Goofy Looking!

Today has been GREAT! You know when sometimes you wake up to a new day and just know it is going to be a good one—well, that is how I felt when I jumped out of bed at six o'clock this morning. After doing my morning chores I sat down at the kitchen table and checked my e-mail. 

Our good friends Charlie and Ellen had sent me a note about possibly wanting to adopt Buddy the goat! I was thrilled and could not wait to tell Tony when he got home from the Old Timer.

After I had walked six miles with Leslie and running the bath water the phone rang, but I couldn't hear who was calling, so I shut off the faucet and came into the big room to check the Caller ID—Ellen had called, so I picked up the phone and punched in their number. After greetings Ellen said, "Charlie and Mr. Cooper want to come over to meet Buddy. Is that okay?" You can guess what I told her.

Around ten o'clock I went outside to greet Shannon, because she was returning Gus, a sweet, two-year-old Black Lab to us, because of his bad eating habits. "He ate our couch the other day, most of our son's toys and yesterday he ate our brand new TV..." Shannon felt bad about returning him to us, but I totally understood. 

When Shannon took Gus out of the car he remembered us and his tail started wagging wildly, Shannon may have been upset, but Gus wasn't—he was home. We tried to put Gus with Annie Oakley in one of our big pens, but unfortunately it did not work out. She tried to bite Gus, so T. went to put Gus in an ally as Shannon talked to me about adopting Kirby, a smaller, older, sweet calmer dog. Twenty minutes later Shannon and her cute son drove away with Kirby sitting in the front seat! And then Charlie and his father Mr. Cooper arrived!

After greeting Charlie and Mr. Cooper (who is ninety-one years old and I have a secret crush on, but don't tell Tony.) "Mr. Buddy is one mighty big goat!" Charlie said, as he stared at Buddy and as T. drove up in Kermit. Charlie and his father went to meet our new buddy and Mr. Cooper could not quit petting him and feeding him carrots. "Well, Dad, what do you think? Do you want him?" 

"Yes! Yes, I do," Mr. Cooper said, wearing a big grin on his face. We looked at Charlie, as Buddy stood up on the fence looking over it, so he could hear the verdict, too.

"We'll take him," Charlie said, "but I need to go get a horse trailer. We'll be back in a few minutes." Before they drove away, I got some coffee for Mr. Cooper to take with him and he repaid me with some beautiful, organic bell peppers from his garden. I got the better deal.

While they were gone to get the trailer I helped Tony move Gus from the alley to Kirby's old pen and he and Lulu instantly fell in love. It was a good match. Then to help T. I picked up dog poop in over half of the pens before Charlie and Mr. Cooper arrived with their horse trailer. Tony took this picture of me and Buddy and then we had a fun visit with The Cooper men, before they easily loaded him up into the trailer and took him to his new home.

This evening I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and to tell him about my day and he was thrilled that Buddy and Kirby got adopted. As we were talking about Sophie's diet and her new plus-sized figure, Tony and Frank drove up in Kermit. We had a fun visit while we sat outside near the Friedman Family Bone Orchard and watched Brownie and Chumley chew on some bones, while Sophie slept in Kinky's lap dreaming about her next home cooked meal by Chef Kinky. Before leaving I learned that The Medina Bulldog had beaten The Hummingbird Man in an earlier game of pool. Yeah, Toner!

When we got home I checked my e-mail as I listened to Steve Martin's Grammy award winning bluegrass CD "Crow" with the Steep Canyon Rangers. It is so fantastic and if you love bluegrass—it is a must have. I found out about it when I watched him and the Steep Canyon Rangers perform on Austin City Limits.

I had four new e-mails, but the one from Charlie made me laugh out loud when I read what he wrote and saw his pictures of Ellen with Buddy. Thank you, Ellen, Charlie and Mr. Cooper! I love y'all! Charlie wrote:

"Buddy as you can see likes corn tortillas and does not like to be left without human companionship. Tried to go in Dad's cabin several times as he sees the dogs do it.

 

Think Buddy will do fine.

 

Thank you for a wonderful animal!

 

Charlie"

Ronnie just called. He wanted to know if I was still thrilled about my new teeth. "Ron, I love them! I'm a Polident Girl! And I love it!"

