We Had Visitors From Afar! or A Really Big Crush!

Yesterday and today have been so much fun for Tony and me, because yesterday we had visitors from afar and they weren't Aliens, even though I would love to have Aliens, like Bob, come visit me.

Our first visitors yesterday arrived around 3:30. They were Philip & Cheryl, these super nice professors of literature, who drove all of the way from Kansas. And the main reason they came to see us was to drop off Harry's, (Philip's father) huge collection of first edition, signed Kinky books, posters and Kinky memorabilia etc., that Harry has generously donated to our rescue ranch, so we can sell them or auction them off to benefit Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. 

When Philip & Cheryl arrived it was misting outside, so Tony and Philip quickly transported Harry's boxes and framed posters to a safe place for us to store Harry's collection. Then we invited our new friends to come inside The Cabin for a really fun visit, because Harry had told me about how much his son and daughter-in-law love Terlingua and enjoy going to the Big Bend National Park.

So, as we sipped our teas or coffees, we became fast friends, because we had so much in common. Seriously, if one of us wasn't talking about Harry & Wanda, music, books or Big Bend then we were all laughing. 

Unfortunately, they could only stay and visit for about an hour, because they needed to get back to their friend's house, in Austin, before dark-thirty, because they are spending their Spring Break attending Austin's famous, annual SXSW Music Festival. 

Tony and I were having so much fun with them we hated to see them leave, but we hugged and adios-ed each other and bid them farewell.

An hour and a half later, Sarah Burton arrived and we hit it off instantly with her, too. Sarah Burton is an awesome singer/songwriter and musician who plays both the guitar and the piano, but not at the same time. She is from Canada and she has duel Canada/USA citizenship. And she has recently purchased some property, in Terlingua, while she was out there playing some gigs, in Terlingua. 

Anyway, earlier this week, our dear friend, Chet O'Keefe, had sent me an e-mail about how she had become good friends with him and Jim Keaveny & his wife Anna Oakley, Haislip, Jamie, Mark, Shannon and the rest of our mutual friends. Then Chet told me that Sarah was going to San Antone and then up to Austin to play at SXSW, so he asked me how I felt about her making a stopover here and spending the night, before driving into the Alamo City to pick up her sister. 

Chet also raved about what a great person and how nice she was and about how awesome her music was, so I immediately wrote him back and said, "...We would love to meet Sarah Burton and she is more than welcomed to spend the night here, in my pretty, pink, writing cabin..."

Last night, Tony and I had so much fun getting to know Sarah Burton. We quickly found out that we had much in common besides loving Terlingua and our mutual friends that live out there. And at one point, after showing her my guitar, I asked Sarah, while she was holding it, if she felt like playing a few of her songs for us. And she did! 

Omg, Sarah Burton is one extremely talented singer/songwriter/musician and her beautiful voice, lyrics and skilled guitar playing totally mesmerized us including: Henry Standing Bear, Little Debbie and Big Al(ice). In fact, Henry made us laugh after she sang her first song, because Henry would not quit staring at Sarah, so I joked, "I think Henry has a really big crush on you."

Sarah left this morning after drinking coffee and eating breakfast with us and once again, we were sad to see her leave. But before she left she gave us two of her CD's, so we are now hooked on her great music, too. Sarah Burton is on Facebook and Twitter, so please check her out and her music. Here are two of her CD's that she signed to Tony, me & Henry, inside the jacket.

We met our dear friends/volunteers today, at the Thai O'Cha Restaurant, to celebrate Jim aka The Mineral Man's birthday and once again, Tony and I had a total blast. When we arrived Kris, Jim's super sweet wife, was Face Time-ing Jim, because she had to go out of town unexpectedly to go help her mother who was recovering from a bout of pneumonia. Anyway, Jim moved his iPhone slowly around our big table so we could all say howdy to Kris and her mom.

Of course, it goes without saying, that our lunch was totally delicious, as always and it was too much fun, because we laughed, joked and teased each other non-stop. And before we were served our delicious lunch, Eileen said, "Nancy and Tony, y'all's Henry Standing Bear is becoming very famous on the Internet." Then she passed her iPhone around for all of us to see what she had posted on Longmire's Official Posse's fan club site.

