Well, I'm A Long Tall Texan—I Wish!

Early this morning before Tony did his chores outside he and I went to Kerrville to eat breakfast at Randy and Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant. They make the best breakfast in town and to prove it, when we arrived their parking lot was nearly full and the restaurant was packed with happy people laughing inside. The reason that it is a happy place can be blamed on the sweet and funny waitresses and the good food. Not a bad combination if you ask me. And as always our breakfast was absolutely delicious.

After we left the Save Inn Restaurant we went to H.E.B. to get a few groceries and that is when things got a little weird and ugly. As Tony and I were walking to the store an old man probably about my age came walking out of the store nicely dressed but wearing shorts and it was twenty-nine degrees outside. Tony and I looked at each other and chuckled because we knew what each other was thinking—the guy was crazy.

When we arrived in the dairy section I just about had a cow when I saw an old woman probably about my age wearing just a sweatshirt and sneakers with rolled down black socks. We're talkin' no pants at all and the bottom of her dark blue sweatshirt just barely covered her bottom and she had varicose veins so bad her legs looked like a road map done by a drunk tattoo artists who had tried to connect all of her dots—it was not a pretty sight to see!

Everybody was staring at her and holding their breath as she casually lifted a quart of milk off of the shelf and then put it into her carry basket.  Tony and I looked at each other trying not to laugh and then we got out of there as fast as we could. As soon as we were three isles down and completely out of sight of her, near the frozen pizza section I said, "Tony, that woman wasn't wearing any pants! I can't believe it. Thank goodness the milk wasn't on a lower or higher shelf." Then we laughed all of the way to the bean isle.

When we got home at nine-thirty I helped Tony clean pens while he fed the dogs. Then I spent the rest of my day working on my book. Around four o'clock I went back into my office to try to find the picture I have of Molly Ivins and me because I want to put it into my book. After a ten minute search I found it along with a couple of hilarious pictures of me when I was young. They made me laugh out loud.

At four-thirty Kinky called to ask if he could come over so he could have a picnic with Toto. Ten minutes later Kinky was having a picnic on the front porch with Thunder, Little Girl, Hank and Toto. Here is picture that I took of the picnic.

When the picnic was over and our dogs were full of fried chicken I showed Kinky the photos that I had found. He loved this one of Molly and me that was taken in 1999 while she and I were visiting backstage at our first Bonefit.

Then Kinky laughed out loud when I showed him this goofy picture of my sister Cindy and me on my parent's patio, when I was a sweet sixteen. We were working on a dance routine for the song "Well, I'm A Long Tall Texan." Cindy is wearing the hat and I'm pointing a fake pistol at her. 

And Kinky nearly flipped out and then he started laughing when he saw me wearing a "Flip" hairdo at a party at my Uncle Howard's house. I was seventeen. My grandfather is the gray-haired man on the left standing by the door watching the man flirting with me.

Well, I hope that my pictures made you laugh out loud because I am still laughing about them. The Grammy's are fixin' to come on so I must end tonight's blog. I've gotta feeling that the Black Eyed Peas will win everything tonight and I hope they will.

Y'all have a great evening!

Multi-Tasking Ain't Easy!

This afternoon while I was outside the phone rang and Carlton took Sheryl Eddins message for me. Ten minutes later I came inside the trailer and listened to Sheryl's message. "Hello, Nancy. I am leaving Kerrville now and I should be there in about thirty minutes with my finished edits for your book."

I was thrilled that Sheryl was coming out and had finished editing my book but the thought of knowing that I would have to spend at least another six or seven hours making her corrections made me yawn, so I decided to take a mini-nap with my fur family before she arrived.

Twenty-five minutes later, I had almost fallen to sleep when they started barking. Sure that Sheryl was here I jumped off the bed and went into the bathroom to put on my new (the second pair) bifocals and cap at the same time, a multi-task that didn't seem to be all that difficult to do, but somehow it was for me.

As I put my white, Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, cap on my head—I stabbed myself in the left eye with the earpiece! Talk about hurt! I felt so stupid as my eye began to water and throb with pain so I said a few cuss words to make me feel better. Thankfully, Hank, Little Girl and Thunder are deaf so they just wagged their tails as they looked at me.

When I went outside to greet Sheryl no one was here except for the two young wild hogs that have been digging up the rescue ranch. When they saw me standing on the porch holding my hand over my eye they that ran off into the woods. Then Sheryl arrived.

When I told her about my stupid eye-stabbing-accident, which of course I totally blamed on being under the influence of the full moon, she laughed and told me to flush it with cold water. Then we came inside the trailer.

After I had flushed my eye with cold water we sat down to discuss my book and her final edits and then Sheryl and I had a fun visit before she had to take off for Kerrville.

While I was outside thanking Sheryl for editing my book for free and saying goodbye to her, Carlton was busy inside taking a message from Kinky: "Call me, Nance. I am back at the ranch."

Five minutes later, after I had called Kinky—Tony and I were over at the Lodge, sitting at his kitchen table with him and catching up with each others news. Kinky has been gone for ten days and I was so glad to see him and so was Tone.

When I told him about my multi-tasking eye accident, which fortunately isn't near as sore as it was, Kinky laughed and told me that he thought it was pretty funny.

Tonight, before posting this blog I want to do a big shout out to Sheryl Eddins for helping me not look so stupid in my book: Thank, You, Sheryl! You're, The, Best, Editor, In, Texas,,,,,,!

Y'all have a great evening!

Sorry, Not Tonight! We're Talkin' Full Moon!

Congratulations, Kelly and Pete!

It 's offifcial ! Our dear friends Kelly Bloomfield and Pete Hartje ran off and got married in New Orleans! Tony and I are so happy for them and I am sure that Fiona and Smilin' Jack are smiling about their union! We love y'all!

Harry And The Hightones!

It is four-thirty in the afternoon. My Himalayan salt lamp is glowing and Bruce Hornsby is singing The Valley Road. I am writing today's blog early because we are under a severe thunderstorms warning and tornado watch until ten o'clock tonight! Hopefully the storms and tornado will miss us, but just in case I have to unplug everything, I wanted to post this blog.

Yesterday morning around eleven o'clock Tony came inside the trailer and told me that Matt had gotten zapped, again but was fine because the voltage is so low.  So I went outside to tease Matt and to say hi to Lisa, Meghan and Steve. They were standing out by the barn. "Hi y'all!" I said. "Where is Matt-the-Ready-Kilowatt-Man? I heard he had another light (up-the) bulb moment this morning. Matt came out of the barn smiling and all of us laughed  and teased him about it. "Where did you get zapped this time?"

"Well, Miss Nancy," Matt said, "in Nellybelle and Hank's pen, again but this time I reached up and accidentally touched the wire with my hand. I'm fine. It happened because I was tired and it sort of jump started me."

Around four-thirty later in the day UPS arrived with my new Bose 10 iPod Docking System that I had ordered last week! When the friendly driver handed the big Bose box to Tone, Tony looked at me and said, "This thing weighs a ton, Nance! Are you sure you ordered the right thing?"

