Best Wishes To Woody and Rose!

This evening, our great friend, Woody is getting married to Rose! We love you and send you our best! We wish that we could be there! Enjoy Cabo!

Fly Me To The Moon...!

Yes, you’re right—today has been another great day for me! As soon as Tony, Aaron, Ben and I were done with our chores—we worked on the Space Ship! My close friend, Cindy P. called to tell me that she was coming over to see the Space Ship later this afternoon, and we worked hard and fast to get as much done as we could before her visit! We weren’t no rocket scientists, but we came mighty close to it. When we finally ran out of wood, we nailed the newly cut cabinet doors shut, so it would look nearly done. Tomorrow, I have to get magnets to put on the doors so they will stay shut. I can't wait for Kinky to see it! Here are the before and after picts of the Space Ship as of today!




When Cindy arrived, she showed up with two early birthday and Space Ship warming gifts for me—a string of bright white blinking solar star lights, and a solar dragonfly on a stick, that constantly changes colors! They are fantastic! I love them! And, to say the least—Cindy was blown away when she entered the Space Ship—she thought it was out of this world!

Here is a picture of Mama and Abbie looking at the colorful dragonrfly.

I was so excited about her presents, I gave her one of my backup ‘Eternal Squirrels,’ that arrived today from Target—for her trailer. Cindy was thrilled! After that, Cindy and I drank a glass of my fine boxed wine—in Outer Space. This has been a great day!

P.S. Tony just caught and released fifteen bass and came inside to tell me that the solar stars and dragonfly are awesome! I've got to go check them out.

The Zucchini Has Left The Trailer!

Today, I made Fay's recipe for Zucchini Casserole for lunch! We invited Aaron to join us for lunch. When it came out of the oven, it smelled heavenly! The three of us ate the entire casserole! Then two hours later, we all became very sick! Aaron went home immediately! And, all that I can say, "Is thank goodness the trailer has two restrooms!"

Not really, just teasing—Fay! Today I did prepare your recipe and it was absolutely delicious! We all loved it, and of course no one got sick, but me. I was sick because it was all gone—no leftovers and like I always do—I have stolen your delicious recipe from you! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Here is my newest recipe: Cousin Nancy's Zucchini Casserole—Texas Style! And, Kinky loves it!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil              

2 large zucchini

1 cup brown rice, cooked

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 egg, beaten

* cup of breadcrumbs

2 cups tomato sauce, canned

3 tablespoons fresh dill weed, chopped

1 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan or Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

1. Split zucchini lengthwise, scoop out seeds and flesh, leaving about *” flesh in the zucchini.

2. Sauté the scooped out zucchini flesh, onion, garlic, dill, and parsley in olive oil.

Remove from heat and pour into a large bowl.

3. Add cooked rice, beaten egg and bread crumbs to the sautéed ingredients in bowl. Mix well.

4. Fill hollowed out zucchini with rice mixture and place in a baking dish. Cover with tomato sauce, and sprinkle cheese on top.

5. Cover and bake at 350° for approximately 45 minutes.

I promise that y'all will love it! Just ask Fay or Kinky!

Today, we worked on the Space Ship! Tomorrow I will post the latest pictures! And, thank you Fay, for sending me your great recipe! We truly loved it! Everyone have a great evening!

And, She's Stupid, Too!

This morning, I went over to Kinky’s to pick up the letter that Judy Green had written to me, which I really enjoyed reading. Kinky and I visited for a few minutes, and then I came home because he had an interview to do. Before leaving, he told me that he was doing Imus, on Thursday morning, at 7:30 Texas time.

Later in the day, we met up with Kinky at Wolfmueller’s Books. When we arrived Donna S. was there along with Cathy B. and Jim S.! Tony and I already knew Donna, a good friend of Jon and Sandy’s.

We met Donna, last August, when Jon and Sandy brought her out to Echo Hill ranch for an outdoor picnic with Kinky, Marcie, Copper and us. It was a lot of fun and laughs.

During that particular picnic, I told them a funny story about a dumb thing I did back in 1993. I was living in Austin at the time, and owned a very successful embroidery business. One day I received a very important, or so I thought, letter, from the Who’s Who people, telling me that I had been chosen to be in their upcoming South and Southwest 1993-1994 edition! My ego kicked in.

All that I had to do was to fill out their form about myself. So, after work, I went home and filled out the form. (Excuse me, so I can get the book, so I can remember what I told them. It’s on page 616.)