I'm going to bed early tonight, because tomorrow is going to be a busy, but fun day for me. I have to get up real early, so I can do my morning chores, walk six miles and do the Harley Show at seven forty-five. Then I have to leave the ranch by eight twenty, so I can get to my portrait class in Kerrville, which promises "requires no skills" which starts at nine o'clock and ends at three-thirty. I am excited about taking a day off and learning something new. Tomorrow night I will post my first portrait, if it isn't too goofy looking.

Y'all have a great evening!

When Goats Cry And Dogs Fly!

Even though I am a little tired from today's events, today has been great for several reasons. My day was already made for me by seven minutes past eight this morning, when I successfully reset our awesome Atomic clock! When Tony returned from the Old Timer he asked why I was grinning from ear to ear, just as I was finishing walking my sixth mile with Leslie. "You figure it out," I teased. "Look around."

As I prepared "Cousin Nancy's Porridge" for his breakfast, which is just oatmeal topped with blueberries, raisins, a banana and a spoonful of Leisa's and Rick's honey from their bees, T. looked around and around and around, but couldn't figure it out, so I told him to look at our Atomic clock and then I bragged about figuring out how to reset it. "Good,"was all he said, because he doesn't talk much or get as excited about things like I do. Anyway, I was thrilled.

Last Thursday my blog was about three dogs and a goat named Buddy, who were in desperate need of a home and I have got some good news. The next day a woman named Elena called me at the rescue ranch wanting to adopt a Poodle. Since we didn't have any Poodles here, I told her about Angel, Grayson's and Carla's sweet, little eight year old Poodle and then I gave her their phone number. Then I called Grayson and told him about Elena possibly wanting Angel and then I said, "Grayson, I know that y'all have run out of time to find your pets a home. I've talked with Tony about them and I want you to know that we can take Angel, if Elena doesn't want her and Mabel and Buddy, the goat." Grayson could not stop thanking us.

Saturday afternoon after our great event, Grayson called to tell me that Elena had fallen in love with Angel and Elena's young granddaughter had fallen in love with Angel, too and they were so happy for Angel to have found a great forever home and then he thanked me again for helping Angel. Then we made plans for them to bring them out today.

A little before one o'clock today the dogs started barking outside to let us know that Grayson and Carla were driving in. When we went outside we saw a big, black Ford F-150 pickup followed by a mid-sized car pull up by the pig pen and park. After howdys and handshakes we went to meet Buddy in a cage, in the back of Jimmy's truck. "I love him," I said. "Hi, Buddy." Then Grayson carefully took him out of his crate and then Buddy jumped off of the tailgate and Grayson walked him into my writing cabin's front yard.

As we petted Buddy, who seemed a little bit scared and nervous, our friend and great neighbor, Heather arrived with Lo, who had to come down to visit Heather. "We heard from Sherry and Brittany about Buddy coming to the rescue ranch and we just had to come over to meet him. He's absolutely beautiful. Hi, Buddy..."

Five minutes later while we were visiting, our neighbor and good friend Sherry and her daughter Brittany, showed up to meet Buddy, so I shot them. From left to right: Carla, Sherry, Brittany and Buddy. Isn't he handsome!

Here is Carla feeding Buddy some alfalfa.

Then Tony shot Buddy and me.

Then Brian Kanof, El Paso's finest photographer pulled up. "Kinky told me about Buddy and I just had to come over to meet him. He's one big, beautiful goat." Then Kinky arrived.

"That's Buddy?" Kinky asked, in amazement, as he walked over to meet the most handsome goat in the whole state of Texas. "Hi, Buddy." Then I introduced him to Carla, Grayson and their pretty daughter and Jimmy and they visited for a few minutes and then Kinky went over to greet his friend Heather and her guest and that is when he met Mabel, the sweet, little ten to twelve-year-old dog, who was nearly blind. Mabel stole his heart as she had ours. "Nance, let's talk later about Mabel. Maybe I can take her if Sophie will let me or maybe y'all can take her. Isn't she sweet."

"Buddy loves carrots," Carla said, as tears filled her eyes, as she petted Buddy. "I'm so sorry. This is so hard for me to be saying goodbye to our beloved pets. I love them so much..." T. overheard Carla's words and went up to the trailer. When he returned he had carrots in his hand and then he fed them to Buddy.

