Matt-the-Hatter!

Yesterday was a really great day even though it never stopped raining and ended with some thunderstorms. While Tony and Ben sloshed around outside I walked six miles even though I was really tired because I hadn't slept much the night before.

The reason that I did not sleep well was because I worried about doing a reality show out here. I really liked Karuna and I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but something inside me said, "Don't do it" and I always listen to my heartstrings.

After I walked, I went over to the Lodge to talk to Kinky about the TV show and I told him my thoughts and concerns. Thirty minutes later Kinky told me he was fine with any decision I made about it so I came home and called a few Board members and talked to them about the reality show. Then I talked to my sister Cindy and Ben about it and the "don't do it" votes outnumbered the "do it" votes.

I felt bad about telling Karuna the news for at least ten minutes and then I forgot all about it because Ian showed up to adopt Scooby Doo! Since it was raining cats and dogs outside we invited Ian to come inside the trailer to fill out the adoption papers on the little dog that stole his heart a few weeks back. Ian was so excited about finally adopting Scoober he could not wait to go outside in the rain to get his new best friend and take him home. "Last night my girlfriend went to the pet store and bought him dog food, feed dishes, a collar, leash and a ton of toys to play with!" Ian said before he and Tony went to get Scooby Doo.

When Tone came back inside the trailer I was making lunch for Ben, Tone and me and he was soaked from head to toe, but he was wearing a big smile on his face. "Scooby was so excited to see Ian. I know Scooby knew that he was getting his forever home, Nance. He's a lucky dog and I'm so glad that it was Ian who adopted him. He is such a nice young man."

After lunch with the guys I returned several e-mails and phone calls, then I got depressed about having to call Karuna and tell her that we had to decline her TV show offer. I hate it when I have to say no to people as nice as Karuna, but I knew I had to so I put it off for an hour and took an "arts and crafts break" to cheer me up.

Last week when Tony and I went over to visit our friends Barbara and Tom Carpenter at their beautiful ranch I fell in love with the way Barbara had decorated their cozy home because it was "Country" style and full of love, history and character. When I spotted her painted, pastel pink Scrabble letters and trays scattered throughout their ranch house with words like: relax, welcome etc. I told her that I wanted to copy her idea, she told me to do it and I did sort of.

While I was painting (white washing) the lettered and numbered tiles baby pink I decided to do my words in "Pig Latin" because as a child Ronnie and I used to talk Pig Latin in front of our parents and we thought that we were so smart, thinking that they could not understand us—it was our secret language. Mom and Dad never let on that we might not be the sharpest tools in the tool shed because they were too nice.

For those of you who are too young to know what Pig Latin is I will tell you. In Ronnie's and my secret foreign language we removed the first letter of a word and put it at the end of the word and added "ay" to it. For example: Ronnie became Onnie-Ray. Here is a picture of a few of my trays of words.

After I cleaned up my mess in the kitchen I called Karuna to tell her the bad news. She was so sweet even though I could tell that she was really disappointed and I felt terrible for twenty minutes after we hung up. Then I forgot about it because we had another fantastic adoption! R-1 found his new forever home! And it was raining so hard Tony, Ben and I got soaked as we stood outside in the rain visiting with Tony's friend Bo.

After the adoption papers were signed inside the barn R-1 happily jumped into the front seat of Bo's fancy truck and layed down as we visited in the pouring rain. After ten minutes of talking I said, "I can't help it. I've got to check on R-1 and make sure that he is okay." Then we all walked up to the window and looked inside the pickup—R-1 was sound asleep and seemed to be hugging the cloth seat because he loves to ride in trucks and cars! "I want this dog to go everywhere that I go." Bo said.

When it was time for Bo to leave with his new precious cargo R-1 was happily riding shotgun on the passenger side of the front seat which made Ben, Tony and me laugh.  Then the three of us jumped into Trigger and returned to the trailer and talked about how happy we were for Scooby Doo and R-1. And we could not believe that they had been adopted in the pouring rain. Then the thunder storms came and it rained all night.

This morning when I got up at six-fifteen (which would have been five-fifteen in the old time) I let the dogs outside and the roaring creek below our bluff was so loud I figured that we must have flooded sometime during the night. Then Tony walked into the big room and told me that he wasn't going to try to go to the Old Timer this morning because the creeks and river were reportedly out of banks. I heard on the news that they had to evacuate all of the campers in Bandera. I don't know if we are land-locked or not."

After I made some coffee and fed the dogs the sun came up over the mountain and we could see our rain guage. We got over five inches of rain since yesterday. After we drank a cup of coffee T. and I jumped into Buttermilk to go check out the low water crossings.

