In Dreams I Go Back Home!

The past few days have been great. On last Tuesday's blog post I wrote that the sweet waitress, at the Thai O'Cha Restaurant made Tony and me look fat so I didn't post a picture. Well, sweet Eva has sent me a picture of Stephen K. Morris and Eva Robinett posing with us and Tony and I still looked fat, so I cropped it and this is what I got.

And the good news today is Tony and I are going to do the Atkins Diet for a few weeks or until we lose our muffin tops. But please don't tell Tony about dieting, because he doesn't know that we are dieting it.

Last night Tony and I met our dear friend Carol, at the Medina Highpoint Resort, for their Friday Nights delicious Catfish buffet. And also because Hogan & Moss, who we love their music, were doing a concert, out on their huge patio.

The buffet was delicious as it always it and omg, Hogan & Moss put on an incredibly great show and had the big crowd begging for more. In fact, we never stopped tapping our toes to their beautiful music, which is good because I'm sure our toe tapping helped Tony and me burn off a few extra calories.

This morning, I wasted about thirty-minutes of my time Googling on approximately how many calories are burned toe-tapping non-stop. And I found nothing, so if y'all know or can find out please let me know ASAP, because tomorrow afternoon between 4:00 - 7:00 Carol, Tony and I will be toe-tapping, again, at the Western Edge Cellars, in Fredericksburg. Because Stephen will be hosting another one of his awesome Outsider Insider Singer/Songwriter shows. And I want to invite all of y'all to join us there for a super-fun time.

Back to last night, at the Medina Highpoint Resort. During Hogan & Moss' 1st break, Bethany a dear, old friend of ours walked up to our table to say hi to us. And even though we haven't seen Bethany in several years and because we are such good friends our conversation picked up like we had just seen her yesterday.

Carol, Tony and I had a blast visiting with Bethany and we talked and laughed non-stop until Hogan & Moss took the stage again, to sing another great set for the crowd.

Later on, when it was time for all of us to go home, before it got dark on us, we got to have a fun, friendly visit with Maria Moss & Jon Hogan. And it was a lot of fun, because we quickly found out that they are real good friends with many of our great musician friends—such as: Chet O'Keefe, Jim Keaveny, Stephen K. Morris, etc.

And before we all adios-ed each other, Jon & Maria gave Tony and me two copies of In Dreams I Go Back Home, which is their latest, fabulous CD. And they asked us to please give one copy to Kinky, because they especially wanted Kinky to listen to Can't Always Cry, the 2nd cut on the CD. Because this beautiful, unfinished song had been written by the late Blaze Foley and after Blaze's untimely death his daughter had asked Jon to please put music to it for Blaze. 

And that is about it for tonight, because Tony and I are fixin' to go over to visit with Carol & Bill.

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

Black & White!

Yesterday was so much fun and it started, early in the morning, when I checked my e-mail. Carol had sent me two notes with a picture attached to her last one. Carol wrote:

"Scout and I can make you one, too!"

Then she wrote:

"I was gonna give Scout a bath today cuz he's getting really ripe, but on 2nd thought I think it would be great to have your wig really personalized. Every time you put it on you'll think of Scout. You'll smell just like him, too.

I love that my friend Carol wants to make me a wig/bun using Scout's hair, but I am not sure if I will wear the black bun, because it would look pretty weird next to my white hair. I mean I love black & white pictures, black & white check patterns, etc. But a black bun worn, on top of my head, would stand out like a green thumb and I know that it would draw unwanted attention to me. 

Later in the morning, before we took off to go meet Carol & Bill, in Kerrville, at the River's Edge Art Gallery, to attend the Hogan & Moss outdoor concert, I talked to Tony about my dilemma, and he suggested, "Well, you could dye your hair black and that would look okay."

"Tony, I can't do that because it would be too harsh of a contrast. Seriously, I would look like a pitiful, over the hill streetwalker. And I could get arrested for that. And I'm too old to get arrested and my family would be horrified and disown me... " 

When we got to Kerrville, we parked Trigger, in the parking lot, behind Wolfmueller's Books, so we could visit with Sandy & Jon for a few minutes before meeting Carol & Bill, down the block. 