While we continued to visit, Tony, Grayson and his daughter jumped into Kermit with Mabel and drove off to put her in her dog pen that T. had prepared especially for her. 

Then Heather and Lo left. Then Brian drove off. Then Kinky said goodbye. Then Sherry and Brittany went back home. After we said goodbye to Jimmy, and Grayson and his family they slowly drove away, as I was standing next to Buddy and it was obvious that he was upset. Then he started crying and it nearly broke my heart, so I started crying, too.

When Tony walked up I said, "Tony, Buddy is crying. Listen." Then Buddy, as he stared down the drive, lowered his bottom lip and made this loud huffing sound like, "Huff, Huff" and then he did it again. "I didn't know goats cried," I cried. "It's okay, Buddy. We love you. Please don't cry." Tony came over and hugged me and then he petted Buddy, as Buddy continued to make sad, weeping sounds.

I was so upset and felt so sorry for Buddy and the family that he loved, who had been forced to give him up, I went to the trailer to get him a couple of carrots, while T. went to the barn to get him some feed. 

Tony and I spent most of the day visiting with Buddy and trying to let him know that we loved him and that we would take good care of him until we could find him a wonderful home. I don't know if Buddy understood, but he finally did quit crying and seems to be okay.

This evening Kinky called to talk to me about Mabel and Buddy and we have come up with a few ideas and we have already put in a few phone calls to friends. When I told him about Buddy crying he said, "Thank goodness I wasn't there..." Please keep your fingers crossed and say prayers for Mabel and Buddy.

When I post a blog I never like it to be sad or end it on a sad note, so please check out these cute pictures that Mari found on the Internet and sent to me about Flying Dogs. I promise it will make you smile and laugh. Mari, thank you so much for sending this to me. The photos are incredibly great.

Y'all have a great evening!   

Lois and Hank Sitting In A Tree!

Today has been nice and quiet. At noon, I heard Kermit outside and went out on the porch to see Tony and Frank across the creek. "Tony! Lunch is ready!" I hollered. "We're having lasagna and ask Frank to join us, because we have plenty." No sooner than I said that they jumped into Kermit and took off down the creek for the road.

During lunch Frank and I started talking about soups, so I got up and came back to the table with the book Easy Soup Recipes that Jon and Sandy had given to me for my birthday. "I love this cookbook," I said, as I sat back down. "The recipes are delicious and simple and..."

Throughout our lunch, Frank checked out the recipes and then we traded some of our own soup recipes. "I am definitely going to Wolfmuellers to buy this book," Frank declared, as I served him and Tony small slices of chocolate cake.

Around two o'clock I went down the hallway to Tony's office. "Tony, let's go outside and move some dogs around." A minute later after taking off my cotton-candy colored Crocs and replacing them with my pink Justin Gypsy boots we went outside.

While I leashed up Hank Hill, T. leashed up Baxter and Honey, in the big pen near our trailer, so he could put them in Hank's and Nellybelle's old pen. After putting Honey and Bax in their new pen, he took off to get La Toya and Maggie, because we were going to try putting Hank with them in the big pen, but that didn't happen, because while I was waiting on Tone, I walked Hank over to meet Lois Lane, who was wagging her tail wildly, in my writing cabin's fenced front yard and they instantly fell in love with each other and started licking each other through the fence.

"Tony!" I hollered into the wind. "Come down here! Don't get La Toya and Maggie. You've got to come see this!"

When Tony walked up holding two leashes in his hand, he smiled. "I would have never of guessed that those two would get along. Then T. and I took Hank and his new girlfriend for a walk, so they could really get to know each other. Twenty minutes later after a sniff-athon Lois Lane and Hank were romping and playing and running around their new gigantic pen. They were as happy as could be and so were we. Then we moved on as I sang "Lois and Hank sitting in a tree. K, I, S,S, I, N, G. First comes love. Then comes marriage..."

As Dr. John and his pen mate Maggie walked with me on leashes towards their new big pen near the gate entrance, we passed Tony walking with Lucy and Ashley Judd heading towards Dr. John and Maggie's old pen.