Eileen did this, because yesterday, after Tony had posted a cute picture of Henry Standing Bear on Tony's Facebook page, Eileen tagged it and then she posted the photo of Henry and Tony's selfie, on Longmire's Posse site and a whole lot of Longmire's loyal fans had—Liked it or had made cute comments about our Henry, that we named in honor of Lou Diamond Phillips' character.

After we finished eating lunch, our good friend Ju and staff came out singing the Happy Birthday song to Jim and carrying a candle-lit, beautiful German Chocolate cake, that Kris had pre-ordered from Creative Cakes By Sharon, that she had asked Eileen to pick up and bring to Jim's birthday party for her. And the least that I can say about this cake, because tonight's post is getting way too long is, "It was the best German Chocolate cake that any of us have ever eaten." And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Like A Rock! or Oh Henry!

The last few days have been great. Yesterday afternoon Kinky hitched a ride with us to Kerrville, because Mr. Green Jeans was in the shop. "They told me that they think it's the transmission," Kinky said, as the three of us ate lunch at the Acapulco Restaurant.

After a fun lunch, we dropped Kinky off, in the little H-E-B's parking lot. "Thanks for taking me to Kerrville," Kinky said, as he climbed out of Trigger. "I've got to mail some things and then buy a few groceries, before Dylan comes to pick me up and take me back to the ranch."

Then Tony and I took off for the big H-E-B, so Tony could fill up Trigger while I bought a few groceries. Then we came back home.

This morning our good friends Charlie & Ellen came over to drink coffee with us and to give me a present. "Sorry Tony," Charlie teased. "We didn't get you anything because you don't deserve one." Then Charlie reached into his jacket's pocket and handed me the coolest rock. "We got it from our West Texas ranch and it had Cousin Nancy written all over it. It looks like martians decorated it..." Then he gave me the most beautiful rock.

I love collecting rocks and I thanked them for the unique rock. Now this is where y'all come in to play. Can anyone tell me something about what kind of rock this is, because I don't have a clue. If you do please leave me a comment.

Late this morning Tony and I decided to take Trigger to Balser's Northside Automotive, to get him his state inspection, while we ate lunch, next door, at Acapulco, again. So, Tony called our dear friends Kris & Jim to see if they wanted to meet us for lunch, at 12:30.

After we dropped off Trigger, we walked across the parking lot and spotted our friend's car, already parked in Acapulco's parking lot. So when the friendly waiter asked us how many were in our party, we told him that we were meeting friends. Then we looked up and saw Kris & The Mineral Man waving at us, near the back of the restaurant.

As always, Tony and I had a blast eating lunch with Kris & Jim. In fact, we never stopped talking or laughing throughout our delicious meal. And Tony and I did not order the exact same thing.

An hour and a half later, we adios-ed our friends and walked back over to Balser's to pick up Trigger. And we had a pleasant surprise awaiting us. "Your truck doesn't need to be inspected," the friendly woman explained. "They've passed a new law....You don't need to renew the inspection until August when your license plates are due..."

Before we came back home, we made a quick stop at Wild Birds Unlimited, because Tony needed to buy more birdseed. And before we adios-ed Marguerite and Linda we had a fun visit with them. We mainly talked about birds and laughed about our dogs latest antics. "I think I am going to rename Big Foot aka Big Daddy to Henry," I stated. "After Lou Diamond Phillips' character he plays, in Longmire."

"I love Henry," Marguerite said.

Then Tony said, "No, he's my dog and I like Big Foot."

We chuckled, and then I said, "Oh Henry is a much better name for him than Big Foot and besides that he's our dog, Tony..." Then we left the store with Marguerite and Linda laughing about our "what to name him" discussion.

When we got back home Carlton was flashing, on the breakfast bar. We had four new messages. Sandy left one of the messages, "Nancy, Tony. There's a new show on Netflix called Branded and Jon and I love it and y'all are going to love it, too...."

So that's about it for tonight, because I am fixin' to go sit down and watch Branded, while Henry and the rest of our dogs sleep.

Y'all have a great evening! 

We Did It Longmire Style! or 749!

