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!

I'm Burning Up!

Yesterday and today have been great days.

Saturday, while Tony, Aaron and I were eating lunch, inside The Cabin, the dogs started barking outside, so T. excused himself from the table and went outside to see what was going on and a few minutes later, while Aaron and I were eating H-E-B's delicious Pineapple Sherbet for dessert—Tone walks inside and says, "George Clooney just got adopted....but they can't pick him up until later this week." So, I quickly prepared George's adoption papers and they signed on the dotted line and made a donation.

Later that afternoon, while the three of us worked inside the pigpen, on our soon-to-be hen house, "The Egg Palace," a woman drove in with a dog sitting in her front seat, so Tony took off to greet her. And ten minutes later, Tony came over to us and told us that the woman was real upset. She was going through a divorce and she no longer could keep her/their dog. "What do you think we should do, Nance?" Tony asked. "He's a seven-year-old Chocolate Lab and he reminds me a lot of Roy Rogers."

"Let's take him," I said. "We just got George adopted and tomorrow a man and his wife are supposed to be coming out to possibly adopt Lois Lane..." When T. took off to go tell the distressed woman that we could take her dog, Roscoe, Aaron and I went back to hanging up the big roll of chicken wire and then hammering in the staples, so our chickens, which we haven't gotten yet, will be safe at night.

As I banged my thumb with a hammer, for the umpteenth time, (The thumb next to my cut index finger, which is  almost totally healed)—Aaron laughed at me as Tony took off in Kermit, with the woman and Roscoe following close behind him, in her car.

Ten minutes later, T. drove up and while the three of us finished putting up the chicken wire, he told us about what a nice dog Roscoe was and how brokenhearted Roscoe was. So, after putting up the tools, we went down to see him and I instantly fell in love with him and then I stood back and took this picture of him relaxing in his and Daisy's pen.

Yesterday evening, while Tony was watering our flowers and vegetables inside The Okay Corral I took these pictures of a Hummingbird feeding and some of our flowers in the garden, after Tony had watered them.

This afternoon, after lunch, when the dogs started barking outside, we went outside to greet the couple who had made an appointment to come out today, after they had gone to church. As we visited with Stacey and Brent about what kind of dog they were wanting to adopt, to be their seven-year-old dog's companion, they told us they wanted a dog about seven-years-old, so T. and I told them about several older dogs that we had and Roscoe's story. Then we gave the nice couple a tour of the rescue ranch, so they could meet our super dogs.

They really liked Roscoe and he liked them back, but when they met Gracie Allen—she smiled at them and stole their hearts. "Gracie is a wonderful dog and she's a smiler, when she gets excited..." 

When I had finally finished telling them about Gracie being a fine dog, they looked at each other and said, "We want her. She'd be perfect for B.J. and she's the same size as he is." 

Ten minutes later, after doing Gracie's adoption paperwork, I took this picture of Gracie with her new family and then we waved farewell to Stacey, Brent and one smiling, happy dog, sitting in the backseat of their car, anxious to leave this place forever, to go to her new loving home and to be B.J's running buddy.

Around 3:15, Tony adios-ed me and them jumped into Trigger and took off for the Home Depot, in Kerrville, but he didn't make it far. "Nance, pick up the phone. Trigger broke down and..."

"Hi, Tony. Where are y'all?"

"I'm pulled off to the side of the road, at the bottom of the pass on the Kerrville side. Come and get me now, because it is ninety degrees outside and I'm burning up." 

Seven miles later or fifteen minutes later, I pulled off of the road to rescue Tone and Trigger. Then Aaron, coming from Kerrville, pulls up to help us. "I called Aaron right after I called you," he explained, to me. Then he and Aaron checked out the engine to discover Trigger had blown some kind of a gasket, so they went to work.

One hour later, we were back home safely and talking about calling Jimmy Dixon of Dixon Automotive, because we know that Jimmy is the greatest mechanic in Texas, so we could get him to send out a tow truck in the morning, to haul Trigger to his garage and fix him, in Hondo. Then I pushed Carlton's button to listen to three new messages.

The first message was from Kinky, letting us know that he was back at the ranch and thanking us for baby sitting The Friedmans. The second message was from Aaron wanting to make sure that we were back home safely and the third message was the best one of all three. "Nancy and Tony, this is Stacey and I was calling to let you know that Gracie and B.J. have hit it off beautifully and they are now laying side-by-side in the fenced yard. We love her and so does B.J. and..."

Y'all have a great evening!