Miranda Lambert!

Today has been great and it hasn't quit raining since it started around 8:00 last night. So far we have received two inches of rain, making it a grand total of three and a half inches since Saturday night.

Late this afternoon I talked to Susan, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to tell her that we had another stray dog coming in, that a nice woman had rescued, "She told me that the frightened, female dog was trying to cross the street on Sidney Baker St., in front of the Taco Casa," I said. "And we're naming this dog Miranda Lambert, because we really like her music."

"That works for me. I like Miranda Lambert too," Susan said. "Guinevere and Chad & Jeremy had their surgeries today and they are all doing fine, so they can go home tomorrow."

"Great."

"Nancy, Guinevere is absolutely precious and Chad & Jeremy are hound mixes and they are exceptionally fine dogs too. Y'all are going to love them."

"Great. We'll pick them up tomorrow, because we can't wait to meet Chad & Jeremy and Miranda. It's amazing that since Sunday we have rescued four stray dogs, but we have only gotten to meet one of them..."

And that's about it for tonight, which is a good thing, because the sky outside is starting to rumble again, so I need to go unplug everything again, but I am not complaining about doing it, because I love the rain.

Y'all have a great evening!

Yesterday's Gone!

Today has been great, even though Cosmo Topper was returned to us, because of some of his interior decorating (destroying), but he is fine and happy to be back home with Lulu.

We also rescued two male dogs today and we have yet to meet them, because these nice people who rescued them in their neighborhood, dropped them off at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, for us. So to help keep our records straight with the clinic I pre-named them, Chad and Jeremy, because I love Chad Stuart's and Jeremy Clyde's '60's hit songs: "A Summer Song" and "Yesterday's Gone."

When I told the friendly receptionist, at Hoegemeyer, "The new dogs coming in have names. One is Chad Stuart and the other dog's name is Jeremy Clyde..." Because she was so young and had never heard of them, she giggled about their names, so I suggested that she go to iTunes to listen to their music. And she said that she would.

Early this evening I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and to take The Friedmans on a hike, which turned into two hikes, because we had to go back to the Lodge, to get some apples, to feed to Maya, Shalom, Roy & Gabby and Little Jewford.

We are fixin' to have some big time thunder storms tonight, so that's about it for tonight, because I have to go unplug everything.

Y'all have a great evening!

Up The Creek Without A Paddle! or Guinevere!

Today has been great. This afternoon we went to the Walmart, in Kerrville, to buy Tony a new kayaking paddle, because the one he has is duct taped together, because it is broken, but that didn't happen at Walmart or even at Gibsons, because they were both out of paddles, which really disappointed Tone, because he is so excited about his new sport.

So, on our way to H-E-B to get some groceries I tried to cheer Tony up and joked, "Well, it looks like you are up the creek without a paddle, Tony." And that made him laugh a little.

After we had bought our groceries and were heading back home, I called my friend Kim, in Utopia, so she could start heading our way, with her precious cargo—Guinevere.

A few weeks back, Kim had rescued a beautiful, little Corgi, off of the side of the road and because she had found no one to adopt her, I had told her that we could take her, because in general, little dogs seem to fly out of here much faster than the bigger dogs do.

We're guessing that Guinevere is approximately 1-2 years old and Kim told us that she is great with: small children, other dogs, cats, she is housebroken, not hyper and is sweet as she can be. And when we met Guinevere she truly stole our hearts and Kinky's. Here's Guinevere!

Tomorrow we plan to take Guinevere to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic to get her spayed and her shots and if any of y'all know of some one who might be interested in adopting this beautiful dog, please ask them to call us.

Y'all have a great evening!

Super Full Moon!

Today has been great and a lot of fun for me, because before Tony, Ben and I went out to do our morning chores—Ben and I had a fantastic jam session, inside The Cabin! "Ben, you have really gotten good on your mandolin!" I declared, as we picked and played Keb' 'Mo's song, Life Is Beautiful."

While Ben and me played our music (Our versions of some Willie Nelson, Zak Brown, Gary Stewart, Tom Waits, Neil Young, Eagles, Alabama, Kinky, Mickey Gilley, Taj Mahal, Merle Haggard and Bruce Springsteen songs—Tony was outside, in The Egg Palace, gathering The Golden Girls' pretty, colorful eggs.

Late this afternoon, Ben helped Tony load up his-soon-to-be used kayak that he is going to buy from Rick, The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper and then the three of us went down to the creek, so Tony could try it out, so I shot them.

