Photo Finish Friday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats, it's me, Zim!  For Photo Finish Friday this week, I thought I'd show you one of my collections.  Would you like to see it?  Here you go:

It's my feety-feet. Pretty nice collection, don't you think?

Have a great weekend!

Play bows,
Zim

Let's Take a (Road Trip) Break!

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave.  I've been working really hard down in the Studio with my mom lately - she's been writing up the directions for an original table runner pattern and has been finishing up another runner she re-wrote the directions for.  She chose some WILD fabrics for that one that just aren't "us" and believe me, they've been giving both of us a major headache.

The other day, Zim came in to check on us to see how we were doing.

"Hey Mom!  Hey Dave!  Whatcha guys d-- ... WHOA!"

He took one look at the re-written directions runner (you can see it there in the foreground) and decided Mom and I should take a break.  And quickly!  He suggested a car ride.

When Mom went into the inner room of the Studio to unplug the iron, I made my move.

"I call shotgun!"

I called it first, so I got to ride shotgun!

Me riding shotgun!

It was really fun!  We drove all the way out to Keats to go to one of Mom and Zim's favorite parks.  I had never been out there!  I think Zim was a little concerned that I wouldn't be as good of a navigator as he is, but we made it just fine.  Here he is on the way home:

"Mom?  Are you sure you know how to get home, Mom?  
Take a left.  No, your other left!  
Dave, tell her!"

What a backseat driver. Ha woo!

Luv,
Dave

PS: The pix of us in the car were taken while we were stopped in the parking lot.  Mom does not take pix while driving!

Wordless Wednesday

Play bows,
Zim

Bowl-ed Over!

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  What a wonderful surprise we received in the mail yesterday!  I couldn't believe it when Mom brought the mail in!  Here's how it went down:

I spotted a package and asked to snoof it.  It smelled of wood ... and an Airedale ... and ... very faintly of apples.  These are things only a pup could decipher, of course.  But I knew without a doubt - it was from my buddy Mitch!

Mom said it was actually from Mitch's mom and it was for her ... but I knew better!  Even so, I let Mom open it - and when she did, she was totally blown away by what was in the box!  It was a hand-carved wooden dish with a Siberian handle!!!  And the Siberian looks remarkably like ... well ... check it out:

Seriously!  I mean, even the blue eye is in the right place!  (Or is that "left"?  Ha roo roo roo!)

It was so incredibly thoughtful of Mitch's mom!  We love the smooth feel of the wood, the warm tones, and the whole design!  It's an amazing piece of art!  Anyway, Mom was pretty much speechless over just how beautiful this little dish is.  Or should I say "bowl-ed over"?  Ha roo roo roo!

Thank you, Mitch's mom!  You are such a thoughtful, talented biped!  And (wink, wink) we all know who this is reeeeeeallly for - don't we?  I'll just let Mom use it.

Play bows,

Zim

Daylight Siberian Time

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me - Zim.  As many of you know, here in the States, we switched over to Daylight Siberian Time Sunday morning.  You know what that means.

Don't you?

Yep.  It means I get the party started around here even earlier in the morning now!

Of course, that means by evening time I'm doing a whole lot of this:

Yeah.  And I know what you're thinking.  Or at least what all the bipeds are thinking.  You want to lay a big smooch right on my snooter to say "thank you" for the wake up call at 0400 DST.

Don't you.

Fine.

Here you go:

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to rest up for tomorrow morning.

Snoozy play bows,
Zim

Serene Scenery Sunday - The Special Effects Edition

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  Zim here with this week's Serene Scenery Sunday post.  Today, I thought I'd share some special effects photos that Mom had done recently, using a combination of PhotoShop Elements 9 and some iPhone apps.  We find them really soothing; we hope you will, too!

This first one might just be my favorite:

"Why?" you might ask. Well, because usually after a bunch of that, Mom says something about "someone" needing to burn off some excess energy in a positive way, and we head out on a cool adventure! Pretty good deal, don't you think?

Here's a cool Kansas barn we saw on one of our outings:

Our skies aren't really that turquoise-y. That's some of that "lomo camera" stuff, if I recall correctly. Sure looks cool, though, doesn't it?

