Randy's & Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant Rocks!

Last night before going to bed Tony and I decided to get up real early so we could feed the dogs outside and clean their pens, because we were going to treat ourselves to a delicious breakfast at Randy's & Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant.

While Tony fed our dogs I cleaned their pens. I love helping Tone with his chores because it gives me a chance to spend more time with our wonderful dogs. This morning when I went into Rita Coolidge's puppy pen she ran up to me and wildly wagged her tail. "Good morning, Rita," I said as I picked her up and held her in my arms. "You've got a new name girl and it's Callie Gotke! You are so lucky, Callie..." When I put her back on the ground she followed me around the pen as I did my job and then we played fetch. 

I threw balls, stuffed toys and chew toys for her to fetch. Callie chased after each toy that I tossed, but the only toy that she would return to me was this pink thing that I guess was supposed to be a cute, smiling octopus. When I left her pen she whined for about twenty seconds then she took her pink-thing and went into her dog house and fell to sleep. After our chores were done Buttermilk took us to Kerrville.

When Tony and I arrived at The Save Inn their parking lot was nearly full as it always is, but we luckily found a space in front of the restaurant. After Tony cussed softly and then did The Procedure to get out of Buttermilk I got out of the car and we went inside. Fortunately "our table" near the back close to the counter was vacant so we grabbed it. Then like always a friendly waitress came to our table with coffee for Tone and tea for me. "Let me guess," she said as she pointed at me. "Sinker Omelet, hash browns and whole wheat toast." I smiled and nodded my head. "And you want to eggs over medium, bacon, and a stack of pancakes on the side." Tony laughed and handed her our menus.

Our breakfast was delicious and near the end of our meal Lisa came out of the kitchen and I waved to her. Then she came over to our table and greeted us." Randy and I want to buy your book. Do you have any with you?" 

Before I could answer her, Tony said, "We've got one out in the car. Let me go get you one." Then he left the crowed restaurant. When he returned with a book I signed it to Lisa and Randy and then she paid me for it and went back to the counter. Then in walks Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller and they came over and sat down at a table next to ours! 

After Jon told Lisa that they weren't ordering anything, we had a really fun visit with them! After we paid our bill we went outside to visit a little more with our friends in the parking lot. "How did y'all know that we were at the Save Inn?" I asked. 

Sandy shot me a wink and said, "We recognized Tony's gut in the parking lot!" We all started laughing even though T. doesn't have much of a gut.

"Yeah, and I'm fixin' to get rid of it—starting tomorrow!" Tony quipped back. Then Sandy and Jon took off for Lowe's to buy a new garden hose and we came home and have enjoyed having a quiet and peaceful day.

Y'all have a great evening!

Tater Catfish Stevens Was Here!

Today has been great even though I woke up at three in the morning because of a nearby lightning strike. I immediately woke up Tony so he could help me unplug everything from the wall sockets so none of our electronics would blow up and accidentally catch our trailer on fire. Within two minutes everything was unplugged, so we went back to bed as the thunderstorm boomed and lit up the night sky.

This morning while Tone did his chores outside I walked six miles with Leslie Sansone and then Hazel, my trusty vacuum cleaner and I gave the trailer a thorough cleaning, because our dear friends Denise and Mark Stevens from Austin were coming to visit us and I didn't want them to think that it looked like we lived here!

We met Denise and Mark through our mutual friend, Brian Alstott years ago. They are the couple who adopted Hank from us and Hank's story is in my new book.

Denise and Mark arrived here around eleven-thirty just as I was about to clean up our lunch dishes, so I happily blew off cleaning up the kitchen. After howdies and hugs outside by their truck they introduced us to their darling dog Tater Catfish Stevens! OMG! Tater was absolutely too cute and he stole T.'s and my hearts instantly. Then Denise gave me some beautiful flowers and then we went into Outer Space with our dogs. T. C. was a perfect guest-dog as he let our old dogs take turns sniffing his butt before they welcomed him and then went and laid down on their pillows.

While we caught up with each others news Tone and I took turns holding "The Tater" as he slept peacefully in our arms. "I love Tater," I said. "He is just like a little baby, but cuter." Denise and Mark, his proud adoptive parents totally agreed with me.

