5-22-26: Remembering 10 Years Ago.... "Longmire—Texas Style!"

 Howdy folks. This morning I realized it has been over 10 years since making the video spoof Longmire—Texas Style. The Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch volunteers, Chet O'Keefe, Lady Liz and Big Jim at the Grey Goose Saloon and friend Gerry Olert helped me make this hilarious video in hopes of making Little Debbie, my adorable, adopted, one-eyed-Chihuahua even more famous. And it definitely made her more famous! So thank you dear friends for helping me.

Thank you in advance for watching this and if it makes you laugh please click the Like button.

Longmire—Texas Style

Episode: 34 Longmire—Texas Style!

If you would like to listen to this podcast rather than have to read it please click here on: The Cousin Nancy Show or click on The Cousin Nancy Show on the right side bar. 👉 )

This story took place in the spring of 2016.

Tony and I and all of our great Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch volunteers loved the Longmire series on Netflix. In fact, we were all hooked on the show and we could not wait to watch the upcoming Season 5, on Netflix.

Seriously, all of us loved the Longmire show and the fabulous cast so much that we all owned Longmire caps, T-shirts, buttons, mugs, bumper stickers, etc. And also had Craig Johnson’s Longmire books. 

And not to brag I actually had been given two autographed Longmire books—thanks to our dear friends Kris & Jim and Sandy & Jon.

Anyway before I go any further with this story, I must tell you that at that time I had recently received an unexpected inheritance and since the money was sort of burning a hole in my pocket, so to speak, I thought it would be fun to make a Longmire video spoof, so I could make Little Debbie, my precious, one-eyed, rescued, Chihuahua more famous than she already was. 

Big Jim, Little Debbie, Me & Lady Liz

So the first thing I did was hire our dear friend, Gerry Olert, The Greatest Video-grapher in Texas, to help video and edit the Longmire spoof for me. Even though there wasn’t even a script written, yet.

And luckily for me, Gerry cut me a really great deal—$300.00. One-fifty upfront and one-fifty when it was done. And I was more than thrilled about it, because it would be the very first time for me to produce and to be a director of a short film!

So the next thing that I did, after hiring Gerry, was to ask our dear friends aka “The Best Dog Walking Volunteers in Texas,” if they would like to be actors in my short movie. 

Gerry Olert—The Best Video-grapher in Texas

Bottom Line: They all wanted to be in the video spoof and they immediately started picking which Longmire character that they wanted to play. And luckily for me—my dear friends Eileen and Lisa then volunteered to help me write the script. Which to say the least was pretty important in the making of Longmire—Texas Style!

Anyway, a few weeks later the first scenes were shot in one day, at the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, by Lisa and Tony. And please note that the cast members and I made our own costumes to wear, including wigs, alien-attracting-helmets, a deputy uniform and Little Debbie’s adorable wardrobe including her tiny eye-patch.

Eileen & Me

Little Debbie with Lisa & Me

Chet O'Keefe

Lady Liz with Bob the alien

Chet O'Keefe, me and Gerry Olert after filming

The Longmire cast & Longmire Posse's Facebook Comments about our spoof

Everyone knew there lines, but when it came time for us to actually start shooting the scenes—I basically forgot the script and ended up ad-libbing almost all of my lines which then caused the cast to have to ad-lib their lines, too. And those scenes turned out to be hilarious and none of us could believe how well it had turned out so far.

So the cast members were so excited about the video that they could not wait to finish it and they wanted to do it as soon as possible. But being the producer and the director I had to make a decision and tell them that we had to wait for a few weeks to shoot the final scenes of the spoof with our dear musician friend Chet O’Keefe, at our dear friends Jim & Liz Cravotta’s authentic1880s saloon.

So needless to say, the volunteers were disappointed with my decision to delay the final shooting of Longmire—Texas Style for a few weeks. But after all was said and done it was worth it.

Finally, a few weeks later Chet did return to the rescue ranch. And a few mornings later we all met up, at Big Jim’s & Lady Liz’s Grey Goose Saloon, for Gerry Olert to finish shooting the final scenes of Longmire—Texas Style video spoof.

And after we wrapped it up— Gerry did his awesome editing and I uploaded the short movie to my Cousin Nancy Channel on YouTube. And the rest is now history.

If you would like to watch Longmire—Texas Style please click on it and to watch the short video Longmire—Texas Style Behind The Scenes, that I made using Tony’s fabulous behind the scenes pictures that he took during the filming of the spoof please click on it, too. 

