Monday's Post About Sunday

Tail wags to all - it's me - Stormy! Yesterday was a full day at Ao4 HQs; I thought I'd fill you in on parts of it. The day started like most others - trips outside, breakfast at 0600, more trips outside... then I told Mom that Ammy said it was going to be a hot one, so we'd best get our walks in early!

Here is a shot of Ammy and me, checking out our yard.

She's pointing the iPhone at us, Ammy! Look away!

Please. Like she's going to trick us into looking at the camera. Any camera! I told Zim to be wary of her when Mom took him and Dave out; the boys did well - check 'em out:

Storm said not to look at Mom, Dave!

OK, Zimmie!

Anyway, Mom walked Ammy and Dave together. While out, Ammy checked the skies, of course, being the good, devoted Meteorologist that she is. I found this picture on the iPhone:

Looked good to me, but Ammy said trouble was cooking up in the atmosphere. (Speaking of cooking up, click here to see what was cooking up in our kitchen later on. Oh... and we didn't get ANY! Boo-hiss to adding chocolate!) Anyway... I digress.

Zimmie and I went next and had a delightful time together. He thought, based on some of the comments on yesterday's post, that some of you might enjoy this shot of our neighbor's garden:

Lovely, isn't it?

We all got plenty of exercise before the predicted heat set in, and Mom spent the afternoon working on those cookies. (Then Dad got back from golf and "helped her work on the cookies", too. Ha roo roo roo! Way to go, Dad!)

Late in the afternoon, Ammy's weather forecast panned out and before too long, our skies looked like this:

When she's right, she's right. This came next:

But Ammy also said it wouldn't last too long and that I shouldn't be worried. Based on her assessment, I remained calm. Sure enough, before night fell, our skies turned rather lovely! Check out the view to the south!

Want a closer look? Here you go!

Beautiful, isn't it? And here's the sunset, just a little later:

It was quite the full day!

Ammy would have posted about this, since it's weather-oriented, but she's rather exhausted from all the forecasting, as you can imagine!

Tail wags,

Storms

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and kit-cats! It's me - Zim. Yep, on tap here for Serene Scenery Sunday. I thought I'd take you up to the Top of the World for a look around. Shall we go?

Me arriving at the Top of the World

I showed you some of the pix from this excursion a bit over a week ago and meant to get back to that trip. No time like the present!

Remember I showed you some pix a couple Sundays ago of a Western Meadowlark? We saw him again!

Western Meadowlark

Well, maybe not the same one... but you know what I mean. He looks well-protected in that dead tree, doesn't he?

We headed down the trail and stopped to admire the wildflowers.

Here's a purple kind that I thought was pretty:

We are fairly certain they are Western Ironweed. If anyone has a different opinion, let us know. Remember the yellow stuff I showed you? Here's some more:

It's Goldenrod. Not quite sure what variety... but it's Goldenrod.

Anyroo, we were feeling mighty serene, watching the birds, trying to ID some wildflowers, when I heard Mom say something that made me feel over-the-top serene! She said, "Oooh! I think that's snow on the mountain!" WHAT?!?! Snow on the mountain!?!? As many of you know, getting some mountains is right up there on my wish list with getting us an ocean here in Kansas. I couldn't believe my pointy ears when I heard we apparently not only had a mountain but there was SNOW on it! But then ... this is what Mom was looking at:

Snow-on-the-Mountain

So close... yet so far! That's OK. It's still a pretty cool flower.

Let's keep walking, shall we?

Here's a little Kansas sunflower for you:

Just wait a month or so; I'll show you seas of sunflowers!

Are you feeling serene now? Ready to head home?

That sure helped me find my happy place; hope it did the same for you!

Have a Serene Sunday!

Play bows,

Zim

Astronomy 101

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me - Amber! As part of my duties as Chief Meteorologist for the Ao4, it also falls upon me to study Astronomy - you know, the planets, the moon, stuff like that. Speaking of which - did anypup do anything cool the night of the full moon?

We didn't do anything real special, but I told some of my favorite moon jokes and we had a spontaneous howling session. All in all, pretty fun!

Anyroo, back to Astronomy! I encouraged Mom to load an App onto her iPhone called "Distant Suns" so I could study the planets and stars - and maybe teach Zimmie some cool stuff! As many of you know, a few years ago, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) decided that Pluto isn't a planet. Hrumph! I was happy to see that there is an option on the App that covers that; here's an iPhone screen shot:

I put my nose on the options and selected "I believe Pluto is still a planet!":

Take that, IAU! Ha roo!

So I was working the other night....

Me, Amber, working

Please ignore the long snowshoes. Sadly, they have since been trimmed.

