The Cure!

Well, the "Heel  Thyself Mentholatum" cure didn't heal me, as that article had promised, but the antibiotics seem to be finally kicking in, thank goodness. As I write this tonight, Roy is sitting beside me, with his gigantic head resting in my lap, so my left leg has gone to sleep and it has no feeling. My left eye is still red, but not as red as it was last night and my wannabe red right eye, is the eye that I am using to help me type this, because Lefty is still oozing and blurring my vision.

I want to thank everyone for sending me hilarious and sweet birthday cards and presents, because they have cheered me up and have made me laugh, which is my favorite thing to do. And that is about it for tonight, because I am fixin' to put Vicks Vapor Rub on my heels, put on another pair of white socks and go to bed.

Y'all have a great evening!

I Lied!

First off, I must confess that I lied last night, but not on purpose. After I had written last night's post, I cooked up some Orville Reddenbacher pop corn, to eat while T. and I watched Lonesome Dove, but that didn't happen because, I had forgotten that we had given our copy to Karin Pohlman, as in Care Inn Poleman, to take back to Germany with her, so she and Jurgen (Air Gun) could watch it, because they've never seen it and I had forgotten to buy us another copy.

So, Tony and I split up the pop corn and then he went back into his office with Abbie and Belle to watch some action movie, while I stayed in the big room with Mama, Roy and Toto so we could watch a few Frazier reruns. Then I played my guitar for a little while and then we went to bed around 9:00.

Today has been a great New Year's day, even though I did not get around to painting our picnic table, as I had promised I would, because it was a little too chilly outside for me and because we also went over to the Annex for Kinky's sister Marcie & Mario's New Years brunch at 11:30 in the Annex and we had a blast with all of our friends.

As Kinky, Donna "The Retired Drummer" Schloss, Izzie & Austin, Copper Love, Dylan Ferrero, Marcie, Tony, Mario, The Friedmans and I ate Mario's delicious International cuisine, that he had carefully prepared—there was non-stop laughter with interesting conversations about Copper's painting trips out to Terlingua, the Taz Manian Devils pictures that Mario showed us when he went to New Zealand and Australia and the champagne wasn't bad either, even though I added orange juice to mine to make it a healthy Mimosa.

When the really fun brunch party ended Tony and I jumped into Trigger and took off for H-E-B in Kerrville, to get some supplies and while Tony was outside filling up Trigger's tank with gas, I was inside speed shopping, so we could get back to the ranch and I had a nice surprise while I was putting a package of Claritin into my cart, because of Cedar Fever. "Hi, Nancy. Happy New Year!"

"Well hi, Kevin, happy New Year to you, too! How is the Chihuahua doing?..." (Kevin owns the popular Water Street Cafe and he and his family are the ones who adopted a too cute Chihuahua from us, for their daughter, a few months ago." After a short, but fun visit with him we headed off in different directions. Then Trigger took us home.

Y'all have a great evening and Happy New Year to everyone!

An Early Christmas!

Today has been great. This morning at 7:45 I called Harley to do his popular radio show and it was a lot of fun. Harley's Pet of the Week was Little Sister, the adorable little Chihuahua four-month-old pup that we have since renamed Peggy, because she is the size of my pretty, pink Princess Phone, that Eileen gave to me a few weeks ago.

This morning when Ben walked inside The Cabin, his jaw dropped when he saw the wood on the walls of our old trailer. "Wow, this looks beautiful..." After he had admired our pretty Swedish pine walls he complimented us on our woodworking skills, then he started unpacking several bricks of  Miles of Chocolate and three homemade pies that he had baked for us, "Merry Christmas, y'all."

"Thank you, so much Ben," Tony and I replied. "We love the pies you make and of course your and Miles chocolate," Tony said."How much do we owe you for Sandy and Jon's brick of Miles of Chocolate?" I asked.

Ben shook his head sideways. "Nothing. Don't worry about it." Then we had a brief argument or what Libras like to call "discussion" about wanting to pay Ben for the brick of chocolate for the Wolfmuellers. Within two minutes we were all laughing and that's when we gave Ben our Christmas present to him—iTunes cards to buy more music.