When I unleashed Maggie and Dr. John into their new gigantic pen they took off running down the fence line and Annie Oakley, in the pen beside them raced along with them. Needless to say, "I loved it, but not as much as they did."

As we walked back to the trailer we were glad to see that Baxter & Honey seemed happy with their new digs and so were Lucy & Ashley Judd and Hank & Lois Lane.

This evening while I was reading in Outer Space I heard the phone ring, but I couldn't hear who was calling, but Tony did. A few minutes later Tony came out on the porch, "Did you know that Jon Wolfmueller just called you? Come inside and listen to his message."

"Hello, Nancy. This is Jon. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that it is eight minutes until five o'clock—not six o'clock, but five o'clock. Bye." T. and I laughed as I punched in Sandy's and John's cell phone number. "Hello, Nancy."

"Hi, Jon," I said, as he and I started laughing. "Thanks for calling me. All of our clocks are set correctly, except for the one that I really love that Carol and James gave to us a while back. The big, fancy Atomic one that shows the weather and has Caller ID. I guess it won't be reset until tomorrow morning when the employees in Fort Collins come back to work. It is driving me crazy. I sure hope that tomorrow is not a holiday..."

I am fixin' to go make us some popcorn, because Tony and I are going to watch the Dallas Cowboys.

Y'all have a great evening!

Rover Misbehaving? Call Sharon Griswold!

Today has been a blast, because of our 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar. This morning at six o'clock when I climbed out of bed, because we have a high bed, I walked into the kitchen and turned on Mr. Coffee, then I checked the outdoor thermometer and it was thirty-two degrees! I was more than thrilled, because that means that Tony and I are done with the mowing until Spring rolls back around.

While our dogs ate their breakfast I started fixing our breakfast and by six forty-five T. was outside doing his morning chores in the dark, Queen Bee was busy washing our dirty clothes and Hazel came out of the closet. Fifteen minutes after the floors were cleaned of dirt and dog hair—she went back into the closet and then I jumped into the tub without hurting myself or the twenty-seven year old, plastic molded bathtub.

I have the weirdest bathtub. It was designed for trailers, made back in 1983 and it was meant to look expensive, but it doesn't come close, because I am pretty positive that whoever designed it had not been drug tested and should have been.

Her name is Mellow Yellow. She has been good to me for over fifteen years by not cracking, leaking or falling through the floor to ground level and I appreciate her for that, because thirteen years ago this couple I knew, were taking a romantic bath together with music and candles burning and suddenly their "love" tub, full of water and them, crashed through the trailer floor and landed on the ground below, with them still in it and then the candles quickly burned down their trailer. Fortunately, they were unharmed, but they did fall out of love and got divorced a few months later and I haven't heard from them since.

What makes Mellow Yellow weird is her giant step down into the tub, because it is useless and takes up over half of the tub's space and it makes no sense to me why it is there. I don't need a step down to get into an undersized bathtub. It is a total waste of space and it makes cleaning her hard to do, but I guess it does conserve water, so maybe that is a good thing after all. 

I love Mellow Yellow, but after my friends "Titanic incident," when I take a bath I only fill her halfway full or less and I use those battery operated "fake candles" just in case I suddenly come crashing down to earth. Okay, enough said about Mellow Yellow.

Today's event was fantastic thanks to Eileen Gotke and Ellen Jackson's hard work. The weather could not have been any better and the turnout was good and Mari and two members of The NoMads surprised us when they showed up. After everyone had arrived I introduced myself and then gave them a tour of the rescue ranch, so they could meet all of our dogs. 

Eileen had spent hours last week making up some really cute signs of our Top 10 Dogs to showcase and everyone really enjoyed reading them as we went from one dog pen to another. Thank you, Eileen!

After the tour, Sharon Griswold, the owner of "Rover Misbehaving?" did a great, informative presentation on dog training while everyone munched away on delicious homemade cookies, while sipping lemonade or tea that Eileen and Ellen had made. 

At one point during Sharon's interesting dog training seminar, T. was asked to get our dog, Lucy, a beautiful Heeler / Lab mix, for her demonstration, so Tone went and leashed up Lucy and delivered her to Sharon. Everyone was mesmerized as we watched Sharon work with Lucy and Lucy seemed to love it. When Sharon showed us how to properly massage a dog, Lucy would not quit kissing her on her face and mouth as Sharon rubbed her and explained to us why massage was so important to a dog.