*****

Okay. Now here’s a Cousin Boomer Update for y’all:

Boomer came over yesterday and his left leg and arm were in casts and he was all bruised-up and he was mad. Tony asked him what had happened to him and Boomer told us that he had bought a can of fly spray that was on sale at the grocery store. Then he went home and sprayed it all over himself and then he climbed up on the roof and jumped off—and he did not fly. And after the doctor had patched him up he went back to the grocery store to get a refund, but they wouldn’t let him return it, because it had been on sale.

******

Now it is My Thought For Today Time And I Have Two to Tell you:

Imagine if you will…An atheist is stuck at a green light, behind a car with a “Honk If You Love Jesus” bumper sticker.  

And, Imagine if you will…A world where dogs take bad owners to the Pound.

*******

Okay now it is Make Me Laugh Time!

 

A man walks into an elevator and there is a beautiful blonde inside the elevator and after the door closes, she looks over at the man and says, “T.G.I.F.” 

So he looks at her and says, “S.H.I.T.’’

They go up a few more floors and she looks at the man and says, “T.G.I.F.” 

So he looks at her and says, “S.H.I.T.”  

When she reaches her floor, she looks at the man again and says,“T.G.I.F means thank goodness it is Friday, duh?” 

So he looks at her, and says, "S.H.I.T means sorry honey it's Thursday, dud?”

If you’re happy and you know it—it’s your meds.

A clown held the door for me today—that was such a nice jester.

People are shocked when they find out that I am not a very good electrician.

Now here are a couple of Tony’s jokes:     

A blonde is trying to sell her car, but the only problem with it was it had over 400,000 miles on it. 

So she was upset, because she couldn’t sell her car, so she went to a bar and she met a woman that was an auto mechanic. And the blonde told her the story about her mileage problem and the lady mechanic said, “I can help you, but it is illegal.”

 

So the next day the mechanic rolled back the miles on the odometer.

A few days passed and the blonde runs into the mechanic, at the bar, and the mechanic asks the blonde, “So, did you sell your car?”

And the blonde said, “No! I’ve decided to keep it, because it only has 40,000 miles on it!”

A brunette went to the doctor and she told him, “Doctor, I hurt all over. Every where I touch myself I feel pain.”

 

So the doctor says, “Show me.” So she touches her elbow and screams with pain and then she touches her knee and she screams with pain, again.

    

So the doctor says, “You’re not really a brunette are you?”

And she replies, “No, I dye my hair. I’m a natural blonde.”

And the doctor says, “Well that explains it then—you’re finger is broken.”

And here is my last joke. A teacher asks a Billy, “If I give you two cats today and then give you four cats tomorrow how many cats do you have?”

Billy says, “Seven cats.”

And the teacher says, “No. Two plus four equals six. You’re wrong.”

And Billy says, “No. You're wrong, because I already have a cat.”

And this concludes this segment of Make Me Laugh Time. 

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Well, folks I do hope that my podcast has made you laugh at least once, but if it didn’t—who cares! I want to thank y’all for listening. And please remember my favorite quote: Life is short.And so am I!Y’all take care and keep on laughing!  Adios y’all!

#73-B! or ZZ Top Documentary Rules And Rocks!

Life here is good—knock-on-wood. Since my last post it has mainly been the same routine: editing, working and sleeping, but I do have a few things that I do want to mention here.

Last week our AACC (Ancient Alien Coffee Club) met at Randy's & Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant for coffee, tea, water or breakfast, again. And it was a blast.

During our meeting we presented one of our anonymous members #73-B (we are all anonymous and only use numbers) with his official alien-attracting helmet that Tony and I had custom made especially for him. It took us an hour—laugh out loud.

Once again we used another colander that we purchased @ Wal-Mart for the base of the helmet and after we  had quit decorating #73-B's helmet with pipe cleaners and stickers we stuck a small LED push button light, on the top of it for special effects.

#73-B seemed to really like his alien-attracting helmet and here is a picture of him wearing it and a picture of me wearing my helmet and my LED magnification glasses with my helmet.

And needless to say, the Save Inn's customers thought it was all very funny, too. Which is exactly the response that I had hoped for, because I believe that we all need to laugh more. 

Last week our good friend Gerry Olert came to visit us. (Gerry is the fabulous, talented video-grapher that made all of our rescue ranch videos for us and he also did the Longmire—Texas Style video spoof that I wrote, directed and produced, in 2016, to make Little Debbie more famous. 

The video spoof starred Little Debbie, our rescue ranch friends/volunteer dog walkers, Chet O'Keefe, Bob (the alien) and me. Tony took these pictures of Gerry filming us at Big Jim's & Lady Liz's Grey Goose Saloon.