Before the men went outside to do the chores I told Ben all about discovering Daddy Jim's Quality Meats, from Sandy and Jon and that we were grilling their rib eyes and that I was cooking the Reata Restaurant's famous Jalapeno Soup and then I warned him about me possibly needing him to help me with the soup. Then they went outside to work and I started gathering the ingredients for the soup recipe.

Then I did some paperwork for about an hour. When they walked inside the trailer I had already started preparing the fairly simple soup recipe and I'm proud to say that I only needed Ben to help me with the Cilantro.

While the soup simmered on the stove top, Tony went outside and started up our grill that we haven't used for at least six of seven months or longer and that's why I don't blame him for what happened ten minutes later.

Six minutes after T. had put our rib eyes on the grill to cook, we were inside catching up with each others news, with too much laughter involved, when Tony suddenly runs outside to the front porch. "What's that about?" I asked. "He isn't supposed to turn them for two more minutes." Ben started to laugh.

"The steaks are on fire," Ben casually says. "He's taking them off of the grill right now. I bet he forgot to turn the flame down." Then he and I go outside to check on the flaming-fire-damaged-steaks.

"The steaks are ready to eat," Tony says. "They're cooked on both sides, but this one is a little burnt, but not bad. I guess that I forgot to turn down the heat when I lit the grill." Then Ben and I teased T. about us not wanting to eat the burnt one, etc. and Tone was a good sport about it all, because he ate most of his blackened steak, while Ben and I washed down our crispy, crunchy steaks with our delicious Jalapeno soup. And, by the time we had finished our laughter-filled lunch, we had all agreed that Daddy Jim's rib eyes were juicy and delicious—even if they were burnt. So, T. and I decided, right then and there, that we will now only buy our meat from Daddy Jim's Quality Meats.

This afternoon, the three of us went to Kerrville to run several errands. First, we went to the Post Office and then we stopped by Wolfmueller's Books, so T. could buy me an expensive book, The Tao Of Willie:A Guide to the Happiness in Your Heart, by Willie Nelson with Turk Pipkin, for my Christmas present, which Carol had turned me on to, which I love and spoke to my heart and the front jacket cover was signed by Willie and Turk signed the inside of the book!

When the three of us walked inside Wolfmueller's Books, Sandy and Jon greeted us from behind the counter. "Merry Christmas!" Tony said, as he handed the Miles of Chocolate brick to Jon.

"Y'all, Ben wouldn't let us pay for it, again," I said. "So, Merry Christmas from Ben, Tony and me." After they thanked us for the delicious chocolate, Jon excused himself, so he could go put it in their refrigerator and after we had a short, but fun visit with them, we headed to Herring Printing, the best printing shop in Kerrville.

When we walked inside Herring Printing, Joe Herring, our good friend who is an extremely talented and fabulous writer, columnist and published author, greeted us and we had a fun visit with him as he helped Tony and Ben load up Buttermilk. Then we headed back to the rescue ranch.

On our way back home, I called Carol to ask if we could swing by her ranch, so Ben could see her beautiful home and check out her kitchen, because I am thinking about doing a cheaper remodel version of her kitchen and she said, "Yes! I'm heading back to the ranch right now and I am at Upper Turtle Creek getting to get on 16."

"We're about five miles ahead of you," I told Carol. "We will wait at your gate. See you in a minute. Bye." A few minutes later we arrived at Carol's ranch and a few minutes later she showed up and we drove up to her house.

Even though we couldn't stay long to visit, we still had fun and when Ben saw Carol's beautiful kitchen, he said, "Do it, Nancy. You should definitely try to make y'all's trailer look like this."

Around 4:30, I went over to Kinky's Lodge, to get him to sign a David Woo, limited edition print, that Alfredo had bought on e-Bay, to help out our rescue ranch. It is the beautiful black and white picture of Kinky with Arnold, one of our beautiful pigs, that David Woo photographed for David's book about famous Texans and their pets. After Kinky signed it to Alfredo, in his office, he and I had a wonderful visit and caught up with each other's news. Here are a couple of pictures I took of Kinky signing the print to Alfredo, which I will FedEx tomorrow. "Thank you, Alfredo!"

Y'all have a great evening and thank you for praying for us to get some rain! Tomorrow, Ben is grilling for us.

No Store Does More! Part II!