When Sharon's dog training seminar ended I had learned so much from her, as did everyone else who had attended and we cannot thank her enough for volunteering to do the dog training seminar today. Thank you, Sharon Griswold of Rover Misbehaving?—You Truly Rock! And Lucy already misses you and she wants to know how much a massage costs.

This evening Kinky called me from Willie Nelson's bus in Norman, Oklahoma to ask me how the event went. I assume by what all I have written about it—you know what I told him. Then we talked about Pearl, who we think has found her forever home and then we laughed about a few other things. "Take care, Nance. I'll be home Monday. Bye."

This evening at six o'clock I decided to save a little time, so I went around the the trailer and set all of our clocks back one hour, so I don't have to get up in the wee hours of the morning and do what I did last week. It is kind of weird, because right now as I finish writing this it is only eight-fifteen on the kitchen clock, even though it is actually nine-fifteen. 

Today's 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar was a howling success! And I want to thank our great volunteers for doing all of the work for us. Thank you, Eileen Gotke, Ellen Jackson, June Hartley and Jim McMahon! We love y'all and cannot thank you enough! And thank you, Sharon "The Great Dog Whisperer" Griswold dog trainer! You're the best and we know it! I also want to thank all of the media coverage for helping us get the word out: Harley Belew at The Rose 99.9, Andy, Bryant, Roland and Kim at KVHC-TV Kerrville for having us on their show with Jermaine Jackson, Mikie Baker at the Bandera County Courier and Tom at The Kerrville Daily Times—you made it happen for us! Thank you, so much! We love all of y'all! Dogs Rule And So Do You!

Y'all have a great evening!

Can You Help These Dogs And A Goat!

I am trying to help my friend Grayson and his wife find good homes for their dogs and friendly goat. Due to some tragic incidents which are too much and sad to tell, they are being forced to give up their fur family and my heart goes out to them. They have spent over a year placing their pets and now only have 3 dogs and 1 goat. If you can help by adopting one of these sweet animals please call me as soon as possible because they only have until this Sunday to find them homes. Here are the pictures and write ups that he sent to me.

Wolfie, the Black Akita mix- very friendly, she is spayed and will hug all day if you let her. She gets along with other dogs well. 

Angel is the Chocolate silver Poodle mix, 8+ years old, she is like a stuffed toy, laying next to you forever. She gets along with other dogs and cats and is spayed and house and crate trained. We've never heard her bark.

Mabel is the small black terrier mix. Very friendly, loves attention. She is so cute. She is hard of hearing and doesn't see really well, but makes up for it with love. She is 12+ years old (we think) and is spayed.

Buddy is the Nubian goat from a petting zoo. He is pretty big but loves attention, especially rubbing his head and giving him carrots. He is about 5+ years old and is neutered.  

Please pass this along to anyone who you might be interested in helping. Thank you.

My Finger Wouldn't Quit Bleeding!

Well, I guess that I am just lucky, because today has been a another wonderful day for me. This morning after I walked eight more miles with Leslie, I spent my morning doing paperwork, answering e-mails and returning many phone calls.

After lunch Tony and I went outside and started mowing the rescue ranch, so it will look beautiful for our 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar this coming Saturday. Since T.'s back was out, he rode the riding lawn mower and I push-mowed for three hours and then I grabbed the Weedeater and did some trimming around the dog pens.

When we finished working outside we came inside the trailer and sweet Tony plucked fifty-four stickers that were stuck and embedded in my clothes. Thank you, Tone, even though you called me a stickler for yard work. I am thrilled with how much we accomplished outside today and hopefully by tomorrow we can finish it up in three hours or less.

Twenty-two minutes into our nightly Happy Hour, after I drank a glass of  fine, red boxed wine and Tony had finished off his beer the phone rang at six forty-seven and I let Carlton take the call. "Nancy, Tony! Tony, Nancy! Please pick up the phone. This is Mary Chavoustie with Texas Animal Imprints magazine. Connie Strong and I are at your gate and it is closed. We have a present that we want to give to y'all..."