During our fun visit with Gerry, we discussed my part and what I should wear in Jay Pennington's & Gerry Olert's upcoming Short Western movie Honey To Vinegar. And the best news is Tony is going to be involved with the movie, too!

Anyway last week I did a lot of research for my crazy old lady's costume to wear for my part in the movie and I purchased some material, etc., so I can make my outfit. Which I plan to hopefully sew later on this week. 

Lastly, last week I watched the new ZZ Top documentary, on Netflix and I just want to highly recommend it, because it was so much fun to watch. And the friends that I recommended it to also loved it. And that is about it for now.

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

Best Buns In Town!

Today has been great and so has everyday since my last post. I've been very busy working, going on a couple of all day trips and writing.

This past Wednesday Tony and I went to visit our dear friend Jan, at her awesome horse rescue sanctuary, in Mountain Home and I fell in love with all of her beautiful rescued horses, cats, dogs, donkeys, and an adorable outlaw hog, etc.

Yesterday I went with Carol, to Bulverde, to visit one of my favorite people—her sweet sister Carla.

I loved getting to visit with Carla and her beautiful family. And while I was there I fell in love with their sweet cat, who dared anyone to remove him from Carla's lap.

I spent this morning writing non-stop and this afternoon, after lunch, I was writing and I thought my worldly travels were over, but we needed to go to Kerrville to pick up supplies at the big H-E-B store on Main Street. So I had to quit writing. Dang.

I didn't want to quit writing, because I only have about ten more pages to write before finishing my book.

Anyway, I had just written this scene where Tony, Chet and Randy rode the horses to the bottom of a butte, in Terlingua, in hopes of rescuing Carol and me, but instead they were captured by aliens. Here is a peak of what I had written:

"At 3:33 to be exact, this blinding light, high above the butte, beamed down on the three cowboys, from this huge flying saucer and it created a wide circle around the three men. The drenching rain instantly stopped, inside this brightly lit ring and neither Tony, Chet or Randy could talk or move. It was like they were paralyzed or frozen in time. Then the beam of light went out and the men were gone and so was the spaceship."

I was disappointed that I had to quit writing right then, because I was trying to decide if or when the men are returned to Earth and if they would be stripped of all of their cowboy clothes, except for their underwear and socks, because aliens LOVE everything cowboy—especially the cowboy hats, Wrangers, buckles, belts and cowboy boots.

So, I daydreamed all of the way to Kerrville, as Tony drove Trigger to the big H-E-B, but I still hadn't made a decision about what will happen to Tony and his search party. Will they return to Earth or not?

After we left the grocery store we went down Main Street and Tony parked Trigger in front of the Wild Birds Unlimited store, because we wanted to visit with our friends: Marguerite and Linda & Kevin Pillow, the friendly owners.

When we walked inside the store all of our dear friends greeted us and then sweet Marguerite ran over and gave me a big hug.

I love Marguerite so much and after the hugs she and I immediately started catching up with each others news. And we mainly talked about our dogs, cats and her birds and I did make a point to brag that Little Debbie and I are going to be actresses in Jay Pennington's and Gerry Olert's upcoming Short Western—Vinegar to Honey.

While Marguerite was telling me about one of her dogs that she had adopted from our rescue ranch, I couldn't help but notice that Linda had come away from the counter and she had started decorating a display near us. I teased Linda, and said, "Linda, you're not fooling me. You do this every time I come in here, because you know I will buy whatever you display."

And we had a good laugh about it and yes, I did end up buying one of the coolest bunnies on her newest display and I told Tony that it was his Valentine gift for me. Bottom   Line: This is the second bunny that I  have purchased from Linda & Kevin's awesome store, because I LOVE bunnies and they have the best buns in town!

When Tony and I got back home and after we had put up the groceries I pulled my bunny out of the Wild Birds Unlimited sack and I could not quit admiring it.

Here is a picture of the first bunny I purchased from Wild Birds Unlimited. It is made of wood and wrapped inside a metal strip. And it always gets noticed when we have friends over.

And here is Tony's shiny bunny Valentine gift for me that I LOVE so much!

As I finish writing this, because I love my new bunny so much, I've decided that Tony, Randy and Chet will definitely be returned to Earth, but that is all that I am saying about it. But wouldn't it be cool if these aliens that captured them—looked like rabbits? And that is all the men can remember about their abduction?

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

Jelly Roll!

Yesterday morning Tony and I met Lisa and Kris at a secret location (Randy & Lisa's Save Inn restaurant) in Kerrville for our first AACC (Ancient Aliens Coffee Club).

