Sunsweet California Prunes!

Today has been a blast! My morning started out great, because we got almost one inch of rain before I did the fun Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch radio segment with Big G (Gordon Ames) at 7:30 on The Real Deal 93.5 KOOK / 1230 KERV. So, when Tony came home from the Old Timer—I was already on Cloud 9.

This morning after we did our morning chores outside we quickly cleaned up, because we were meeting Mari and Lori, our dear friends and members of the famous dog agility club— The NoMads, for lunch at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack at 11:15 or so we thought.

When we arrived at Cal-Bob's the parking lot was full and when we walked inside Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, Carol and Calvin, the super friendly owners, greeted us and then came the surprise—The NoMads were there and they greeted us with, "Happy Birthday, Nancy! Come on over and sit down with us. Mari, Lori and Lynda will be here any minute..."

The NoMads had totally surprised me or should I say, "Mari had really surprised me," because yesterday she had told me that she had invited The NoMads to join us, but only Lori and she would be meeting us for lunch today.

Non-stop laughter filled the air during our super fun, delicious lunch and everyone told me that they were impressed with Carol and Calvin's cooking and that they loved their smoked red pepper soup, cilantro cole slaw, potato salad and the meats that they had ordered.

Near the end of my second, 60th Birthday party, Carol served me my dessert and said, "Nancy, last month you celebrated your birthday here and now today. I want to know when your birthday is?"

"Every day!" I joked, before starting to eat my tasty dessert.

"Actually," Tony said, "we celebrate Nancy's birthday every month on the 17th. I have to, because Nancy included it in our wedding vows and..."

While Tony devoured the rest of my dessert I started opening up The NoMads' many birthday presents to me and my back is aching tonight, because I laughed too much reading their funny cards and at the hilarious gifts they gave to me.

The NoMads gave me Olay Regenerist Advanced Anti-Aging cream, Avon Banishing Cream for age spots, Poligrip Super Strong Denture Adhesive, Absorbine Veterinary Liniment Gel for sore muscles and joint pain relief for horses, Dove's Citrus Sage Energizing Body Wash, Super Colon Cleanse, Gas Relief, four Magnifying Glasses, Efferdent, 3 packages of doggie treats, an Air Horn to use when I need Tone and yes—Sunsweet California Prunes! And when I thanked them for their gifts-for-the-ancient they teased me about now having everything I would need to grow older.

So now I want to thank my dear friends Mari and Lori and the rest of The NoMads for the best, belated 60th surprise birthday party that I have ever had and I promise y'all that I will use your gifts in time. The NoMads Rule!

When Tony and I came home, as I was laying out my gifts from The NoMads for the pictures above, he asked me if he could sometimes use my magnifying glasses to look at his pictures and after I had swallowed a Sunsweet California prune I said, "Yes, and you might want to use the Absorbine, for your back and the Gas Relief for your you-know-what and if I need to use them I'll just honk my Air Horn. These prunes are delicious. Do you want to try one?"

Y'all have a great evening and thanks for praying for the much needed rain!

This Is The Best BBQ Place That I've Ever Eaten At In Texas!

Today has been fantastic. This morning when Tony woke me up at 6:30, so I could be wide awake to do Harley Belew's popular radio show, I thanked him and then Tone took off for the Old Timer. One hour later, I suddenly woke up with Mama hugging me in her white hairy arms and snoring loudly, with Toto angrily growling at me in bed, because I had moved, because he hates it when I move in bed.

Fourteen minutes later, after quickly downing a warm cup of coffee, thanks to an ice cube, I called Harley and had a fun time visiting him about our rescue ranch on-air. After we adios-ed each other, I walked four miles with Leslie, for the second day in a row. Then T. came home and we ate my delicious, "Cousin Nancy's Blueberry Oatmeal with Rick, The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper and Leisa's Mangrove honey from Port A."

While I was washing our breakfast dishes in the kitchen sink, the phone rang, so I let Carlton take the call. As soon as I had dried off my hands I called Phillip, from Medina, back, because he wanted to come out and possibly adopt one of our dogs.

Twenty minutes later, when we met Phillip, we liked him instantly and we kept our fingers crossed that he would adopt one of our dogs. And as luck would have it—he did. His final picks were Walter Cronkite and Pilgrim and lucky, little Pilgrim won out and this is a picture I took, before Phillip took Pilgrim home to meet his wife and there two other dogs.

As soon as Phillip and one happy Pilgrim drove away in their big, fancy truck I jumped into Kermit and went up to the trailer, so I could call Kinky with the great news and Kinky was as thrilled as us about Pilgrim finding his fantastic, forever home before Thanksgiving.

I did computer chores after doing my morning chores outside and I accomplished a ton of paperwork, before Tony and I took off in Trigger to go meet Carol for lunch at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, because we could not wait for her to meet Carol and Calvin Abercrombie and to get her to try Calvin's BBQ.

When we arrived at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, only a half mile from I-10, their place was packed and we luckily found the last vacant table and claimed it, before Carol and Calvin came over and happily greeted us. 

During our delicious meal, as T. and Carol ate their delicious grilled chicken sandwiches, we had Carol sample their delicious Smoked Red Pepper Soup, sausage dipped in Calvin's Cajun Horseradish, beans, Cilantro Cole Slaw and potato salad and Carol loved it all.

As the three of us ate Kal-Bob's delicious Banana Supreme dessert, Carol said, "Y'all, this is the best BBQ place that I've ever eaten at in Texas. Seriously, it's like gourmet BBQ and the side dishes are out of this world..." And we had to agree with her by shaking our heads, because we had food in our mouths.

