Supreme Pizza!

Today has been a wonderful day. This morning while I was outside cleaning the pens I wondered which one of our fabulous dogs was going to be adopted today, because earlier in the week Mr. Brad E. had called to tell me that when he came to pick up his three children from Echo Hill Camp—they wanted to come over and adopt another dog from us, because their old dog had passed away in April and Ringo, the dog that they had adopted from us, three years ago, needed a companion.

Around 11:00, while I was dressing after my shower, Brad and his three nice kids arrived and by the time I got outside to greet them—Tony had showed them most of our dogs. "We really like Enzo," Brad E. said, "But I think the kids want to look at those pups."

"The bigger pup is Candace Bergen and the smaller one is George Clooney and that's their mama, Martha Stewart," I said, as the kids petted the happy puppies, while Brad showed us a picture of Ringo on his cell phone.

After I had told them about naming Enzo Swift after the dog in Garth Stein's The Art Of Racing In The Rain which is now officially Kinky's, Tony's and my all time favorite book, Brad's daughter told me that she had read the book and had loved it, too. Then Brad told us that he looked forward to reading it, too and then we walked over to Enzo's pen, so they could take him for a short walk. After Tone had a leash on Enzo he handed the leash to Brad's youngest son to see how Enzo walked on a leash with him and Enzo Swift did beautifully and that cinched his adoption and we were thrilled.

Before I went up to the trailer to fill out Enzo's adoption papers Tony took a picture of Enzo with his new fantastic, forever family. Then Brad stood back and took a picture of Enzo with his kids so he could e-mail it to his wife in Houston, before they got home.

After Brad E. had signed off on Enzo's adoption form the kids helped their father rearrange the back of their packed SUV so Enzo would be comfortable on his trip home and before leaving they told us that they liked his name and that they were not going to rename Enzo Swift and that made me tear up, because our/their Enzo is a great dog just like the one in Stein's book. After we thanked them for adopting another big, black dog from us Brad thanked us for doing a what we do. Then they drove away with one of the coolest and happiest dogs in Texas.

On our way back to the trailer I looked at the adoption form and noticed that I had forgotten to give them the envelope with Enzo's paperwork and that's when we decided to go to Medina to mail them Enzo's paperwork and to eat lunch at Papa Don's Pizza & Wings, after I called Kinky in Las Vegas, to tell him the great news about Enzo. And to say the least Kink was thrilled that his friend Brad E. and his family had adopted Enzo and he told me that he was sick that he wasn't here for Enzo's adoption, because he had really wanted to see Brad and his children and say good bye to Enzo.

After we mailed Enzo's papers we walked into Papa Don's Pizza & Wings and it was packed with pizza and wings lovers and after we ordered a supreme pizza with jalapenos on regular crust we sat down at a table and talked about the weather with some of the locals we knew. And because Papa Don's Pizza & Wings pizza's are so delicious—I ate two slices and because of that—I walked four miles with Leslie Sansone as soon as we got home and then I did some paperwork.

Early this evening Tony and I jammed in the big room for about forty minutes and I am so amazed at how much his mandolin playing skills have improved. Then I checked my e-mail and my friend Curt from Terlingua sent me a video to watch of four tenor men singing Amazing Grace in Rome and it was so beautiful and I hope that you will check it out, because I promise it will lift your spirit and the middle part of the video totally surprised me and caught me off guard.

And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for rain for us.

They Came In Twos!

Today has turned out to be a wonderful day. This morning it was the usual: get out of bed, do my morning chores, fix breakfast, clean up the kitchen and walk four miles with Leslie Sansone.

Around 11:45, I went outside to go tell Tony that our lunch was ready and when I saw him down at the barn talking to two men I jumped into Kermit and we went to see who was here. "Nancy, this is Robert and Lee. They train drug dogs and they are thinking about adopting Gus, because he just passed their initial tennis ball test and they want to train him to find illegal cell phones in prisons."

As I shook hands with these two nice, friendly men Robert said, "We are also very interested in Annie Oakley, because she is part Pit and Dalmatian, but I think we want to start with Gus first..." After we had talked about Gus and Annie and they had explained their K-9 training program to us—I couldn't wait for them to adopt Gus and our Annie-O.

Forty minutes later, before leaving Robert told us, "We need to go check out one other dog at a shelter, but I'm pretty sure that we will come back later today and adopt Gus. We think he would be an excellent cell phone finder dog." Then he handed me a business card, then T. and I shook hands with them and then they got into their truck and drove away, as Kermit took us to the trailer.

As I reheated our lunch, Tone and I talked non-stop about how happy we were for Gus getting a job. Then we talked about it, again as we ate our lunch.

