Happy Birthday Brenda Pagliaro Emery!

Happy Birthday Brenda! A little birdie in Florida told me about your birthday and I want to be one of the first to wish you the best birthday ever! Have fun celebrating in Palm Beach! I wish that I could be there with you and the little birdie to celebrate both of your birthdays. Much Love From Texas!

Happy Birthday Sister Cindy!

Today is my sweet, sister Cindy's birthday! Happy Birthday To You. Happy Birthday To You. Happy Birthday Dear Cindy. Happy Birthday To You! I hope it is your best birthday ever and I wish that I could be there to celebrate it. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

A Fine Book!

Today has been fun. This morning instead of walking with Leslie I decided to get another form of exercise, so I decided to paint the drab green colored wall in the big room that I have never really liked. Little did I know that "my little project" would take me over four hours to accomplish, but I am glad that I did it.

After painting the first coat on the wall I decided to paint the kitchen while the paint dried. An hour later I was covered in off-white paint and so were the cabinets, the countertops and the wood floor and it didn't help that my dogs helped me by walking in the wet paint and decorated the wooden floors throughout the trailer with their paw prints.

Since the paint was drying slowly on the wall, Hazel and I then vacuumed up the dog hair and cob webs and dusted and cleaned the pictures that would be soon returning to their wall. After I put the second coat of paint on the wall I got out Sandy, my electric sander and started sanding the paint off of the floor and by now my back was starting to ache from so much bending up and down. And my dogs seemed to be really amused as they tracked me from room to room and watched me remove their tracks.

A little after one-thirty, as I was hanging up the last picture up on the wall, Tony walked into the big room and said, "Nance, we need to go to Kerrville to get dog food and toilet paper. Are you nearly done?"

"Yes. Give me fifteen minutes to get cleaned up." Twenty-two minutes later I took this picture and then Buttermilk took us to Kerrville to get supplies.

As we were leaving the H-E-B in Kerrville we ran into our friend Karen in the parking lot. She's the owner of The Plant Haus, Kerrville's favorite nursery and we had a fun visit with her and then we headed home.

Before turning off of Highway 16 we stopped at the mailbox to get our mail. "What's in the package?" Tony asked, as he turned Buttermilk around and steered us home.

"It's the book I ordered from Amazon. Cindy told me to get it. Her friend's friend, Doug Fine wrote this book about leaving New York and trying to go green and leaving a smaller carbon footprint in New Mexico. She told me I would love it."

By the time we drove the two and a half miles to the rescue ranch I had already read six pages of Doug's book and I was already hooked and could not wait to read it. "Tony, this is a fine book and I love his writing style and you're going to love reading it. The name of it is Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure In Local Living and it has gotten rave reviews by The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Newsday, Portland Tribune and NPR to name a few.

A little before dark I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and to show him the article that Phil Houseal had written about me and my bucket list for Club Ed in the Hill Country Community Journal. 

As Kink read the article I saw the most amazing thing happen while sitting at the kitchen table with him. Sophie was outside playing. She was getting up and down on her front paws and jumping around like she was playing with someone, so I started laughing. "What?" Kinky asked.

"It's Sophie and I guess she is playing with Frank even though I can't see him. Look." 

Kinky looked through the window and said, "She's not playing! She's found another Tarantula!" And then he jumped up out of his chair and went outside and I followed. "Good, Sophie," Kinky said, as we stared at a big hairy spider. "Get back. You're a good ranch dog, Sophie. Nance, get her to follow you around the side of the Lodge, so I can transplant the Tarantula to safer grounds." Sophie and I took off and by the time we had returned Kinky had removed the spider and he was smiling, so we went back inside the Lodge.

"Kinky, I have never seen a dog do that with Tarantulas," I said. "She is amazing and she really has turned into a great ranch dog. You, know that Thunder does that with Scorpions? When she finds one she will follow it around until she gets our attention and then T. removes it for me..."

When I came home Tony greeted me at the front door and he was laughing. "Nance, Ellen just called to give us an update on Buddy, the goat. You're not going to believe what he did." I shrugged hoping that it wasn't bad news. "Today when Mr. Cooper took off to go to the Medina dump, Charlie and Ellen couldn't find Buddy anywhere and they started looking everywhere for him. Guess where they finally found him?" I shrugged again. "Inside Mr. Cooper's cabin! Buddy had come in through the doggie door with the dogs!" We started laughing. "Ellen said when they went inside the cabin and saw Buddy standing in the middle of the room, he quickly left going back out through the doggie door and nothing had been eaten or destroyed. Isn't that amazing?"

Y'all have a great evening!

Ham-At-Heart!

I have four good reasons why today has been a great day—thanks to my good friends e-mails from Cindy Pickard, Joni Daniel, Patty Kearns and Phil Houseal. I am so lucky to have so many great friends.