When he set it down on the chair so we could open it I looked at the box and said, "It says it only weighs twenty-three pounds. T. our portable Boses don't weigh more than five pounds each. Open it up." When Tony pulled the Bose out of the box it was huge—at least four times the size of our smaller Bose portables." Here's a picture of the big box that it came in.

Tony plugged it in and then reluctantly placed it on top of our old entertainment center, "I hope it can handle the weight." Then he inserted my iPod and pushed play on the remote control and then he started slowly cranking up the volume. The sound was magnicently clear and I loved it, but I wasn't sure I wanted to keep it because there was no way that I could carry it around, and I thought it was overkill for our small kitchen and big room, so I asked T. to please put it back into the box because I was going to return it and get the smaller one like ours.

I had a lot of fun doing The Harley Show and visiting with Harley this morning! Dusty was his Pet of the Week. When I told Harley about me taking the beginners drum class at Club Ed he teased me about it. When I told him about Donna Schloss, Lisa and Sara signing up for the drum course with me, Harley teased me more and made me laugh. So I decided to tell him about my pink drumsticks that I am still decorating, painting my dull gray drum pad lavender, and secretly taking a free drum lesson online so I wouldn't make a fool out of myself when I attend the class.

After doing Harley's show, I called the Bose Corporation and spoke to Donna, a very friendly customer service woman. "Donna, I love the Bose 10 but it is gigantic. I am old and can barely lift the thing." Donna laughed and she told me that there was no problem about returning it, and she agreed with me about it being much bigger than the other Bose iDocks. After she gave me the instructions for returning it to Bose I thanked her and then started making breakfast.

At eight-fifteen before T. got back from Medina—the electricity went out, and it came back on eight minutes later when Tony walked inside the trailer. I wasn't surprised because he always lights up my life.

After lunch Buttermilk took us to Kerrville so I could ship the big, boxed up Bose back to Bose. It was raining when we parked two doors down from the UPS Store. Before I got out of Buttermilk I took these two pictures of Tony holding the Bose box.

I laughed when I climbed out of Buttermilk because a man inside the Hallmark Cards store had been watching me and I am sure that he was wondering why I was taking pictures of Tony, so I waved to him. After we shipped the Bose back to Bose, we went to Wolfmueller's Books to see Sandy and Jon.

Unfortunatley, we didn't see Sandy but we had a fun visit with Jon. Right before we were fixin' to leave a friendly man walked into the bookstore and Jon immediately introduced us to his friend, David Jackson, the owner of Frontier Barber & Beauty Shop, and a band member of the popular band "Harry & The Hightones." David told us that he plays rhythm guitar and that no one in the band is actually named Harry. Then he invited us to come to the bands new CD release party this evening and this coming Saturday, next door at Hill Country Music! We told David we wished that we could make the release parties but told him that we would go next door and buy their new CD.

After David left, we left and went next door and purchased Harry & The Hightones - Hepcats From Smallville and we really like their music. Our favorite songs on the CD are: Juke Joint in Center Point and Big But Blonde.

It is now six minutes past six o'clock and it is raining outside. The predicted cold front with the high winds has not yet arrived—thank goodness.

Happy Birthday (H)erb Cares!

I want to wish my good friend "Erb Cares, the happiest birthday ever! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday Dear 'Erb! Happy Birthday to You!

I hope that you and Karen have fun celebrating today!

Happy 34th Birthday, Ben Welch! We Love You!

Today has been a really great day! First off, I want to wish Ben Welch, our dear friend, a Happy 34th Birthday! We love you Ben and we hope that you are having the best birthday ever! And as Kinky likes to often say, "Enjoy it. Trust me it only gets worse."

Early this morning I walked six more miles with Leslie Sansone in the big room and I am proud to say that I have walked over one-hundred and thirty miles since January 1st!

Around nine-thirty Lisa and Meghan came out to help Tony, and to walk our dogs. My good friend Sheryl came out around ten-thirty to bring me some more pages from my book that she has edited for me, then she went outside and helped walk our dogs! Thank you Lisa, Meghan and Sheryl! Our dogs love y'all as much as we do!

This afternoon after lunch Buttermilk took Tone, Kirby and me to Kerrville so we could get Kirby all of his shots. When we got back to the rescue ranch Carlton had five new messages for us to listen to and the last one literally made my day and made me smile! "Tony, Nancy, this is Carol. James and I wanted to invite y'all over to ride horses with us. Call me. Bye."

I picked up the phone and punched in Carol's phone number as fast as I could and told her that we couldn't wait to ride with them and that we would be over there in fifteen minutes because I needed two minutes to put on "my cowgirl outfit."

After I had put on my pink bandana and cowgirl hat, Tone grabbed our cameras and we took off in Buttermilk. I was so excited about seeing James and Carol and getting to go horseback riding with them! On our way over there T. told me that he wasn't going to ride because his back was aching but he volunteered to be the official photographer for the soon to be fun event. Here are a few of the pictures he took of us having fun. This one is of Carol and me visiting at the corral with her horse, Mya, as James saddled up the other horses in the barn.

This picture is of me on James' horse, Drifter. Isn't he a beautiful Buckskin! I instantly fell in love with him!

This is a picture of the three of us saddled up in the corral. Carol is on Mya, James is riding his horse, Chance without a bridle and I'm sittin' on Drifter! After Tony took this picture of us we left the corral to ride their horses.

This one is of me talking too much as usual and the big black dog is Carol's sweet Labrador, Scout. Please notice that James only has a rope slung around Chance's neck and there is no bridle. James has trained his horses so well that he can ride them without using bridles. I was impressed!

And this is a very short video clip that Tony took of us riding the range and having a fun time. 

We rode all over the ranch for about an hour and I had such a fun time, and I think they did, too. After we got off of the horses Carol and I went up to the house so she could check her email and I could read an article written about James and his horses, while James unsaddled the horses and brushed them down, while visiting with Tony. 

I was in shock after I read the article about James and his magnificent horses, Drifter and Chance. It was a great article and guess what? James and his horses are famous! And I had just ridden Drifter!

In 2000 James retired. He sold his house and all of his worldly possessions except for Drifter and Chase, the loves of his life. Then he bought a fancy horse trailer and then set out to live his dream. He spent over four years traveling to horse events all over Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California, with his horses and he slept in the horse trailer with them. 

His well equipped horse trailer provided James with a queen sized bed, kitchenette and a satellite dish so James could follow and keep up with the horse events on his computer. "Everyone that I met while traveling around were the best of people," James told me when he and Tone came up to the house. We had a long talk about it, and so I don't get it wrong I am going to ask Carol to please let me scan the article so y'all can read about him and his horses.

After we talked about James' travel adventures with Chance and Drifter, we downloaded Tony's camera and mine into Carol's computer so they could have the pictures and videos that Tone had taken, then while James and Tony talked about photography Carol and I visited in the kitchen. She told me that she has never been this happy in all of her life and I loved it. I am so happy for her and James. 

