The China Syndrome!

The past several days have felt like being on a roller coaster—with plenty of ups and downs and it being M.I.R. Time (Mercury In Retrograde) again has certainly not helped matters. But since I don't like to complain I've tried really hard to stay, on the sunny side of the street. And to keep the faith.

Also, because one of my most favorite mantras is Never Feed Negativity—I am doing my best not to. So I promise that this will be a positive post.

First off, last Friday afternoon our dear friends (former dog-walking volunteers) came to the Old Timer's Rusty Dawg, to give Tony a surprise birthday party and eat lunch with us. It was a great surprise to both Tony and me and we had a total blast cooking for our friends and celebrating Tony's birthday (on August 6th).

Late Friday afternoon, we brought our sweet Belle home and I am not sure if she or us are the happiest that she is back with our family.

Today has been great. This morning our good friend, Scott Faglie, the owner of FTS Tree Service, came out, with his bucket truck and crew, to remove this threatening Chinaberry tree, that has been rubbing up against our house, near our front door, for at least 6 or 7 months.

We had ignored the China syndrome until last week, when in two consecutive days— two big, very tall, Chinaberry trees simply fell over dead, near The Cabin. So I took it as a sign, and Tony took care of it— he called Scott Faglie (FTS Tree Service) for his help and expertise. 

Scott and his crew did a fabulous job removing the tree and I definitely want to highly recommend FTS Tree Service, because they are the best tree service, in the Texas Hill Country.

Early this afternoon Tony and I went to Kerrville. Our first stop was at Wolfmueller's Books, so we could visit with our dear friends Sandy & Jon, before going across the street, to meet our dear friends for our super fun, once-a-month lunch club.

When we arrived at Wolfmuellers Books, Jon greeted us, from behind the counter and Sandy came out of her office, so she could give us this totally awesome cookbook The Truck Food Cookbook by John T. Edge.

While we had a short, but fun visit with Jon & Sandy, I could not quit looking at the fabulous recipes in this informative and fun to read book. 

And when it was time for us to adios our friends, I told them, "Our lunch club is going to eat, at Little Joe's restaurant." And that was when we found out that Little Joe's restaurant had closed its doors last week. And to say the least, I was saddened to hear the bad news, because Joe and his sweet daughter, Margarita, were such nice, hard-working people and their food was so delicious.

A few minutes later, Tony and I walked out Wolfmueller's Books backdoor and we jaywalked across Main Street, to go meet our friends.

As Tony was telling Kris & Jim the sad news about Little Joe's restaurant not making it, Kris handed me this folded up article, in the San Antonio Express News, for me to read.

When I read the headline it instantly put a smile back, on my face. Then Kris teased me about my Appalachian Trail fake-hikes and it really helped to erase the unfortunate news about Little Joe's restaurant closing.  

When Denise and Les arrived a few minutes later, we all decided to eat, at the Hill Country Cafe, since we were standing, in front of their front door. Our lunch was so much fun. We talked non-stop or were laughing and the food was great, too. 

And while Tony drove Roy and me back home—all I did was read this great cookbook. I still have a lot more reading to do, but the good thing is this cookbook has given me so many new ideas and recipes for the Old Timer's Rusty Dawg. And that is about it for tonight. Life is good.

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