Foreign Friends! or Faded Glory!

Yesterday and today have been great, because we've worked hard here and there, had fun with dear friends and Tony and I bought our entire 2017 Fall & Winter wardrobes.

Tuesday around noon, Tone and I met up with Hans & Marita, our super-nice, visiting Norwegian friends, for lunch, at Cracker Barrel. Except none of us ate lunch there, because we all ordered from their breakfast menu. And believe it or not Tony and I did not order the same breakfast like we usually do, but Marita & Hans and I did order the exact same thing.

Being with Hans & Marita is always a real treat for us, because they love the same kind of music that we do and they keep us laughing with hilarious tales about their life and interesting, music-related adventures. So as you can imagine we had a total blast seeing them.

After we ate lunch and adios-ed our fun, foreign friends Tony and I went to see our dear friend Stan, the owner of the Melody Corner, because I needed to buy a new Snark tuner for my guitars, banjos and mandolins. And a banjo strap for my latest banjo that I also purchased from Stan.

Anyway like always, Stan's music store was jammed-packed and buzzing with all kinds of musicians and wanna-be musicians. So we had to wait to visit with our friend and buy my stuff while he helped out his friends and customers.

And we didn't mind waiting at all, because it was fun eavesdropping and talking to some of the friendly musicians. Here's my banjo strap and new Snark Super-Tight tuner.

Our last stop was, at the Home Town Craft store, so I could purchase some fabric, because I am going to make the curtains for our new cabin. And this is what I bought, even though I don't plan to sew the curtains until Saturday afternoon, after the East Kerr 4-H Club, one of our all-time, favorite organizations, that is coming out to walk our dogs for us. It will be fun, because our dogs love it and so do we. Anyway, here is the white fabric and the hunter green plaid fabrics that soon will be our new cabin's curtains.

After I bought the fabrics we came home and then we went, over to the property, to do a little more work, on the big room, until dark-thirty.

Today was so much fun. First we went, over to the property, to stain some wood for the big room's walls and we worked for about an hour and got every stick of wood stained. And even though our fingers were stained with a reddish, cedar color and our clothes reeked from the fumes of the stain, we met up with our dear friends: Denise & Les and Jim aka The Mineral Man. But unfortunately, Jim's sweet wife, Kris, couldn't make our lunch date.

Jim was the first to arrive outside Po Po's and we we came in second place. And while we were visiting and standing outside the restaurant, Denise drove by and honked at us and waved before driving off to go park her car.

A few minutes later, Denise joined us, standing on the corner, with us and two minutes later her sweet husband, Les, appeared. And just before the five of us walked, into the restaurant, another person pulled up, to the signal light and honked the horn at us. And it turned out to be our good friend, Harley Belew, waving at us. So we all waved back at him before he took off as we entered Po Po's for a delicious and very fun lunch. 

And to our surprise our great and friendly waitress was also our good friend, Jennifer. The sweet woman and her husband that, several months ago, adopted Hollywood from us. Of course, our lunch was delicious and a lot of fun. 

We all resisted getting desserts, so Jennifer it topped-off by showing us some recent pictures of Hollywood playing with her new best Weimaraner puppy friend. "The two are best friends," Jennifer said. "They play constantly and wear each other out..." 

Yes, I know this is turning into a very long post, but please hold on, because I am almost finished writing this.

And to put it on a bumper-sticker for times sake: After our enjoyable lunch with our friends Tony and I went to Walmart, so I could buy a couple of stools and we got them and also bought our entire 2017 Fall & Winter wardrobe collection. 

As you must know by now, neither Tony or I are big on fashion and we like to keep it simple and cheap and that's exactly what we did. Walmart had their Faded Glory long-sleeve, buttoned-down, plaid, flannel shirts on sale for $8.00 and we love those shirts. So we each bought five shirts.

I bought three flannel shirts that were just alike and two in different colors and after Tony saw my selections, he made sure to buy five different flannel shirts that did not match any of mine, because he hates it when we accidentally dress alike. 

We are thrilled about finding our favorite shirts on sale and to give you a glimpse of our upcoming Fall & Winter wardrobes, I stacked up his and my new shirts, on top of the stove and I took this picture of them. And please note that my five, pretty, flannel shirts are stacked, on the front and back left burners. And finally that is about it for tonight.