Right after I had cleaned up the kitchen Tony walked into the big room, "Somebody is driving up. I'll go see who it is," then he, followed by Belle, went out the front door.

A few minutes later, out of curiosity, to find out who was here, I started to go out the front door and there was Tony walking up the porch steps with two women. As I stepped outside to greet them, this nice woman says, "Hi, Cousin Nancy! We know that you're famous and we just had to come out here and meet you and Tony and see the rescue ranch. I'm Alecia and this is Carrie."

"Wow," I said, followed by a chuckle, because if they only knew. "Trust me we're not famous, but I can tell you that you sure know how to lift people's spirits. Right, Tone? It's very nice to meet, y'all. Come on inside the trailer. Where are y'all from?"

"OMG! I love your trailer and these painted rugs and those cabinet doors and...," Alecia said. "Can I buy your books?" As I signed my two books to Alecia (and yes, that is the way she spells her name, because I always ask people before signing a book. I learned to always ask for the spelling, from my embroidery business days.) Tony introduced them to Belle Starr-Simons, Hank, Little Girl and Toto. Then T. and I had a very nice visit with these two interesting women—who, in the near future want to be volunteers.

Before Carrie and Alecia were about to leave I asked them, "Have y'all read the book, The Art Of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein. They hadn't, so after telling them it was a must read I gave them a copy.

An hour later, Robert and Lee were here to adopt Gus, hopefully the future "Cell Phone Finder Dog" and Paul was here, too, delivering some free dog food! After T. introduced Robert and Lee to Paul, Robert and Lee started showing Paul, Tony and me pictures of their K-9 drug dogs and explained to Paul how they train them and what all is involved to get them certified and about their new developing program to locate alcohol, tobacco and cell phones, so by now Paul was as thrilled as us about them adopting, "Gus The Bust!"

Twenty minutes later, after signing off on Gus' adoption papers, Tone, Paul and I adios-ed Lee, Robert and Gus and then the three of us unloaded the dog food from the back of Paul's pickup. Then we had a nice visit with Paul.

After Paul left I came inside the trailer and I started working on Kia's plane reservations to Toronto. Then Tony realized that we were out of dog food for our dogs, so we made a mad dash to H-E-B to get dog food for Mama, Abbie, Hank, Little Girl, Toto and Belle and by luck, we ran into our good friend Irene Van Winkle and we had a wonderful visit with her on isle six. And that is about it for today.

To find out more about where Gus will be working please check out: Croft & Hicks Investigations & Security.

Y'all have a great evening and please keep praying for rain for us!

I Am In Charge!

Tonight as I begin to type this, Tony's dog, Belle Starr-Simons, is sitting beside my chair trying to chew on the bottom cuff of my Levi 501s. I just corrected her by softly saying, "No Belle," so she is now barking at me—to let me know that she doesn't appreciate being reprimanded by me, because she is Tony's dog and what I have to say doesn't count in her world. Tone is her hero and to her Tony Rules.

I have to admit that Belle-Belle is a precious pup, even though T. is spoiling her rotten, which is actually okay with me, because I love her too. Even though Hank, Toto and Little Girl, our old assisted living dogs wish that she would just leave them alone and not want to play with them and some how magically disappear for good. But, unfortunately for them—that is not going to happen.

Yes, tonight I am babysitting Ms. B. so Mr. T. can take wild life pictures, on the ranch, with Frank. So since I am in charge I just gave Belle an ice cube to chew on and put her outside to "go potty" and then tear up anything that she can find in our front yard. So, I must type fast.

Today has been great, again. This morning after I walked six miles with Leslie, I cleaned up and then went outside to greet "The Best Volunteers in Texas." First, I found June happily wrestling with Rufus and Roxanne in their pen, as she put leashes on the excited dogs, who could not wait to go for a walk with her. As Rufus and Roxanne joyously criss-crossed and circled around June, tangling up their leashes, we laughed about it and I had a fun, but too short of a visit with her, because the Ruf & Rox could not wait to go walking with her.

Next I found June's eighty-nine-year-old, uncle Barney, who doesn't look a day older than me, sitting inside Ruth Buzzi's and Chuck's pen patiently grooming them and they looked fabulous and seemed to be really enjoying Barney's attention. After another fun, but short visit with him, Lisa and Eileen came walking in to return La Toya & Maggie to their pen, so I took off to go greet them and to thank them also for coming out to walk our dogs.

After howdies and hugs I showed Eileen and Lisa—Enzo Swift and they thought he was a beautiful dog and then we started talking non-stop about how much we had loved reading The Art of Racing In The Rain. By the end of our book review we had all agreed that we despised "The Twins." Then they took off to walk more dogs.

This afternoon after lunch Trigger took T. and me to Kerrville to run a few errands. After going to the Post Office we went to Wolfmueller's Books so I could pick up my two books of The Art of Racing In The Rain, that I had asked them to order for me.

