Smiling Faces!

Last Thursday, during a conversation with Harley on his radio show, he told me that our friends, Randy and Lisa, of The Save Inn Restaurant, wanted everyone to know that their son and his wife, Trisha, had recently opened up a copy shop in Kerrville. He went on to tell me that they can do just about any kind of printing including posters. “Harley, that’s great news!” I said. “I’m going to go see them, because I want to get a poster done for Tony. It’s going to be a surprise for him.”

Tuesday morning, I found a little bit of time, to work on my poster project. I ended up using two pictures of Blue, and the poem that Tony had written on the day that Blue died. It took me less than an hour to put it all together—using Adobe Photoshop, and then I burned it to a CD. And, then I told Tony about the poster, because I couldn’t keep the secret any longer.

That afternoon, we drove to Kerrville to get it printed! We drove to the print shop, walked inside and I said, “Hi. Are you Randy’s and Lisa’s son?”

This man looked at me like I was a crazy old lady. “What?” He asked. “Who is Randy and Lisa?”

I turned about five shades of red and Tony just stood there wearing a big grin. “Our friend’s son has just opened up a print shop and I thought this was it,” I explained.

“You’re talking about Copies Plus,” he said, “They’re down the road—next to Auto Zone.”

“Thank you,” I said, “I’m sorry.” And then we walked out of the business—feeling embarrassed. Tony teased me all of the way to Copies Plus.

When we found Copies Plus, Tony parked Buttermilk, and then we went inside. “Hi, welcome to Copies Plus. My name’s Trisha. What can I do for you?”

After introducing ourselves, and telling her about going to the wrong copy shop—I handed Trish the CD and explained what we needed to get printed. Trisha understood what we were wanting and she was very helpful. In less than five minutes, we left Copies Plus and headed home.

Yesterday morning, I received an e-mail from Trisha. She had sent me a proof and it looked great! She wrote to tell me that the poster would be ready today, and she wrote that she had a Heeler named Ziggy. She said that the pictures and Tony’s poem had touched her and she had played around a little, with my design and just wanted to show it to me.

When I looked at her design—I loved it and was so glad that she had included it in the e-mail! I immediately e-d her back, and told her that her design was fantastic and to please use it, instead of mine.

This morning I received another e-mail from Trish—the poster would be ready around noon! Tony couldn’t wait to see it, so at 11:30, Tony left the rescue ranch, to go pick up his poster at Copies Plus!

When Tony arrived back home—he was smiling from ear to ear—he loved his poster! When I saw it—my jaw dropped—it was absolutely beautiful! When Tony showed it to Ben and Maribeth—they thought it was great, too!

Because I was so thrilled about how well it had turned out—I called Trish. “Trish, this is Nancy. Tony just got home with your poster, and I am calling to thank you for doing such a great job. It’s perfect and we love it! And, I am so glad that we went with your design. Thank you so much for making Tony smile, again.”

P.S. Ben and Toto dropped in this afternoon—just to say hi!

P.S.S. Kinky is leaving tomorrow for his Amsterdam, England and Ireland tour with Little Jewford and Washington Ratso!