Puzzled? Not Me!

Hi everyone, it's me - Ammy! As many of you know, we aren't allowed to use Apple products unless our mom is here with us - which would explain why we're so behind in reading and commenting on your blogs! Please forgive us! She's been really busy lately and since she hasn't lifted the ban on Siberian-only useage of iProducts ... there you have it! Oh, sure! Storm uses the iPhone, Dave oversaw the music getting loaded onto the iPod, Zim likes to check out the iMac, and Dave has also played around with the iPad -- but always with Mom or Dad's supervision. It's like they keep all the iToys all to themselves! So imagine my surprise the other day when Mom approached me...

She had downloaded some new puzzle game - and one of the puzzles was ... umm ... puzzling her. She asked me to see what I could do.

As you can see, I was kind of busy, but I thought I'd have a go at it.

"I can't believe you didn't get this right away!"

I had the puzzle solved in seconds. Can you read the iPad? Here's another look.

As you can see, this puzzle didn't puzzle me!

"My work here's done!"

Hee hee hee. "Clowns taste funny." Hee hee hee.

Love,
Ammy

Wordless Wednesday

Tail wags,
Storms

Stttttt-retch!

Hey, pups and cool cats! It's me, Zim! Lots going on here, but I've got to wait to tell you everything until I download some pix. In the meantime - I've come up with a new stretch for you to try. Ready to take a look? Here you go:

Oh, it might not look like much from that angle. Let's see what it looks like if I have my camera-mom move up onto the catwalk.

Oh, yeah. Can you feel it in your neck? How about your tail? Get those back legs extended forward! Ahhhhh! Feel the burn!

An added benefit of this pose is that I can do it in my sleep. I'm a professional. Please start slowly and work your way up!

Play bows,

Zim

Serene Scenery... Monday!

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me, Ammy, as promised! I have lots of beautiful wildflowers to show you - should we get walking?!?

"Let's go!"

Mom and I went on a search for wildflowers! Here's the first one we saw - Snow on the Mountain!

Snow on the Mountain

If only it was real snow! That will get here soon enough, though!

We saw lots of yellow wildflowers! This one had a couple of cool bugs on it:

Can you see them in there? Here are some tiny yellow wildflowers:

I have to be honest with you: I tried to eat those ones. Here's another yellow flower!

We saw some thistle, too! Here's a collage:

It always makes me think of our friends in Scotland, like Marvin, and Martha and Bailey, and all of the Dughallmor Beagles!

"Marvin? Are you in there? Martha? Bailey? Ha-looooo?!?!?"

Sadly, they weren't in there. Mom and I did both think of all of them, though!

And of course we saw the flower Kansas is famous for -- the sunflower!!!

Kansas sunflowers

For individual pix of the sunflowers and the thistle, you are welcome to visit our Kansas Scenery set on FlickR!

Here's the best sunflower shot Mom got:

Can you almost feel our warm sun and smell the fresh air?

I wish you all could have been with us! It was a glorious, sun-filled day!

Love,
Ammy

Serene Scenery Sunday. Sort Of.

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me, Ammy! I was all set to tell you about the special adventure Mom and I went on this week, and was busy sorting through the photos and just knew they'd make a wonderful Serene Scenery Sunday post! See... we went in search of sunflowers and other wildflowers and found some really lovely things up here:

Me. Ammy. In "The Little Apple".

Only yesterday, as I was helping process all the photos... we had a huge storm roll in! It was just an awesome sight and I have to share the pix with you! To start things off, let's look at a panoramic shot we put together:

That was the scene out front! It IS a scene. Just not really too serene. Want to see a video? Here you go:



Isn't it incredible?!? Here's a bit of a close up:

And a little to the left on the shelf cloud:

I think our neighbor in the silver car is getting home just in time!

Most of our storms roll in from the west -- the view we have off our deck -- but this one came in from the north! Here's the view from out back anyway:

Still mighty impressive!

Well, that's it for yesterday's storm. It was mighty wild - they even delayed the KSU football game by an hour and a half, until the lightning was out of the area! Tomorrow, I'll fill you in on my wildflower adventure, OK? In the meantime, maybe this will make you a bit more serene:

See you tomorrow!

Love,
Ams

Guess Where I Went?

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! Remember Dave told you earlier that he got to go to the park -- just him and Mom? Well, all of us got special time with Mom and guess where I went? Check this out and try to guess where I am:

Who guessed that I was on the boardwalk at the Kansas Ocean!?!? Mom knows that's one of my most favorite places to walk, so that's where we went!

"Hmm... the tide must be out; the water's a bit low."

We strolled over to the shoreline and enjoyed all the sights and sounds and smells!

"I hear froggies!!!"

It was great! I heard froggies talking and then a big SPLASH! I guess one of them went swimming, but I wasn't sure. What I was sure of is that I didn't want to leave!

"I could lay here allllllllll day!!!!"

What a great day at the ocean!

In other news, I also had to go to the vet's again this week. I didn't get to see Molly; I had a student named Adriana who was equally sweet! Umm... I mean qualified. Check out what she wrote on my discharge sheet:

Ha roo roo roo!

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend!

Play bows,
Zim

Photo Finish Friday

Woo, everypup and everycat. Dave here, with Photo Finish Friday. I wasn't sure what to post, but decided to go with a cool special effects photo of me.

Pretty cool, don't you think?

Yeah. Highlights the freckles on my nose, doesn't it? Woo.

Luv,
Dave

Shine On... Shine on...