At one point during our fun conversation I looked down at my wrist and quickly realized that I had put on my off-white turtleneck on the wrong side out and started laughing at myself. "Y'all are going to have to excuse me for a minute," I said. "This morning right before y'all got here I took a bath and I have just realized that I put my turtleneck on wrong side out!" Everyone started laughing as I left Outer Space and went inside the trailer to correct my wardrobe malfunction. Then I returned to Outer Space.

"Y'all, I can't believe that I put my t-neck on wrong side out. I've never done that before. I guess that I'm definitely getting old." I said with a laugh as I sat down in my chair.

"I can't wait to tell Kinky and Ben about this!" Tony teased. Then Mark and Denise started telling us about going to the Saxon Pub in Austin and listening to some really cool Jazz musicians when our dogs outside started barking, because a car was driving in, so Tony took off to go see who was here.

A few minutes later when he returned to Outer Space Tone was wearing a big grin on his face. "June, Ellen and Eileen are here and Eileen just told me that she wants to adopt Rita Coolidge in two weeks!" I was so thrilled with Tony's news about Rita! Then we told Denise and Mark about our cute puppies, Rita and her sister Emmylou Harris who found her fantastic forever home last week.

Around four o'clock Mark and Denise told us that it was time for them to head back to Austin and I was sick because I didn't want them to leave because we were having so much fun.

I want to do a shout out to Ellen and June our super volunteers. Our plan worked! Thanks for working on Eileen like you said you would! Y'all Rock and so does Eileen! And Mark, Denise and Tater Catfish Stevens—we love y'all and please come back and visit us sooner than later!

Y'all have a great evening!

The War Of The Weeds Or I Knead A Little Help From My Friends!

Yesterday morning after walking six miles with Leslie Sansone, Ben and Tony came inside the trailer after doing their chores outside to discuss what I was going to fix them for lunch. "I've got a jar of Ragu and was thinking of fixing some spaghetti, but with shrimp instead of meatballs," I said. "How does that sound?"

Even though the guys didn't jump up and down with joy in the big room, like I had hoped they would, they told me that my spaghetti would be fine. Before going back outside to mow and edge we decided to eat lunch at noon. Then I showed off to Ben my new William and Sonoma marble rolling pin, pastry scrapper and the marble, made in Spain, pastry board that Karen and 'Erb had sent to me. Ben was real impressed, so I asked him if he would help me make flour tortillas after lunch and he told me that he would and then they went outside to battle the war of the weeds.

After I had returned several phone calls, I changed clothes and I put on my denim work overalls and then went outside to help Ben and Tone mow and weed-eat before the future forecasted rain came. I am proud to say that I push-mowed our backyard, the front yard, the side yard by Tony's garden and the front yard of my writing cabin all by myself! When it was time for us to go inside for lunch Tony and Ben told me that they were really impressed with my hard work. Of course, I know they were just glad that they didn't have to do it.

After I put the spaghetti into the water to boil on the stovetop I had a big surprise. "Ben! I don't have any Ragu! I thought I had some. I need your help. What can we do?" Tony and Ben started laughing.

"Nance, you are always out of Ragu," Ben teased. Then we went over to "my wall pantry" and Ben removed a large can of tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce. "I'll fix lunch." I was thrilled, but not as much as Tony was. Twenty minutes later the three of us were eating Ben's delicious meal. Thank you, Ben!

While I washed the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen Ben and I talked about my flour tortilla disaster. When the kitchen was close to being sparkling clean I pulled up the flour tortilla recipe on my laptop and we went to work or should I say Ben went to work as I sat at the kitchen table carefully reading aloud to him the ingredient measurements and the instructions on how to prepare chewy flour tortillas.