Continued from yesterday....
Early Monday morning Tony and I were outside feeding the dogs and cleaning their pens before the sun came up and the dogs seemed to enjoy their surprise sunrise breakfast. When we were done outside I had only thirty minutes to get cleaned up, so I could get on the road by 8:30.


At 8:24 I kissed T. inside the trailer and told him, "I love you. Wish me luck!" and as I opened the front door to leave I closed the door and headed to the kitchen table. "I almost forgot to take my "Rescue Remedy" drops that Ellen bought for me at Whole Foods, to help me stay calm when Sandy drives us to San Antone." Then I put five droplets of the "Rescue Remedy" into a glass of water and swallowed. "Now, I am ready to leave," I said, as I slipped the little bottle into my purse, in case Sandy's driving drove me to drinking—more drops.


When Trigger and I arrived at Wolfmueller's Book Store I was six minutes early and Patty and Sandy were ready to go and get our road trip started. "Nancy, you ride in the backseat, so you can't see the speedometer and Patty, you sit up here with me," Sandy said, as she handed me a plastic bag, "I put a few magazines and maps about Terlingua for you to read, when we get on the freeways."


"Thank you, Sandy." Then we climbed into Sandy's SUV, buckled up, waved goodbye to Jon and took off and we were already laughing before Sandy pulled out of the parking. After we had all caught up with each other's latest news Sandy and I started telling Patty about our exciting, upcoming adventure to Terlingua and Patty thought it sounded real cool. 


Everything was fun and fine until we got on the entrance ramp of I-10, at Comfort, because Sandy floored her "Car With No Name" and that's when I opened up the sack of articles to read about Terlingua, as we sped past one car and then many cars sped past us. As I clutched my hands, and tried to relax the "Rescue Remedy" kicked-in, thank goodness, because I instantly became fearless of Sandy's race car driving skills and the San Antone traffic, for the rest of the day. Thank you, Ellen! 


As we approached the Alamo City limits we decided to go to Whole Foods first and I must admit that I was extremely impressed how well Sandy knew her way around the streets of San Antonio. 


When the three of us walked into Whole Foods we grabbed grocery carts and then we followed each other up the isles as Sandy and Patty suggested some of their favorite foods I might want to try. I had a blast at Whole Foods, strolling the isles of healthy food with my friends as we laughed about this and that. And I ended up buying Sha Sha Ginger Snaps, Hatch Chile Goat Cheese, Amy's Lentil Soup, 365 Organic German Mustard, Near East mixes: Couscous Toasted Pine Nut, Wild Mushroom and Herb, and Quinoa Blend Roasted Red Pepper and Basil, organic bread, cheddar cheese and Patty's favorite Acai Green Superfruit Tea made by The Republic of Tea.


 When we arrived at P. F. Changs for an early lunch, around 11:00, the restaurant was nearly empty except for ten people, sitting at three tables, so one of their young, pretty waitresses walks up to us, who was obviously having a bad day, led us across the room to a table, in a dark corner, because it was right next to a giant, hanging, black, plastic, temporary wall covering and the three of us looked at each other and one of them said, "We don't want to sit here could we please sit somewhere else? Like a booth?"


She tried to make a smile, but she couldn't pull it off and then she led us over to a booth and then walked away. Even though I was feeling no pain because of Ellen's magic drops, I was worried about the waitress' bad vibes souring our lunch, but thank goodness I didn't have to worry long, because the nicest woman, wearing a big smile, came over to our table, introduced herself to us, handed us menus and then she asked us what we wanted to drink and then she went to get our drinks and that's when we let out a group sigh of relief that we had a fun waitress and lunch was going to be fun after all.


As we drank our iced teas we decided to order several dishes and share them and when the friendly waitress returned to take our order Patty surprised us when she said, "I am treating my friends to lunch and we want to share the dishes. We'd like to have Dynamite Chicken, Lettuce Wraps.."


As we dined at P. F. Chang's their lunch crowd filled up the restaurant and the food we ate was absolutely delicious and the many topics of conversation were interesting to say the least and were filled with laughter.


Our last stop was at Target, because Sandy and Patty love Target and also because I have not been inside a Target store since 1995, when I left Austin and moved to Utopia. When we walked inside Target I said, "Wow! Kerrville needs a Target store. I'de forgotten how cool Target is," and then we started shopping together.