...then decided to do some planet tracking. I entered Pluto into the search field and found it. I forgot to take a photo, but here's one from this morning:

iPhone screen shot: Pluto in the cross-hairs!

Isn't that exciting!??! Zimmie asked what all the excitement was and I told him I'd found Pluto! He wasn't very impressed - mostly because he and Davy were sort of busy... so I thought I'd have some fun with him.

"Well, Zimmie," I asked, "do you know where Pluto is?"

"Uh... no, not really, Ammy," he replied.

"Do you want to know where Pluto is?"

I knew I had his attention then. He loves to learn - you just have to get his attention first.

"Well, yeah, I do. Where is Pluto, Ammy?"

So I replied, "He's in Disneyland."

Hee hee hee! Get it? Pluto's in Disneyland. Hee hee hee!

Oddly, this was Zim's reaction:

"Pluto's in Disneyland..."

Here's a bird's eye view:

Groan...

I think he really liked that one!

If you're going to teach someone, you need to remember to throw some humor in there to make it more interesting!

Love,

Ammy

Chief Meteorologist and Astronomer for the Ao4

Photo Finish Friday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me again! Yeah, Zim, bringing you Photo Finish Friday. How cool is that?

Mom took these really, really cool pix of me in the garden a week or so ago. I keep meaning to share them with you, but we got side-tracked. Or is that Sibe-tracked? Ha roo roo roo!

Anyway, there I was, out in the garden, being Zimmle Mawson, Explorer Pup, when something caught my eye! I raced right over! I stared! I stuck my snooter in! I refused to move! (Even after Mom came over and hooked my leash up and tried to pull me away!)

Check it out!

Ha roo?

If any of you have moms who ... sort of ... how do I say this... are prone to get the Heebie Jeebies, this is a great way to entertain them. Or at least to get their undivided attention.

I said, "Ha roooo in there?!?!"

Mom tried to get me to remove my snooter from the retaining wall for a good five minutes or so, but I couldn't pull myself away. Nor could Mom pull me away. Ha roo roo roo.

No, Mom... not gonna budge. This is too fascinating!

Then she offered to get me a Happy Hearts cookie after we got in the house.... and at the risk of sounding like a sell-out, well... what can I say? She offered Happy Hearts!

For those out there who HAVE to know... Mom did take a shot of what was in the retaining wall. It's nothing bad... but Ammy thought we shouldn't post it to the blog; she doesn't want any bipeds out there to get the Heebie Jeebies. But if you "gots to know" (paws up to Dirty Harry fans) please click here.

Have a great weekend, friends. And get out there and do some exploring!

Play bows,

Zim

Evening Entertainment

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me - Zim! Many thanks for all the kind remarks on yesterday's post (especially from some of you babes... and you know who I mean!). Today, I thought I'd give you a little look at the "before" and "after", given that you saw the "about to launch". Ha roo roo roo! Ready? Here you go!

Before:

Me, Dave, and Mom's foot

And after:

Ha rooooo!

The color is a bit off there, but you get the gist of what was going on!

So... that's how we entertain our bipeds in the evening - how about the rest of you?

Play bows,

Zim

Wordless Wednesday

Luv and play bows,

Dave & Zim

Do I Look Different?

Woo, everypup and everycat! It's me - Dave! Before I get to today's post, I wanted to post a big update about Bart. I think you can see the news in this photo:

♥ Bart and Friend! ♥

Woo. It looks as though Bart's got himself a girlfriend! Congrats to the happy couple. Mom hopes you both stay right here and continue to frequent the Ao4 HQ All-You-Can-Eat Mosquito Buffet.

On to the post. I take a lot of heat from some of my fellow Sibes out there because I love to run after toys and bring them right back to Mom so she'll throw them for me.

Ready! Ready! Ready!

Again and again and again. It's a special game we like to play called "Fetch".

Here it is, Mom! Let's go again!

Stormy constantly reminds me this is not in the Siberian Husky Handbook -- hence my nickname "The LabraDave". I know she's just kidding, but it was time for her to renew our Siberian Husky Identification Cards, so I thought I'd best shape up for a while.

Here I come! Here I come!

In order to stay in Stormy's good graces, I've been doing this sort of fun thing lately when Mom and I play up on the upper tier. I run after the toy, then take off into the areas under heavy shrubbery, looking for Oswald. As a result of this, Mom has been making me play on the middle tier instead... thinking I'd forget about Os.

Kong-on-a-Rope! Kong-on-a-Rope! Kong-on-a-Rope!

Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Storm is very proud of me and has renewed my Sibe ID card. I think I'm safe to play a little more.

Play some more, Mom?

Just to be on the safe side, I've also been grabbing at a lot of grass on our walks lately, have done extra zoomies and wrestling with Zim, and don't come when I'm called. I am sooooo Siberian! Woo.