Sweet Eileen was supposed to come, but could not make it, because she had "pastel painted herself into a corner" at her art class, in Boerne. The Mineral Man (Kris' husband) was a no-show too and Kris was a little vague about why he could not make it. But no worries they will both be at the next meeting.

Tony and I were the first to arrive at our secret destination and we got to have a fun visit with Lisa and catch up with her and Randy's news.

Lisa was second to show up and before she even sat down at our table, she and I were already talking about things we needed to discuss at our first AACC meeting.

By the time Kris arrived we gave Lisa, the owner, our orders and Tony and I ordered the exact same thing. Then our meeting commenced.

Right off the bat, we all agreed what our secret hand signal would be and what our secret code word would be. Then we talked non-stop about how much we love watching the History Channel's Ancient Alien show.

While we ate our delicious breakfast, Lisa and Kris talked about the British author and scientists, Arthur C. Clarke, the famous science fiction writer that wrote the book 2001: A Space Odyssey, and who worked closely with Stanley Kubrick on the 1968 movie with the same title. And besides Clarke writing many other award-winning science fiction books Clarke also wrote 2010: A Space Odyssey and  2061: A Space Odyssey.

I felt like a dummy, because I had never heard of Arthur C. Clarke and I could only remember that I had liked the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and that Hal, the computer, had really scared me.

I was thrilled that I had remembered at least that much about the movie, since it was made over 51 years ago. And before I rejoined the conversation I wondered to myself if Alexa is maybe the new Hal?

When Kris and Lisa were telling me about the face on Mars, Lisa grabbed her cellphone and showed me this picture.

After I got over the shock of seeing this Mars man or martian, I told them about me writing a blog about watching Nasa's Unexplained Files where they sent a land rover out on Mars surface and it came back with a half-eaten jellyroll. "And Nasa has never been able to explain it, because it is actually a half-eaten jellyroll left there by someone or some thing...."

Anyway, after everyone had quit laughing I realized that we had finished eating breakfast, so I announced, "I am so excited about our Ancient Aliens Coffee Club and all of this. When I get home I am going to Buy Clarke's books: 2010: A Space Odyssey and 2061: A Space Odyssey and....And as soon as I finish writing my 3rd Cowgirl Sisterhood novella I am going to retire the Cowgirl Sisterhood for a while and write another fiction book about our AACC going on a fact-finding mission/adventure in Terlingua! And we could meet/get abducted or something by some aliens."

"Then I think all of us should go out to Terlingua," Lisa suggested.

"Me too," Kris said. "A field trip."

"And while we are out there we could make a short movie, too!" I said. "Starring Little Debbie of course, and we could wear our alien-attracting helmets (upside down pot pie tines tied down on our heads) that I made for our Longmire—Texas Style video spoof....And Chet O'Keefe could star in it too and we could ask him to write the soundtrack for it...." The wheels were set in motion and already turning—so to speak.

Before Tony and I adios-ed our friends, Kris and Lisa promised me that they would watch the movie Paul and I promised them to read Clarke's books before our next meeting and that I would send them the link to my blog post about the jellyroll on Mars.

So, as I finish writing this I want to give you the link to my June 5, 2015: A Roll or Flat Tire! blog post about the jellyroll found on Mars.

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

Yoda!

Well, I am probably the last to wish y'all a happy new year and I apologize for taking so long in doing it, but at least I am doing it now.

This past week flew by and it was a whirlwind for Tony and me, because we worked a lot of hours next door, at Escondida Resort & Spa.

Their New Year's Eve Roaring 20's party was a total blast. Darlene's food was so delicious I actually got tired of the guests telling me to please go tell Darlene that she had outdone herself in the kitchen. And I am sure that just running back and forth to the kitchen to give Darlene another compliment from one of the guests added an extra 10,000 steps on my overloaded pink pedometer.

The evening was filled with Little Jewford's magnificent piano playing and he was so funny—he had the crowd begging for more music and more jokes and one-liners.

Around 11:20, as the guests sang along with LJ and were dancing the Charleston, etc. I plopped down on a sofa to rest for a minute. But when I tried to stand back up, my feet were so sore from walking back and forth to the kitchen to give Darlene another guest's compliment on her delicious food, I grabbed Tony, after he had taken pictures of the guests dancing and begged him to please take me home. "Nance, it is 11:25. We only have 35 more minutes until midnight. Can't you wait?..."