On our way back home I checked my camera to look at the pictures and videos that T. had taken and was disappointed that all of my pictures and videos had been accidentally deleted. When we got back to the rescue ranch, we stopped at the barn so I could take a couple of pictures of Tony's and my old saddles, because my brother, Ronnie, is going to make me two saddle stools, and then we came home. 

As soon as we came inside the trailer I called Carol and told her what had happened and I asked her to please email me the video so I could post it tonight and she said that she would do it immediately. Then I sat down at the kitchen table to download the pictures of our saddles into my laptop. When I opened up the door to pull out my memory stick it fell out. When I inserted it back into the camera I discovered that I had all of my pictures and videos that Tone had taken today! So I called Carol back and told her the good news and thanked her and James again for letting me go horseback riding with them today.

Y'all have a great evening!

Being Grounded!

This morning I did not walk with Leslie, because I was tired and needed a day off. I spent my morning returning phone calls and catching up on the paperwork while Matt, Meghan, Nicole, Bethany and John walked our dogs and helped Tony with his chores. Unfortunately, Lisa didn't get to come out because she had some business to take care of. Thank y'all for coming out!

After lunch Tony and I had to go to Kerrville to buy dog food. On our way to Kerrville, Tony started laughing and he told me why. "As of today Matt is an official Ranch Wrangler. As I was driving up to the trailer I saw Matt laying down on the ground in Nellybelle and Hank's pen. I stopped Kermit and asked him what he was doing and Matt started laughing as he stood up. He told me that he had just hit the hot-wire with his head as he was leaving their pen. He said he was fine and he started laughing about it." Tony and I started laughing.

We have a long ongoing joke out here about you're not part of the rescue ranch until you have been zapped at least once by our low voltage hot wires. I've been zapped, and so have Tony, Ben, John, Aaron and Kinky. It really doesn't hurt you, it just sort of jars you for a second because you weren't expecting it. Fortunately, because I am short I've only been shocked once when I reached up to toss a ball into a pen and touched the wire.

Kinky's 'number one hit' and only hit is the funniest of all of ours. Four or five years ago some reporters were out here interviewing Kinky as he gave them a tour of our rescue ranch. When he stopped at Randy Travis', Mandy's and Moe Bandy's pen, which was hot because they are jumpers, he reached up and grabbed the hot wire and yelled a cuss word as he let go and jumped back. The reporters didn't know if they should laugh but Kinky, Tony and I did. It was hilarious and Kinky has never been zapped since! It only takes one time and that's why we use them because once one of 'our jumpers' hits the wire they learn to never try to jump out again and that makes them very adoptable.

"After Matt had quit laughing about not being grounded," Tone said, "he told me that he had been sitting in Hank's and Nelly's pen to visit with them so they could get to know him. He said that Nellybelle had laid down beside him, rested her head on his leg and then she fell to sleep, and Hank let him pet him and Hank seemed to enjoy Matt's company."

"That's great news about Nellybelle and Hank," I said. "They are such great dogs."

"I know. By the way this morning Nancy and Peggy, my friends on Facebook, read your blog last night  and they asked me if I liked your cheese souffle..."

"You did like it didn't you?"

"Nance, it was good but I am not really a souffle -kind-of-a-man. I mean it was good, but  I've never eaten anything like that with that kind of texture."

When we arrived at Walmart Tony and I turned on our cell phones and then we went off in different directions. While T. filled his cart with fifty pound sacks of dog food I was over in the arts & craft section buying this and that, so I could decorate and customize my new drumsticks and drum pad for my beginners drum class on February twenty-eighth because I want to have the coolest and prettiest drum sticks and drum pad in the class! We're talkin' Bling!

Y'all have a great evening!

I Didn't Know About This Either!

Today has been great! I walked six miles with Leslie inside the trailer and then I decided to cook a fancy lunch for us. So I pulled out my old Fannie Farmer Cookbook and looked up the recipe for cheese souffle. I had made that recipe many years ago and remembered it being delicious, but I've never cooked it for Tone.

We had cheese souffle and vegetables for lunch and Tony loved Fannie's recipe! Here is a picture of the delicious cheese souffle when Tony pulled it out of the oven.

Even though today is our official day to be off, I ended up posting the iGive information on the blog, Facebook and sent it to Pat so she could post it on utopiarescue.com. Hopefully, it will help raise funds for the rescue ranch.

Late this afternoon around four-forty-five while I was backing up my computer the phone rang. "Rescue Ranch. Can I help you?" I said as Steve Martin sang King Tut in the background.

"Nancy, this is Phil! How are Tony and you?"

I didn't answer right off, because Phil sounded like a girl. "Phil?" I said.

"Not Phil! It's Carol! Your neighbor!" Then Carol and I started laughing.

"I'm sorry, Carol," I said. "I'm so hard of hearing I thought you said Phil. What's up?"

"We want to come over there and see y'all. Is that okay?"

"That sounds great, Carol. Come on over! We'd love to see yall," I said even though I didn't know who 'we' was. After I hung up the phone, I half-hollered down the hall, "Tony! Carol just called and she's coming over to visit with either Lorri and Brenda or James. She said, "we want to come over" and I'll bet you it is James."

"I bet it is too," Tone said. "I'll go open up the gate for them." Then he went outside.

When our dogs started barking Tony and I went outside to greet Carol and James. They were smiling from ear to ear and after handshakes and hugs we came inside the trailer for a visit. "I have some great news to tell y'all," Carol said. "James has officially moved to Medina! He's a Medina resident!"

I was so happy for Carol and James. "Well, welcome to the neighborhood, James," I said. "I knew something was going on between y'all when y'all came over to visit us on December 23rd with Brenda and Lorri!"

Carol blushed and then she told us how it had all happened. Turns out they have known each other and been best friends for over seven years. James told us that he had been chasing her since the day he met her and they share the same interests including their love of horses, traveling and they are both Aquarians! In other words they are soul mates who fate finally put together. Tony and I were so thrilled for them. "And get this," Carol said, "when we go out to eat we always order the same thing and it's like we always know what the other one is thinking all of the time! We are just alike! His friends told him that I am a female version of him and my friends have told me that James is a male version of me!..."

There is much more to tell about Carol and James but my lips are sealed. All I can say is their courtship had Tony and me rolling on the floor with laughter. Here is a picture that James took of best friends horsing around: Brenda, Lorri and Carol when they were visiting Carol right before Christmas.

And this is a beautiful picture that Carol sent to me last month, of her and James with her dog and his horses that Lorri took. I think it is safe to say, we're definitely talkin' love, and I didn't know about this either until today! We love you, Carol and James and we are so happy for y'all!

P.S. The last thing that I didn't know today, is Carol was the 'first chair' drummer all three years in junior high. I found this out when I asked her if she wanted to take the drum class with me. She declined because she already knows how to drum and she showed me how to hold the sticks without charging me a cent! And get this— I just received an email from my friend, Donna S.— she has just signed up for the drum course! Rump...a pump...pum!

