Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats, it's me, Zim, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  You know what makes me feel totally relaxed, don't you?

"Snow!  Lovely, fluffy snow!"

Oh, yeah! Isn't it beautiful? Nothing like enjoying some lovely snow! It's so cool, so refreshing ... so serene!

How about a snowy collage?

Gorgeous, isn't it? But can you see the expression on my face in that shot in the lower left-hand corner? Yeah... the one where I can see the neighbor's driveway and the snow MELTING on it!!! Sigh. That's right - melting! As Dave told you yesterday, we're expecting some warmer temps, so I know I have to enjoy the snow while we have it!

Here I am, making a snow angel:

Doesn't that look relaxing and fun? Oh... did I mention we were supposed to be on a walk, not, as Mom and Stormy put it, "horsing around"?

"On your feet, SGT Zim!"

Oops. Sorry, Stormy! Oh... and Mom.

Once back at Headquarters, I stopped to reinforce one of my really cool snow forts. Mom took a video of me in action, but it's not pasting in right.  If you'd like to see it, please click here!

Here's a still shot:

You can see how serious I am about my work. At the same time, it gives me great peace. It's one of the keys to happiness - find what you like to do and do it to the best of your ability! I'm the only one in the family who makes them, to answer a very recent question from our pal Angus Mhor, so I make sure I make them well!

In fact, this should please Angus and our other kit-cat pals out there -- the other night, we saw my friend Callie Co Kitty all curled up sleeping in one of my forts! Now, we'd sure prefer that she was all snug and warm in her house, in a fluffy bed, but at least my efforts were able to help her stay a little bit warm!

Speaking of whom...

"Callie, are you in there?!?!"

Have a wonderful Sunday - and find whatever makes you serene!

Play bows,
Zim

The Week in Review

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave.  I thought I'd do a little re-cap of the week for you... mostly because I wasn't sure what else to post about.

The week started out great, with us getting about 8 more inches of snow.  Here I am, checking it out with Stormy.

Me and Stormy in the middle of our road

As you might be able to tell from our coats, it was still snowing. Here's another shot after it stopped:

Me and Stormy again; this time on the sidewalk.  Sort of.

It might look like a bunch of people and pups had been down the street already, but oddly enough, we're the only ones who go out walking in this kind of weather. Can you imagine? They don't know what they're missing! We made the most of it, as our temps are supposed to go way up in a few days and melt everything. Woo.

Lemme see... Stormy showed you pix of the yummy Pumpkin Oat treats we helped Mom make. We've also been enjoying some incredible Chicken Jerky our very kind and beautiful friends Mochi and Bali sent us.

"!!!"

I have to tell you, that jerky is among the tastiest things I've ever had in my life.

So... making the most of the snow while we have it, enjoying some tasty treats... other than that, we've just sort of been hanging out. Here's an artsy shot of my cool kid brother and me, looking extremely innocent in the living room.

"Who us?  No.... we weren't doing anything..."

Whatever your plans are today, I hope you have tons of fun!

Luv,
Dave

Photo Finish Friday

Tail wags, dear readers, it's me - Stormy - here with Photo Finish Friday.  And since it is Friday...

"May I have some hors d'oeuvres to go with this, please?"

...can I buy you a drink?

Ha roo roo roo. Have a great weekend!

Tail wags,
Storms

Doggles?

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me - Zim!  Do any of you have Doggles?  I had to have my eyes dilated at the vet's yesterday as part of my routine Senior Care exam.  Between the snow and the sun, it was really bright out, so our vet was concerned about me hurting my eyes if I was outside for any period of time.  She asked if I had a pair of Doggles!  Well ... we don't, but since I did need to go out and take care of some business when we got home, we tried something else.

"I think I'm ready, Mom!"

I thought I looked pretty cool, so I was more than willing to keep them on.

I struck a cool pose out in the driveway...

"Snap away, pupparazzi!"

...then set out to do what a pup needs to do!

"Hey kit-cat pals!  Anycat out here?!?"

I meant look for my friends and work on one of my really cool snow forts. What did you all think I meant?

Keep it cool, pups and kit-cats!

Play bows,
Zim

Wordless Wednesday

Play bows,
Zim

Pumpkin Oat Cookies!

Tail wags, dear readers - it's me, Stormy!  Mom made us some Pumpkin Oat Cookies over the weekend.  They are mighty tasty, so I thought I'd post the recipe for all of you.  I'll link to this in the sidebar, under our Secret Family Recipes, so your biped can come back to this numerous times and make batch after batch after batch of cookies for you!  Ready to start?  Let's head to the kitchen and I'll show you how we made them!

Have your biped gather the following ingredients:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 eggs
1 cup of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, just pumpkin!)
2-4 Tablespoons peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

Your biped needs to mix that all real well in a large bowl; our mom used the electric hand mixer but you don't have to.