When we arrived at Sandy's and Jon's bookstore Mary Jo greeted us from behind the front counter and then Jon walked up to greet us. "Hi, Tony and Nancy. Sandy isn't here right now. What are y'all up to?" After we told him that we were running errands, he said, "I've just started reading The Art of Racing In The Rain and I really like it. Especially the part about when Enzo..."

After we talked about my favorite book Tony says, "Jon, do y'all have a copy of Mapsco's The Roads of Texas?"

"There's a copy right behind you and it is their latest edition and filled with over 12,000 updates. It's the best," Jon said, as Tony turned around and plucked it from the shelf. Then we started talking about its great detailed maps.

As Tone and I were paying for our books I said, "Jon, I want to figure out how far 1,825 miles is from Medina, that I walked last year with Leslie. Like from Medina to the north, the south, the west and the east." Jon thought it would be interesting to know and he suggested that I Google it, so I did after we came home and before I started babysitting Belle. Who is right now sleeping on the floor, beside my chair with her Mr. Fluffy stuffed toy.

I discovered that walking 1,825 miles from Medina, Texas would take me North, straight up to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and beyond. It would take me 20 days and 8 hours of non-stop walking to get there and I would have walked a total of 1,501 miles. Heading due West I would have ended up in the Pacific Ocean dodging dolphins and whales, so I chose Northwest to San Francisco and it would have taken me 22 days and 15 hours of non-stop walking to get there and I would have walked a total of 1,671 miles.

If I had walked due East I would have once again found myself bobbing up and down, in the the cold Atlantic Ocean, so if I walked  Northeast to New York City it would have taken me 24 days and 23 hours to arrive, having walked the distance of 1,836 miles. And heading South to Acapulco would have taken me 19 hours and 29 minutes non-stop and only 1,122 miles. And finally, if I had walked to Miami, Florida it would have taken me 23 hours and 14 minutes—1,442 miles. And just thinking about it totally wore me out, so I took a long nap with our dogs.

Tony has just returned and Belle is thrilled to see him and so am I, because I'm now done babysitting his dog. I'm fixin' to watch a movie.

Y'all have a great evening! And thank you, Eileen, Lisa, June and Barney!

I Love Cactus!

Tonight instead of starting out my post as I usually do about my day, I decided for a change, to start it out like this—even though today has been great.

This afternoon Tony and I took off in Buttermilk with Enzo Swift, sitting in the backseat, to Hoegemeyers to get him a check up, his shots and to be neutered and on our way to Kerrtown I said to Enzo, "Don't be worried Enzo. Everything is okay. We are just taking you in to the doctor and we will pick you up tomorrow and bring you back home." Then T. starts laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Enzo, everything is going to be fine, good buddy, like Nance said," Tone said, as Enzo leaned forward from the backseat and licked my face, "but remember to blame her not me." Then he starts laughing again.

"Tony, that's not fair."

"I know, and that's why the dogs trust me. They think that I'm the good guy and you're Nancy Nurse, the bad one, who gets them neutered and spayed." I couldn't help but chuckle even though it wasn't fair.

After we dropped a nervous Mr. Swift off at Hoegemeyer's Animal Clinic we went to Wolfmueller's Books to say hi to Sandy and Jon. After howdies and hugs we started visiting and were talking about Kent & Ruthie's fun visit yesterday and then I asked them to please order two more copies of the book, The Art of Racing In The Rain for me and then Kinky strolls into their bookstore and then we started talking about how much we loved Garth Stein's book, as Jon hands Kinky two copies of The Art of Racing In The Rain that Kinky had ordered from them, so he could give them to his friends.

Ten minutes later, we invited Sandy and Jon to join us for lunch across the street, but they declined because they had already eaten. Then the three of us left the building and walked across the street. Right after we placed our orders Sandy walks into the restaurant and joins us, "I'll just have tea," she told the friendly waitress.

During our meal we talked about books, Kinky's upcoming East Coast and Australia tours, Sandy's new iPad-2, the weather and eating healthier. "I love cactus, but I have never eaten one," I confessed. "I've heard that they are real good for you..."

"Nancy, I have the best Nopalitos salad recipe that I need to give to you," Sandy said. "You'll love it and it's real easy to prepare!" Needless to say my eyes lit up—another recipe that I can steal! "It uses black beans, which I love, nopalitos, cilantro, red onion and I can't remember the rest of it, so I will call you tonight and give you the recipe. I was more than thrilled, as Kinky, Tony and I ate our lunch and Sandy drank her iced tea.

When we were done eating, after Tony had promised Kinky to give him an early wake up call in the morning, we crossed the street and went back to Wolfmueller's Books and visited a little longer with Jon and Sandy and then we headed home.