Today has been so much fun. Earlier this week, Eileen and Lisa started planning a Longmire themed birthday party celebration for Tony, Chet and June, because Tony's birthday was yesterday. Chet's is tomorrow and June's is on Monday.

All of us were excited about it being a Longmire themed party, because we all love Longmire and we can't wait to watch the first episode of Season 4, that will air September 10th, on Netflix.

Sweet Eileen and Lisa left the rescue ranch a little before all of us did, so they could go up to the Medina Highpoint Resort's Koyote Grill, to put the cake and arrange the cards out, on the table and to get everything else ready for the Longmire-style "Tres Amigos' Birthday party."

And they did a great job, too. We loved the Red Pony Bar & Grill bumper sticker that they put on the Old-Timer Crossing sign, the plastic handcuffs, Craig Johnson's Longmire books, a bottle of Henry's (Lou Diamond Phillips' character) favorite drink: Blanton's Single Barrel Bourbon, which Lisa had earlier emptied out, at home and filled with iced tea, so as not to break the law. And just to make things clear, when I say, "emptied out" I don't mean that Lisa drank it—she stored it. And fingers crossed, I hope it's for a future Longmire Texas Hill Country Posse party.

And on the delicious birthday cake, Lisa had the bakery write:

     June - Eastport or Bust!

     Tony - Longmire Season 4 or Bust.

     Chet - Terlingua or bust!

After we ate lunch, Chet lit the plastic, closed up flower pod's candle and we were amazed at what we saw. The plastic leaves slowly began to open up. Then it slowly began to spin around in circles, while it played music, even though it's music wasn't near as good as Chet's. And it had every one's eyes watching it.

While we were eating the delicious cake that Lisa provided we passed around the hilarious birthday cards and then I suggested that we all tell how old we were, so we could see how many years we were together. "I've got a calculator!" Ellen said. "Let's do it!" So we took turns announcing our age, as Ellen typed in our numbers. "Okay y'all. I've got it. The total years is 749." And all of us started laughing.

When we were finished eating the Tres Amigos' birthday cake we all went outside and asked sweet Kelly, one of our favorite people, at Koyote, to please shoot us. Which she gladly did. This is us posing for our first official Longmire Texas Hill Country Posse. 

Bottom row from left to right: June, Kris, Lisa, Jim & Tony

Top row from left to right: Chet, me, Ellen, Eileen Chris, Suzanne & Sue

And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

My Signs Of The Times! or Craig Johnson, The Author Of Longmire Rules & So DoesThe Hit Drama Series Longmire!

Today has been great. This afternoon while we were eating lunch with our fabulous friends/volunteers, at the Koyote Grill, I told Kris and Jim aka The Mineral Man, "I really love the picture, that y'all sent to me, of your Longmire For Sheriff and the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch bumper stickers...."

Near the end of our lunch I glanced over at the Medina Highpoint Resort check-in-or-out counter and started reading some of their funny signs that they sell and one in particular made me laugh out loud—so I bought it! Then I told our friends, "I'm going to hang this sign on the Area 51 fence that will be going around The Mother Ship. Along with my Area 51 sign, that I purchased from the Alien Museum, in Roswell. And I think that I am going to paint the sign's trailer, so it will look like The Mother Ship."

When we got back home, I was inspired to do what Kris & Jim did with their bumper stickers, so I took pictures of my new signs, on our refrigerator door and my guitar, to show my new Walt Longmire For Sheriff, the Red Pony Bar & Grill: Continual Soirre, the Boy Howdy, the Yeti, the Zombie Hunter's Permit and the Big Foot Research Team. In hopes that Craig Johnson, the fabulous author of the Longmire novels, might see it and respond to it too, because all of our friends/volunteers, etc. love watching the hit drama series Longmire and we can't wait for Season 4 to be released. In fact, today The Mineral Man even suggested that we all buy Longmire t-shirts and take a group picture.

And that's about it for tonight, because I need to start cleaning our trailer, because our great Nascar friends, Adina & Butch, are coming out to see us tomorrow and will be spending the night, too. And Tony and I can't wait to see them. 

Y'all have a great evening!