I will start with Cindy's exciting news first. Last September 23rd & 24th Cindy and her son Andy's must see "Manitou API—Where The Sun Rises" documentary premiered at the Taos Center for the Arts and it was a huge happening to say the very least.

Well, today, Cindy sent me an e-mail asking me to check out the comments made after their premiere showings in Taos, so I did and it blew me away, even though I knew they would be great, because I love their latest documentary and you can check the comments out at: the8thfire.org. I am so proud and happy for her and Andy!

Joni Daniel, my good friend and publisher of the great Texas Animal Imprints magazine sent me some great news, too. The November / December issue is now out on the stands for sale and she is sending me some free copies of the awesome magazine, so I can send out some copies to my friends—with my very first magazine column in it! I can't wait to see my words in print in her magazine. I am so excited! Thank you so much, Joni! Tony and I are thrilled that you are coming to see us between Christmas and New Year's Day!

My dear friend Patty Kearns sent me an e-mail telling me that she will be in Kerrville over the Thanksgiving holidays to visit her dad and Peggy and family and I am so looking forward to seeing my funny, Floridian friend. Patty is one of my favorite people on the planet, because she is so interesting and has a fantastic sense of humor. She makes me laugh so much that my back always aches after every time she and Peggy visits. I know that she could be a standup comic if she wanted to do it—she's that good.

Now, to top off my happy day, my good friend Phil Housel over at K.I.S.D.'s Club Ed sent me an e-mail that literally blew me out of my saddle and made Tony and me laugh out loud! Phil wrote to tell me that the column he wrote about me for Club Ed will appear in tomorrow's Kerrville Texas Community Journal and Boerne Texas Hill Country Weekly newspapers and he sent me a link to it, so I could read it and when I read it that's when I fell off of the horse so to speak. Phil is so sweet and his upbeat and kind words about me nearly made me tear up. What a nice guy.

After T. had read Phil's article, we clicked the link to watch the short, but funny video that Phil took at my watercolor class last week, taught by my new-found incredibly, talented artist friend Joan Sullivan. I love Joan and after talking to her for over an hour on the phone last week, after her fun watercolor class, we discovered that our lives have somewhat paralleled each other and we have so much in common that it is weird-in-a-nice-kind-of-way. And, now I can say, "Joan is my newest soul sister to add to my list!"

I know that I hammed it up in Phil's fun video, because I am a ham-at-heart, but I was having such a good time with the ladies and also because I was no longer embarrassed to smile—new teeth will do that for you—trust me.  : )  My favorite part  in the video was when Phil asked Joan, the cute, perky redhead, what she thought about my portrait. And all that I can say is, "Joan is one fabuous artist, but she's a really bad fibber."  : )   And, if you watch the video you will have to agree with me. I think her nickname should be "A3P"—Always Paints Pretty Picture. Here is Phil's video on Club Ed's Facebook. Be prepared to laugh.

As I end tonight's blog I am thinking about throwing a party and inviting all of my friends, because I would love for everyone to meet each other. But, because my friends live all over the globe, maybe I can figure out how we could do it by using the internet. I'll ask some friends how we can do it and get back to y'all. I think it would be really cool and Tone and I could do it live from Outer Space or the Space Ship and maybe I could get Kinky to join us! Talk about a blast!

P.S. Cindy, as I write this, I am wearing The 8th Fire hoodie sweatshirt, the "Turtle" which represents truth in the Seven Teachings and designed by the talented Taos Pueblo artist Jonathan Warm Day, but of course, you know that! Next time you see him please tell him that I loved reading his book, Taos Pueblo: Painted Stories and that his designs for the Seven Teachings are so beautiful that I wear one of them almost everyday.

P.S.S. Joni, I have already started writing my column for your next publication of Texas Animal Imprints January/February magazine and I cannot wait to see my very first column appear in the November / December issue! See you after Christmas and please drive careful!

P.S.S.S. Patty, I mailed the signed books out today and I cannot wait to see you and Peggy next week, over the Thanksgiving holidays. I can't wait to talk to you and laugh until it hurts.

P.S.S.S.S. Phil, thank you so much for your kind words about me and literally making my day. Like Harley and I often say, "You're one of the good guys." And I know that Club Ed wouldn't be the success it is without you. So, please don't ever quit—you're Club Ed and me and Kerrville and the surrounding Hill Country folks love you! And, please tell"A3P" that I am going to sign up for her watercolor class in February. I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Y'all have a great evening!

First, Second And Third Quarters!