And finally, after swallowing and taking a sip of iced tea, I said, "Carol, I'll guarantee you that in no time flat, this place is going to be famous and a Kerrville landmark and we will be standing in line to eat here..."

Early this evening Tony and I went over to the Lodge to help Kinky repair some fence around the Lodge and then we came home. Then Tone helped me bring in all of my plants from Outer Space, because of a predicted frost in the morning.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying that we get some more rain!

P.S. This is for my dear friend Mari of the NoMads. Let's do lunch at Cal-Bob's with you and the NoMads sooner than later! Call me.

Carol Sort Of Freaked Me Out!

Today is my 60th Halloween and it has been a total blast and the best Halloween that I've ever had and I want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

Early this morning, while I was waiting for Tony to get home from drinking coffee at the Old Timer I checked my e-mail and the note that I got from my dear friend Rick, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" made me smile and laugh out loud.

When T. walked inside the trailer while I was laughing at Rick's e-mail, I told him, "I just got an e-mail from Rick. He wrote to tell me that last night, at the Back Porch, the one where Kelly works at, they had a doggie costume contest and Pete & Kelly's dog Fiona won first place. Leisa's dog Squirt won second place and Kelly's and Pete's dog Smilin' Jack won 3rd place! Isn't that great! I wish we could have been there to see that..." After T. had agreed with me—we ate breakfast.

Right after we got to doing our chores and I had only cleaned four pens, the dogs started barking, because we had an unexpected four-legged visitor—Bentley, "The Friendly Deer From Next Door." While Tone was on the phone calling our great neighbors to tell them that Bentley was here, I slowly walked Bentley out of the rescue ranch, so our dogs would settle down.

When Kermit and Tony arrived outside of the rescue ranch we took these pictures of this dear, friendly deer.

We played with Bentley until Sherry arrived to take him back home and then we went back to work.

This afternoon before we picked Queen Latifa up from Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, after they had spayed her and given her her 1st heart worm treatment, we decided to eat lunch at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, Kerrville's new BBQ cafe, which has the best BBQ in Kerrville and the whole Texas Hill Country.

When we walked inside the good vibes shack, Carol and her husband Calvin Abercrombie, the friendly owners, greeted us, "Hi, Nancy and Tony!..." We had a great time eating our delicious lunch there, because Carol and Calvin treated us like family and kept us and everyone in there place laughing and I hope that everyone gives them a try—because Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack has the best BBQ that we have ever eaten.

After we had picked up Queen Latifa to take her home, I fell in love with her on the way home, because she is so sweet and reminded me of our dear old Thunder. (And yes, I am thinking about her adopting her if she gets along well with our furry family.)

Around 3:45 the phone rang and it was our dear friend Carol, so I picked up the phone. "Hi, Carol!" And then Carol sort of freaked me out, in a nice way, when she invited me to come over, ride Dude and go horseback riding with her. "Yes! I want to go riding with you, but this is so weird. This morning while I was taking a bath this thought suddenly popped into my head and as you know how I always pay attention to signs." Carol chuckled.

"Yes, I know, Nancy. What was it?"

"Well, I was sitting there in the water, thinking about what the jacket cover should look like for my next book, when suddenly I see this picture of me all dressed up in cowgirl clothes, sitting on Dude and waving, like the picture I used of me sitting on the pony, for my second book, but it is now fifty years later and I am old. I have been thinking about it all day and was going to call you to ask if you would let me do a photo shoot of me sitting on Dude and getting Tony to shoot me..."

Thirty minutes later, I climbed into Dude's beautiful saddle, with the help of a stool, because I am so short and then Carol climbed into Maya's saddle and after we had officially self-proclaimed us, "The Cowgirl Sisterhood" she and I took off riding, while Tony followed us on foot and shot us. 

As we rode around Carol's beautiful ranch I was literally in heaven riding Dude, her beautiful, prize winning, cutting Quarter Horse. After we had rode around for a while we stopped, so I could try to pose like my childhood picture on the jacket of my second book, for Tony. "Now Tone," I said, "try not to make me look fat." And T. chuckled.

"Nance, I've got a great Canon camera, but it can't do that. And you're not fat, Babe." I started laughing.

"Well, do what you can do and maybe I can some how Photoshop it out later on and..." When the hilarious photo shoot was over I thanked Tony and then we, "The Cowgirl Sisterhood" rode off to go mess around with the cows and that was a lot of fun, too.

After we had put up the horses I jokingly, in my most serious tone said, "Carol, I love Dude. Can I have him?" And we burst out laughing and then we went up to Carol's ranch house and set on her deck for a fun happy hour, toasting our Cowgirl Sisterhood and then sipping a glass of her new, favorite bottled wine—Cowgirl Sisterhood. 

When it was time to come home, I thanked Carol for a super, great time and then came home. Here are a few pictures that Tony took of us today. I hope that you like them, but please note that I've not Photoshopped them yet.

Before I go to bed tonight, I want to congratulate Fiona, Squirt and Smilin' Jack, that Kelly and Pete adopted from us a few years ago, for winning the best doggie costume contest at the Back Porch, in Port Aransas. I want to thank Carol and Calvin at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack for a deliciously, fun lunch and even though I know my dear friend in our exclusive two members only, Cowgirl Sisterhood, that Carol will never give me Dude, I do want to thank her for being my great friend and cow-gal-pal for letting a short, old, semi-fat, wannabe cowgirl have the time of her life today. 

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying that we get some more rain!