At one point while Ben was kneading the dough on the 'Made in Spain' pastry board he got to laughing and started teasing me about the way I pronouce tortilla. "Y'all, want a torrrrr—tilla?" Ben said mocking my drawl, while wearing a big smile on his face. He and T. started laughing. "It's a Fort Worth 'thang' and everyone up there in North Texas talks like that. I can just see you calling Cindy and Ronnie and asking them how they pronounce tortilla and they will pronounce it just like you do! Torrrr—tilla." We got to laughing so hard we accidentally let the covered eight balls of dough rest an extra minute. Then the three of us became a torrrr—tilla factory assembly line.

Ben was the roller and on a roll. I was the cooker that cooked, and T. was the official timekeeper. While Ben dusted and rolled out the balls into seven to eight inch circles, I cooked them thirty seconds on each side in a hot skillet while Tony told me when to flip them and they were absolutely delicious! Here is a picture that I took of the torrrr—tillas! Thank you Karen and 'Erb! Your Care's Care Package did the trick and as soon as I have a little extra time I am going to make some and overnight them to y'all!

After I cleaned up the kitchen in the torrrr—tilla factory I went outside and push-mowed and weed-eated until five o'clock with Ben and Tone. And that is why I didn't post a blog last night because I was exhausted and I went to bed before eight-thirty. And I am glad that I did.

This morning I woke up at five o'clock while T. slept like a log. After I had fed our fur buddies it started thundering and lightning up a storm. And I mean a big storm with pea-sized hail. Fortunately, it only hailed for about three minutes then the electricity started going off and on while I was trying to unplug everything from the wall sockets. Thank goodness I had a flashlight!

By seven-thirty it had quit storming and Tony and I were sitting in Outer Space drinking coffee even though we were under a tornado warning that Lisa had alerted us to. Thank you, Lisa!

When Ben arrived Tony and I were already outside feeding the dogs and cleaning their pens. "Morning, Ben!" I half-hollered from Hank's and Nellybelle's pen. "We're under a tornado warning!" Ben started laughing!

"A torrrr—nado alert," Ben teased. "I'm starting to figure this out. Anything that starts with tor is pronounced torrrr—nado!  I'm so torrrr—up."

This afternoon Buttermilk took us over to the Lodge to deliver an urgent message to Marcie from Kinky for her to call him as soon as possible. He is on the road for a few more days and needed for Marce to call him. After asking Marcie to call Kink we went to Kerrville to get some supplies at H.E.B. where we ran into our super volunteer and good friend, Ellen Jackson, by the toilet paper section! Scott Extra Soft tissue to be exact.

 After howdies and hugs Ellen asked us how Rita Coolidge was doing. "Ellen, she's fine, but she really misses her sister, Emmylou Harris. She is so lonesome." Then the three of us made a secret plan about getting Rita adopted, but to protect the innocent and us, I can't reveal it at this time, but please keep your fingers crossed for little Rita.

Y'all have a great evening!

Now We're Talkin' Tortillas!

Today has been a total  blast since Mercury is finally out of retrograde! Late this morning after walking only four miles I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and Marcie and I brought two homemade veggie burgers that I had made for them.

While Kinky talked on his phone in his office Marcie and I caught up with each other's news in the kitchen. Then Frank and Jerome joined us and that ended our fun hen party even though we enjoyed their company.

When Kinky was done talking on the phone we all went outside to the Friedman Family Bone Orchard, then after about ten minutes Kinky abuptly went inside. A few minutes later he came back outside with the veggie burgers that I had made for them.

As everyone gobbled them up and gave me compliments in between bites, I told them about my recent flour tortilla disaster. "Y'all, should have seen them. Some of them looked like thick pancakes while others were so small you couldn't even wrap one around your little finger..." Then I bragged about our good friends, 'Erb and Karen Cares sending me a marble rolling pin and a pastry scrapper to help me make better tortillas. "The marble pastry board should be arriving today and I can't wait. I can't believe it, y'all! They are from Williams & Sonoma, the Cadillac of kitchenware and they were handmade in Spain!" Everyone thought it was very cool.

This afternoon the dogs outside started barking so Tone went outside to check on them. When he returned to the trailer he was carrying a large box and wearing a smile on his face, "UPS was just here. Here's your marble pastry board. It's really heavy." While Tony cut open the box I punched in Kink's phone number and invited him and Marcie to come over to see my Cares' care package.