..."Shine on, shine on, Harvest Moon, up in the sky!..."

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me - Ammy - resident Meteorologist here at Ao4 Headquarters! As I'm sure you all know, last night was a full moon - this month, the Harvest Moon!!! A Super Harvest Moon, according to NASA, because it fell on the autumnal equinox! Isn't that exciting!?! I thought it was! So right around sunset, my trusty photographer (that would be my mom) and I headed outside.

Our neighbor's house blocks our eastern view, so we headed down the street at sunset.

"Let's get walking!"

By the time we got to the end of our street, the sunset looked like this:

We needed to get to the high ground quickly! Once we got to top of the highest hill in the neighborhood, this is what the moon looked like!

And at the same time, if you turned around, this is what the sun was doing:

They were both so brilliant right at the same time!

Here I am with the moon in the background:

And here I am with the sunset as my backdrop:

As the moon kept rising, the light changed. I loved watching it!

OK, that photo above doesn't really show off the sunset or the moonrise, but Mom thought it was a good shot of me, so I humored her by posting it. Let's have another look at the moon!

Me and the moon.

Check between my ears. Hee hee hee!

Less than an hour later, the sun was gone, but the moon was up enough for us to see it at our house. Despite the fact that we had cloudy skies, the moon was so bright!

It just kept ... shining on ... all night long!

..."Shine on, shine on, Harvest Moon!..."

I hope you got to enjoy it where you are. Photos really don't do it justice!

Love,

Ammy

Wordless Wednesday

Tail wags,

Storms

(and play bows from Zim!)

Park It

Woo, everypup and everycat! It's me, Dave!!! I got to go to the park the other day - just me and Mom! It was really exciting. She took some pix so I could show you everything I saw!

First we walked over to this sign that had Mom all excited. I gave it a good snoofing, but couldn't find anything that exciting about it. Mom told me to sit -- or to "park it". ...'cuz I was in the park. Get it? (Ammy made me say that.) Anyway - here's a collage of me and the sign:

Me at the park. The bright sun washed my freckles out!

Pumpkin Patch is a big arts and crafts fair that's held every year. Vendors come from all over the midwest with handmade things or with kettle corn (mmm... kettle corn!) and they even sell pumpkins!

Pottdorf Hall is where some of the stuff is sold - it's an indoor building, so I've never been in there. There are three "out buildings" that all of us in the Ao4 have explored that will be full of people and vendors and maybe kettle corn.

This is the middle building:

Behind me is Casement Hall. On the other side is Wreath -- here, take a look:

There will be wall to wall people and crafts in these places! And kettle corn. You may recognize these buildings from when Zim showed you another event! Remember all the animals he and Am saw and heard?!?? I'm standing in that "tent" area! (Only they took the canvas shade away.) Sadly, they cleaned up real well after all the animals were in there. I promised Ammy I'd look for the most frequent inhabitant of this building - pigeons! (Ammy does NOT care for pigeons!)

"Any pigeons in here?!?"

I didn't find any. There was a little peeping Tom on one of the trees by the building, though. Check out who was checking ME out!

Squirrel!!!

That was very exciting! We don't have squirrels at our house; we generally only see them if we go to the park!

I hope you liked coming along with me! I'll try to get Mom to take pix of Pumpkin Patch - and maybe I'll get to go with her, before the crowd hits! And get some kettle corn!!!! Umm... I mean, I could help carry her bags or something. Woo.

Luv,
Dave

Our Latest Vet Visits, Part 2

Hi everypuppy and everycat. It's me, Ammy, back with Part Two of the vet visits Zim and I had recently. (If you missed it, you can read Part One here.)

Zimmie's appointment was the day after mine. Some of you might know that because of the abuse he suffered before he joined our family, he's kind of skittish around new people he meets -- especially women! I was hoping he'd get James for his student like I did, because despite the fact that he didn't fall for any of the lessons I learned in the SZK School of Siberian Studies Drama Department, he was a very, very nice guy. He was calm and kind and professional - and Zim really likes those qualities. He did get to meet James, but the student assigned to him was Molly. Yes, a female!

I know you're wondering how he did. He actually ... well ... Mom snapped a few iPhone pix of him during the appointment, trying very hard to relax. Here's a collage:

Zim and Molly

I think they got on just fine, don't you?

How do you all do during your vet visits? I hope your vets and their techs and all of the staff at their offices are as kind and caring as ours!

Love,
Ammy

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me, Zim, here with this week's Serene Scenery Sunday post. Oh, don't worry - I know Am was doing the vet trip posts; she'll fill you in on my visit tomorrow. For now, we need something a bit more soothing - don't you think?

How about a couple sunsets to kick things off?

13 September 2010 Sunset

Here's one from the next night:

14 September 2010 sunset

Ammy and I took Mom on a little walk the other day...

Ammy and me

...and we saw a bunch of cool sunflowers that made us feel serene! Here's a collage:

Those always make me feel happy and serene! That's me in the bottom corner, giving them a good snoofing!

Know what else makes me happy? Having fun out on a walk! Here's another shot of me and the Yammer:

Ammy and me, mixing things up a bit on a walk

We were having fun doing our imitation of Chip and Dale. You know, those chipmunk guys who used to have their own TV show? They were so cool, weren't they!?! "Indubitably!" Ha roo roo roo!

Back to the sunflowers... here's the best of the bunch:

We hope that adds a little warmth and sun to your day... and some Kansas-style serenity!

Play bows,

Zim