An hour later we were ready to check out and the coolest thing that I purchased was a small, pretty, pink George Foreman Champ for fifteen dollars, because now I could start grilling vegetables, etc. again because I can't grill outside because of our drought and the Burn Ban effect.


As Sandy drove us home all we could talk about was how much fun we had had and what we might do the next time when Patty returns to Kerrville and when we reached Comfort and got off of I-10 it was no big deal to me, because those Rescue Remedy drops had worked and had temporarily cured me of my fear of traffic.


When we were halfway through Comfort Sandy gave Patty me and me a historical driving tour of the town and it was quite interesting and then when we got to Center Point she surprised us. "Y'all, have got to see this place!" she said, as she turned off into a parking lot, "Y'all are going to love it..."


And Sandy had not lied to us, because the second that Patty and I walked into Toucan Jim's outdoor beautiful garden restaurant and grill we fell in love with Toucan Jim's! "This is what Fort Lauderdale looks like," Patty exclaimed, as Jimmy Buffet music filled the air, as we admired the palm trees, plants and brightly painted beach furniture and bar, "Just like Fort Lauderdale."


"I feel like we just walked into a time warp," I noted, "From dry, hot Texas to Margaritaville."


"Sandy!" a man hollered from a table near the bar, "I want to buy you ladies a beer," he said as he stood up and they hugged each other. 


"Y'all this Mark, he and his wife are dear friends of ours. Mark I want you to meet my friends Patty and Nancy..."


A few minutes later Mark brought us our drinks and sat down at our table to visit with us and he had us laughing so hard my back started aching, so I excused myself and went into the restroom and swallowed a few more magic drops in hopes that it would relax my back the way it had relaxed me.


Even though Mark wanted to buy us another round of drinks Sandy declined, because she knew we needed to get home. And the rest of the way back to Wolfmuellers Books all we talked about was what a fun time we had all had.


When I got home Tony was glad to see me and me him and as he helped me carry in my shopping bags I told him all about my fun day and when he was helping me unpack my sacks he started laughing. "You bought a pink George Foreman grill! No way I'm going to cook on it," he teased, and that was not a lie, because yesterday morning after I had used it to cook breakfast and lunch and had told him how much I loved it—he took me to Walmart and bought me a giant George Foreman grill, as an early birthday present! And I love it and have named it George. 

After we left Walmart we stopped at H-E-B to quickly get a few groceries and as were checking out a nice friendly woman handed me a copy of  H-E-B's August "My Texas Life" magazine and as we walked to Trigger I flipped through the pages and nearly flipped out when I saw another full one page ad for our rescue ranch. "Tony, I can't believe this! I love H-E-B so much for helping us, again. I can't wait to show it to Kinky...."

As Trigger took us home I said, "You know Whole Foods and Target are great stores, but H-E-B is the very best in Texas, because "No Store Does More." Thank you, H-E-B! We love you!

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for rain for us!

Tony Express-o!

This morning when I came inside the trailer, there was a new message on the answering machine. “Good morning, Nance, It’s 8:52. I’m back at the ranch. Call me,” Kinky said.

I called Kinky back, and then Tony and I went over to the Lodge to deliver his accumulated mail. While in the kitchen, Kinky asked Tony if he could help him with his new expresso machine, that had been given to him by a friend. Tony told him that he would try. Then Kinky’s phone rang, and Kink went to his office, to take the call.

Tony put the large unopened box on the kitchen table, and then opened it up. Then he pulled out the fancy-looking, expresso machine—placing it carefully on the kitchen counter. After unwrapping the shiny machine, he found the instuctuons on how to operate it. “Good grief, Nance,” Tony said. “It’s going to take twenty-three steps to produce a quarter of a cup of coffee!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me?” I said, hearing the sound of Kinky’s laughter in the background—coming from his office.

“Who’s he talking too?” Tony asked.

“Who knows,” I answered. “Have you figured out the directions, yet?”

“This is the dumbest coffee machine I have ever seen, and it probably is real expensive, too,” Tony remarked. “Look at this little measuring spoon. The directions said to take one spoon of coffee, place it in this thing, and then use the other end of the spoon to press down the coffee.”

