Foreign Friends! or Pot!

Tony and I have had so much fun these past few weeks, visiting with all of our foreign friends and Texas friends, is the main reason why I have not blogged. I would apologize for not blogging, but I can't, because we simply had too much fun getting to spend quality time with each and everyone of them.

During these past few weeks our foreign dignitaries represented their countries. Big Foot Ranch has hosted Marita & Hans from Bergen, Norway, Fay from Toronto, Canada, Liz from Mexico/Texas and Gaby from Germany. Also including our Texas friends: Stephen K. Morris & Eva Robinett from Fredericksburg, Chet O'Keefe from Terlingua, Xenia from Pleasanton, and our two mystery guests that unexpectedly showed up later today.

To put it on a bumper sticker—It Was A Busy Schedule, But We Had A Wonderful Time Seeing Everyone. Hmm...Somehow I don't think all of that would actually fit on a bumper sticker, but that's okay. And to say the least, "We would gladly do it all over again, because it was so nice to be with so many of our dear friends."

Yes, I know I could write volumes about each one of our friends visits, but time is of the essence here, because I need and want to spend this evening writing on my third novella, because lately it has been put, on the back burner so to speak. So I am only going to write about today.

Early this afternoon Gaby and her lovely daughter Xenia came to see us. Gaby (from Germany) has been spending a few weeks with Xenia and her family and today they drove up from Pleasanton to spend the day with us. Tony and I were thrilled about it and so was Kinky, because like us he loves her too and overtime that he tours Germany, she is always put on his German guest list.

After howdies and hugs today, we invited our sweet guests, inside The Cabin, so we could drink some coffee and munch on some fresh, homemade beignets, that I had cooked up earlier. But after serving delicious coffee, Gaby wanted to give us her gifts she had brought for Tony and me.

So while the beignets cooled, on the kitchen island, Gaby handed her gift for me to open, so I opened it. Omg! I about fell off of the couch when I saw her, six, beautiful, hand crocheted pot holders.

Then all four of us burst out laughing, and Gaby said, "I read about your famous, pink pot holder, on your blog and you needing your friend, Jean, to help you finish it off, so I decided to make you six, cotton yarn, pot holders that are machine washable."

"After I thanked her, I turned around and pointed upwards, and said, "There is that famous pot holder!" And all of us started laughing again.

Bottom   Line: We spent the next several hours catching up with each other and doing a lot of laughing. And the best part about it for me was that I got to tell Gaby and Xenia my off-colored joke, because I think they are the last two people that we know on the Planet, that I've not told it to! Xenia burst out loud when I told the punchline, but it took Gaby a few seconds longer to get it, because she is from Germany. Anyway, they loved my joke and I enjoyed making them laugh.

Around 3:30, Kinky called to let us know he was back from town and he invited us to come over. And ten minutes later, we were having fun visiting with Kinky, Rick, Zoie and The Friedmans.

About an hour or so later, our dear friends Kent Perkins and his beautiful wife, Ruth Buzzi, arrived to complete the festive party. Gaby and Xenia were so excited to meet Ruthie and soon after visiting with her, Ruthie posed for pictures with them.

About another hour later, it was time for us to return home and when I adios-ed Kinky and Kent, in Kinky's office, Kent asked me if he and Ruthie could come over to see The Cabin, because the last time they had seen it—we had just bought it and had not started our renovations.

So, we caravan-ed over to Big Foot Ranch. Tony and I led the way, Ruthie & Kent followed us in one of their Rolls Royce and Xenia and Gaby followed them.

When Kent & Ruthie walked inside The Cabin their jaws dropped, and Ruthie said, "I love it!..." So after we gave them the grand tour all of us were back in the kitchen, and Kent said, "Are these what I think they are?"

"Yes!" I said, followed by a chuckle. "Help yourselves to the beignets. I made them earlier...." So everyone grabbed a tasty beignet and the powder sugar started flying (out of our mouths). And after accepting several compliments on the delicious beignets, I said, "Thank y'all, but they are not as good as Ruthie's beignets. Hers are to die for. In fact, several years ago, Ruthie taught me how to make them and just about every time that Kent & Ruthie have come down for a visit with Kinky and us—we usually cook up a batch of beignets...." And after another fun visit our dear friends we adios-ed them.

As soon as everyone had left Big Foot Ranch I grabbed Gaby's pretty pot holders and laid them out, so I could take a better picture of them. So you could see how beautiful they are.

And if you look closely at the picture above, you can see part of the blue handle casserole dish that I had put the over-a-dozen beignets in. And this is what was left of my beignets, after all of us had eaten our fair share of them.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Life Is Good! Will Write Tomorrow Night!

The Prize!

Unfortunately, today and yesterday we did not get to work, at The Old Timer's Rusty Dawg food truck, because we are getting so much rain. We haven't been able to work, because of the rain, because when it rains hardly anybody gets out in the rain to go to a food truck or anywhere else for that matter. So to help keep costs down and not waste our time—we don't work when it is raining.

But please know that I am not complaining about all of this much needed rain that we've been blessed with, because by staying home the past two days I got to and get to write, write, write.

I love writing, even though I do miss having so much fun with Tony, at the Rusty Dawg and our great customers. And hopefully tomorrow it won't be raining all day, so we can get back to working at the Rusty Dawg. Here's a great picture of the Rusty Dawg that Tony took last week, when the sun was shining and we were taking a break from cooking up some delicious hot dogs and Frito-pies.