Y'all have a great evening!

I Didn't Know About This!

I received an email this morning about iGive on the internet  and found it very interesting. I found out that you can help Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch when you shop online at iGive! All that you have to do is register for a free iGive account and our ranch will benefit every time you shop! It is that easy and there are over 750 stores, including Amazon.com! So shop till you drop and our dogs will love you for it!


I have put the iGive link to help our rescue ranch on the sidebar under my favorite links. Check it out:
iGive!

Kate Smith!

This morning after walking six miles I asked Tony if it would be okay if I took the day off so I could edit my book. My friend Sheryl has given me the first seventy-six pages that she has edited and I am proud to say that by seven o'clock tonight I have made all of her suggested corrections and I am completely exhausted! My index finger has a blister on it from hitting the delete key so many times!

Bless Sheryl for helping me because I know I must have removed over one million unnecessary commas in those first seventy-six pages thanks to my public education teacher in Fort Worth who was from Russia with love. (I'm sure it was some kind of a Communistic plot.) And there were quite a few spelling corrections I had to make also. No offense to y'all but how can you read my blog with all of the punctuation mistakes I make. I am so embarrassed about it and feel like an idiot.

I've already decided on my future books that I am not going to use any commas at all, if I can get Sheryl to edit for me again. I know that Sheryl would appreciate it and the editing process would be so much smoother and go so much faster because all I would have to do is add a couple of commas to each page. I want to do a giant shout out to Sheryl for editing my book for me for free! She has definitely made me not look so stupid if that is possible.

THANK YOU, SHERYL EDDINS! COMMAS SUCK!

Today Tony told me during an editing break that Lisa and Sara are going to sign up for the drum class and take the two and a half hour course with me! Yeah! During another comma-removal break I called Wolfmuellers and spoke to Jon about the drumming course. He and Sandy won't be taking the drum education course. Dang! It's now two up and two down—rump-a-pump-pum...!

Garnet my friend over in Utopia called today while I was busy deleting commas on page forty-three and left this message: "Hello Nancy, this is Garnet. I've been reading your blog about Miss Moose and I think you should name her Kate Smith. Bye." Her phone call pulled me out of my self-induced comma-coma and made me laugh out loud! Thanks for making me laugh, Garnet. Oops! I just used another comma.

Kinky called me late this afternoon. He is in Lubbock and he laughed hard when I told him that I was going to feng shui commas out of my writing and never use them again. "Nance, don't worry about it. That is why there are editors. Keep writing! Don't worry about it!"

I am fixin' to go to bed right now even though it is eight-thirty-three. God Bless Kate Smith.

Y'all have a great evening!

The Hood!

Today has been really fun. This morning our super dog-walking volunteers: Lisa, Kevin, Melody, Steve, Ellen, Eileen and Jim came out and walked our dogs! After I had walked "my dogs" six miles inside the trailer with Leslie, I went outside to thank and visit with all of the volunteers.

Ellen told me that she is thinking about adopting "Miss Moose" if she is good with cats. Eileen told me that she loves her sports car even though young men are constantly trying to catch up with her car. She said when they catch up to her it makes her laugh at the young men's disappointed expressions on their faces, when they discover that she isn't a young, hot chick, but an older woman with gray hair.

While our dogs were coming in and going out of the rescue ranch Lisa, Steve and Melody helped Tony move Miss Moose and Toby Keith over to one of our giant pens, and then they put Buddy and Sparky back into their old pen after Lisa removed a really large tree branch about five foot long (Miss Moose's  favorite stick toy.) and put it into Miss Moose's new pen. As soon as Lisa heaved "the giant stick" into Miss Moose's pen, she came running up and picked it up in her mouth and happily trotted off with her stick in tow. It made all of us laugh.

As we watched Miss Moose and Toby happily running up and down their new giant pen we talked about what name we should give Miss Moose. We came up with Tinkerbell, but Tony didn't like it. Lisa and I then came up with Twinkle Feet, Twinkie, Maybelline but we really didn't think the names were all that great for such a wonderful dog like her.

After lunch Buttermilk took us to Kerrville so we could run a few errands. Before going to H.E.B., our final destination, Tony asked me if it would be okay with me if he got his hair cut.

When we arrived at his favorite hair cutting place it was packed full with people with various hair problems. After T. signed in at the desk we sat down, and I started people watching as Tony read an old sports magazine. During our one hour wait as Tone occasionally growled about it taking so long, I was having a blast because people are so interesting to me.

There was this balding man sitting in a chair, who was probably in his late forties, flirting with a pretty, young hair dresser who kept smiling at him so she could get a big tip, even though he was acting so obnoxious. Every time when she thought she was done with his hair cut, and raised his chair up so he could check out his new doo, he would ask her to cut a little more hair off. That lasted over twenty minutes and he was almost completely bald when he paid up and gave her a tip.

A woman much older than me, probably in her late seventies, sat two chairs down from him. She was getting a permanent and a little blue tint done to her thinning gray hair. After getting her pale blue tint applied to her short hair, which exactly matched the color of my eyes, the talkative hairdresser wound up the woman's hair tightly using about forty plus spoolies, and then she made her sit down next to me to get her hair dried under "the hood." The elderly woman read an outdated issue of Time magazine as her blue hair baked on high.

Then there was this young teenage girl getting her short brown hair blown dried for over twenty minutes by an oversized hair stylist wearing way too much makeup on her face, with three watches on each wrist, and wearing Spandex pants that were so tight on her I knew they were fixin' to pop if she drank one more sodie water and bent over, while the only male barber calmly trimmed off Tony's cute curls five chairs down. I was getting nervous about the the stylists pants exploding right in front of me, and I could not wait to get out of there.

As soon as Tone's ears were lowered an inch I ran out of the beauty shop so I wouldn't get hurt. And y'all, that is why I have long hair. Beauty shops scare me to death.

P.S. I have just now come up with Miss Mooses' new name. It's going to be Betty Boop and Tony likes it!

Y'all have a great evening!

None!

So far, today has been really fun and filled with surprises. This morning I got up early so I could do the Harley Show. When I got on my laptop to watch and listen to Harley before I called in, I was surprised to see Rick doing the show. At seven-forty-five when I called the station Rick answered the phone and told me off air that Harley was over at the stock show.

When the song that was playing stopped playing that's when we went live on the air. "We have Cousin Nancy on the phone from the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. How are you doing?"

"Good morning Rick! I'm doin' just fine."

"That's good," Rick said. "Who is Harley's Pet of the Week?"

"Well, since Harley isn't there, Rick's Pet of the Week is Miss Moose and she is a wonderful four year old black Lab."

"Tell us some more about Miss Moose."

"She is like a doublewide Labrador. She weighs over a hundred and twenty pounds. She's not tall just real wide..." We talked about the rescue ranch for a few minutes then my segment of the show was over. I had fun doing the show with Rick.

