Mustang Willie!

Oh my goodness! Yesterday was great and today has been too. But before I start telling you how great everything is I have something to tell you about my Little Debbie.

As you may already know Little Debbie is a sweet, one-eyed precious, little Chihuahua that we rescued along with five other adorable Chihuahuas, almost three years ago. And Big Al(ice) was one of those lucky, five, other Chi's that we found fabulous homes for.

Anyway, since Little Debbie joined our family she has been nothing but great and she stole our hearts the minute that we saw her. Little Debbie has become a famous movie star ever since last year, when she starred in our hilarious Longmire—Texas Style video spoof.

Little Debbie is highly intelligent and house-broken even though she hardly ever sets foot outside. So when I say she is house-broken—I actually mean Little Debbie uses the potty-pads, inside The Cabin.  And not to brag—she'll only potties, on a pad, to help make cleaning up easier for us. Which I think is quite thoughtful of her.

Now to get to the point of all of this about Little Debbie, yesterday morning, we discovered that she is so smart and such a fine actress that she almost faked us out. Tony and I were, in the kitchen, getting ready to give our dogs treats and when Little Debbie walked into the kitchen she was limping and holding her paw up like it was hurt. "Omg, Tony! Look at Little Debbie. She's hurt!"

Tony picked up Little Debbie to look at her leg and to see if she had cut her paw or leg and she seemed to enjoy all of the attention she was getting from us and our dogs. "I can't find a thing wrong with her," he said, as he put her back down on the floor. Then Little Debbie raced out of the kitchen using all four of her legs like nothing was wrong.

So, he called her and she came limping back, into the kitchen again, but she was limping and holding up her other paw. Like this:

After running out of the kitchen again, she came running back, but this time she was holding up her other paw and giving us "the sad eye" look and wanting us to pick her up and that's when we realized she had been faking us out. Bottom Line    Little Debbie has a new acting skill and she is really good at it.

Yesterday afternoon Carol, Tony and I went to the Western Edge Cellars, in Fredericksburg and we had an absolute blast. When we arrived a few minutes after Stephen K. Morris' live, one hour broadcast show Spotlight, had already started, on the new, solar radio station TABC (Texas Americana Blues Cajun Music) And he was introducing his guests singers/songwriters/musicians—Lynette and Lefty. 

Stephen waved at us, from the stage, as we sat down at a table, near the front of the stage. Then this friendly, sweet waitress walked up to our table to take our order and then she disappeared and then quickly reappeared to serve us our drinks.

When Lynette and Lefty started singing their first song all three of our jaws, dropped all of the way down to the floor, because their music was so unique, refreshing or better said, "Totally fantastic!"

Everyone in the crowd applauded loudly, hooted and whistled after they finished their first song and the good vibes were uphill all the way till they finished their first set. Their music was amazing and Stephen and their interactions with the crowd kept everyone laughing. 

During their first break, Stephen and Lynette and Lefty came up to our table and Stephen introduced them to us and we introduced them to Carol. Then we started having a fun visit with them and that's when we found out that Lynette and Lefty had two, rescued Chihuahuas that they travel with. And I got to meet them, but I can only remember Gilbert's name. 

Before the second set, Stephen's better half, Eva Robinett, arrived and she joined us at our table, while Tony and I were finishing eating two delicious bowls of pinto beans with rice, sausage and melted cheese. And to top all of that off—the waitress came by our table and she gave all of us some really nice Pedernales Brewing Company beer glasses, because this popular brewing company is one of the sponsors for Stephen's Sunday afternoon Spotlight series. 

So to put our fun adventure, to Fred-Town, in a nutshell "We are now huge fans of Western Edge Cellars, Lynette and Lefty, Pedernales Brewing Company and Stephen K. Morris' Spotlight series and here are just a few pictures that we took. 

Their newest CD—Meant To Be

Today has been great, too. This afternoon, Dylan, the nicest young man came out for his appointment to meet Willie Nelson, because he was seriously thinking about adopting him. And it only took Dylan about ten minutes to make up his mind that he wanted to adopt Willie.

While I was filling out Willie's adoption form, Tony and I visited with Dylan, inside The Cabin, because it was starting to get hot outside. And the more we visited with him the more Dylan impressed us and he reminded us so much of dear friend Ben. In fact, Dylan is a cook and he loves cooking. So Dylan and I spent several minutes having fun talking about how we both enjoy cooking and our love for dogs. 

When we went outside to put a collar on Willie, Tony had found a nice dog collar and attached Willie's dog tags to it, while I was inside Willie's pen telling him about how happy we were for him finally getting adopting. And something must have clicked inside Willie's head, because he looked at me like he understood me and then he jumped up, on the top of his dog house.

And here's a picture I took of Willie and Dylan, just before Willie got in the passenger front seat and took off in Dylan's fancy Mustang.