As soon as we walked inside their super-cool bookstore, which was packed with customers, Jon, Sandy and Jon's sweet sister Jean greeted us and then Jon started laughing and said, "We were just talking about you and Jean has something to ask you."

"Jean, you cannot have my pretty, pink potholder that you helped me make. It's mine."

"That's not what I was going to ask," Jean replied, followed by a chuckle. "Nancy, I want to know if you would want some of my hair for making Carol's Top Bun. Because this morning after I had brushed out my hair, I was removing the hair from my brush and I thought of you, so I decided to save it, just in case you would like to to use some of it? Then it would be a human and dog hair Top Bun."

After we had quit laughing, I said, "Sure that would be a great addition, Jean. Y'all are not going to believe all of the dog hair people are sending to me right now. In fact, Fay, in Toronto, has already shipped me some of her dog hair, but it hasn't arrived, yet...."

At 1:00, we met Carol & Bill, in front of the River's Edge Art Gallery, on Water Street, just in time to hear Hogan & Moss' kick off their first great song. And before they had finished singing it a huge crowd had gathered around us, to enjoy their unique, awesome music. 

Our good friend, Irene Van Winkle, a fabulous, award-winning author and a top-notch reporter for the popular, newspaper West Kerr Current walked up to visit with us. Then she took off and started taking a few pictures of Hogan & Moss performing while taking notes, because she was writing a story about all of the fun Memorial Day weekend festivities that are going on in town.

After we had enjoyed listening to Hogan & Moss, the four of us went to Wolfmueller's Books, so we could visit with Sandy & Jon and Jean. And after we had introduced Carol & Bill to Jean we had a fun visit.

Later in the afternoon, Tony went and picked up our mail and to my surprise—Fay's hair care package arrived, from Canada and to say the least—I was more than thrilled about it. So I took these couple of pictures to document it.

Across the top of the cute, card-holding-hair, Fay wrote: "Happy Wool Spinning! Love, Fay & Pup xoxo."

I was so thrilled that Fay had sent me some of Ranger's black hair, because the amount that she sent to me would definitely be enough to replace the amount I lost of Mari's black dog hair, which thanks to Henry Standing Bear is now gone with the wind. 

Last night, after I had successfully removed all of the dog hair that seemed permanently stuck, inside the salad spinner, I watched Savannah Sunrise, another great Netflix movie that I highly recommend watching. 

And that is about it for today, because I am fixin' to go take a short nap with our dogs. And please note that I wrote this post, early this afternoon, because I might not be able to write tonight due to some possible thunderstorms. And if we do get those thunderstorms, this evening, I am already prepared to spend my spare time spinning more dog hair, because everything inside The Cabin will be unplugged. 

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

We Did & They Did!

Today has been great. This morning our great friends/dog-walking volunteers came out and walked our dogs for us. Eileen also came out and she brought along her two, nice, motorcycle friends, Joe and Lentz, that are touring Texas, on their bikes, because they wanted to see our rescue ranch and to also meet Kinky.

When Eileen and her friends arrived this morning I called Kinky to make sure that it was a good time for him to meet them, and he said, "Yes, come on over." And we did.

While we were having a fun visit with Kinky, he once again told Tony how much he loves the canvas print of Tony's 2009, beautiful photo of Little Jewford and Shalom, down by the creek.

So while Kinky was visiting with Joe, Lentz & Eileen, in his office, I took this picture of the canvas print that is hanging on a wall in the big room. Because it was dark inside the canvas print is hanging on the left side of Tom's portrait and above the photo of Brownie.

After we had a fun visit, inside the Lodge, Kinky suggested that we all go outside and visit on the porch. And we did that, too.

When it was time for us to go back to the rescue ranch Lentz and Joe asked Kinky if they could get a picture taken of all three of them. And they did. 

This is the picture that I took of them when they posed for Eileen's, Tony's and my cameras.

When we returned to the rescue ranch we took off to go eat lunch together with our great friends/dog-walking volunteers, at the Apple Store, in Medina. And that was a lot of fun and the food was delicious.