After I walked six miles I cleaned up, and then I cleaned up the trailer. At ten-thirty my friend, Sheryl arrived right on time. Sheryl is the kind heart who is helping me edit my book. When she came inside the trailer with my edited pages of the book she surprised me with a gift. She gave me a first edition copy of Two Guys Four Corners by Don Imus & Fred Imus! "Sheryl, you didn't need to bring me a present, heck, your help with the editing is the biggest gift I could ever want or ask for. You are too sweet. Thank you so much."

Sheryl and I spent the morning talking about her edits and the book in general. Even though there are a lot of red marks on every page for me to correct, most of the corrections are to delete  all of the unnecessary commas that I used after every two breaths. I plan to start the editing tonight! Sheryl left around one o'clock. Thank you, Sheryl!

After Tony and I ate lunch I found the Club Ed classes catalog to get the phone number for registration. "Club Ed. This is Bill. How can I help you?" (I think he said Bill, but because I am hard of hearing he might have said Phil.)

"Hi. I'm Nancy Parker-Simons and I want to sign up for a course."

"Great! Which one?"

"The drum course," I said. "Can I sign up for it now on the phone?" After I gave Bill / Phil my name, address, phone number and credit card information he asked me for my e-mail address. "It's Cousin Nancy..."

"Cousin Nancy! You're Cousin Nancy! I listen to you everyday on Harley."

"Well, thank you. I love Harley."

"I'm doing the Harley Show tomorrow morning about Club Ed," the friendly man said. Then we talked about Harley for a few minutes and how much he has done to help the Kerrville community. Then Bill / Phil surprised me and said, "Would you like to teach a course for Club Ed?"

What? I didn't know what to say, so there was a moment of silence, because his question had blown me out of the sadde, so to speak. "Sure. I guess I could teach a writing course as long as it doesn't have anything to do with punctuation, or I could teach a course on how to write a book or something."

"What if you did a course about animal rescue. People could sign up and take a bus down there one day and spend two to three hours."

"Yes, Tony and I could give them a tour, explain what we do and how they can help."

"I like that idea," Bill / Phil said. "We will send you a teacher application. Cousin Nancy, there are still a few openings left to fill for the drum class, so please invite all of your friends to take the course with you." I told him that I would and then we said goodbye to each other.

The first people I thought of who are fun and might want to take the course with me were Mari and The NoMads, Lisa, Matt, Jon & Sandy at Wolfmueller's Books, Donna S., Trisha at Copies Plus, Randy & Lisa at The Save Inn, Carol V., Rick & Leisa, Pete & Kelly and David & Desiree at the Trails End Guest House!

I think it would be a blast to take the drum course with all of them! It would be just like a party, but sadly it would be without Tony, because he hates drumming. Who knows, maybe I could talk the instructor into letting Tony come to the class for just a few minutes so he could take a few videos of us banging our drums slowly on Sunday, February twenty-eighth.

This afternoon Lisa and Kevin came out to the rescue ranch to help Tony replace a water pump and to walk a few dogs for us. T. wanted me to go with them so I went with them. I had a fun visit with everyone even though Tone teased me relentlessly about being scared of the cows and he kept honking the horn trying to get the cows to chase us.

"I am not scared of cows y'all," I said, in self defense. "What I am scared of is when Tony goes to feed them and they chase us to where he feeds them, and they run right beside the window that I am sitting next to! If one of them stumbled, they could fall over and crush me."

"So, how many cows have you seen stumble and fall and crush someone inside a car?" Lisa asked.

"None," I said. Then we all broke out laughing. It took us about thirty minutes to get the pump running and Tony was soaking wet by the time we were done, because he actually did most of the work.

Y'all have a great evening!

That Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night...!

I have my salt lamp turned on and am listening to the talented Black Eyed Peas singing I Gotta Feeling. I love that song because it makes me feel so good. I first heard them sing it on Oprah's premier show for her new season and it gave me goose bumps then as it does now. As I type this both of my feet are tapping nonstop to the beat and I am nearly dancing in my chair! I swear that song can lift anybodies spirit. It is amazing!

Susan Boyle has just started singing Wild Horses and she is giving me goose bumps, too. Now, since my feet are no longer tapping and I've quit swaying back and forth in the chair I'm ready to write a few words about my day.

This morning was great. I got up really early, did all of my chores and walked six miles with Leslie Sansone before nine o'clock. Lisa came out and she helped Tone with his daily chores outside, while I returned phone calls and caught up on my paperwork. Thank you, Lisa!

After lunch our good friend and volunteer, Paul Emerson, came out to deliver boxes filled with coupons for dog food, that his friend Stephanie had rounded up for us. Thank you Paul and Stephanie!

Right before Paul left the rescue ranch, Judith Pannebaker showed up, so she could meet Nellybelle and take her for a walk, because she is thinking about adopting her. Tony and I had a nice visit with her. During our visit she told us that she is the editor for the popular newspaper, the Bandera County Courier and she offered to help the rescue ranch however she could. When I told her that I write a daily blog about the going ons out here, she told me that she will check it out and will possibly pull some of my stories for the newspaper!

After Judith had walked the walk with Nellybelle, she told us that she loved Nellybelle and was really impressed with her. Then she wrote a check and made a donation to the rescue ranch. Then she showed us two of her adorable little dogs, waiting patiently for her in her car. When Tony and I saw them they stole our hearts immediately. They were both rescued dogs. Doc Holiday, a Pug mix, that had the cutest under bite and who was obviously a little clown who knew how to pull heartstrings, and Johnny Ringo had eyes that could melt your heart. I wish I had had my camera with me so I could show them to you.

I gave Judith a tour of the rescue ranch. When she met Toby Keith I told her his story and it made her mad about him being abandoned. Before leaving the rescue ranch she told me that she was going to tell a friend about Toby Keith and just maybe they might consider adopting him.

After Judith left, Tony and I jumped into Buttermilk and went north without knowing that things were fixin' to go south for us. We had several errands to run, so we went to Walmart first to buy dog food. There were some pretty weird acting people in there that we have never seen before and I am sure it is because of Mercury being in retrograde. The next two places we stopped at were even weirder. It was like people were out of sorts or something.

Our last stop, thank goodness was at Wolfmueller's Books to see Sandy and Jon! We arrived at four-thirty. They were fine and acting normal like they always do. Fortunately, Mercury had not found the location of their great bookstore, yet. And within thirty seconds the four of us were laughing out loud. Thank goodness they had lifted our mood!

After Sandy and Jon had told us about a really cool drum seat that their friend had just purchased next door at Hill Country Music  I said, "Y'all have got to excuse me for a minute because I need to run next door, to buy a drum pad and drum sticks for my drum class, before they close. I will be right back."

"I'll go with you!" Jon said. He and I left the building and went into the store next door. As soon as we walked inside Jon said, "Hi. Cousin Nancy needs to buy a drum pad and drum sticks because she is going to take drum lessons. Where are they?" The man pointed to the back of the store and he then followed us to the drum section and was very helpful. Thirty six dollars and seventy cents later we were back in the bookstore visiting with T. and Sandy. Ten minutes before Sandy and Jon closed their store for the day Tony and I said our goodbyes to them so we could get back to the ranch. This is what I purchased at the music store today.

