painted by one of the Great Masters.

What do you think? Which one do you like best?

Luv,
Dave

Photo Finish Friday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me, Zim, here with Photo Finish Friday! As Ammy told you, we actually had SUN the other day. It was great - lots of sun, but still nice and cool. What a perfect day to get in a little time at the ocean - right?!? So I sent Mom a mind-meld message and we headed to the Kansas Ocean. I let her take some nice pix of me and I thought I'd share some of those with you.

Here's a little profile shot:

Me (Zim) in profile

There were a bunch of frogs or something down in the ocean making all these creaky sounds; I was mesmerized! I got comfy so I could give a good listen:

"Sing to me, froggies!"

It was very relaxing. For a while. Then I thought we should go exploring. Here I am by Mom's favorite tree.

Remember what it looked like back in the winter!?? Ah... those were the days! For some reason, Mom likes Spring better. I'll never understand that.

Here's a cool collage of some of my other poses:

Me (Zim) at the KS Ocean

That tail shot in there is for my buddy Tanuki Maxx. Ha roo roo roo!

And last, but not least, here's what Mom is calling "the best of the best":

That one made the 6 and 10 o'clock news. Isn't that cool? It was so everyone could see what a gorgeous day we had! (Many thanks to our friends at Channel 49 Storm Team out of Topeka!)

That's about it for Photo Finish Friday. The sun is supposed to be out today and maybe all weekend! I'm hoping for some more cool adventures. I'll make sure Mom brings the camera!

Play bows,

Zim

Thank You Thursday! ☺

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me, Ammy! A big THANK YOU today to my very sweet friend Darwin! She presented us with this sweet award:

It's the Versatile Blogger Award! Thank you soooo much, Darwin! That made me smile one of my very big Ammy smiles! We're all very honored that you would share this with us and Stormy said that a really nice way to say "thank you" would be for me to tell a joke and that might make you smile back ... and so before I get to all the rules and everything...

As you may know, we've had tons and tons and tons of rain lately. Just coming down like kitty-cats and puppies. Because of that, we've got a million of these popping up everywhere:

Mushrooms

They remind me of tiny umbrellas ... and so I thought of a joke. Only who could I trick with my joke?

"Hmm... who could I tell my joke to?"

Then it hit me.

"Hmm... perfect!"

So we actually had some sunshine and went on an extra all-family walk to celebrate and I seized the moment.

"Hey you Sibes," I said. "Look! We've had so much rain lately, the bugs are putting up umbrellas!"

"Ammy, I don't see anything in here other than a bunch of mushroooo.... oh, AMMY!"

"Hee hee hee!"

I knew I'd get him with that one! Davy always loves my jokes! Darwin, I hope you liked that one!

So for the award, I'm supposed to thank the blogger who gave it to us -- that would be Darwin! Then I'm supposed to share seven things about me before passing it along to seven other bloggers.

1. I have very strong herding instincts; I'm the only one of the Sibes Mom has known who is like this. Did you know that once upon a time Siberian Huskies were used to herd reindeer? If Santa's guys ever get out of line, I'm available to round them up!

2. I thrive on routine!

3. I assume everyone I meet is a long-lost friend! (Also a very Siberian trait!)

4. I'm a very good watch puppy. Oh, I don't bark, but I will race to the window and stare.

5. I love being part of a pack! I take it upon myself to try to make everyone in it (bipeds and quadrupeds alike) happy!

6. I really, really needed a good home when Stormy adopted me, but I'm the only member of the Ao4 who didn't do time in the local slammer. I mean "shelter".

7. I don't like to drink if anyone's watching.

Now for the hard part! I'd like to share this with everyone, but Stormy said I should try really hard to follow the rules... and so here goes! If you already have it, please forgive me! Or if you'd rather not participate, I totally understand. OK!

Sagira

Remington

Star and Riley

Dory, Bilbo and Jacob

Mack and Mia

Africa

and our new friends at Give a Dog a Bone

I'd really like to give this to everyone... but that's not in the rules but if you'd like it, please just take it because if anyone who gets upset then I'll get upset and won't be happy and then... (yes, Stormy? But I already listed seven things. Yes, I guess if there was an eighth item it could be that one of my nicknames is Chatty Cathy.... why? Oh. Oh, OK. Sorry.)

That's it for today! Thank you again to Darwin!

Love,

Ammy

Wordless Wednesday

Play bows,
Zim

Wubba Star!

Woo, everypup and everycat. It's me, Dave. We've had even more rain and chilly weather around here lately, but fortunately Mom took tons of pictures of me playing in the backyard a week or so ago. We're still going on fun walks and playing in the house, but nothing beats a good round of Wubba in the backyard - so I thought I'd show you some of those pix -- OK?!

I brought out our bright blue Wubba and my Squeaky Husky Friend.

"You stay right there, Squeaky Husky Friend. I'll show you what playing Wubba is all about!"

He's better at that whole "stay" thing than I am! Anyway, I showed him how Mom and I play Wubba Tuggy-Tug:

Tuggy-Tug!

Then I showed him what I'm REALLY good at ~ Wubba Fetch! Here's a cool collage Mom made:

I'm a Wubba Star!

Isn't that cool? For a bigger version, please click here.

So we played and played... but then... see up there in the collage? That picture in the lower right corner? I was rounding the bend, coming in for the hand-off, when... uh... as Stormy would say, I started to feel a little funny.

Not only that, but my brakes weren't exactly working!

"Uh... Mom? You OK, Mom? How come you're on the ground, Mom?"

I think I put on a good show for my Squeaky Husky Friend, don't you? And yet, for some reason we went in the house after that.

But woo, I'm a Wubba Star!

Luv,
Dave