It's Wimbledon time!

All in all it's been a good weekend -- the staff was around a lot, our friend Jake is here -- and we didn't get a bath. Best of all, there's Wimbledon.

Faithful readers will know how much we love the major tennis tournaments. It's Wimbledon time and the Williams sisters are IN.

Maggie loves Venus -- she's stylish and tough. Bandit prefers Serena's tough, competitive nature. Tennis-ball activities have long been favorites of ours, and we know how hard it is to play with them. The William sisters know how to make it happen.

We're sorry about Roddick's loss, and we can't wait to see what shapes up with Nadal and Federer. In the meantime, serve'em up Serena and Venus!

All right. We know.

We've been scarce lately. And we're sorry. It's been a little nuts since the stupid Kitten came to live with us. Bandit has lost a lot of his eyesight, and Maggie, well, she's still cranky as ever.
In other words, we're fine.

Summer's here and the staff is finally spending some time around the house. It's a holiday weekend, and we generally expect our annual road trip and some Wimbledon action. This week, they've got us all discombobulated. But we did get to go riding, so that's a start.

Vacation snooze

We've been due for some time out after having to deal with the kitten for a few weeks. The staff obliged this weekend.
They took us to our favorite place: the beach.

We've spent most of our time wisely, sleeping, walking and watching Wimbledon. Aunt Jenn has been around to run us through some Yoga practice -- we prefer the term Doga, but whatever. At left, you'll see a move Maggie likes to call Downward Facing Dog Facing Dog.

Today, we get to chase birds off the deck!

Kittens and tennis don't mix

We've discovered we have common ground with the kitten -- he apparently likes tennis. Too much so, if you ask us. He won't get out of the way. Because everyone lets him play with everything, he thinks he can play at Wimbledon, too. He's also developed an affinity for Andy Roddick.



Today was our first full day of watching Wimbledon this year. Staffer Mom was good enough to leave the TV on for us while the staff was doing other things.
Now we've got to figure out how to keep the kitten away from the TV. Bandit thinks we should just be patient. When kitten starts that crap when "Law&Order" is on, the staff will take care of the whole problem.

Wimbledon time!

As careful readers will know, we love tennis. And Wimbledon is here.
It's our custom to watch early rounds at home, and then watch the rest at the beach with Aunt Jenn and Uncle Brad. (Aunt Jenn always brings champagne.)

We can sit in front of the TV and watch the tennis ball go back and forth for hours. Roger Federer and the Williams sisters are our faves, but we do wish we'd see something out of Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova.

While we do love Staffer Mom's Wii tennis matches, we prefer ones on TV -- they are quieter and the language flying around can't be as bad as what we're exposed to here. We're not even sure what some of the words mean, but it can't be good. You'd never hear that coming from Maria. (Staffer Mom says the only difference is Maria says it in Russian, but we prefer not to believe that.)

We've been slacking

No, we haven't been in timeout -- and we're pretty sure that's what you thought. We've just been slackers. We've just been having a pretty good time, and we took a break. But we're back.

We'll try to catch you up with our latest adventures:
- Right before Christmas, we woke up one morning and heard all sorts of strange sounds outside...it sounded like the chainsaw and giant suck machine (vacuum cleaner?) all at one time, so that couldn't be good. When we finally got to go outside and check out the noise, we found our favorite big pine trees were missing from the backyard. Bandit was particularly upset to find all the excavation work he'd done around the tree near the weird bush was all gone. Now there was a big hole full of wood chips. We're not really sure what caused this, but we figure there will be lots of termites and grubs in that part of the yard when summer comes. That can't be bad.

- Christmas was fun. Grandma came and slipped us food under the table a couple of times. Staffer Mom took some time off and when she does that, she tends to cook a lot. This time, she cooked so much, she dropped food on the floor a lot, so that worked out well. She can stay home more often.

- The staff got a Wii. And frankly, we think those things are hazardous. First of all, they always move the furniture to play with it, and when Staffer Mom is Wii boxing she gets pretty violent. Last night, she nearly stepped on Maggie twice. When Staffer Dad's playing Wii bowling, he won't let us in the den at all. This was quite unexpected for us and remains an annoying situation.

- Then, we spent New Year's at the beach. It was cold there, but the staff lets us sit on the couch at the beach house and that made up for a lot. Unlike last year, they didn't make us watch all five "Planet of the Apes" movies. Instead, they took the stupid Wii to play with. Now we're worried they'll take away our Wimbledon and U.S. Open vacations to play with that stupid toy.

So that puts us about even...except for our new nighttime yard game. We'll tell you about that later.

W is for Wimbledon, Williams

From Maggie: Last year, I was able to give you regular observations about Wimbledon fashion, but this year the staff changed how the TV remote works and we've had trouble figuring it out. So sadly, our fashion updates had to be sacrificed. (We'll try to do better for the U.S. Open -- there are more fashion risks there anyway, and I'm more than willing to point them out.)
Today, we're in luck because the staff decided to let us watch the finals. And I'm pleasantly surprised to find my fashion fave, Venus Williams, playing sister Serena. Venus is always my pick for best-dressed anyway, but today, even in the respectful Wimbledon white, she's a goddess in her plain halter dress. Her sister, on the other hand, looks less like a go-go dancer today and finally got rid of the less-than-classy catsuits (for now). Today, she's chosen a low-key dress with a graceful plain top. Her earrings, however, look like beaded shower curtain rings. Venus would never make that mistake.

Fuzzy-ball holidays

From Bandit: We refer to Labor Day -- and the 4th of July -- as fuzzy-ball time. In our experience, fuzzy balls have been things we chase across the yard to humor mom and dad. But, in our house, they are on TV. If we are at the beach, Aunt Jenn (left) usually hits the champagne early and eats strawberries. Mom has a thing about making pancakes and forcing everyone to eat them. Then she makes a pitcher of Bloody Marys; sometimes, she shares. Dad and Uncle Brad just watch the game, roll on the floor and scratch their backs with us. The important thing is that there's always Wimbledon or US Open tennis on the TV. And this Labor Day will be no different. Maggie's planning to blog for the week about the Open, because her friend Sidda will not be able to watch. Sidda's sick, and it's important that Maggie keep her up to date on the action. As for me, fuzzy balls are about as close as I'll get to ever having any again.