Do I look any different?

Luv,

Dave

I Thought We Could All Use This...

Hi everypuppy and everycat! It's me - Ammy. For today's post, please right-click this open in another tab so it plays in the background. Are you ready? No... really. Please do it. I'll wait. Your speakers are on, aren't they?

Let's go!

"When you're smiling
When you're smiling
The whole world smiles with you...

From Army of Four Digest

When you're laughing
When you're laughing
The sun comes shining through...

From Army of Four Digest

But when you're crying
You bring on the rain...

Hmm... yep. Rain coming...

So stop your sighing
Be happy again...

From Army of Four Digest

Keep on smiling

Cause when you're smiling
The whole world smiles with you...

From Army of Four Digest

When you're smiling...

When you're smiling...

The whoooooole worlllllld smiiiiiiiles with youuuuuuuuuu!"

See if that doesn't help put a smile on your face!

Love,

Ammy

Serene Scenery Sunday

Woo, everypup and everycat and everygoat and everybody! It's me, Dave! Storm said I could do Serene Scenery Sunday this week. She also said to make it good, because we all could use some extra serenity this week. I thought that instead of showing you a bunch of garden pix or sky pix or stuff like that, I thought I'd show you photos of us that Mom took this week, looking mighty tranquil. Doesn't that sound good? OK, let's get to it. Girls first!

Here's Storm taking a nice walk through the garden:

My sister Stormy!

Doesn't she look happy?

In this one, she is checking the western flank, happy that all is well:

Stormy

She's our leader and is always looking out for us and Ao4 HQs!

Here is a picture of Ammy, looking mighty serene:

The Yammer

Isn't she just the sweetest?!!? (Unless it's Supper-Dupper Time and she's singing the "Davy Stay Away From Stormy" song!) Here's another one:

Ammy

I think a certain Belgian Tervuren in Minne-snow-ta is going to like those two pix!

Here's the Zen-master himself, my kid brother, Zim:

The Zen of Zim

You can FEEL his serenity there, can't you? And check this:

Zen-master Zim

Ammy wanted me to point out our lovely blue sky there!

And last but not least, here I am, in a very serene moment:

Me! Davy! And my Kong-on-a-Rope!

Paws up to fellow Kong-on-a-Rope lovers, Maddie and Golden Sammie!

And here I am, in total bliss:

Me again - Dave

I hope some of our serenity rubs off on you and that you have a beautiful, peaceful, tranquil day!

Luv,

Dave

Charlie the Big Dog

Today we join with our extended pack-mates in the Dogs With Blogs community as we mourn the loss of our dear friend, Charlie the Big Dog. Our hearts and prayers go out to Greg, Brooke and Opy; we know Charlie was such a special boy, a special friend to you.

We were going to link to a post we made about Charlie back in April of '07, but instead, we're going to paste it in here, as a celebration of Charlie's life and our friendship with him. "Old post" in italics:

Ha roo, pups! It's me - Stormy! Have you seen our friend Charlie the Big Dog's blog lately? Not only did he post pictures of himself doing the Hail Me pose (Hail Storm/y) but he's written us a Haik-woo!!! Yeah! Isn't that wonderful?!!? He's taken Dave's art form to new heights and has honored us with a Haik-woo about all of us! Here it is!

We are totally impressed, touched and honored. Dave says it's outstanding and is flattered that Charlie is trying his paw at writing Haik-woo; Zim thinks it's totally cool; and Amber says that we must do something to show Charlie how deeply we cherish this Haik-woo and his friendship. The choice seems clear to me - and I think it was Holly who inspired it with a comment to Charlie. She said he could be "a Siberian in Lab fur, just like Dave is always confused with being a LAB in Siberian fur!!" Exactly. Only there's no confusion -- Dave IS a Lab in a Sibe suit. Ha roo roo roo! (Just kidding, Dave.)

So... by the powers vested in me as the Supreme Commander of the Army of Four and the Dean of the Stormy Zoluschka Kryschtal School of Siberian Studies ... I hereby declare Charlie the Big Dog to be an honorary Siberian Husky! Dave has marked the occasion (not that kind of marking!) by writing a Haik-woo of his own:

Charlie the Big Dog: Honorary Sibe!

Also, from this day forward, Charlie is an auxiliary member of the Army of Four!

Treats for everyone!

Tail wags,

Stormy
Supreme CDR, Ao4

We love you, Charlie, we'll miss you, but one day we will meet again. Greg, Brooke and Opy, may your memories comfort you, may time heal your wounds, and until you see Charlie again, healthy and whole, may you always feel his love.

The Army of Four and our mom