Here's another old barn, with different effects:

Dave liked the natural colors in that one a bit better.

Speaking of whom, here's a shot of the Deeve himself:

He was in his Zen Zone - right next to Mom!

Here is a shot of me from our trip to the Kansas Ocean the other day:

You saw the original pic yesterday, but I really liked this version, too!  A trip to the ocean always mellows me out!

Remember my trip to the Top of the World?  That's another of my favorite places!  Here's a view from up there:

Why do I expect to see John Wayne leading a Cavalry Troop across the hills?

Lastly, here's Mom's favorite shot of me from that adventure:

I always feel great after a trip to the Top of the World!

I hope you enjoyed the special effects version of Serene Scenery Sunday!  

Play bows,

Zim

Fun in the Sun!

Ha roo, pups and cool cats! It's me, Zim! Yesterday was a bright, sunny day, so Dave and I sent Mom a mind-meld message to take us somewhere FUN! Before we knew it, we were at the Kansas Ocean! (We're really good at the whole mind-meld thing!)

When we got to the transoceanic bridge, I looked down to check the water:

"Wowzers!  Talk about low tide!  Must be from the full moon."

It was amazing how much the water level had dropped.  I know the moon affects the tides, so I chalked it up to the full moon.  Oh ... there was some water left in the ocean - check it out:

It just was way low tide.

Can you see Mom's shadow in the lower right, holding up the iPhone?  It was so bright, she couldn't see what she was doing.  Dave and I decided to have a little fun with that.

Mom asked Dave to look at the camera and smile, so he went first; since Mom couldn't see anything, this is what Dave did:

Dave

Ha roo roo roo. Good one, Davy! Here's what I came up with:

Me.  Zim!

Dave started ha wooing at that, then Mom turned and snapped his pic again real fast:

"Ha woo!  Good one, Zim!"

Mom was fast and sneaky with that one; it's like she's taking cues from ... well ... one of us!  I covered for Dave as fast as I could:

"Hey!  Whatcha guys doing?"

Oh. Did I get in the way?  Gee.  Sorry.  Oh, and nice work with the shadows and all, Mom.

We walked along the shoreline a little more, then we let Mom take one semi-decent shot of us:

Well, OK, Dave is bleached out in full sun and my face is heavily shadowed ... but Dave's SHADOW looks really cool!  Ha roo roo roo!  What fun in the sun!

Thanks for coming along with us!

Play bows,

Zim

Photo (and Video) Finish Friday!!!

Woo, everypup and everycat!  It's me, Dave, here with Photo (and Video) Finish Friday!  How about we start with a couple pix of the full moon from last night?

Here it is, peeking out from our across the street neighbors' pine, shortly before 9 p.m.:

Here's the moon about half an hour later, as seen through the same neighbors' fruit trees:

Pretty, isn't it? It was so big and bright!!!

OK, so this morning, we went on our morning walk, had some breakfast, then went out on our neighborhood patrol. See how we look so relaxed in this shot?

Compare our posture in the photo above to our posture in this shot:

See how our ears are standing at attention now? Our body posture says, "ALERT! ALERT! ALERT!"

Are you wondering what it might be? I think you know that Zim and I are pretty calm, easy-going guys. I mean, all the neighborhood cats like us and all. And all the dogs. Well ... almost all the dogs. But there are these two dogs - both Cocker Spaniels - who are potty mouths! Every time we walk by their houses (they live next door to each other) they SWEAR at us! Really! Mom shot video of us and them today. You'll hear me squeak at them. I only do that when they swear at me! I just can't stand it!  Here you go, check it out:

(If that doesn't work, please click here.)

The brown guy is probably a Beagle - Basset mix and he's OK.  But those Cockers!  They make me squeal like a Wookie!

Does anyone speak Cocker here, by the way?  I know they're swearing at me - but I can't understand exactly what they're saying!

Have a great weekend, friends!

Luv,
Dave

Road Trip!