When T. finally came back to the shore he said, "Wow! I want to buy this from Rick..." Then Ben jumped on the kayak and took off paddling, so he could check it out for Tony.

Early this evening, after Ben had left to go back home to Austin with his dogs, Tony and I went outside and put The Golden Girls back inside The Egg Palace and then I came back inside to return a few phone calls, while Tone stayed outside to water our garden and flowers, in the Okay Corral and when he came back inside The Cabin he was grinning-ear-to-ear, "Look, Nance. Our first four peppers..." So I shot them on our kitchen table, before putting them into the refrigerator.

And that is about it for tonight, because we are fixin' to go outside, so T. can shoot the "Super Full Moon."

Y'all have a great evening!

It Was A Sign! or What-"A"-Vacation!

Our fun trip, with Fourth driving us down to Port Aransas, to see Leisa and Rick and spend the night on the privately owned island was more than great—it was a total blast.

We left Medina around 7:00, in Fourth's gigantic truck and it was so high up, off of the ground, I had to use his handy step stool just to climb up into the backseat, which Tony thought was pretty funny and so did I.

We made our first pit stop in Devine to eat breakfast at Big A's Tacos and my Huevos Rancheros were delicious or better yet, "They were devine."

On our way to Pleasanton we told Fourth about this really cool sign there that reads: Peace Love & Oil, which all of us thought was funny and extremely clever, because it has recently become an oil boom town, so when we saw the sign, Fourth pulled off of the highway, so he and Tony could shoot it—with their cameras.

I think it was in Sinton, while we were at stopped at a red light, Tony and Fourth pulled out their cameras and shot a crane erecting a giant, new What-A-Burger sign, which I instantly interpreted it to be a sign, but I didn't know why, yet.

When we arrived in Port Aransas we decided to first eat lunch at the new What-A-Burger, before we called Rick to please come and pick us up, to take us out to the beautiful island and while we waited on Rick and Leisa, I phoned this para sailing place, that Rick had recommended to me, so I could go para sailing and remove it from my bucket list.

When we arrived at the island I helped the men unload our gear and then I put on this stupid-looking old-ladies' bathing suit and the next thing you know I was up in the air—screaming and flying around like the Pelicans, which Rick has affectionately nicknamed—"The Port A Coast Guard." Tony took these pictures of me, high as a kite and a squadron of Port A's finest flying in formation.

While I was up there flying around, while saying big-time prayers about not crashing when I landed, scaring away the tourists, in my ugly bathing suit and getting a birds eye view of everything, Fourth was on the top of the lighthouse getting a birds eye view, too, so Tony shot him too, so Fourth could prove to his friends that he had done it and could remove it from his bucket list.

And I love this picture of Fourth, because it makes me laugh, because Tony caught him off guard as he was climbing to his feet and he looks like he is doing some kind of fancy Karate maneuver.

When the people brought me back to the island I was so proud of myself for para sailing and so were our friends and after I had put on some more decent clothes—the party began, because we were on "island time."

While we visited with Rick and the guys took hundreds of pictures, Leisa cooked us up a delicious dinner. Then we sat on Rick's porch telling hilarious tales and laughing.

Early this morning, while we sat out on Rick's porch drinking coffee, Tony took this awesome sunrise picture and I love it. Then we ate breakfast, hung around for a little while digging up some sand and picking up seashells and then Rick took us back to Port Aransas, with a kayak aboard the boat, so Tony could take it home to try it out to see if he wanted to buy it from Rick.

Here is a great picture that T. took of Fourth, standing outside his truck, as the ferry took us to the mainland.

On our way back home, we stopped at the What-A-Burger, in Pleasanton for lunch and we got to laughing and joking about how our fun Port A trip had gotten a food theme—all with A's in it. Port A, Big A's Tacos, two What-A-Burger meals, so I said, "The title of my blog tonight is going to be, "What-"A"-Vacation!" And we laughed about it all of the way home and that is what the sign was for.

I'm fixin' to go to bed now and that is about it for tonight, but I must confess that everything I've written tonight is true, except for me going para sailing—"You've got to be kidding! I'd never do that, especially in a bathing suit! Thank you, Ben, Rick & Leisa and Fourth for our wonderful 33 hour vacation."

Y'all have a great evening!

Cosmo Topper!

Today has been great. This after, around 3:20, while I was packing for tomorrow's road trip, Tony walked into the bedroom and said, "Somebody is out here." Then he went outside to go see who was here and thirty-seconds later I was outside with him meeting three really nice, young people.