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

B.B.!

Today has been great and I promise you that this will be a short post and a quick read.

This afternoon Tony and I went to our good friend Stan's music store, Melody Corner, in Kerrville, so I could buy an inexpensive electric guitar, because I am determined to learn how to play B.B. King's signature song, The Thrill Is Gone.

Kinky, Tony and I love Stan a lot and when Tony and I walked inside his super cool music store, Stan looked up, smiled and said, "Hi Cousin Nancy and Tony! It is so good to see you two." After greetings, I told Stan that I was looking to buy an inexpensive electric guitar. "Well, I've got a great, country-sounding electric to show you. It's the one hanging up, in the corner over there."

Then Tony says, "Stan, she's wanting a pink one. If you've got one." Then he and Tony chuckled.

"Sorry Cousin Nancy, I don't have any pink ones in stock right now."

I chuckled and then I said, "Stan, I'm actually looking for an electric, that I can play B.B.'s The Thrill is Gone on." After we had quit laughing about Stan assuming that I wanted a country-sounding electric, he showed me a Telecaster that was pretty and definitely the right price for me. In other words, It was cheap. "I like it and want to buy it."

"Great, but first let me play it for you, so you can check out it's sound. It has two pickups." Then Stan grabbed my Telecaster from the rack, sat down, on a stool and plugged my Telecaster into a nearby Marshall amp. Then he started playing B.B.'s most famous song that I absolutely love and never get tired of hearing. And he and it sounded so good it seriously blew Tony and me out of the saddle and it gave me instant goose bumps, because Stan is such an awesome musician and he can play any song and any musical instrument.

So tonight I am spending the evening messing around with my new Telecaster and here's a picture of it. And just so you'll know—I've already named it B.B. and I totally love it and the thrill is definitely not gone, because it is not pink!

Y'all have a great evening!

Born On A Mountain Top In Tennessee!

Today has been great. Early this afternoon we ran a few errands, in Kerrville, before meeting Les & Denise, Jim & Kris and Deb for a fun lunch.

Our first stop was at the Salvation Army to drop off three bags of Kinky's old clothes. Then we swung by Stan's music store, Melody Corner Music Center, to drop off my guitar, so I could get Stan to restring my guitar again, because the strings that I had decided to try out, made my guitar sound muddy. "Stan, I should have listened to your warning that I wouldn't like these copper strings..." Then we left my guitar there and went down the street, to meet our friends for a really fun lunch, that was filled with hilarious stories and laughter.

After lunch we went to the craft store, so I could buy some etching cream, because I wanted to try etching our drinking glasses with paw prints. Then Buttermilk took us home.

When we arrived back at the ranch, UPS had left a big, plastic covered box for me, at our entrance gate. "It's for you, Nance, from Todd Miller, in California. Who's he?"

"I don't know, but don't open it, yet, because I want to take a picture of it.

After I shot the box, Tony removed the plastic and opened it for me. Inside the box, we found a shipping notice with this sweet note: "Happy Birthday Dear Cousin Nancy. We are all out of the same mold, so blessed to be of the same era. With love and admiration, Walt & Cheryl." Then Tony opened a box that looked like a giant egg carton and inside it was a bottle of, Fess Parker Winery Pinot Noir 2009 wine. 

"I love this, Tony! That is so sweet of Cheryl and Walt to send this to me for my birthday. I love Fess Parker. Besides Roy, I also wanted to marry Fess," I confessed. "Do you know that he was born in Fort Worth too?"

"No." Then Tony started laughing and slipped the coonskin topper on it, which made me laugh too, because it was so cute. "Nance, this is box one of two. Cheryl and Walt have also sent you four tasting glasses with the coonskin cap logo. I bet it gets here tomorrow."

Then I went on YouTube to listen to, "The Ballad of Davy Crockett," in Walt Disney's 1955-1956 TV miniseries Davy Crockett, that my family never missed, where he played Davy Crockett in. And now I can't get the song out of my mind, because as a four-year-old kid, it was one of my all time favorite songs.

"Cheryl and Walt, I love y'all and I cannot thank you enough for my wonderful birthday presents. I am going to save the bottle of wine for a very special occasion, like the next time y'all come out here." And that is about it for tonight, because I've got some writing to do on my hilarious mystery novel, The Cowgirl Sisterhood: The Membership Drive.