"Hello, Mary. How are you? You and Connie are at the gate?" I asked, puzzled that a cell phone was getting service out here.

"No, actually, we are calling you from Kinky's Lodge. Frank let us use Kinky's phone..." As soon as we hung up, Tony went outside and jumped into Kermit and took off to go open the gate for them.

Two minutes later Connie and Mary pulled up to the trailer, got out of Connie's car, wearing big grins on their faces as they always do, and then the hug-fest began. "We just finished interviewing Copper Love and we love her," Connie said. "What an interesting woman..."

"We couldn't resist coming out to see y'all since we were so close," Mary said.

"We have a present to give to you," Connie said, as she went over to her car and opened the back seat door. "Since we can't be here for your annual Dog's Thanksgiving Dinner we brought you this to help cook their dinner." Connie held up a large, shiny stock pot with a cute kitchen towel, two big wooden spoons and three pot holders attached to it by a ribbon. Tone and I grinned.

"OMG!" I said. "Thank y'all so much! I love it and we sure can use it. I swear, y'all are two of the sweetest women I know. I can't believe that you drove all of the way out here to bring us a present. I'm gonna go get my camera. I'll be right back."

When I came back outside—Tony shot us. Mary is on the left and Connie is on the right. Then Mary shot Tony and me with the pot.

We had a short, but really fun visit with these two super cool women and trust me, there was a lot of laughing. After I showed them my new teeth and told them about my whistling problem they complimented me and then we talked about their hilarious "bloody" trip to Walmart to buy our gift, after interviewing Copper. "Before checking out at Walmart we went to the Eye Care department to borrow a pair of scissors, so we could cut the ribbon and I cut my finger on a sharp edge under the lid handle and my finger started bleeding profusely." We all started laughing. "There was blood all over my clothes and jeans and my finger wouldn't quit bleeding," Connie continued. "So, we then went to the Customer Service department and I told them that I wasn't going to sue them, but they needed to remove the stock pot from their inventory, because of the sharp edge and that they needed to give me a Band Aid." Then she showed us her bandaged finger and we laughed. "Tomorrow I am going to call your friend Rick Reichenbach, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" in Port Aransas and make a date to go interview him."

"Y'all are going to love Rick," I said. "I'll call him tonight. Hopefully, he will invite you to spend the night on the island. It is a totally awesome experience and..."

As the sun sank behind the mountain, knowing that they had a five hour drive ahead of them to get home, they told us that they had to leave, so we had another hug-fest and then we bid them farewell and wished them a safe trip home. "Please tell Joni that we send her our best," I half-hollered, as they drove away.

P.S. 'Erb Cares, I am sorry that I missed your phone call last night. I love you and Karen and please give her and y'all's five dogs a hug from me.

Y'all have a great evening!

I Seem To Whistle Some!

This morning before walking eight miles I called Kinky and wished him a happy birthday. Then we discussed and made a plan to meet at eleven o'clock at The Hat, so Tony could go with him to a business meeting, while I ran some errands.

At two minutes before eleven o'clock we drove into The Hat's parking lot and I was mortified at what I saw! Kinky was sitting inside Mr. Green Jeans with the windows rolled down, puffing on a cigar and surrounded by two squad cars as another one was pulling up. "What in the heck is going on?" I asked Tony. 

As soon as T. parked Buttermilk we got out of the car slowly, because the police were watching us and we walked up to Kinky's truck. "Kinky?" I asked. "Why is your pickup surrounded by the squad cars?" Kinky slowly blew out a puff of smoke.

"Someone called the cops and told them I was smoking in Albertsons. That's what."

I looked down at the grocery sacks on his front seat. "You didn't smoke in there? Did you?"

"Of course not! I know better than that, Nance." Kinky said, as we watched one police car slowly drive away.

"I can't believe this," I said. "Were the Police nice to you?"

"Yes," Kinky said. "They were very nice to me. They came up to the truck and told me that someone had called 911 to report that they had seen me smoking my cigar inside Albertsons. They asked me if I had and I told them no, I hadn't. Then they were almost apologetic about it and told me they were only having to do their job. The Police were definitely nice to me. It wasn't their fault at all that some #@*^* jerk spends his or her time calling 911 about people smoking."