I couldn't wait, so Tony took me home and dropped me off and then he returned to the party to take more pictures and bring in the new year. And an hour later when he got back home—I was already in bed with Henry Standing Bear, Little Debbie, Big Al(ice), Beau and Roy—sound asleep.

New Year's Day morning Tony and I were back at work by 8:15, to help Darlene in the kitchen and to serve the guests breakfast and clean up the kitchen. Then we were back at work early that evening to help Darlene with the guests dinner, etc. And we worked Thursday and today, too. So that is my excuse for not responding to e-mail or blogging.

This afternoon after working I finally had the time to think about my 2020 New Year's resolution. My New Year's resolution is to stop eating Darlene's mouth-watering food, because thanks to her fabulous cooking I've gained ten pounds and I need to lose it.

And I am going to make this Yoda quote my 2020 mantra. "DO, OR DO NOT...THERE IS NO TRY." And I do plan to blog, write and exercise more. I promise.

So as I finish writing this I do want to wish everyone a happy new year filled with happiness, love and peace.

Y'all have a great New Year and do keep on laughing!

P.S. "Gaby, I do plan to write you a note tomorrow, because I have the whole day off."

Sir? Yes You!

Today has been great. Actually it has been more than great, because this morning I received an exciting e-mail from our dear friend Jay Pennington, the writer, director and actor in Smile. And his note has made this the best Christmas present that I've ever received.

I know, and you probably know by now, that I can easily get excited about all kinds of things. But let me just say Jay's unexpected news didn't just get me all excited—it nearly caused me to wet my pants or even worse, because I was not expecting this could possibly happen. But I am so glad that it is going to happen.

Now you may be asking yourself, "What in the heck did Jay write to cause all of this? We already know that Cousin Nancy is going to be an actress in Jay & Gerry Olert's next short Western movie, Vinegar to Honey."

So here is clue. Imagine that you're at the Academy Awards or at home watching the Oscars being handed out, when the MC finally says, "And the Best Supporting Actress for a short Western movie goes to—Little Debbie! And the audience roars with applause and approval and they all stand up, as the orchestra starts playing the Vinegar to Honey soundtrack.

In fact (or fiction) at this awards event, I pass out when they call out Little Debbie's name, because I had hoped that it might be me that gets the award. Because I am great at playing a crazy old lady.

So Tony thinking-fast pulls my cowboy hat down, over my face, takes Little Debbie out of my arms and they go up on stage to accept Little Debbie's Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

And I was still passed out, when Tony told Little Debbie's adoring fans, "Little Debbie wasn't expecting to receive this award, but Nance was and I am sure that she'll be okay in a little while. She faints all of the time. Sir? Yes you. Would you mind putting Nancy's cowboy hat back over her face? Thank you."

Then the music starts playing softly, in the background, to speed up Little Debbie's/Tony's acceptance speech. "Little Debbie wants to thank Jay Pennington and Gerry Olert and the entire awesome cast of Vinegar to Honey for making this happen. She thanks you." Then a pretty woman walks up to them and escorts them safely backstage, so they can attend the parties.

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

The AACC!

Monday when Lisa and Eileen came to visit us, Lisa told us about her binge-watching Ancient Aliens on the History Channel and how much she loves this show. And I told her that I would love to watch it, too.

Tuesday Lisa sent me an e-mail informing me that Ancient Aliens is also on Netflix, too. So, last night I started binge-watching Ancient Aliens on Netflix and I absolutely love this show.

Wednesday morning after posting on my blog about Jay and Gerry's fabulous movie Smile, I sent Lisa an e-mail suggesting that we get together more often and I proposed that we meet for coffee once a month, in Kerrville. I also suggested that we get Eileen, Kris & Jim and Tony to join us. Lisa was totally on board with the idea.

Later that morning Lisa sent me a note. She told me that she was excited about us meeting for coffee every month, because it would be so much fun and it would also give her and I a chance to discuss Ancient Aliens episodes, and she also wrote, " ...We can call ourselves the AACC (Ancient Aliens Coffee Club)." I totally love that name.

Even though Kris & Jim, Eileen and Tony are still unaware about all of this I am sure they will want to be participating members in our exclusive Ancient Aliens Coffee Club.

I can't wait for our first coffee meeting, because we will have a lot of business to discuss. Such as:
a logo, who pays for the coffee, a mascot (hopefully Little Debbie), rules, a secret handshake, decoder rings, an oath, etc.

And since Lisa and I are the co-founders of this new prestigious Ancient Aliens Coffee Club I am hoping that she will be voted president and that I will get to be the vice president. I think it is the only logical and fair thing to do.