“Have you got it working, yet?” Kinky asked, as he entered the kitchen—lighting his cigar.

“Nope,” Tony answered. “It takes twenty-three steps to produce one little expresso, and I am only on step nine.”

“I could probably drive to Starbucks in Kerrville, and get back here with expresso, before that machine produces its first expresso.” I said.

“Here, Tony,” Kinky said. “Let me see if I can help.” Kinky then starts reading steps ten through twenty-three, as Tony carefully followed his instructions to a ‘T.’ “Okay, it says were done. Turn it on, Tony!”

Tony flipped the switch, and a pretty little blue light lit up, and then nothing else happened. “Tony," Kinky said. "Did you add water?”

“Yes, Kinky,” Tony answered. “That was step six.”

It was now ten o’clock, as the three of us stared, for several minutes, in silence, at the coffee making contraption—in hopes that it would perform its one and only task—make expresso—pronto!

“I think it’s broken,” Tony commented. The expensive device must have heard him, because it started making all kinds of different, weird sounds—spewing, spitting, grinding, simmering etc.!

“Turn it off, Tony,” Kinky ordered.

Tony turned it off, and then switched it back on again. “The directions said that it will be ready when the orange light comes on.” And, as soon as Tony had spoken those words—the orange light lit up!

“Great Tony,” Kinky said. “You did it!” He then grabbed a coffee cup, from his ongoing collection of mugs, in the cabinet— placing it carefully under the little spout.

“Here it comes,” Tony said, with pride, as he watched coffee streaming from the spout for about thirty seconds. “That’s it? You’ve got to be kidding me? All of that work, Kinky, for just a quarter of a cup of coffee? You couldn’t pay me to have a machine like this.”

Kinky laughed. “It tastes great! Here Tony—try a little.”

Tony took a sip, and then made a face—the opposite of a happy face. “That’s way too strong for me. You drink it.”

Tony then showed Kinky the twenty-three steps, making Kinky feel confident about producing future expressos.

We visited for a few more minutes in the kitchen. Before leaving, we discussed what time we would be going to Bandera, to show, and to give our support for CCPAL—Cowboy Capitol Pet Alliance League!

We decided to meet around 1:30, Kinky was on time, and we were fifteen minutes late, because Tony and I had to stop in Medina, at the storage units, to fill up the back of the truck—with boxes of dog treats!

When we arrived at the benefit, we found Marlene Heavner, the director of CCPAL, and told her that we had a truck full of dog treats that we wanted to give to them. She was delighted! Then she and Tony went off to the parking lot, so he could transfer the boxes into the back of her truck.

Kinky was busy signing autographs and meeting people, so I took off for the parking lot, to help Tony unload the many, heavy boxes. But I was too late—he already had helpers! When I reached the trucks, I looked up, and saw our good friends, Grace and Richard Atwood, helping Tony!

After the transfer of treats was accomplished, we thanked Grace and Richard, and then the four of us, went back to the benefit. Marlene saw me and waved me over, to tell me that she had a gift for us, too, and then she left! When she reappeared, she was carrying a huge bundle of dog leashes, which we are always in need of! “Enjoy,” Marlene said, wearing a big smile, as she handed me about forty leashes! After thanking each other, we visited for several minutes and then took off to find Kinky for a photo opt. We found him talking politics with his friend, and ours, too—Frances Kaiser, she was the former Sheriff of Kerr County, now running to be Sheriff in Bandera County! Bobby Harris, of Precinct 2, in Bandera, was in on the discussion, too.

I asked them if they would pose for my blog about CCPAL—and they happily agreed to do it! I asked Marlene to join them, then handed them bags of treats—and Tony shot them in broad daylight!

There were more people at the benefit, than the population of Bandera! The event had been a huge success for CCPAL, and we were so happy for them, because they do good work!

Before Kinky was about to leave, I saw a camel in the parking lot, and asked him to please let me get a picture of him with the camel. Kinky agreed to do it—and then Tony shot him and the camel! Then we came home, just in time, for the norther to arrive!