Late this afternoon Tony went to pick up our mail and when he came back, he said, "You've got to read this. It is a letter from a woman named Julie Smith, in Australia. So, I read the letter and chuckled when Julie wrote she that she bought one of our Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch T-shirts, at a 2nd hand market, when she was visiting Phnom Penh, Cambodia. With a photo of her wearing "my very favorite shirt—I've had it for years and I wear it most weekends and all through summer camping...." So I would like to say "Howdy" to Julie and thank her for sending us this letter along with a picture of her wearing it—with a small kangaroo close by.

And that's about it for now, except I forgot to tell you that Dylan's girlfriend loves Blue Heelers and that she might want to adopt Blue! And I got this invitation in the mail today.

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

Craig Johnson! or Robert Earl Keen Beer!

Today has been great! This morning after doing our chores outside, I came inside The Cabin and checked my e-mail and Fay's made me smile. She wrote me a note telling me that a co-worker friend of hers was interested in Big Mama, but she needed to know if Big Mama was good with friends.

So, I immediately called the sweet, recently widowed woman. When I told her what was going on, she said, "Big Mama was great with my grand children." When I asked there ages, she said, "Two, seven and twelve..." When I told the nice lady that I hope Big Mama gets adopted by Fay's friend, because Toronto, Canada, would be a perfect climate for her—she totally agreed with me. Then we adios-ed each other and I immediately shot back a "good news" e-mail to Fay.

After I told Tone about the possibility of Big Mama getting adopted, he was thrilled, too. Then I called Kinky. "Kink, do you want to meet us for lunch?"

"Yes," Kinky said. "Let's eat at Randy & Lisa's Save Inn. How about 1:15?"

Tony and I arrived, at the Save Inn, five minutes before Kinky arrived and our lunch was delicious and we did a lot of laughing. After we had finished eating the super nice waitress removed our plates and handed us our tickets. "Hey Kinky," Tony said. "Since your birthday is this Saturday, we'll treat you to lunch today."

"Thank you very much," he said, as he handed his ticket to Tony.

Our next stop was at Wolfmueller's Books, so I could pick up the latest Longmire book that Sandy & Jon bought for me, at the Texas Book Festival, they attended this past weekend. When we walked inside their fabulous bookstore our friend, Robert Earl Keen, was standing by the checkout counter, visiting with Sandy & Jon.

After greetings, Sandy told us, "Robert Earl has brought us some of his new signature beer to try. It's just come out and it is made with Texas honey and it is brewed by the Pedernales Brewing Company, in Fredericksburg." Then Jon showed us a can and then gave it to Tony to try tonight. We had a fun, but short visit with Robert Earl before he adios-ed us.

As soon as Robert Earl had left their store, Sandy & Jon handed me the book Wait For Signs: Twelve Longmire Stores by Craig Johnson. Then Sandy says, "We met Craig Johnson and we had a fun visit with him. He is the nicest man and he signed your book to you, Cousin Nancy!" Her exciting words gave me instant goose bumps, because I am such a big fan of Longmire and now I can actually brag that I own an autographed Longmire book. "Did you check out Craig Johnson's website last night?"

"Oh my goodness! Yes I did," I said. "I loved looking at all of the Longmire merchandise for sale and I wanted to buy all of it." That made them laugh and then they agreed with me. "I especially loved the beautiful buckled cuff, the pink Sheriff coffee mug and the pink Longmire t-shirt. As soon as I pay down my credit card a little bit more, I plan to buy those items and a cap or two. And he is good-looking too."

Sandy agreed with me and then Jon said, "He's a down-to-earth man and very easy to talk to. We felt like we had known him all of our lives..."

After we had talked about loving Craig Johnson's Longmire books and the A&E Longmire series, Tony and I adios-ed them. Then we went down the street to early vote and then we went to the big H-E-B, to pick up a few more groceries.

Our last stop was, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to pick up Ginger, the sweet, four-year-old, overweight Boxer that we rescued last week. When we arrived at the clinic Susan, Kathy and the vet techs raved about what a sweet dog Ginger is and what a cool dog she is before they went to get her for us.

When Ginger entered the lobby her stubby tail was wagging wildly and that instantly confirmed everything nice the staff had just told us about her.

On our way home, I rode in the backseat with Ginger and she was great and seemed very comfortable riding in cars, as she constantly kissed my face or tried to sit in my lap. When we got home Tony put Ginger in my pink writing cabin's front yard. Then we went and got our cameras so we could take pictures of her to post. Here are two of the best ones I took of Ginger.

After I shot Ginger with my camera, I came back inside and took pictures of the Robert Earl Keen Beer can, before Tony put it into the freezer, so it wouldn't take long for him to taste it. Then I took pictures of my treasured Craig Johnson autographed book, so I can prove to all that I really do have a signed book by him.

Then I started writing this for my blog. Kinky called me around 6:30 to ask me what time and what channel the Cowboys are playing on. I told him that I didn't know, but I would find out. Then I asked Tony and he said, "7:00 on channel 206." So then I called Kinky back and told him and then we talked for over twenty minutes. And that is about it, because I'm fixin' to watch the Dallas Cowboys RedSkins game.

Y'all have a great evening! (And Carol, I am glad that you're back home and I will call you in the morning after we do our chores.)