A few minutes later when they arrived Kinky surprised me. "Nance, we brought some chicken with us and we want to have a picnic with Toto and your old timers. Is that okay?" After our dogs had enjoyed their yummy picnic with Marcie and Kinky we went inside the trailer so I could show off my new kitchen products from Spain.

While admiring my Cares' Package Kinky picked up the marble rolling pin from Spain and said, "You had better look out, Tone, because if you make Nancy mad, this could be considered a lethal weapon in a court of law and the jury would be hard-pressed to find her guilty." Here is a picture of the marble board and the rolling pin. I'm sorry, but I forgot to include the pastry scrapper.

This afternoon Lisa, one of our great volunteers called! She had some time off and she wanted to know if she could come out to visit with us. "I have missed you guys so much..." But not as much as we have missed her and Matt.

Forty five minutes later after multiple hugs outside by my writing cabin the three of us went into Outer Space and we had a blast to say the least! It was non-stop talking and laughing as we caught up with each others' news.

Before Lisa left the rescue ranch she promised us to bring Matt with her the next time that she comes out and we are so looking forward to it because we have missed that Dynamic Duo so much.

Tonight I want to do two shout-outs to some really great people, so here goes: Thank you, Karen & 'Erb! I love y'all! And to Mark in Mississippi—you Rock and we cannot wait to meet you!

Y'all have a great evening!

Goodbye, Mercury!

Since last night's blog came close to turning into a book, I am taking tonight off so I can celebrate Mercury no longer being in retrograde until August! Goodbye, Mercury!

Wilbur!

Today has been something else. First it was great, then it was really scary thanks to Mercury in retrograde and then it was great again. And all that I can say is thank goodness Mercury goes out of retrograde tomorrow!

This morning I got up really early, did all my chores and then I walked six miles before Tony returned home from the Old Timer in Medina. After he ate breakfast tacos and I drank my delicious, healthy smoothie he went back into his office to do a little farming while I cleaned up the kitchen.

While he was busy plowing and planting pretend plants I went online. After I checked and answered my e-mail I went to Bluefoot Publishing to check for any new information posted. When I was on the home page  I noticed a new topic had been added to the top of the page, so I clicked on the button that read: "Best" and I literally fell out of my kitchen chair when I saw Tony's name and then my name listed on the Best page with several other authors names.

When I got up off of the floor I clicked on Tony's name and up came his story, "Runts Rule!" Then Tone walked into the big room to see what had made the loud noise. "It was me," I said. "I accidentally fell out of my chair when I read that your short story and mine is going to be published!"

"What story?" T. asked.

"Your story!" I said with excitement.

"What are you talking about, Nance?" Then I made my confession.

"Last week after I had submitted a story to John at Bluefoot Publishing, I did something behind your back. I sent John an e-mail with the story you wrote several years ago—"Runts Rule!" I told John that I was secretly sending him your story because I loved it. I told him that you had forgotten about it and if they thought it was good enough to be included in their book that you would be thrilled. But in case they didn't want to use it, your feelings wouldn't get hurt because you wouldn't know anything about it. I am sorry that I did it without telling you. I just didn't want you to be disappointed. Tony, they liked your story and they have put it on their Best page! Come look! You're a writer, too!"

I got out of my chair so T. could sit down to see what I was talking about. Tony clicked on the Best page and then he saw his name and the title of his story. "Click on it and read your story, Tone! It is great!" I said.

After Tony read what he had wrote years ago he said, "Thank you, Nance. I can't believe this! And yes, I had completely forgotten about writing it. I'm going to get on Facebook and tell all of my friends that my story is going to be published!" Then he left the kitchen and went down the hall to his office.

Fifteen minutes later T. came into the kitchen wearing a big smile on his face. "Nance, you're not going to believe this! All of these people are posting congrats on my Facebook page telling me that they loved reading my story and congratulating me for getting published! Did you really like my story?"

"Yes, Tone. I love your story and that is why I saved it on my computer for all of these years. It's really good. Congratulations, T. now you know how exciting it is to get published..." Then things went south.