I bragged about: I had been a secretary for one year, for the Fort Worth Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth, a secretary for the TCU Football team, a freelance embroiderer for the movies: Heartbreak Hotel, Hot Spot, Two Aces, country music acts: The Geezinslaw Brothers, Asleep at the Wheel, the Bellamy Brothers, Desert Rose, Willie Nelson, and the world famous golfer—Ben Crenshaw. I also mentioned that I was a member of the Austin Volkswagen Club, etc. The next morning I mailed the form back to them.

A few months later, I received a letter from them, asking me to please edit my form, because it was fixin’ to go into print! There were no changes to make, so I mailed it back. Then a couple of months later, I received a letter inviting me to purchase an advanced copy of the book, at a discount, since I was in it.

Now the stupid kicks in. I decided to buy one copy, even though they encouraged me to buy multiple copies for my friends and family to enjoy. Then I wrote a check for over a hundred dollars and then mailed my order back to them. I was excited and could not wait for the book to arrive! I was officially fixin’ to be somebody—I’m in the Who’s Who book!

The day my book arrived, I stopped what I was doing and quickly opened up my package! I then quickly found my name at the bottom of the page with all of my information that I had sent to them. Then I stood back, examined the book with all of the many names and realized I had wasted a lot of money—thanks to my ego. I felt stupid. I thought to myself, thank goodness, I didn’t buy copies for my friends and family, I could just hear them teasing me and saying things like, “I really loved reading that book. It was so very interesting.” And, I know for sure, that they would have never let me live it down, too.

Then when I opened up the envelope, enclosed with my Who Cares book, I found a certificate—officially announcing me as a subject of biographical record. Wow! I now, had a certificate to prove how dumb I was. Here are the pictures that prove that I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. And yes, feel free to laugh your head off, because I still do!



Now, back to today’s story. Donna runs up to me and jokes, “I know you! You’re in that Who’s Who Book!” Then she starts laughing, and told me that she couldn’t resist. After that Donna introduced Tony and me to Jim and Cathy. “Cousin Nancy and Tony run the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch with Kinky!”

Cathy, who was standing right beside me, sorta froze up, putting her hands to her mouth with excitement! She was acting star-struck, and I’m thinking, maybe she overheard Donna and thinks I am somebody. I then made an announcement. “I think somebody is having a meltdown here. And, it ain’t me.” Everyone laughed, including Cathy.

Cathy was very excited about getting to meet Tony and me and we were honored. She shook our hands, and gave us many compliments about the work that we do, and she told me that she had loved reading my book, too! Then when Sandy announced that they had Tony’s postcards for sale. They grabbed several of them, and bought them up. They are super nice people. I joked to Sandy and Jon, “Gosh, I wish I had something to sell, inside here, besides my book.”

When I announced that Kinky was meeting us there, they really got excited! I told them that I had my camera with me, and would be glad to take pictures of them with Kinky (for my blog).

Two minutes later, Kinky strolls into the bookstore, and he was immediately surrounded by three fans! He visited with them for quite a while, and he gladly let them get their pictures taken with him. It was all a lot of fun!

I've Got A Hang Up!

Today has been great! Kinky started it off, by calling me at 7:35 this morning. “Nance, your zucchini bread is absolutely delicious! I can’t believe that you made it!”

Laugh out loud! Kinky invited me over for some coffee, but before we hung up the phones, he asked me to please bring more zucchini bread, if there was any leftover. I showed up at the Lodge, with two servings of my bread in a baggie. Kinky was delighted!

We drank our coffees outside, near the Friedman Family Bone Orchard. At one point in our conversation, Kinky became serious and said, “Nance, is there anything that you can think of, that we could do for our older dogs—the ones that probably will never be adopted? Like Pryor? I love that dog.”

“I don’t know. I guess I could get a plaque made or plant a tree? I don’t know.”

“What in the world are you talking about? Nance, I was thinking about maybe giving him better food, or the nicest pen, something like that. Not a plaque for goodness sakes.”

Kinky, Pryor ain’t here anymore. He’s dead.”

“What? Pryor’s dead? When did this happen?”

“Back in April, Kinky. I am sure that I told you about it. Grandma died right around that same time, too. It was a really sad day for all of us. Tony and John buried him. You must have been out of town or something.”

“That’s right. Yes, I do remember now. I guess I just forgot. Pryor was one of my favorites.”

“I know. I’m hoping that Richard met him at the Rainbow Bridge, and they are together right now.”

“Yes, those two were very special spirits,” Kinky said, and then there was a long pause. “Nance, these Senior moments, seem to be happening more frequently to me. I bet you thought that I was crazy, sitting here, asking you what you could do for Pryor. That’s really pretty funny! Maybe you should blog about it?”