Anyway, I do know at our first official meeting I do plan to suggest that we dust off our alien-attracting-pot-pie-tin hats, (The hats that I made, in 2016, that we wore in the making of the Longmire—Texas Style video spoof.) for us to wear to every club meeting and special events. And if no one objects to my idea I will offer to make even more alien-attracting pot-pie-tin hats to sell at events to help pay for our coffees.

This is all so exciting to me I keep pinching myself, but I've forgotten why.

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

P.S. This morning Gerry Olert sent me this picture of him and Jay Pennington scouting locations, in Texas, for their next movie Vinegar to Honey!

She & The!

This morning after taking a shower and washing my white hair I decided to check my e-mail. Our dear friend, Steve Pietzsch sent me this hilarious picture and I want to share it with y'all. My reply to Steve was "....I love this and just think—this could be me riding around with Little Debbie driving it!" So I really do wish it was mine.

The next e-mail I checked while I was still laughing was from our dear friend Ronnie Namour. Ronnie is the fabulous writer that writes a weekly music scene column for The Island Moon newspaper, in Port A. And Ronnie is also in love with our dear friend Tracy Weatherall. 

I love this artwork. I also love our good friend Joe King Carrasco and his fabulous music and also because he was a big-time supporter of our rescue ranch. And Tony and I love Giggity's too. So, I wrote Ronnie, "I wish Tony and I could be there for the event/invasion!" This is the advertisement Ronnie sent to me:

Then I burst out laughing at my dear friend Nancy's attachment that she sent to me. FYI: Nancy is our dear friend that lives in Chicago with her adoring, beautiful cat, Theodora. She & The are also into aliens like I am and I wish I had a magnet with all of these Bobs on it.

Tony and I have to go to Kerrville today to run a few errands and we plan to drop by Wolfmueller's Books for a fun visit. And when we get back to Big Foot Ranch I plan to go to The Last Resort and practice podcasting with my new Blue Yeti. So please wish me luck.

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

Smile!

Yesterday was a total blast!  Tony and I met our dear friends (aka rescue ranch dog-walking volunteers) for a reunion/Christmas party, at the OST (Old Spanish Trail restaurant), in Bandera.

It was sweet Eileen's idea to have the party and she took care of the reservations, the  Utopia Jeopardy game and everything else. Sadly a few of the volunteers were unable to make the super fun party, but luckily June, Ellen, Kris & Jim, Suzanne, Chris, Eileen and Diane & Jim were there to be merry, in the famous John Wayne room.

FYI: The Utopia Jeopardy game was about remembering the names of the rescued dogs and the other animals that all of us had loved.  Suzanne won the game.

Before the party ended Tony and I invited everyone to come over to Big Foot Ranch, so we could show off The (home) Cabin's latest improvements and The Last Resort. And before we all headed to Big Foot Ranch sweet Eileen gave Tony and I a big, red sack filled with Christmas presents that we opened after our guests went home.

Bottom   Line: Tony and I were overwhelmed with the many compliments and Little Debbie was exhausted from being passed around, so our friends could take turns loving on her. Everyone autograpthed The Last Resort's door. And everyone loved the mural that I am working on. In fact, Diane took many pictures of our home sweet home, etc. so she could send them to her sweet sister/ our dear friend Ruthie, in Washington D.C.

After everyone had left Tony and we had closed the gate, I opened up Eileen's sack to find two beautiful Christmas stockings stuffed full of thoughtful cute, funny, cool, pretty, tasty stocking stuffers. And we loved everything. So. "Thank You Eileen! We LOVE You!"

And I will treasure this cute small gift box with the red VW van and Christmas lights with decorated Christmas trees. Who knows? Maybe if I have the time I should repaint my mural regularly with different holiday themes?

And that is about it for today, because I must go take a nap, before Tony and I go to the Premier Showing of the multi-award-winning western move, Smile, tonight, in Hondo. That our dear friends Gerry Olert and Jay Pennington wrote, produced and starred in along with a great cast.

I will be taking my camera tonight, so I can write about it tomorrow.

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

The 2500 Gallon Black Water Tank!

Today has been great, but I've been lazy. This morning I watched a few more YouTube videos on podcasting—then I wrote and worked on my third novella for a few more hours.

I cooked tortilla soup for Tony's and my lunch and then cleaned up the kitchen, before taking a short sleepless nap with our dogs.

After that I grabbed a tape measure and went outside and measured the water cistern, because I now have the paint and am about ready to paint the 2500 gallon black water tank. Then I had a sinking spell and went back inside to take another nap with my best friends.