Trailer Trash

Yesterday, after blogging, Tony and I went outside to load up “The Magnificent Seven.” We loaded up Rufus first, then Ginger Rogers, Pepperoni, Dobie Gillis, Greta Garbo, and Luke and Owen Wilson—in less than twenty minutes, and then we took off for Kerrville, to hook up with Kinky, and our good friends, Catherine and David Berry of Happy Dog Adoptions.

The twenty-two mile drive was peaceful and uneventful, because Pepperoni serenaded us the entire trip. When we arrived at The Acapulco Restaurant, we found Kinky, Catherine and David inside, waiting for us. After a round of hugs and handshakes, we went outside to introduce the dogs to the Berrys, and to transfer them from our van to their gigantic blue bus.

The hand over was easy and fun, but the goodbyes to those beautiful dogs was a little hard on me, but that’s usual—just ask Tony and Kinky. Before David and Catherine left, she told us that on their drive down to Kerrville, their bus’s power steering had gone out, and from Fredericksburg on, David had to help her turn the steeringwheel—fortunately, after making the turn in Fredericksburg—there was only one more to make and it was into The Acapulco Restaurant’s parking lot!

After hearing the bad news about their big, blue bus, we wished them a safe trip home and then on the count of three—we all drove away in different directions. Catherine and David with “The Magnificent” headed north, Kinky headed south and we headed to HEB—to get gas for the van, and to pick up a few groceries.

While Tony fueled our white van, I shopped in the grocery store for a few essentials. On my way out of the store, I ran into my dear friend, Sandy Wolfmueller! Unfortunately, Sandy had some bad news. Her father was in the Sid Peterson Hospital, and he had been in there for three days. Sandy told me that she and Jon were exhausted, and the doctors were very concerned about her father. Bless her heart, Sandy had just buried her mother back in August, and I knew what she was going through, so I said a few words to her, and then gave her a big hug in the parking lot.

When Tony and I arrived back at the rescue ranch—Kinky had called, and left a message for me to please call him as soon as possible—so, I did.

“Hi, Kinky,” I said. “We just got home.”

“Hi, Nance,” he said, “can you please come over here? I need to talk to you.”

“I’m on my way,” I said. “I’ll be over there in five minutes.” Kinky had me worried.

When I arrived at Kinky’s, all he wanted was for me to play a game of pool with him. He told me that I had really improved my pool skills earlier, and he wanted to give me a few more tips—and he did.
I played the game much better, but “The Hummingbird Man”—won again!

As soon as I was back at the trailer, the phone rang, and it was Catherine. She told me that on their way back to Buchanan Dam, the brakes locked up on the bus, and when they got home—the brakes were literally smoking! She told me that they had gotten home on a wing and a prayer. She then had some great news—Rufus and Ginger Rogers had already been adopted! And, the rest of the dogs were all doing great!

I knew that Rufus had a home already waiting for him up there, but Ginger Rogers, too?

“Nancy,” Catherine said. “We hadn’t even been home twenty minutes, when Audra arrived to adopt Rufus, but when she saw David playing with Ginger, she asked me if she could adopt her, too! She told me that she had always loved Chows, even though, Ginger was a mix, and I told her yes!”

“Catherine, that is fantastic news!” I said. “You have just made me so happy!”

“I know,” Catherine said. “Me, too. Will you call Kinky and tell him the good news?”

“No,” I replied. “I think you should. I want him to hear the good news from you, first. He’ll love hearing it!”

“Okay, I’ll call him right now. Bye”

“Bye.”

Ten minutes later, I phoned Kinky. And, he was estatic with Catherine’s great news, too!

This morning, “the secret deal” went down at 8:00 sharp, in Medina! All I can say right now is: It took us four hours to accomplish our mission, everyone at the rescue ranch is very happy, and Tony’s and my backs are killing us, right now. And, I really want to thank Charlie and Ellen Cooper, John Kemmerly, Aaron, and Blake Kesterson! We couldn’t have done it without y’all!

Now, I must go, to put a sack of frozen peas on Tony’s and my backs. And, the Cardinal, the wannabe woodpecker—is still pecking! Tomorrow, after we rest, Tony is going to cover up the bedroom window. Trailer Trash—Here We Come!

P.S. Last night, KSAT played the interview with Kinky and about our rescue ranch. They edited out the part where I said, "Euthanize the boyfriend."