Ha roo, pups and cool cats!  It's me, Zim!  Yesterday was warm and windy and we had some awesome clouds rolling across the Flint Hills.  Always fascinated with the weather, Mom thought we should go to a place where we could get an even better view than the one we have here at Ao4 Headquarters.  Yes, "we".   Mom's the self-described weather geek - I'm the one who's always up for a road trip!  Let's go!!!

Look at where we headed:

Mom took that out the sunroof! Can you tell where we were going? Check it out:

"Ahh!!!  Beautiful!"

That's right - to the Top of the World!

Can you tell how windy it was? I look like I was having a bad fur day, don't I? Ha roo, you should have seen Mom's hair! (ahem!)  ... or maybe not.  Do you like my camouflage job?

Anyway, check out the beautiful view!

Gorgeous, isn't it? And the clouds! Wowzers, they were so cool!

"Doesn't it look awesome?"

We walked a bit, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells.

I love it up there.

What a great place to go exploring!

Oh, and it took about more than 12 hours, but thanks to those clouds, we finally we had a cold front move in - we went from in the mid-60s to the 30s (yea!) and overnight we had a massive thunder-hail storm roll through! It was incredible.  For some reason, Mom wouldn't let me go out and take pix of it all.  Go figure!

Thanks for coming with us on our cool adventure!

Play bows,
Zim

Wordless Wednesday

Play bows,
Zim

Helping Out in the Evenings

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave.  I don't just help my mom in the Studio, you know!  Like Zim, I have duties that take me all over the place!  In the evenings, for example, one of my duties is to sit  on top of  beside my mom like this:

... and help her with anything that comes up.

The other evening, she had a little problem with a Solitaire-type game she was playing on the iPad, so I offered to take a look.

"Want me to have a go at it, Mom?"

I made a couple suggestions and then ...

"How did we do?"

What can I say.  I'm from Texas and I know cards.  Woo.

Luv,

Dave

Starting the Work Week

Woo, everypup and everycat.  It's me, Dave, Guide Dog for the Color Blind (GDFTCB).

I'm right here -

"Woo, everybody!"

I'm hard at work in the inner room of the Studio.  From the sounds of it, I'll be here a lot today lending a paw when needed.

"How about the front left one?"

Ha woo.  "The front left one."  Get it? I might really knuckle down and toss two paws' worth into the mix:

"How about these?"

Mom liked my double-barrelled help so much that she did some special effects work on that photo.  Check it out:

And yeah, I was paid with some snuggle time for that!

Anyway ... I need to get back to work for now!

Have a great Monday, everyone.  And remember to pace yourselves - the work week is just beginning!

Luv,

Dave, GDFTCB

Serene Scenery Sunday

Ha roo, pups and cool cats - it's me, Zim!  I thought we'd spend a little more time at Tuttle Creek Dam/Reservoir for this week's Serene Scenery Sunday.  How does that sound?  I always feel so relaxed after a trip to the water!  Let's go!

When Mom and I got there the other day, we did some looking around at first:

She always does a safety check and looks for eagles. I always look for stuff to get into interesting things to explore. For the record, we're pretty sure the eagle population knows Mom's car by sight and leave the AO as soon as they see her pull into the parking area ... but since we're trying to be serene here, let's skip over that.

We headed down the hill to get closer to the water:

The sky was just a picture postcard perfect blue that day!

We got a bit closer to the water and had a look around:

We didn't see any eagles (sorry, Mom) but I did see these guys:

If I'm not mistaken, they are American Coots. They were adults, but not what I would call "old" coots.   Ha roo roo roo! Moving right along ...

For those who have asked - I am a Siberian Husky, and as such I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in going into the water. Besides, you really can't get to it here - those big boulders prevent you from getting close to it.  And it's not safe to swim close to the dam.

Anyway, we walked down near the water for a bit, then headed back up the hill:

I sure had a relaxing, enjoyable time at the lake. It made me feel all ... well, like this:

Don't judge me too harshly for looking at the camera and smiling - I had such a wonderful adventure, I just couldn't help myself. Besides ... Mom brought treats with us.

Thanks to everyone for helping me decide which pose was best yesterday, by the way! The general consensus was that Pose 1 was the better, but both had ample votes!

Remember to keep it serene, friends!

Play bows,
Zim