It is now nine twenty and I have to go to bed early so I can do the Harley Show live with Harley tomorrow morning, but before I do, I am going to take my drum sticks, drum pad, iPod and Bose iDock into the closet down the hall and play my drum with the Black Eyed Peas! I can't wait! I've got a feeling that I am going to enjoy it.

Y'all have a great evening!

Happy Belated Birthday, Jim Callahan!

Today has been a quiet day and I have enjoyed it. Lisa and Matt came out this morning with some friends and they helped Tony with his chores while I walked six miles inside the trailer. Thank y'all!

This afternoon we had a nice surprise. A friendly FedEx man showed up with a gigantic box. As he carried it to the back of Trigger he cheerfully said, "I didn't want to leave your computer down by the gate so I brought it up here for you." Tony thanked him for doing that then he told him the box was actually a care package sent to us by our good friend, Jim Callahan and the staff at his office. "It's full of donated blankets for our dogs." The driver thought that was really cool and then he drove away. We thought it was really cool, too and it is going to help keep our dogs warm.

Thank you Jim, and everyone in your office, our dogs will love them! And, I hope that you had a wonderful birthday. Here is a picture of the giant care package box. You can see why the driver thought he was delivering a computer to us.

This evening I am going to watch the movie Chasing Amy and then go to bed early.

P.S. A nice woman called today. She made an appointment to come out tomorrow afternoon because she is thinking about adopting our sweet Nellybelle. Please keep your fingers crossed for her.

Y'all have a great evening!

We Love Toby Keith!

Today has been pretty interesting because Mercury is still in retrograde. Before I tell you about what all happened I want to share the comment that I just checked out made by Anon earlier today, about the drum course that I am signing up for in late February.

Anonymous said...

nance, you are going to drive the dawgs crazy with your new hobby : ) let alone tony...

January 18, 2010  3:21 PM

cousin nancy said...

Hi Anon! I already drive Tone crazy and I will only use a little drum pad with hardly any sound output. But, if it drives the dogs crazy I promise to stop and I will take my next course in Karate or Wine Appreciation for Beginners.

January 18, 2010 7:05 PM

Now back to the past. This morning I got up early, so I could get my six mile walk in before my good friend Ann, from New Mexico, came out for a visit along with her good friends Colette and David and their children. Right after my workout with Leslie, Kinky called. "Nance, I threw my back out last night. Do you have any Tylenol that I can boroorborrow?"

"No Kink, but I have some Aleve. That is what Tone uses for his back. I bet you threw your back out doing those twenty pushups that you do twice a day."

"I doubt if it was the forty pushups. Could you bring the Aleve over?"

When I showed up at the Lodge, Kinky was standing at the gate waiting for me. "Here's the Aleve and I brought you one of those heating pad patches. They really seem to help T." We went into the Lodge, had a short visit and then I returned to the rescue ranch.

Right after I walked inside the trailer the phone rang. I let Carlton take the call. "Hello Tony and Nancy, this is Mike. I adopted Toby from y'all over a year and half ago..." I picked up the phone to talk to Mike. Mike (which is not his real name) told me that he had been out of work this past year because of the economy. He had finally just found a job in East Texas, and he and his family were moving there, and the place that they were moving to would not let them have dogs. In other words he asked me if we would take Toby Keith back. I told him yes, of course. Then he asked me if Tony and I could please pick Toby up in Kerrville because they were on their way to East Texas. He gave me their old address and directions to their house where Toby was. I told him that we could not pick Toby up until this afternoon and he told me that it was no problem because the neighbors were watching out for him. Before hanging up I asked Mike what vet I should call to get Toby's shot records and Mike told me that Toby was due his shots now. Then Ann and her friends showed up!

I had a wonderful time visiting with Ann, David and Colette and their cute daughters! As usual I talked way too much, but they were polite and they never asked me to shut up so one of them could talk. I showed them the Space Ship, then we went into Outer Space followed by a meet and greet with all of our rescued dogs. Then we came into the trailer for a short visit and then we took off for the Lodge so they could meet Kinky. (Ann already knew Kinky. She has pet sitted for The Friedmans several times over the years.)

We had a really fun visit with Kinky even though his back was out. When Ann and her friends left to go to Medina to eat lunch, I told Tony that I loved David and Colette and their sweet girls and that I now consider them to be good friends. Of course, T. agreed with me about them being great people.

We met Kinky at one-thirty for lunch at the orange colored restaurant in Kerrville and it was fun and delicious. After lunch we went our separate ways. We went to get Toby Keith and Kink went to H.E.B. to get some groceries.

When we pulled into the driveway where Toby was, we found him sitting on a tarp beside the house looking lonely and he wasn't in the backyard or wearing a dog collar with dog identification tags! Yikes! I guess you could say that we were pretty shocked that they had just left him there. No, it was more like we were mad, but Toby wasn't mad at all thank goodness! When he saw us pull up he jumped off of the tarp covering something, and came running to us with his tail wagging! "Hi Toby," Tony said, as he opened the back seat door for him, "Come on Buddy! We're taking you home with us!" Which was a lie sort of, but Toby Keith didn't know that and he immediately jumped into the back seat!

As we headed for Hoegemeyers Animal Clinic so Toby could get all of his shots, he showered us with wet kisses and seemed glad to be reunited with us. On the way back to the rescue ranch he slept peacefully in the back seat. When we arrived at the rescue ranch Tony put him in Hank's old pen, the puppy pen, and tomorrow we are going to introduce him to Miss Moose. If they get along they will become roommates! I've got my fingers crossed and am pretty sure that these two great dogs will get along just fine. Here's an old picture of Toby Keith.

Toby Keith is approximately four years old and he is one great dog! He gets along great with other dogs and we hope that someone great will come out here and adopt him sooner than later. His first master died on him, and the last one deserted him and he deserves super people who will give him a forever loving home because he deserves it. We love Toby Keith!

Here are two pictures that I took yesterday of Hank with his new roommate, Nellybelle. They aren't great, but I love the last one with Nellybelle's head turned. They are great dogs and so beautiful!

Y'all have a great evening!

Not Tonight, I'm Watching The Golden Globe Awards!

Beat The Drums Slowly!

Today has been great! Lisa and Matt came out this morning to help Tony and walk our dogs! Right after I had walked six miles the phone rang and it was Kinky. "Do you have four eggs that I can borrow?"

Even though I was in my sweats, and had not had a chance to clean up, I was over at the Lodge in three minutes, delivering him four eggs. We had a fun visit. He read four pages out loud to me, that he had written to get my opinion of it. "OMG! Kink that is some fantastic writing! I love it!" Then he started cutting up some hot peppers and a little onion, added the eggs and then poured his soon to be breakfast into the hot skillet as we talked about Hank's progress and how happy we were for him.