An hour later after another sleepless nap, but feeling totally rested I called Carol to catch up with her news and we had a fun visit. And that is about it for tonight, because I am fixin' to give Little Debbie a pedicure.

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

We Love You Folks!

Today has been so much fun. This morning Tony and I worked next door at Escondida Resort. Our dear friends Kent Perkins and his sweet wife Ruth(ie) Buzzi have been staying there and after breakfast, before Tony and I came back home Kent pulled me aside and he told me that he and Ruthie and Ethan, their personal chef, wanted to come over for coffee and a visit after they had checked out. "We love you guys," Kent said. "We want to see your writing cabin and Little Debbie, too." I was thrilled.

So as soon as I got back home I quickly cleaned The Cabin, so it would not look like we live here. And I finished five minutes before they arrived in one of their beautiful Rolls Royces. It had been perfect timing to say the least.

Before we went inside The Cabin, Tony and I took them to see The Last Resort and I am proud to say that they totally loved it, too.

We hung inside there for about thirty minutes and before we left The Last Resort, I asked Ruthie & Kent to please sign the door and I asked Ethan to sign it, too.

And they signed it underneath what sweet Carol had written back in September.

When we came inside The Cabin to drink coffee, Ruthie and Kent took turns holding Little Debbie, because like so many of our friends—they love Little Debbie, too. 

While we were drinking coffee, Kent noticed Little Debbie sitting on Ruthie's lap, so he suggested, "Y'all should take a picture of Ruthie and Little Debbie."

Kent and I were sitting on the couch and I had Big Al(ice) sitting in my lap, so I asked Tony to please take a picture of Ruthie with Little Debbie. So he grabbed my camera, off of my desk and took this cute picture of them together.

Tony and I had so much fun visiting with Ruthie & Kent and Ethan. They stayed for about an hour and we hardly ever quit laughing until it was time for them to leave and head back to their ranch in North Texas.

And before Ruthie & Kent got back into their Rolls, they leaned on the hood and sang, "We wish you a Merry Christmas. We wish...." to Tony and me. And when they had finished singing to us Tony and I sang "We wish you a Merry Christmas" back at them.

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

What About Bob? or Tony Saw The Light!

Today has been great. This afternoon after taking a peaceful, sleepless nap with our four-leggers I was thinking about Bob. Because as soon as the weather cools I plan to paint a life-sized mural, on the water catchment tank outside our front yard. I'm going to paint a 1969 VW Van with Bob driving the van and waving a peace sign, as it goes down the road.

Now you may be asking, "Who is Bob?" Well, as you may remember, many years ago my dear friends Kris & Jim went to Roswell's Alien Museum, in New Mexico and they brought me back a six foot tall, blow-up, green alien, because of my fascination with aliens. And they had named it Bob before they gave it to me and it stuck. I loved Bob.

Anyway, Bob soon became more famous, because Little Debbie started her own blog. And here is the picture that is on her blog, of her posing with Bob, Jr. and me.

About the same time that Little Debbie started blogging I bought a used Shasta RV and I fixed it up. I re-painted it turquoise and I named it the Mother Ship. And I also painted Bob on the front door, with a 1969 VW Van, in the background.

"So what about Bob?" Well to jog your memory a little more, I used Bob in the hilarious Longmire—Texas Style, video spoof that I wrote and produced to make Little Debbie even more famous than she already was. Here is a picture of Bob and Little Debbie posing with the cast and crew at our wrap-party.

After the Longmire—Texas Style wrap party, at Big Jim's & Lady Liz's Grey Goose Saloon, Tony and I took Bob home, because he was so exhausted—he was deflated. And here is a picture I took of Bob resting inside my pink, writing cabin. (And not to brag, but to brag—I built the bed that Bob is sleeping on.)

This afternoon after my sleepless, but restful nap I brushed most of the dog hair off of my clothes and then I went into the kitchen, because I finally knew exactly what I was going to do with my little, battery-powered, chain of twinkle lights, that I had purchased last week at Wal-Mart, for under $5.00. And I named this Bob project—Believe.

In the picture below, there is a little green plaque that says Believe holding a Mason jar and for years I have kept Bob, Jr. inside the small jar. The small Believe plaque is to the left of the Great Pyrenees On Duty sign, that Carol recently gave to me. And I love that sign, too.

The hardest part of this easy-to-do Bob project, was removing the twinkle lights from the packaging, because they used way too much tape. 

Anyway, after I had installed the 3 AAA batteries and had tested the tiny string of lights, I removed the Mason jar from the Believe plaque. And then horrors! Inside the jar there was this big, dead scorpion that had died, on top of Bob's feet. So I immediately went to show Bob's uninvited dead guest to Tony. And let's just say that Tone was not impressed.