This past week has flown by and it was a whole lot of fun. Besides having fun with Chet O'Keefe, Stephen & Eva, Hans & Marita—I had a total blast going over to Carol's ranch for a super fun visit with her, Debbie and Vicki.

Debbie and Vicki are two of the nicest women and of course, Carol is too. Anyway, over the years Tony and I have become good friends with Carol's dear friends, Vicki and Debbie, from Dallas. In fact, Tony and I love them so much I've made them two of the main characters in my upcoming, soon to be published novella The Cowgirl Sisterhood: Part III, Ghost Riders In The Sand.

Anyway, last Saturday afternoon I went over to visit with Carol, Debbie and Vicki and to talk to them about the quirky characters that I've turned them into for my book. And while we were talking and laughing about their characters, Vicki mentioned that she thought it would be fun for me to do a contest, like one of her favorite authors had recently done.

Vicki told us that this author announced on her blog that anyone wanting to have their name, in her mystery book, should write her and tell her why their name (possibly made into a character) deserved to be in her upcoming book. 

Well that got all of us excited and after two minutes of listing the pros and cons of having this contest I decided that I should do a contest too, because it would be so much fun. But we figured out that I would have to limit the requests to just one paragraph, because otherwise I would be bombarded with reading for hours and not be able to write.

So I am now inviting all of you that would like to see your name in print, in my third novella to please enter this contest by writing no more than 1 paragraph telling me why your name deserves to be in my book. 

To enter the "I Want To Be In Your Book" contest please post it as a comment on my blog, because that way it will be confidential—I can read it and no one else will ever see it. 

The Rules:

1. You may not be eligible if your name has been in my previous books.

2. The contest starts today and it will end one week from today—Saturday, September 15th @ midnight.

3. And at the end of your paragraph please include your full name and the best way that I may contact you in the event you win. (e-mail, phone, snail mail, etc.) 

4. Please note that all contestants will be considered, but please know that I do not have the time to personally respond to each contestant individually and to send out rejection letters. So if you are picked the winner, I will notify you and only you and then I will announce it on my blog and post the paragraph that you have written to me for all to read.

5. But before I can announce the contest winner, I will need a consent form giving me full permission to use your name anyway I want to, in my book and it must be signed and dated. (Who knows? You just might become another quirky character in my third novella.)

6. The prize for this contest will be a signed, first edition copy of my third novella. 

7. The last rule is to have fun with this.

And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

P.S. Great news! Our dear friend Fay, in Toronto, is coming to see us on the 17th and we cannot wait to see her!

I've Got Cabin Fever!

A while ago, I was feeling restless and I guess you could say that I had cabin fever. So, I took out my art supply box and grabbed a few paints, brushes, etc. And then I quickly painted what I've now titled: Cabin Fever. And after painting it I felt so much better. And here it is.

It is starting to thunder outside and that's it for tonight, because I need to put Big Al(ice)'s thunder jacket on, give her tiny doggie downer and then unplug everything.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

Stephen K. Morris' Outsider Songwriter Spotlighter's Series Featuring Chet O'Keefe! or Horrible Host!

Tony and I had a wonderful time going to Stephen K. Morris' awesome Outsider Songwriter Spotlighted Series, live show with Chet O'Keefe, at the Western Edge Cellars, in Fredville.

Several times during the show I actually got goosebumps, because the music flowed and was so awesome.

Anyway, if you were not lucky enough to go to this show here is the link, so you can listen to Chet's and Stephen's fabulous music. And please note that Chet's performance is the 2nd one down on Stephen's play list of artists.

https://soundcloud.com/stephen-k-morris

Last night Chet, Tony and I watched this great documentary about cigar box guitars—Strung Together, because I actually have a super cool, cigar box guitar that Kinky gave to me many, many years ago.

After watching this fun documentary we got out my amps and Chet plugged in the cigar box guitar and started playing it. And to say the least, "Chet sounded so good that Henry Standing Bear and I started dancing to Chet's awesome music. And here is a short video that Tony made of Chet playing it for the very first time.

https://youtu.be/ygtxRIaFEAg

And needless to say, "Chet and I have both vowed that we are going to make us custom cigar box guitars, because they are such a cool instrument."

Yesterday our dear friends Hans & Marita and Stephen K. Morris came over for a super fun visit. Being the horrible host that I am known for, I cooked two, cheap, frozen supreme pizzas for our lunch. And to my amazement our friends ate all of it and even complimented me on the delicious late lunch that I had prepared for them. And all that I can say about that is—they must have been starving.

Of course, Tony and I didn't eat any pizza, because we are sticking to our Keto Diet. So while they gobbled up the wanna-be supreme pizzas—we just sat there, knowing that we were burning up fat calories, as we watched them. 

But I must admit that Tony and I were definitely tempted to eat a slice of pizza, even though we know by experience it tastes like tomato and cardboard, with these colorful, tiny objects that represented pepperoni, cheese, bell pepper, onion and cheese.

Y'all have a great day/evening and keep on laughing!

Western Edge Cellars! Be Square or Be There!

This afternoon @ 4:00 our dear friends Chet O'Keefe will be playing with Stephen K. Morris @Western Edge Cellars, in Fredericksburg, and Tony and I will definitely be there to enjoy Stephen's and Chet's awesome music. So be square or be there. Happy Labor Day Weekend!