Three day weekends rule! And so do Greenies.

You know, it's a busy week in the news and we've had a hard time keeping up with everything between naps and barking. We saw Barack Obama on the Daily Show and really liked him. It seems like he cares about energy and oil dependence but we'd like to know more about clean air & water, national parks, and green spaces.

So we're almost to Labor Day weekend! We are excited because we're going to meet Patches this weekend at a BBQ. We're going to play croquet and grill Greenies. But we are really worried about child labor laws. Places like Firestone exploit children and other workers in Liberia and many other companies around the world are guilty of abusing children to turn a profit. Great organizations like Rugmark are working to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry and instead provide educational opportunities to children in South Asia. Visit this page to find out more about ways you can help and also to get a list of companies you should avoid.

Finally, Venus wants to audition for Flavor of Love 3 and the next Bachelor. Which photo do you think she should use?

This up close one that shows off her lips?
Or this profile shot?

Let us know in a comment, please.

xoxo,
Bean & Doodle

We have 4 footprints, how about you?

This is our friend Dexter. He lives in Rio de Janeiro. He and his feet are pretty little as you can see because he is sitting next to his own Daddy's big hiking boots. Dexter is really playful and likes to chase people around. When our Daddy visited, Dexter chased him... a lot. We told Dexter to be careful about all the footprints he's leaving on the earth from chasing people so much. We hope you are careful, too, and are paying attention to the resources you use each day. If you want you can take this really cool survey Earth Day Network that measures your Ecological Footprint.

We found some Green Living tips on another person's blog and thought we'd share our favorites with you:

• Turn down your heat by 1 degree for every hour you’ll be away from home.

• Replace traditional light bulbs with newer longer lasting/low energy ones.

• Don’t stand with the refrigerator or freezer open while you decide what you want.

• Unplug unused appliances.

We also notice that Mommy & Daddy use water that they've cooked corn and stuff in to water the plants outside. They of course wait until it cools down and they do not let us help. We try to make the plants less thirsty by peeing on them, but that seems to make Daddy fairly mad.

So we hope we gave you some good ideas of little things you can do to lessen your own footprint. If you don't start doing some of them, I will show up on your doorstep and arrest you. I've got this police officer outfit and I will use it. I have cuffs and everything.

xoxo,
Bean

Get to know us better

We thought we would share a bit more about ourselves. You see, Venus is the more serious one. She is very delicate and likes flowers and pretty things, especially when the pretty things are purple. She is very sweet and gentle and wants to please everyone else. She is very shy when she first meets new people but will be your best snuggle buddy once she gets to know you. If she could have a job, she would be an artist so that she could paint pretty pictures for everyone she loves.




I, on the other hand, am silly. I like to tease Venus and play tricks. I even
like to sing. I like to take many naps and only please myself. I will hop on your lap the first time I meet you and try to eat things out of your nose. I get grumpy when I'm awakened from a nap and get cranky when Daddy rubs his whiskers on my nose. My first choice for a job would be to sell kibble at the price of $1 per kibble bit. But if that didn't work out, I would definitely be a jester.

Mommy likes beer and sometimes Daddy picks her up from the bar so she doesn't have to take Metro home by herself. If I could draw a cartoon character based on Mommy, she would look like this:
If you have questions for us, please post them in a comment. Then we'll answer them in a future post.

xoxo,
Jigga

Do you want to get rocked?!?

Tonight Mommy & Daddy going to a Def Leppard concert. Mommy is super excited, Daddy is going mostly just to make Mommy happy. Anyway, when we told our cousin, Maddie, about the concert, she made this face. We think she wishes she could go.

The Leppards that are playing tonight are probably endangered just because hair bands are slowly dwindling. But there are other kinds of leopards that you can help to save from extinction. Visit Big Cat Rescue to find out how you can adopt a leopard and to help keep the sanctuary up and running. It's the purrrrfect gift for someone you love ;)

Our favorite homies

These are our cousins, Henry & Maddie.

They're the lucky dogs that live in Maui. They took some time out from hanging with their homies to do a photo shoot for us.

Then another time Venus hung out with the same homies while wearing her "Mahalo for the belly rubs" kerchief.


She really wants a pair of sunglasses, but I told her that goggles would be more classy. What do you think?

xoxo,
Bean

We're Back to Reality

We are finally home -- back from camp and caught up on naps and snacks. We were super happy when Mommy & Daddy picked us up a day early. It was really exciting to ride in the car on the way home. We made nose paintings on the windows and barked at motorcycles.

We spent much of Sunday catching up on TV. We love The Rock of Love with Bret Michaels, The Real World, and Scott Baio is 45 and Single. But then after we watched the premiere of the Real World: Australia, we heard that the next season is going green. That's right. The 20th anniversary season will have those over-sexed peeps living in an energy efficient house with lots of recycled stuff and environmentally friendly practices.

We don't have an action for you today but we can say that we're glad to be back.

xoxo,
Venus and Jigga

The Globe got Warmer while we were at Camp

It is so hot this week and everyone here at camp is talking about the rising temperatures and whether or not this weather is a result of global warming. We know it exists but we just don't know how to talk to people about it. So we found this really nice guide from Grist Magazine that will help us talk to the biggest global warming skeptics.

We really miss Mommy & Daddy but think that brushing up on this hot topic will help us to pass the time.

Eggs before camp

Today is the day we go to camp. Well, Mommy & Daddy call it camp but we like to call it prison. Still, Mommy made us scrambled eggs this morning, which is one of our favorite treats. We will have stinky farts, tho.

We wanted to show Mommy just how we felt about "camp" so I decided to put on one of my old Halloween costumes:
I'm a prisoner! Hee hee. So then I told Venus to go put on her striped outfit and this is what she came up with:
Not really along the lines of what I was thinking, but she says she is a "jail bee."

So we're off to "camp" soon. We may not be able to post from there because they don't have wireless. If you want to keep current about what's happening in the news around the nation, we think you should read the Daily Kos.

We'll miss you and will see you next weekend!!

Love,
Jigga and Venus

We love collars but we don't love (other) fur

We got new collars from our cousins Henry and Maddie. They live in Maui with Aunties Nikki Jo and Molly. We're super excited because we like getting new things to wear. Unfortunately, we couldn't sit still long enough for Mommy to get a picture with our collars on, so we took them off and she took this picture.

Jigga got the one with the card suits and I got the one with the paws and cross bones. Pretty cool, huh?

After we took off our collars I decided to make Jigga put on a bunny outfit. I can do that because I'm bigger and can make him do things. Anyway, you can see from the photo shoot below that he is pretty
unhappy.


He said he would rather go naked than wear fur, which is pretty strange because he has no choice but to wear fur since it's attached to his skin. But to make up with him, I promised I would do this post to encourage everyone else to go fur-free. Rid your closet of fur coats and choose to donate them to PETA's Fur is Dead campaign. Your coat will go to someone in need either here in the U.S or to women and children in Afghanistan and Iraq.

xoxo,
Venus