After the other two squad cars took off in opposite directions I said, "This is unbelievable to me. Think about it. What a waste of time and money for the police to have to waste their time checking out so called smoking reports when they could be out there protecting us instead. What a stupid law. It makes me sick..."

"Load up, Tony," Kinky said, as he started up Mr. Green Jeans. "We got mens-work to do. We'll see you soon." As they drove away I climbed inside Buttermilk and headed for 1121 Second Street, the home of Kerrville's ISD— Club Ed.

I walked inside the Club Ed building and as I was telling a friendly woman that I wanted to sign up for the One Day Portrait Class that requires no skill, a man said, "Well hello there, Cousin Nancy." I turned around and greeted the friendly man. "I'm Phil Houseal, the Director for Club Ed and I listen to you on The Harley Show and I feel like I already know you..." After I signed up and got my receipt, Phil asked me if I had the time for him to interview me for his weekly column that he writes for the Kerrville Daily Times.

A minute later I was sitting in Phil's office being interviewed for the column that he writes about Club Ed and it was a lot of fun. He asked me about what classes I had taken and I told him that my first class was how to play the piano real fast and he knew about me signing up for the drum class with Donna Schloss and we talked about how fun it had been and then I told him about Tony, June and me going to that Drumming Circle at The Yoga Space on my birthday. Then we talked about me doing a class about our rescue ranch and I told him that I would to do it. I really enjoyed visiting with Phil while he took notes and twenty minutes later my last words to him or so I thought were, "I love Club Ed!"

As I stood up Phil asked, "Would it be okay if I took some pictures of you for my column and our next catalog? We could go outside and it would only take a minute." 

I laughed and then explained to him why I had laughed. "You see, Phil, I just got dentures last Wednesday and I would love for you to take my picture. In fact, you will be the first person to take a picture of me with my new smile. I am still having a little trouble talking and I seem to whistle some when I say the words..."

Outside I posed next to the Utopia sign on Buttermilk's front door as Phil shot me over and over again while holding different props in my hands. Before leaving I gave Phil a copy of my new book, Meanwhile Back At The Rescue Ranch: The Dog Days of Cousin Nancy. 

Then we went back inside and the friendly receptionist gave me some paperwork to fill out for my teaching position. Then I shook hands with Phil, said goodbye to them and left the building.

Thirty minutes later my cell phone rang. "Where are you?" Tony asked, calling from Kinky's cell phone. 

"I'm checking out the groceries right now."

"Good. Meet us at The Hat for lunch. We're headed that way now. Bye."

When I walked inside the Mexican Restaurant Kinky waved to me from a blue colored booth that he and Tony were sitting at. "How did the meeting go?" I asked, as Tony stood up to let me slide across on his side of the booth.

"It went great," Kinky answered, and then he started laughing, as the waitress served them their hot meals. "Everyone there knew who Cousin Nancy was, too. They said they listen to Harley and read your blog. And Fourth Coates was there, too..." We had a fun lunch and left thirty minutes later to go home.

Late this afternoon Tony drove me to the Medina Post Office so I could mail out some letters and pick up my package from my friends Karin and Jurgen Pohlmann, who live in Germany. As T. drove me home I opened up the tube and pulled out a birthday card, a letter, an old 1955 Poodle book. As we drove home I read Karin's sweet letter to him and showed him the cute birthday card and the Poodle book which had some very funny Poodle pictures in it. 

Then I pulled out a poster wrapped in brown paper. When I unrolled it I smiled and teared up, because the Boston Terrier behind the pink balloon looked a lot like my Yoda. To say the least I loved it and thought it was beautiful. I showed it to Tony and he liked it too, while we set at the portable signal light waiting for it to turn green on Highway 16. The rest of the way home I couldn't quit admiring the poster. Thank you, Karin and Jurgen! Y'all are tooooooo sweet! I had Tony hold it so I could take this picture of it.

This evening I received two photos from my new friend Phil Houseal. Drum roll, y'all............Here is my first picture taken of me with my new smile. Compliments of Phil.

P.S I just called Cindy and Ronnie and told them to look at tonight's blog if they wanted to see my new smile. Ron just called and said he liked them and I am waiting for Cindy to call back.

Yall have a great evening and keep smiling!