Y'all have a great evening!

Tony, Please Don't!

Today has been fun even though we are officially in F.M.T. (Full Moon Time) and only three days away from the full moon and that's why I am blaming F.M.T. for what happened today.

The first weird F.M.T. thing happened this morning, right after Tony and I had come inside the trailer to cool off, after he had fed the dogs and I had cleaned their pens. I was drinking some cold water when T. came into the big room and says, "Nance, Steve Fromholz has shot and killed someone! I just caught the tail end of it on Channel 35 and I don't know anymore." So, I immediately called Kinky's cell phone, because I knew that he was in Kerrville.

"Hello?"

"Kinky, Tony just heard on the news that Steven Fromholz shot someone and killed them, but we don't  know all of the facts."

"Oh no. Not Steven. I can't believe that."

"Me neither. I'm going to check it out on the Internet and I will get back to you as soon as I know what all happened. Bye." Then I sat down at my laptop and Googled it and found it immediately. The headline read: Texas Man Charged In Fatal Shooting At Tavern, then I read the article and discovered that it was not our musician friend Steven Fromholz, but a man age 40 from San Antonio, so I punched in Kinky's cell phone number again.

"Kinky, it's not Steven, but it is a 40 year old man from San Antone, named Stephen Paul Fromholz."

Kinky chuckled. "Thanks, Nance. I knew it couldn't have been Steven. I'll call you when I get back to the ranch. Bye."

This afternoon I called "Stan The Man" who owns Kerrville's oldest music store, to ask him a couple of questions about my mandolin and guitar and then T. grabbed my guitar and mandolin and we jumped into Trigger and took off for "The Melody Corner" on the Junction Highway.

When we arrived at Stan's music store I took this picture, before we went inside the store and before another F.M.T. thing happened to us inside his store.

Stan greeted us from the counter as we walked into his store, filled with many musicians. When it was our turn to be waited on, Stan restrung the mandolin and while he was connecting a pickup to it, this big plastic jar in front of me, filled with plastic guitar picks fell off of the counter and the pretty picks scattered all over the floor. "I'm sorry, Stan," I said, even though I knew that neither he or I had touched the jar and it was just another one of those F.M.T. deals. As he and Tony laughed about it I said, "I'll pick them up."

Then T. says, "No, Nance. I'll get them," before bending down and gathering up the guitar picks and putting them back into the jar for me. Because Stan needed to make a few unexpected adjustments on the mandolin he left the room to go work on it, so Tony and I walked around the store admiring the many different musical instruments and that's when we discovered Stan's big, beautiful cat, napping on top of an amp.

"Stan!" I half-hollered, so he could hear me. "We love your cat! He's so beautiful!"

"Thank you," Stan said, as he walked out of his workroom. "I rescued her a few years ago and she is the best cat that I have ever had." Then he went back into his workroom to work.

When Tony started to reach up to grab a guitar off of the wall—it scared me, because I was afraid that it would drop and T. would be blamed for it. "Tony, please don't!" I said. "We're under Full Moon Time and that's why those guitar picks fell on the floor. Trust me." Tony smiled and walked away to go look at some harmonicas, in a glass enclosed case, that he could not touch. 

When Stan was done working on the mandolin he came out of the office and I said, "Stan, we also need to get an amp cable for it," so after discussing what length it should be he grabbed a fifteen foot cable off of the wall and handed it to me. Then he plugged the mandolin into a nearby amp, to make sure the pickup connection was working properly and it sounded fantastic.

After Stan had checked the strings on my guitar he tallied up my bill and then he gave me a big discount. "Stan, you don't have to give me a discount."

"Cousin Nancy, I know I don't have to, but I want to and the amount is...." After writing him a check and thanking him for all of his work and the big discount, Tony picked up my guitar and mandolin and we left his store and headed home.

When we were turning off of Highway 16, with only two and a half more miles to go before getting home, I looked at the packaged black cable and smiled when I read the words "HANDMADE IN THE U.S.A." And I was so happy about having purchased something that was actually Made In The U.S.A. so I talked about it non-stop the rest of the way home.

And that is about it for today. T. and I are fixin' to pick and grin again.

Y'all have a great evening!