So I went back into the kitchen and buried the scorpion, in the trash can, without any kind of ceremony. Then I washed out the dusty jar and Bob, Jr. and dried them both. Then I shoved the tiny string of lights inside the jar with Bob, Jr.

Then Tony helped me hang the battery box below the plaque. Then I flipped the switch for the lights to come on and that's when Tony and I burst out laughing, because when our friends see Bob, Jr. glowing, on the Believe plaque it will hopefully make them laugh, too.

As I finish writing this I have just turned on Bob, Jr.'s Believe plaque, again and my cobalt blue candy dish that also has twinkle lights inside it and I can't quit laughing. And Tony just walked in here and when Tony saw the light(s)—he started laughing, too. So I hope this post has made you laugh at least once or twice, because I know that one of my purposes is to make people laugh.

So, if you have not laughed yet, here is my last attempt tonight to make you laugh or at least chuckle.

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

Paycheck To Paycheck!

This past week has flown by so fast, because we've been working either on projects here or working next door. And the weather has been so hot outside and inside The Cabin.

You see when we bought this place, a giant China berry  tree covered and shaded the entire cabin's roof. But last August after we had that tree removed, because it was falling down and leaning on the front porch—The Cabin heated up and our electrical bill literally went through the roof, because The Cabin has a tin roof—but no ceiling/ insulated attic.

Our August electrical bill back then was over $350.00 using our three window air conditioning units that could only cool down The Cabin to 82 degrees when it was 90 degrees or higher outside.

Tony and I love The Cabin so much and the roof rafters make it look so cool and much bigger. In fact, this past winter, if the sun was shining outside it heated up the tin roof and it helped heat our home. So it was sort of energy efficient for a while.

In April when the temperatures started climbing, Tony and I vowed not to turn on the window units until June or longer, so we would not have sky-rocketing electric bills to pay. And the good news here is last month's electrical bill was only $34.00. But the bad news is—we're hot and sweaty and our dogs are miserable.

So a week ago yesterday, a friend helped us install an attic exhaust fan to help pull the hot air out of The Cabin. And that helped. Because before, when it was 85-94 degrees outside it was always ten degrees warmer (hotter) inside The Cabin. (85 degrees outside/ 95 degrees inside.) And since installing the attic exhaust fan the indoor temperature is now only 2 degrees higher or matching the outdoor temperatures. It was definitely an improvement.

But that wasn't good enough, because this past week it has been incredibly humid and hot outside and the inside temperature of The Cabin, before we go to bed at night has been ranging between 80 to 85 degrees. So needless to say—our four-leggers and us have not been happy campers. We've been hot, sweaty survivors.

So, Sunday morning after Tony and I had another meltdown inside The Cabin, we decided that we had to put a ceiling inside The Cabin and insulate it, even though it meant hiding the beautiful rafters and knowing that this ceiling project would be costly for us.

So we did some research and then I called Ronnie to ask him what he would do. And Ronnie suggested that we do the bedroom first, so we could at least use it to keep us cool. Then Tony and I went to the Home Depot, in Kerrville, to buy the materials.

Because of cost, because we are old and because Tony has a bad shoulder we knew that the two of us could not lift up heavy sheets of 4'x8' plywood, so we decided to use boards instead. Because lifting one board at a time would be much easier for us.

Here is a picture of the bedroom before we started installing the ceiling boards and then adding pink, R-30 insulation.

And here is what we had accomplished by Sunday afternoon/evening.

Yesterday, we had to go back to Home Depot and buy more materials and The Cabin in one big mess, which is driving me crazy. Because there is insulation, boards, cables/cords and tools scattered throughout The Cabin.

Last night, after we were totally exhausted from working on the ceiling, we called it a day. It was nearly 6:00 and I took this picture of the Atomic Clock which shows it was 88 degrees inside and 87 degrees outside The Cabin.

I took that picture, because I had planned to blog last night, but because it was so hot inside—I changed my mind and sat outside, on the front porch, with Henry Standing Bear, Little Debbie, Big Al(ice), Beau and Roy.

This morning as I finish writing this Tony is in Medina—getting his ears lowered (hair cut). And when he gets back home we plan/hope to finish installing the bedroom ceiling, so we can have a place to stay cool. And just so you'll know—we plan to keep going and install a ceiling in the kitchen/big room, too. And we will do it paycheck to paycheck until it is all done. 

Y'all have a great day/evening, keep on laughing and stay cool!