While Tony was outside doing his chores I started a load of laundry in Queen Bee. Then I went into the bathroom to grab a few towels that needed to be washed and when I looked out the window I about fainted at what I saw! I saw the tail of a rattlesnake about a foot long and about five inches round stuck in the chicken wire about five feet from the trailer. I could not see the rest of the snake because it was hidden under some brush inside Tony's garden.

I quickly ran into the kitchen grabbed my camera, inserted the newly charged battery and ran back into the bathroom so I could take a picture of it, but it was gone! "OMG!" I said as goosebumps went up and down my spine. Then I ran out of the trailer, jumped into Buttermilk and took off to find Tony at the other end of the rescue ranch feeding Mr. Rogers and Miss Dee.

When I put Buttermilk into park and turned her off, I pulled the door latch but the door didn't open so I had to do The Procedure for the very first time in panic mode! I quickly turned the ignition switch on so I could roll down the electric window, then I had to take off my seat belt so I could turn around in the front seat so I could stick my arm outside the window so I could open the door, then I had to turn around in the front seat and turn off Buttermilk before I jumped out of the antique 1998 Ford Explorer!

Tony had watched The Procedure event and he was laughing his head off so to speak when I escaped unharmed. When I quickly told him about the snake he quit laughing. We said goodbye to the dogs from Kansas, jumped into Kermit and headed for the trailer while making a plan. "Nance, get all of the dogs inside and lock the doors and close the windows because I might have to shoot it."

As I gathered up our dogs, closed the windows and began locking the doors I said, "Tony, I am scared of shotgun blasts so I am going to leave and go over to the Lodge to tell Frank what is going on..." as Tony was about to walk out the front door with his shot gun.

"No, Nance. Stay here. Hopefully, I won't have to shoot it." Then he closed the front door behind him and I waited nervously inside with my fur buddies. Ten minutes passed without gunfire and then T. knocked real hard on the front door and it nearly scared me to death! "It's me, Babe. Open the door!"

When Tony came inside he told me that the rattler was long gone and for me to go ahead and put Mama and Abbie back outside, but if they got to barking to bring them inside the house fast and then go outside and honk Buttermilk's horn, because it would take me too long to drive down and get him because of my problems doing The Procedure. Fortunately, I never had to honk Buttermilk's horn.

This afternoon Buttermilk took us to Kerrville to run a few errands. Our first stop was at the famous and fabuous Trail's End Guest House to see our good friends Desiree & David Farrar and Beckham, their gigantic soccer-playing wild hog that we rescued and they adopted for their B&B. Here is a picture that I took of him today.

We had a great visit with D&D at their B&B and of course there was much laughing! They bought two of my books and I signed them as David told us about Beckham's latest escapades. "We're calling him Wilbur now and he is still as sweet as he can be even though he is so enormous. Everyday he gets to eat gourmet leftovers and the other day when I went out to feed him I had just opened up a can of cold diet orange soda and he really wanted it," David said. "He started grunting at me so I poured a little into the side of his mouth and he went crazy. His mouth started foaming and he was trying to stand up on the fence to get more so I gave him the can and he held it between his teeth and drank it all! He's one amazing hog..."

When I told Desiree and David about us wanting to come out for dinner either this week or next week with Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller, Kinky and his sweet sister Marcie they told me which days would be the best for them and I told them I would get back to them real soon. Just as Tony and I were fixin' to leave David left the room and then quickly returned with a beautiful, expensive platter of food for us to take home and enjoy! Thank you, David and Desiree!

After we left our dear friends at the Trails End Guest House we went to Wolfmueller's Books to talk to Sandy and Jon about having dinner with all of us. Sandy told me that this week wasn't good, but next week would work so we left their bookstore because it was full of customers.

Our last stop was at H.E.B. to pick up a few groceries. It was uneventful until a nice elderly woman walked up beside me next to the banana area near the front of the store and said really loud, "I love your lavender overalls! I mean, I really love your lavender overalls, girl!" I blushed and then thanked her as Tony stood over by the strawberries stand laughing at me!