This evening, weather permitting, we are going, to the Medina Highpoint Resort, to eat their delicious Friday Night All You Can Eat Catfish Buffet. And then Eileen, Carol and us are going to go outside and sit, on the beautiful patio and listen to Hogan & Moss play some of their fabulous music, under the stars or the clouds. 

Carol & Bill, Tony and I are already huge fans of Hogan & Moss music and Eileen is very excited about finally getting to hear them play. So all of us are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will cooperate this evening and we will get to see Hogan & Moss perform.  

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

Between Heaven and Texas/From Here to Home! or Cale/Kale!

Last night after blogging, I finally found the perfect places to display my beautiful, little, hand-carved, wooden bear and the Made-In-Mexico, turquoise, stained glass cross with the cobalt blue center, that I purchased when Carol, Lorri and I were shopping, at the Terlingua Trading Company. While our three husbands were outside drinking beers, on the famous front porch, listening to Chet O'Keefe jam with Marc Utter.

Anyway, I put my adorable, little bear, on the top shelf, next to the two cows candle holder that don't have candles in them. And I hung the pretty cross, from the top shelf, too—above my kitchen sink. Because I do spend a lot of time, in that area.

Then I spent the rest of the evening reading and savoring the last few pages of Marie Bostwick's fabulous book Between Heaven and Texas.

If you'll remember, a while back, my good friend Kris gave me her copy of Marie Bostwick's awesome book From Here to Home and I could not put it down, because I loved reading it and it touched my heart in several  ways.

And not knowing that it was actually the second book of Bostwick's Texas novels—I read them out of sequence. But it actually didn't matter at all, because these two books can each stand alone, because they are such great reads. And I know that Carol will agree with me on this.

Today has been great. After our great friends/dog-walking-volunteers had walked our dogs for us we all decided to eat lunch, at the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill. And to say the least, "Our meals were absolutely delicious." Eileen and I both ordered their delicious Steak Salad and we highly recommend it, too.

When we were about to adios each other and leave in different directions, we asked our friend, Craig Newton, the great General Manager, "Who is playing tonight, during y'all's delicious All You Can Eat Catfish Dinner?"

"Paul Hilliard," he answered. And then Eileen asked him who would be playing there, in May, because she has some musician friends, from Nashville, coming to visit. And when he told us that Hogan & Moss would be performing twice, in May, I interrupted him and started telling Eileen about how great those two musicians were. 

And after I had quit raving about how great Jon Hogan's and Maria Moss' music was—Eileen could not wait to hear them. "I'm definitely coming to see them!" Eileen stated. "And I think we should get all of our volunteers to meet up here when they play. Wouldn't that be fun, Nancy?" I was so tired from talking so much about how great Hogan & Moss were—I just nodded my head. 

This afternoon when we got back to the rescue ranch, I told Tony, "Tony, last night I finished reading Between Heaven and Texas and I am just sick about it, because I love both of those books. Now, I don't have anything good to read, so I'm going to go to the Little Cottage Quilt Shop, in Medina and buy a few more yards of fabric, so I can work on my quilt."

The quilt shop was busy with friendly, quilting customers, so I strolled around the shop looking for more fabrics that would compliment the Crazy Quilt that I am already working on. And I found four more fabrics and I purchased them. And then I came back home.

A little while ago, I watched the most upbeat music, YouTube video of Eric Clapton performing, on stage, with JJ Cale, my rock 'n roll hero, playing that great song Call Me The Breeze, that JJ Cale wrote and Lynrd Skynrd made famous. It has had over 3 million views and it is totally awesome and here's the link to it. 

And while I was watching that video and enjoying the music, with the volume cranked up high, it reminded me that I had planned to fix us this new salad recipe I had found for our lunch today, but as you already know I didn't, because we ate lunch, at the Koyote Grill. 

Anyway, I think it is kind of weird that I was, sitting here, listening to JJ Cale and thinking about that Brussels Sprouts With Kale salad recipe, that is served with a Maple Syrup vinaigrette—at the exact same time. Get it? Cale/Kale. 

And tonight before I finish writing this I want to let you know that Tony and I won the race back to Medina, because Carol & Bill had to make a pit stop, at a roadside rest area, for their dogs: Scout and Pepper to exercise and for them to take care of "business." And all that I have to say about that is S*&% Happens!

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