"Frank!" Kinky hollered. "Breakfast is ready!" As Kinky and Frank ate their breakfast we talked some more about Hank and the Will Bark For Food drive. Several times during their meal Frank removed  tiny pieces of the pepper from his plate and set it aside on his plate. With his eyes watering Frank said, "Kinky, are you trying to kill me, man? I don't like peppers and these are the hottest that I have ever eaten." Kinky laughed and continued eating, as smoke came out of Frank's ears.

After breakfast I returned to the rescue ranch to find Lisa and Matt helping Tony replace the last busted pipe from last week. While I visited with them Matt and Tone kept teasing Lisa about it being her turn to replace the piece of pipe. I was enjoying my visit with them, but needed to go inside to clean up, so I excused myself and went inside the trailer.

Carlton was flashing, I had one new message and it was from our friend Ruth. She had called to tell us that she was on her way out to the rescue ranch and she would see us soon! I looked at the clock and realized I only had about twenty minutes to take a shower and dress before Ruth arrived!

When I turned on the shower nothing happened! The water was shut off. I stepped outside on the porch and watched Tony and Lisa driving away in Kermit. Then I saw Matt down by the pump house and hollered, "Matt, the water is off!"

"I know! Tony told me to turn it off because when we turned on the water another piece of the pipe just busted!" Then I saw Kermit returning Lisa and Tone with more pipe. Within seconds we were standing outside the outdoor restroom where the pipe had busted. As Matt helped Tony cut off the busted pipe, they started teasing Lisa, again about them doing all of the work and Lisa not helping them replace broken pipe. "Since we don't have water, I'm going inside and dress in layers so I want stink when Ruth gets here. Bye."

Six minutes later, I was outside laughing with everyone! Poor Lisa, she had decided to replace the piece of pipe to show the guys that she could, and she now had blue pipe glue all over her hands! "I fixed it, Nancy!" Lisa proudly declared, then she started laughing. "Tony told me that nothing can take off the blue glue, but he has promised me that it should be gone in a couple of weeks!" As we laughed, we watched Ruth's truck slowly coming towards us!

When Ruth got out of her big red truck she introduced me to her family. "Nancy, this is my favorite grandson, Manny, who is nine, this is Stephanie, Sydnee (that is the correct spelling, because I asked her how she spelled it.), and this is my sister Arlene."Then it was my turn to introduce them to Lisa, Matt and Tony, and I got everyone's name right, which is unusual for me since I am no longer good with remembering names!

After a brief visit, Lisa and Matt took off to walk some dogs. Then Ruth's family and I took off so I could give them a tour of the rescue ranch. Along the way I told them Hank's story. When we reached Hank's pen, so they could meet him, the gate was open and Hank was gone! I was disappointed and so were they, because they could not wait to meet him. Then I looked up and saw Lisa and Matt walking into the rescue ranch, down by the gate, with Hank and Nellybelle walking side by side with their tails held high! It was so awesome!

When Lisa and Matt reached us, Hank let everyone pet him and so did Nellybelle! Then they took off to put Nellybelle and Hank into the same pen down by the barn!

After Ruth and her family had met all of our dogs we ended up at Hank's and Nelly's pen. Lisa was inside playing with them and they seemed to be really happy together! Then we saw Hank jump up on Lisa and smear mud all over her overalls! Lisa just laughed about it even though she was now covered in mud, and had blue hands!

I gave Ruth and her family the 'Grand Tour.' We went into my writing cabin, then into the Space Ship and then we went into Outer Space, the trailer, and they loved all of it! Then we went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky.

When we walked inside the kitchen Dylan and Frank were sitting at the kitchen table visiting, then Kinky walked into the kitchen and I introduced everyone to Kinky. He gave them his 'Grand Tour' of the Lodge and then we had a really fun visit!

After they left the ranch, I returned to the rescue ranch and made lunch for Tony and me. As we were eating, I told Tone that I have decided to take drum lessons. "Tony, I think it would be fun to learn how to play the drums! Kerrville I.S. D. has a drum course coming up, and I am going to sign up for it!" Tony's jaw dropped and he put down his fork. I could see the food in his mouth!

"No, Nance. Please don't learn how to play drums," he half begged, while shaking his head back and forth, "you know that I hate drumming. It will drive our dogs and me crazy. Please don't take..." I couldn't believe his reaction.

"Tony, I am not going to buy a drum set and be banging on drums out here!" I said, as I shook with laughter. "Good grief, T.! I only have to buy a little practice pad and two drum sticks. It is only a one session, two and a half hour crash course on February twenty-eighth and it only costs thirty dollars and twenty nine dollars at the door, for the practice DVD! It's called Just ONCE Drums for Busy People." Then I showed him all about the course on page eleven in the Club Ed catalogue and he settled down some. "Tony, I promise you that I will beat the drums slowly and softly."

P.S.Tomorrow I will post a picture of Hank and Nellybelle together in their new pen. This evening when we went outside to check on the dogs. Hank and Nell-Bell were inside their doggie condo and seemed to be quite happy. Thank goodness!

Y'all have a great evening!

Gosh, Time Sure Does Fly!

Yesterday I was very productive. I walked six miles, washed and dried a load of laundry, made Hank another hot meal, returned several phone calls and caught up with all of my paperwork, while my pinto beans simmered in the crock pot!

At twelve-thirty I served Tony and Ben Mexican cornbread with beans and like me, they loved it! Our lunch was a lot of fun, too because Ben was here and there was much laughter! We talked about everything and at one point our conversation went something like this:

"Ben, have you seen the documentary, The Voice?" I asked. "I saw Drew at H.E.B. the other day and he told me that I had to watch it, because it was incredibly great."

"Yes, it is good."

"We were standing in the dog food isle, and he started telling me about it when this wealthy looking, older woman showed up. I thought I was in her way so I moved my cart, and apologized to her for being in her way and she tells us that it was no problem, because she was actually eavesdropping on our conversation! Then Drew and I introduced ourselves to her. Her name was Virginia. Then Drew tells us all about the video. Virginia said she was going to rent it, and I should be getting it today in the mail from Netflix and I cannot wait to watch it! Drew said it was over three hours long."

"You'll like it, Nance. It's right up your alley, about plants talking, near death experiences, water, etc." Ben said, as I washed our lunch dishes in the sink.

When the kitchen was cleaned up, I went to my laptop and looked up one of my favorite desserts, Cousin Nancy's Afternoon Delight, the recipe that requires one can of Mountain Dew, Granny apples, crescent rolls, sugar, cinnamon and pecans. "Tony will you read me the instructions for this recipe, so I can make it?" Tone sat down at the kitchen table and began telling me how to make it.

After slicing up two apples and putting them into a pan of water so they could boil for ten minutes, I sat down at the kitchen table and started laughing. "Ben, you are not going to believe what I did yesterday?" Ben and T. started laughing even though they didn't know what was so funny. "A couple of days ago, I bought one of those battery operated nail grinders for our dogs nails. They are only about ten dollars. Well, I decided to test it out on me first, before using it on our dogs." Tony and Ben laughed harder. "I unscrewed the top, put the batteries into it, pulled off my pink Justin Gypsies boots, removed my socks and tried it on my toes, even though Tony warned me not to do it because it might hurt me. Ben, it was fantastic! I love it and because it is so low powered it did not cut me or anything! Can you believe that?" Ben didn't say anything because they were laughing so hard. "I bet it is the same thing that they use at the nail salons! I think everyone should use them." Then I went and got it and showed it to Ben.