The creeks were full and out of their banks but we were not land-locked yet so went over to the Lodge because I wanted to tell Kinky about the creeks rising. Kinky was up and dressed when we walked into the Lodge and he was a little surprised to see us at seven-fifteen in the morning. We had a long discussion about the weather because Kinky and Frank had to leave by eight o'clock for a librarian convention in San Antonio that he was going to speak at. "They said that we have a ninety percent chance of rain today and if I were you I'd get out of here before the creeks rise some more," I said. 

Ten minutes later Tone and I were back at the trailer. I decided to invite Kinky, Frank, Ben and Will over for breakfast so I called the Lodge and got Kink's machine which probably meant that they had taken off for San Antone. "Kinky! Ben if you are there please pick..."

"Hello, Nancy," Ben said. "Kinky and Frank just left..."

"Would you and Will like to come over for breakfast? I'm fixin' scrambled eggs, beans and sausage."

Ten minutes later Ben showed up and he ate breakfast with us while Will caught up on some over do sleep. After breakfast the guys put on their rain gear and galoshes and then went outside to work in the rain and that's when I decided to walk six miles with Leslie.

Around eleven-fifteen Tony walked inside the trailer and told me that Lisa was still really depressed and she wanted to talk to me about it. "Tell her to come on up," I said. Tony went back outside to tell Lisa to come inside. When Lisa walked inside the trailer Tony walked outside. I could tell that she had been crying so I hugged her and invited Lisa to sit down so we could talk. 

Three minutes into our private conversation the front door opened and in walked Tony and a good-looking cowboy wearing a straw cowboy hat—it was Matt! "Matt! I love your cowboy hat! You look so handsome! Doesn't he, Lisa?" 

"Yes, he does," Lisa said trying to smile. "You look good, Matt." Matt blushed.

"Has it helped you get any new girlfriends?" I teased. 

"Yeah," Matt said with a laugh. "Yesterday some girl hollered out her car window at me and screamed, "Forget the horse. Ride a cowboy!" but she was a cowgirl and fatter than a cow..."

"Don't give up, Matt-the-Hatter," I said. "When you meet some cute girl tip the front of your cowboy hat at her and she will melt and then say things like..." Ten minutes later after Lisa, Tony and I had coached and given Matt tips on how to be and act like a cowboy we were all laughing—including Lisa! Yeah! Here is a picture I took of Matt with his new improved image. Doesn't he look adorable!

 

When it was time for Lisa and Matt to leave Matt did the funniest thing. After he and Lisa left the trailer he picked her up on the front porch and threw her over his shoulder and then carried her down the steps with her laughing and screaming, "Put me down, Matt! I am going to get you for this. Matt! I'm serious now..." 

So Tony, Ben and me went out on the porch to watch. "Matt!" I hollered as he carried her off towards her car. "I've got a roping rope if you need one!" Then we started laughing and came back inside the trailer. 

After turning on my iPod I made lunch for Ben, Tony, Will and me. After lunch I cleaned up the kitchen I asked Tony to get our expensive-hardly-ever-used vacuum sealer out of our closet because I couldn't reach it because I was going to cut up the giant Miles of Chocolate brick that Ben had given to us yesterday, so I could store it in smaller serving packages.

When I was ready to start vacuum sealing I had a hard time trying to cut up the huge brick of chocolate because I am not good with knives so Ben took over. We started an assembly line. As Ben sliced off a chunk of chocolate I would cut off a seven or eight inch sheet of the plastic sealing bag. Then Ben would seal one edge of the plastic bag and then insert the other edge into the vacuum sealer and then vacuum seal it as Tony and Will watched and teased us. Here is a picture of a vacuum sealed slice of the best chocolate in the world. Thank you, Ben!

Kinky just called. When the phone rang I looked up at the Caller ID on the wall and recognized Kinky's cell number so I picked up the phone and said, "Howdy!" instead of "Rescue Ranch," like I always do. It threw Kinky and he laughed. "Howdy!"I said again and he laughed harder and then he echoed back my words. He called to tell me that he and Frank are headed back to the ranch and he wanted to get a "how high's the water" creek-check and then he told me that he had fun at the librarian convention. 

P.S. I want to do a big shout out to my friend and author, Cindy Lou Ruffino, who will be signing her second book Dead X's In Texas tomorrow from ten until three o'clock at the Georgetown Convention Center! Cindy, I hope that you have fun tomorrow and your book sells like hot cakes! You Rock!

Y'all have a great evening!