At this point, you need to inspect your biped's work. Dave and I were on hand.

"Hold it a little lower, please..."
"Maybe if I sit like a good boy, I'll get some dough!"

Dave gave it his thumbs up err... approval, but I needed to inspect it a bit closer.

"Yeah... that smells wonderful!"

I gave Mom the go-ahead and she got busy with the next stages.

Oh... wait.  You might be wondering where Zimmie was.  Well ... umm ... he was busy in another part of the house.

"Zzzzzz......"

Well, maybe not so much busy as otherwise engaged.

Now your biped needs to get rolling!  Have her or him roll the dough out to 1/8", cut out with really cool cookie cutters, then move them to baking sheets. Bake at 350℉ for 20-30 minutes, or until crispy.  Cool cookies on cooling racks.

Next comes the part Zim was resting up for - the taste-testing!!!

Zim is in the bottom left corner
Dave is in the upper left
I'm on the right

Trust me when I say they are delicious! They're great "as is", but you might notice I have a spread on mine. I need extra calories, so I got a bunch of the cookies smeared with a tasty, high-calorie supplement called NutriCal. Mmmm, what a great combo!

OK, I know you want a close-up of the cookies. Are you ready?

Pumpkin Oat Cookies

Mega-tasty! These are for pups, but I think some of my kit-cat friends might like them, too. And bipeds can try them... but they aren't sweet or anything, so they probably won't steal too many of your treats!

Now, everyone give your bipeds your best Sad-Eyes Look so you can try this recipe! Good luck and let me know if you give them a go!

Tail wags,
Storms

Frozen Solid!

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! Guess who?

That's right - it's me - Zim! How did you know?!?

Hey, do you remember last year I showed you the Kansas Ocean had frozen over?!? Well, guess where I went a couple days ago? To the new ocean I discovered!!!

It's been real cold and snowy here, but once the back roads were clear, Mom and I headed out to that Tuttle Creek Ocean! It hadn't been long at all since I'd been there, but wowzers, what a big change! Check it out!

"Wowzers!  It's frozen solid!"
(It was really windy -- look at how it's fluffing my fluff all up!)

As far as the eye could see, the ocean was a block of ice!

"I thought this would only happen to the Kansas Ocean!"

It was really cool! No eagles in sight for Mom to try to photograph, but I'm not sure how they'd get any fishies out of the ocean right now anyway - they're probably out hunting somewhere else! If When we do see some, I'll try to make sure Mom has the camera!

Play bows from the frozen ocean,
Zim

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats, it's me - Zim.  Ready to find a little serenity?  Let's have a look around headquarters, OK?

Me and Dave, checking things out

Dave and I looked all around out there. Don't our shadows look cool? Speaking of cool - check out the contours in this snow drift:

Snow.  Lovely snow!

Gorgeous, isn't it? The blizzard brought us that beautiful snow sculpture. It was really strange - we had huge drifts that were 3-4 feet high, then other areas were just ice! Then, of course, the ice melted ...

...and we had bare patches where you could see the grass. Check this scene in our side yard:

"Callie-Co!"

Oh, hey! It's my friend the Calico Cat! Isn't she just the prettiest?!? I always feel serene, spending time with Callie!

"Meow, Zim!"

She always talks to me and Mom when we're outside.

"Prrrrr......"

She's very talkative!

In other cat news, remember Stormy's friend, the Fluffy Black Cat?  Well, guess who showed up on our back deck, asking to come in?

"Meow.  Can I come in?"

Yeah. Our deck is up one and a half floors... so she had to do a lot of climbing to get up there. Poor kit-cat! She had to be cold!!! We really don't understand leaving kit-cats or pups out in the cold! At least she could take shelter under our lower deck - there are some areas there that are more protected from the wind and cold.

Back to more serene things... and speaking of being out in the cold... Dad worked really hard digging us out after the blizzard. Like the good leader that she is, Storm went out and checked on him, to make sure he was OK!

"Are you doing OK, Dad?"

She takes such good care of all of us!  And so does Dad!  He did a great job shoveling paths for us!

While I'm on a roll showing you our kit-cat pals ... guess what?  We had a new friend hanging out in our yard yesterday!

"Mrrrr-ow!"

We have no idea where she came from, but nothing makes me feel more serene than making a new friend!

Happy Sunday - and I hope you've found your Zen of Zim Zone!

Play bows,
Zim

Walk This Way

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me again - Dave!  As most of you know, we got hit by a blizzard the other day.  Except for the ice underneath everything, it's been pretty fun.  I mean for Siberians.  But really none of us do too well on ice.  So when the sidewalks were finally clear, it was great being able to walk without slipping.