Finally, Ben quit laughing and said, "You've got to blog about this, Nance!" And, I told him that I would. Thirty minutes later we ate my dessert, then the guys went outside to work. This is what it looked like before we dug in.

While they were outside working, I washed the dishes and then I decided to frame the poster that I had found a few days ago, and had completely forgotten about. Barnes & Noble, in San Antonio, had sent it to me after my book signing, back in 2006. It is gigantic and it took me a while to frame it, but I got it done. It is now hanging on the wall in my office. Here is a picture of it, before Tony helped me hang it.

So, the reason that I didn't post a blog last night was because I watched, The Voice, and I loved it! Today I also didn't walk with Leslie because I was tired and I needed a day off.

Lunch today was fun, again, because Ben ate with us, again. First, we talked about our dogs and Ben came up with a great name for Dizzy, our new gigantic, but sweet, rescued black Lab. Her new name is Miss Moose or Moose, for short! It is perfect for her!

Tomorrow, we plan to move some dogs around, and put Nellybelle and Hank together. They have already met and seem to really like each other and all of us think it will be a great match! Hank has really turned around fast and is doing so great, I cannot believe that a week ago at this time, Tony and I were standing outside, over at the Medina Children's Home in twenty-two degree weather, trying to catch him using flour tortillas and cheese. Gosh, time sure does fly.

Y'all have a great evening!

Over The River and Through The Woods—Almost!

This morning after walking six miles, I cooked Hank a brunch, because I was running behind schedule. It was the same as yesterday's, sausage, eggs, cheese and garlic. When I reached Hank's pen with the warm pan of warm food, Tony came over and went into Hank's pen to serve him some more home (trailer) cooking.

While Hank ate Tony said, "Do you know that Hank got out of his pen earlier? Melody went in to clean his pen and Hank ran out."

"That is fantastic news! He must like it here." I said, wearing a smile as I looked at Hank enjoying his brunch. Then Lisa, Matt and Melody walked up to Hank's pen to join us. After hugs and greetings Melody told me that when Hank escaped he ran all around the rescue ranch and then he started playing with her as she tried to catch him. She said that he would get down on his front legs and then leap at her with his tail wagging high and non-stop! She told me that she caught him twice, but she didn't have a leash to put on him. Then she said that Hank then took off towards the gate, and quick-thinking Lisa took off and ran towards the barn to get some tortillas!

"I grabbed a couple of tortillas and then tore them up and threw them into his pen and called for him to come," Lisa said. "When he saw the flour tortillas he came running back and went straight into his pen to eat them! It was amazing! I love you, Hank. You are a great dog."

"This is so great!" I said. "Over The River And Through The Woods—Almost is what I am going to title tonight's blog. We've won him over! He likes it here! I love it! This means if he escapes, again he will come back like the others have." Then Tony picked up Hank's toy and began playing tug-a-war with him and Tone let him win. Hank was so happy and that made all of us happy! Thank you, Lisa, Matt and Melody for coming out and making my day!

Around one-fifteen "Dizzie" arrived! She is a four year old Black Lab that we rescued from an elderly couple, in their eighties, who no longer could keep her because they had both recently had some serious back surgeries. Like all Labs, she is a sweetheart, but today she was a little heartbroken when Manny drove away. As soon as the man had driven off, Tony said, as he stuffed her pillow into her doghouse, "She's going on a diet immediately. Nance, I've never seen a dog this fat!" I started laughing.

"Manny told me that she only goes outside to potty, and they fed her three times a day," I said. "She's great with kids, other dogs, is totally housebroken and obviously loves to eat. He told me she weighs one hundred and twenty five pounds. He said she was a real couch potato, too. I don't like her name, because it makes her sound like she is goofy or something, so I am going to rename her."

"What are you going to name her?"

"I'm not sure, yet. Maybe Tater Tot or Spudnik or Idaho. I don't know I've got to think about it some more."

After a late lunch Buttermilk took us to Kerrville to get some groceries. When we got home after four o'clock Carlton had taken ten messages for me. After listening to all of them, I went back to T.'s office and had a talk with Tony about a dog whose time had run out at the pound, while he was harvesting a crop. When our conversation ended, I came into the big room and called the pound in Kerrville. "Hello, this is Nancy at the rescue ranch..."

"Hi, this is Danielle. How can I help you?"

"We want to rescue Coda, the Malamute, that our friend Sheryl took to y'all, because she couldn't keep her anymore, if you haven't already euthanized her. We can pick her up tomorrow afternoon, if you still have her. Do you still have her?"

"Yes!" Danielle said. "Thank you so much! She is a beautiful dog!" When our conversation ended I went back to Tony's office to tell him the good news about Coda still being alive. "Tomorrow when we pick her up we need to take her to Hoegemeyers to get her spayed and all of her shots." Tony nodded his head, as he continued to plant some virtual strawberry seeds.

At five thirty-three the dogs started barking outside. "FedEx is coming in!" Tone half-hollered from his farm office. I ran outside to meet the driver! When he stopped his truck I thought that he had gotten out, so I went around to the driver's side but he wasn't there, so I walked around to the back of the truck and then he came around the other side and surprised me! We both started laughing about us running in circles around the truck,  then he gave me the box with Rick's calendar inside from the Apple Store.

"Tony come look at Rick's calendar! I love it!" I half-hollered down the hallway. One minute later Mr. Blue Jeans came into the kitchen to look at Rick's 2010 Utopia Calendar and he really liked it! So, I made him flip the pages so I could take a short video of it so I could show it to y'all. Then I called Rick to tell him that his one of a kind and the only Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch 2010 calendar on the planet, would be mailed out to him tomorrow. Rick was thrilled about it and he couldn't wait to get it! Here are two pictures that I took of the calendar. The second picture I took with the flash on and I think it turned out really cool. The Buddhapug seems to be enlightened! And, one of the pictures in Rick's calendar is going to be the artwork on the cover of my book, which hopefully will be coming out sooner than later.

Around six o'clock I went over to the Lodge to show Kinky Rick's calendar and he was impressed. Then Ben showed up with his dogs, Valerie and Penny, because he is going to be working with us at the rescue ranch for the next two days. When I showed him the calendar he liked it, too! (Probably because he is in it with Ruth Buzzi.) While Ben was in the annex unpacking, Kinky challenged me to a game of pool. Near the end of the game, it was two to one, The Hummingbird Man had one ball left on the table and I had two. Then I won by default or should I say Kinky's fault, because he sunk the eight ball followed immediately by the cue ball! It's been a great day even though Mercury is still in retrograde!

Y'all have a great evening!