Early this evening Sandy called me and gave me her delicious, secret cactus salad recipe and I must confess that I have stolen it and have already renamed it, Cousin Nancy's Desert Salad and I plan to make it tomorrow for our dinner. Thank you, Sandy. Your secret is safe with me.

P.S. This morning when I was over at the Lodge I told Kinky about Gonzo and Ziggy going to be adopted today and about us rescuing Chloe and then Sebastian, who I had renamed Enzo Swift—thanks to Eileen's suggestion—he was thrilled—especially about the name change. Enzo Rules!

Y'all  have a great evening!

"The Wild Blue Yonder!" or "He Was Completely Wrong!"

Yesterday was great. Around eight o'clock in the morning our good friend Ellen Cooper came out to help Tony with his chores, because Tone was going to take the rest of the day off to spend the day driving around the Hill Country with his sister Annie and our sister-in-law Stacie, because they are all shutterbugs and they wanted to go take pictures of the Bluebonnets.

Stacie arrived first, around eight-thirty, so I invited her inside for some coffee, since T. and Ellen weren't done with his chores and Annie hadn't arrived yet. During our fun conversation I told her about how much I loved this years CMA awards and how much I loved the new upcoming artist Eric Church. Since Stacie had missed the show that I had recorded, I showed her Eric Church's performance and Carrie Underwood and Steven Tyler's performance and then Ellen walked inside the trailer, carrying a small cardboard box with plants in it, and said, "Charlie and I have a gift for you from Big Bend and a carton of fresh eggs from our chickens." My eyes lit up when I looked at the beautiful plants!

"This odd looking one is called a Lithrop and I can't remember what the succulent is called. And this little cactus in the pot, with the magnet attached, is for your refrigerator door and you only have to water it once a month."

After I thanked her and asked her to please thank Charlie for the lovely plants, Stacie and I admired them and then the three of us watched Eric Church's performance, Carrie and Steven's performance, to catch Ellen up, and then we watched the duet with Zac Brown and James Taylor and it blew them out of the saddle, too! 

Then our hen party began when we started talking about how cute we thought Eric was and what a heart throb Steven and Zac were and that's when Tony walked inside. "I wonder where Annie is?" Tony asked, as I started to replay Eric Church's performance on our television, so T. could watch it. "That guy's really good. I like him," Tony commented, as the three of us girls stared at the TV, trying not to drool. Then Annie arrived! And ten minutes later they took off for the wild blue yonder and Ellen went back home to Charlie. 

An hour later after catching up with all of my paperwork, e-mails and phone calls I decided to take the day off too, because I couldn't wait to read more of, The Art of Racing In The Rain, by Garth Stein. 

 I took a break from reading, when I met Kinky for a late lunch in Kerrville and basically all we talked about was how much we were enjoying reading Garth's book. After our lunch I went to H-E-B to get a few more groceries and then Trigger took me home.

Tony and "the girls" arrived back at the ranch, halfway between four-thirty and five and they told me they had had a blast, even though there were no Bluebonnets to shoot. "We found one Bluebonnet," Tony said, "and we ate lunch at Wheeler's in Fredericksburg and the food was the best and you have got to tell Harley about it."

"Our good friends Randy & Lisa, who own The Save Inn Restaurant in Kerrville, recently purchased Wheeler's. I'm so glad that y'all ate there..." After Annie and Stacie took off for home I started reading, again and I didn't stop until I had finished the book, which I still can't quit thinking about today, because it is now one of my most favorite books in the whole wide world.

This morning after I walked six miles with Leslie I called Kinky, "I finished reading the book and I cannot say enough about it."

"Come on over, Nance. Let's talk about it," Kinky said. "I still have sixty pages to go, so please don't tell me how it ends." After a short, but fun visit with Kinky I came back home and went to work doing more paperwork, etc.

This afternoon while we ate lunch with Kinky we started talking about Stein's book again and then he tells me that he thinks he knows the outcome and how the book is going to end, but he doesn't want me to give him any clues or signs, as to whether he is right or wrong, because he wants the ending to be a surprise. After I agreed to be stone-faced about it—he told me his theory and I just stared blankly back at him, from across the table, with my face frozen like a statue, with no expression, and it was very hard for me to do—because he was completely wrong—just like I had been when I thought I had figured it out!

This evening Kinky called me and wanted to come over later tonight, after his Australian interviews, to have a picnic with our dogs. "Let's do it tomorrow, Kink," I said. "I need to write my blog tonight and you need to finish reading the book, so we can talk about it. I can't wait for you to finish it."

Y'all have a great evening and give your dogs a hug from me!

P.S. Tony has just started reading, The Art of Racing In The Rain!