They told us that they had come out to look at our dogs, because Jansen was ready to adopt a small dog, around twenty pounds, that would be able to go to work with him everyday and stay in his office while he worked, so Tony and I took them to go meet Cosmo Topper, because Cosmo is the smallest dog that we have.

After meeting Cosmo, we went into his and Lulu's pen, so they could play with Cosmo and get to know him better and it didn't take long, because they instantly fell in love with him and he with them and us with them.

Cosmo seemed to know what was going on, so he turned on his charm and took turns running to each one of them and kissing them on their faces. It was really fun to watch the meet and greet, because Cosmo was so excited, just thinking about the possibility of him leaving here forever and so were we, because he is such a terrific dog and we really liked Jansen and his friends.

Twenty minutes later Cosmo got adopted! Here is a cute picture of Cosmo posing with Jansen and his friends. We are so happy for him and Jansen!

I plan to spend this evening packing and cleaning The Cabin, for Ben's stay, and then I'm going to bed early, because early tomorrow morning Tony, our dear friend Fourth and I are going down to Port Aransas to see Rick and Leisa and so I can also dig up some private island sand for my shell collection jar. We'll be back Friday afternoon.

Y'all have a great evening!

His Butter!

Today has been great. Early this afternoon, Tony and I jumped into Buttermilk and took off for Dixon Automotive, in Hondo, to pick up Trigger.

When we arrived at our favorite mechanic's garage, they needed to do a couple of more adjustments on Trigger, so we asked them to recommend a good restaurant, because we were really hungry. Jimmy's son, Kevin, highly recommended Herman and Sons, not far away on Highway 90, and then he gave us directions to it, before we took off.

But, instead of going to Herman and Sons, like we should have, we decided to try this restaurant which had a lot of pickups parked outside of it, because we were starving.

When we entered the clean, friendly place a waitress greeted us, handed us some menus and then asked us what we wanted to drink, "Tea." We said, at the same time.

As we sipped on our iced teas, I ordered a sampler plate and Tony ordered Carne Guisada and we tried not to laugh when the sweet waitress served us our delicious meals. Tony and I looked at our un-appetizing plates and then at each other, with raised eyebrows, even though he couldn't see mine, because they are gray, which basically makes them invisible to the human eye.

Trying hard not to laugh at the bland-looking food, when the really nice waitress returned to our table with four complimentary flour tortillas, I nearly lost it when she proudly placed one, yes one—tiny, plastic cup of fake butter, about the serving size of a half of a teaspoon—for us to share?

As Tony disappointedly tried to eat his not-seasoned carne guisada, plain white rice and refried beans, probably from a can—I felt guilty for picking the place for us to eat at, so to make peace, I picked up the small, fake butter cup and said, "Here, you can have the butter," and then I burst out laughing and so did Tone.

"This food is awful. It has no taste" T. whispered. "We don't even have any hot sauce to flavor our food."

"I know," I whispered back to him. "My microwaved enchiladas have no taste at all. Do you want my chalupa, because I'm afraid of it? My taco only has a tablespoon of beef in it and there's no salsa inside of it—just lettuce, tomato, a sprinkle of cheese and hamburger if you can find it." When Tony lifted my chalupa off of my plate, so he could eat it, I joked, "So, that's where my fluffy, white rice has been hiding! Thanks, T.!"

As I nibbled on a dry, homemade flour tortilla, I watched Tony butter a very small area on his tortilla, before running out of his butter and then he took a bite of it, which instantly caused his smile to turn upside down, so I started laughing, again. "I make better flour tortillas than these," Tony grumbled, with floury food still in his mouth.

"I know, but at least these tortillas have some taste to them and you got the butter." As T. unhappily played around with my chalupa, on his plate, trying to decide if he really wanted to eat it, I said, "Let's not get a dessert." Then I went and paid over $20.00 for a lunch that neither of us will ever forget. Then after leaving a $5.00 tip on the table for the really nice waitress—we left the restaurant, with all of the trucks parked outside, in front of it, because they belonged to all of their family members and friends sitting inside.

When we arrived back at Dixon Automotive, Kevin came out to greet us, so Tony lowered his window so we could talk to him and I joked, "We should have taken your advice on where to eat, Kevin." And when we told him where we had eaten—he laughed and then shook his head sideways, because he knew about their food. Then Buttermilk and Tony followed Trigger and me home. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!