Here's a collage of me and Stormy walking together:

Me on the left; Storm on the right

See how we're careful to stay on the clear part? Yeah. Mom stayed on the clear part, too. So that made three of us on the sidewalk.

Oh. You might be wondering about Zim. Yeah, he was walking with us, too. But he's ... umm ... a little ... different. Here's where he was walking:

That was snow piled up by the snow plows and was about 3-4 feet high.

He was trying to figure out the best place to put another really cool snow fort, probably.

"This might be a good place for another really cool snow fort!"

He had to test it out first.

"Oh, yeah.  This is nice!"

That was in our yard, so it was a huge mountain of snow -- Dad threw what he shoveled off the driveway and sidewalk on there!

"I'm the King of Snow Mountain!"

He DID look very regal up there!

Oh - speaking of royalty, I heard him talking about mailing Meeshka some of our snow, so she could make a really cool snow fort and a fluffy snow pillow. A bunch of our snow is missing out there now, so I think he might have been successful!

Hope all of you are enjoying the weekend!

Luv,
Dave

Photo Finish Friday

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me - Dave!

I know, it's shocking, isn't it? I haven't posted in a while, have I? I'll try to get better about that. It's just Zim has such great pix to share of his cool snow forts and all! Anyway, I thought I'd browse through iPhoto and see what other photos we have on hand that I could share with you for Photo Finish Friday.

Here's a great close-up of Stormy:

She really has dreamy eyes, doesn't she?

 Speaking of eyes, Zim's ZRD is getting better, slowly but surely. (For those who would like more info, there's a link at that link... err... or try this one, too.)  One of the things our vet recommended Mom do to help my kid brother out was to put a warm, moist compress over the affected areas.  I think it must be pretty soothing -- check him out:

Yeah, that's me in the background. I thought I should get a little spa treatment, too. But did I? No.  No spa time for the Deeve.  Sigh.  

I'll be up here pouting, if anyone wants me.

Luv,
Dave

Thursday Miscellany

Ha roo, pups and cool cats.  It's me - Zim.  Just a couple quick pix for you today, then I need to get Mom to bundle back up and take me out to work on my main really cool snow fort.  See, I had it just about right the other day, then we had some melt-down.  I'm thrilled to have more snow on it, but now there's a lot of work to be done.  I added a cool, new feature the other day that got trashed -- a pillow!  Mom put this one on FaceBook and I think it's worth sharing here!

Tell me that pillow doesn't look COMFY!

In other news, apparently the phrase, "If you don't stop that scratching, you're going to end up in the cone again!" can lead to this:

"Harumph!"

Bummer.  Fortunately, that didn't last long and I've ditched the party hat again.

OK. AccuWeather says it's up to -7 degrees F, so I'm off.  Have a cool day!

Play bows,
Zim

Wordless Wednesday ... The Making of a Really Cool Snow Fort

Play bows,

Zim

Need Some Sunshine!

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me - Zim!  We're currently getting hit by that blizzard Stormy told you about.  Apparently Mom doesn't want to spend a lot of time outside with us - something about snow flying around, swirling winds, ice covering everything, sub-zero degree (Fahrenheit) wind chills ... blah, blah, blah.  I wasn't really listening to the whole thing; I was just happy to see more snow covering my really cool snow forts!  I can't wait to get out there and work on them.

In the meantime, how about some sunshine?!?  Now, it wasn't real warm, but it was certainly sunny the last time I went to that new ocean I discovered.  I hadn't shared all the pix with you - so why not take a look now?

Here I am, just past the barricade, down the path a bit:

Aren't the rocks cool? I got to climb on them a little bit. But then Mom said we could walk all the way down to the bottom of the path, down near the shoreline! She wanted to take a pic of that castle-looking part of the dam.

Whatever. While she dilly-dallied getting that shot, I checked out a bunch of things floating around on the water.

I thought they might be gooses, but they were something called "buoys". Too bad. It would be cool to meet up with gooses again. I really dig those guys.

Mom took this artsy shot of me:

I look as tall as a Great Dane there, don't I? How cool is that?!?!

We hiked around for a while down there, then ... see the path behind me in this next photo?  Sort of "under" the dam?

Yeah, the one winding up the hill. Mom realized since we came down that path, we were going to have to hike back up there... so we got going.

Back up at the top, there's a nice stone bench you can sit on to relax and enjoy the view. (I showed you a pic of me sitting there a bit ago.) Here's another look:

It's really comfy. Oh, and it's not like I was just sitting there taking in the view. I was working, too. Seriously. Check out this next photo:

See? Check out the rock wall behind me, to the left. See my shadow? That takes talent.  Ha roo roo roo!

I hope you enjoyed the sun.  For those of you in the path of the blizzard - stay safe and warm!  I'll be heading out in a bit to check on my really cool snow forts.

Play bows,
Zim