Later this afternoon, Kinky called to tell me, that there was a package just delivered, for me, over at the Lodge. Tony and I drove over to the Lodge in Kermit. When we walked into the kitchen, Kinky handed me a small box, addressed to me from—Judy Green, out in Las Vegas!

When I opened up the box, I fell in love with Judy’s gift! She sent me a personalized metal art hanging—a metal short story—of a Flying Gabrielle with little dogs and a crystal attached! It is a reproduction made by Silvestri of Karen Rossi’s famous magical designs, that signatures your hobby or profession. I love it and Tony and Kinky thought it was pretty cool, too!

“Where are you going to hang it?” Kinky asked.

“I know exactly where I am going to hang it. The label here, on the gift box reads: “Fanciful Flights,” so I think it should go into the Space Ship! That is the perfect place for it.”

Kinky then challenged Tony to a game of pool. The game was short. The Hummingbird Man—1. The Medina Bulldog—0. Kinky was thrilled to finally win back the title and Tony didn't have much to say.

P.S. Thank you Judy, I love your gift. I promise it t will be the first thing I hang from the ceiling in the Space Ship!

Something's Missing!

Yesterday, we almost finished the kitchen in the Space Ship! I still need to make cabinet doors and tile the counter, which hopefully I can do this week. And, thanks to Tony and Aaron, the front wall is now completely done. Here are some pictures of the front wall and almost finished kitchen.


As you can well see, I have fallen in love with the Space Ship! I love being inside it and its vibes are fantastic!

This morning, Tony and Aaron drove up to Buchanan Dam, to pick up Tony’s boat, that David Berry repaired for him. To refresh your memory, Catherine and David Berry own a boat repair business, and they are also a satellite for our rescue ranch dogs. They help us adopt out our dogs! They are great people and we love them!

Since Tony was going to be gone for a few hours, I decided to do some healthy cooking—which would involve using Tony’s giant zucchini! I decided to try out a recipe from my new Vita-Mix cookbook to make— Zucchini-Pineapple Bread, which would only take an hour to make and bake!

Before making the bread, I put a pot of pinto beans on the stove to cook. Then I grabbed some brown rice, threw it into a pan of boiling water, along with chopped organic mushrooms, onion and zucchini and then I put a lid—on it to cook.

Now I was ready to try the Zucchini-Pineapple Bread recipe. I had all of the ingredients, except for three—allspice, applesauce and pineapple. Minus only three ingredients didn’t stop me. I figured that I would replace the missing ingredients using more zucchini and an apple.

I placed my Vita-Mix machine on the counter, and followed the instructions. Into the Vita-Mix machine I tossed in—an egg, organic sugar, an organic apple, vanilla, organic zucchini chunks, organic wheat flour, baking soda, Alessi sea salt, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, pecans and organic raisins. Within two minutes, I was pouring the bread dough into my bread pan. The oven was preheated to 350 degrees and I set the timer for 1 hour.

As the clock ticked, the bread baked, the beans boiled and the brown rice mixture simmered—the phone rang. It was Catherine. She called to tell me that Tony and Aaron had just left, and were heading back. Then we visited and caught up on things.

First we talked dogs, and then I told her about Tony’s heirloom organic garden, the giant zucchini, and my Vita-Mix machine, and what I was cooking. I found out that David and Catherine are health nuts, too, and our conversation flowed! By the time we said our goodbyes, Catherine had gone online and ordered a Vita-Mix machine! She ordered the same one we have, a 5200 model and she bought it much cheaper than what we had paid for ours! I can’t wait till they get theres—they will love it!

Ten minutes after I got off of the phone with Catherine, the timer went off and Tony walked into the trailer—perfect timing! In five minutes, we were enjoying the best Zucchini bread on the planet along with the beans and brown rice ensemble. Here is a picture of the bread and what is left of the giant zucchini.

After lunch, I drove over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky. It was a fun visit. When I was about to leave I told him about my Zucchini bread, and he asked for me to bring him some. I know he’s gonna love it, too! I’m off to see the Kinkster!

P.S. I am looking for a good zucchini casserole recipe!

Sam Got Adopted!

Thirty minutes ago, our little, handsome Sam, a Jack Russell, was adopted to Becky, a lovely woman with children! Sam was so excited to leave the rescue ranch, it was sorta embarrassing for Tony and me. He's found his true home! Please keep your fingers crossed that it works out for him! I'm calling Kinky!

Today, we got a lot of work done on the Space Ship! I will post pictures tomorrow. I hope that your Saturday night is as good as ours!