When we returned home I had one new message on the machine. "Hey, Nance, it's Kinky! Marcie and I are at the ranch! Call me!" After I called him back, I made up a small sampler plate of David and Desiree's delicious homemade goat cheese, vegetables and bread and then T. and I went over to the Lodge to see Marcie and Kinky.

After howdies and hugs I set the plate down on the kitchen table and invited everyone to try our friends gourmet food. Kink and Marce thought the food was absolutely delicious and they asked me about it and that is when I made a fool out of myself. After I told them about the cheese I stupidly said if that is a word, "This is partisan bread that David makes everyday. Isn't it delicious!"

"Partisan?" Kinky asked as he put another piece of cheese covered bread into his mouth. Then we all started laughing and a few flakes flew out of his mouth.

"I mean artisan bread, Kink!" I said. "Marce, I haven't changed since you have been gone. I am still stupid!" Before leaving the Lodge we made plans to eat at the Trail's End Guest House next week, because Kinky has to go out of town on Thursday. See y'all soon D&D!

Y'all have a great evening!

Happy Mother's Day!

This morning when I woke up Tony surprised me. He was home. And he had already fed our fur family and had made the coffee. When I asked him why he didn't go to the Old Timer like he usually does he told me that his back and his hip were killing him and that he didn't sleep much last night. "Why is your hip hurting?" I asked, because I know that he has chronic back pain.

"I forgot to tell you that yesterday when I put Walter into his pen a stump caught my foot and I fell down and my hip landed hard on a big rock." Then he showed me his bruised hip and it made me cringe as I was thinking 'better him than me.'

After breakfast Tone went outside to do his chores while I cleaned up the kitchen. I didn't walk with Leslie like I usually do after breakfast, because I have already walked fifty-four miles this month with her. So I decided to take a day off and go water my new flowers and plants in Outer Space.

When I came back inside I decided to call Kinky on his cell phone, but unfortunately I got his recorded message instead, so I left him this message, "Happy Mother's Day, Kinky! I just wanted to be the first one to wish you a Happy Mother's Day! Bye!" I laughed when I hung up the phone, because I do this every Mother's Day to get a laugh out of him.

After eating an early lunch Buttermilk took us to Kerrville so we could pick up Layla from Hoegemeyers Animal Clinic. When we walked into the lobby it was full of people and their pets waiting to see Dr. Rydberg or to pick up their pets. Kathy Janssen greeted us when we walked into the lobby and said, "Nancy, I loved reading your book! It was fantastic! I need to talk to you about something before you leave with Layla!" Then she called one of the clients names and took them to an examining room as Tony and I sat down on a bench.

A few minutes later one of the vet techs brought Layla into the lobby and Tony took her outside and put her inside her crate and waited for me in the car. After Kathy gave me Layla's shot records she said, "Nancy, I have a best friend who writes romance novels, but she is having a hard time getting published. I was wondering if you could help her?" After a brief discussion and telling Kathy to ask her friend to give me a call and that I would be glad to help her anyway that I could, Kathy said in front of about ten people, "I want to help her because she is the woman who got on my butt to enter the figure skating finals, so I have gotten on her butt for her to get her novels published!"

"And now you are on my butt," I said jokingly as I walked out of the clinic, listening to the people inside the lobby laughing. When we got home we gave Layla a few hot dogs before we returned to her pen with Little Girl and she seemed glad to be home. Then Buttermilk took us up to the trailer.

When T. did "The Procedure" to get out of Buttermilk I laughed, because Tony and I were so used to it by now, we hadn't even noticed that it had become the natural way to get out of Buttermilk. I have not driven Buttermilk in several days so I am looking forward to doing The Procedure to see how well I do it. Maybe I will get Tone to shoot a short video of me doing The Procedure.

When we came inside the trailer Tony and I decided to watch last night's "Saturday Night Live" which I recoreded last night, with Betty White hosting it. OMG! Betty White was totally hilarious and she had us laughing till it hurt! I love Betty White so much! She is one of my heroes for so many reasons besides being an awesome animal lover. And I can't believe that she, a living national treasure to all, is eighty-eight years old. Talk about an inspiration!

Y'all have a great evening! And Happy Mother's Day to all!