Today has been a quiet day. This morning I only walked six miles and then Hazel came out of the closet  and we deep cleaned the trailer, the front porch and then we went into Outer Space. When she went into the closet I took a short, but sleepless nap with Mama, because she either kept trying to pet my face with her heavy front paws or hugging me too tight while making happy sounds.

I spent the first, second and third quarters of the Dallas Cowboys football game catching up with my e-mail and I am thrilled that the Cowboys are back. I am sick about Coach Wade Phillips being fired, because I met him while working for the TCU Football Office back in the late 70's when his father Bum was down in Houston, in his coaching heyday with Earl Campbell, who I also got to meet when he stepped out of a sauna in the TCU workout room, but I have already told you about that. Anyway, I hope the Cowboys win today.

Even though I had over sixty e-mails to respond to I especially enjoyed reading Cheryl & Walt's funny note, because it made me laugh out loud—I love these people. And Mari of the Nomads e-mails always make me laugh and smile, too. Thank y'all!

Mari is probably right now on her way to Kerrville with her friends to see the Flash Cadillac concert that I wish that I could have gone to, but couldn't, because I am night blind and will not drive in the dark, because it is too dangerous.

There are eight minutes left in the football game and New York almost made a touchdown! So, I am going to stop writing and watch the finish of this exciting game. Go Cowboys!

Y'all have a great evening!

He Didn't Eat Much!

Today has been great. This morning after I walked eight miles with Leslie, my dear friend Cindy called. "Hi Cindy! How is Northern New Mexico treating you?" After she told me how amazingly great it was and how much she loved living there, we visited for nearly an hour catching up with each others news.

First, we talked about my new teeth and she was thrilled for me. Then she told me a little about the next documentary that she and her son, Andy are planning to do, but it is a secret right now, so my lips are sealed. All I can say right now is, "It is going to be totally awesome and I can't wait to see it!"

Before saying goodbye to each other I remembered something else I wanted to tell her. "Cindy, I love those hoodie sweatshirts that you sent to me of the Seven Teachings! I wear one of them every day." Cindy chuckled.

"I'm glad. Which ones did I send to you?"

"The Bear, the Turtle, the Wolf and the Buffalo. Every time I wear one of them, some one always comments and compliments me about them." Then Cindy told me about their new store online.

"We've got beautiful handmade jewelry of the Seven Teachings, hoodies and posters by Jonathan Warm Day and our DVD's."Then she gave me the address so I could look it up online and because I wanted to mention it tonight on my post, so y'all can check it out.

After we hung up, as I was looking at the beautiful items for sale on the 8th Fire.org the phone rang—it was Kinky. It was no big deal. He just had a question to ask me.

Near noon, while I was down on the floor "doing Thunder's nails" with the battery operated Pedi-Paws, Ellen called, so I let Carlton take the call. "Hi, Nancy. It's Ellen. Call me." Click. As Thunder's nails grew shorter I worried that maybe Buddy, the giant goat wasn't working out.

A little while later when Tony walked inside the trailer I was still doing Thunder's nails, so I asked him to call Ellen for me. As I grinded, T. punched in Charlie and Ellen Cooper's phone number. Within seconds he started laughing, as he talked to Ellen. Four minutes later when he hung up the phone he said, "Buddy is doing great. They love him and Buddy follows Mr. Cooper everywhere he goes and he is never over five feet away from him at any time. She told me that this morning Mr. Cooper let Buddy go inside their huge greenhouse with him and a little while later when they came out, they asked how Buddy did. Mr. Cooper said, "He didn't eat that much!"" T. and I started laughing.

After lunch I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky for a few minutes. When I arrived, he and Frank were in the kitchen eating their lunch, which Kinky had cooked and it looked scrumptious and smelled delicious. Kinky told me that it was shrimp and sausage in a tomato sauce with garlic, onions and a few other spices, over pasta.

As they ate, I told them the latest news on Buddy and they were thrilled with it and they laughed. "He is one very lucky goat," Kinky said, and Frank agreed by nodding his head up and down, because he had food in his mouth.

A little after four o'clock I went back over to the Lodge and watched some college football with him. We watched Penn State vs. Ohio State. When I sat down Penn State was ahead in the middle of the third quarter and we were glad, so after a few minutes of watching the game we decided to take a football break and go outside and sit on the porch with The Friedmans for a few minutes.

When we came back inside the Lodge, Kinky said, "OMG." Ohio State had made a touchdown and they were now ahead, so we sat back down and stared at the television in silence. When the fourth quarter started I came back home and listened to the game as I did some housework and that is about it for today.

Tonight I am going to fix some popcorn and watch a movie, but I don't know which one, yet.

Y'all have a great evening!

Every Portrait Has A Story!

This morning after doing all of my morning chores I called Harley at seven forty-five to do his show. After telling him that James Dean was his Pet of The Week, and how great the cute  little one-year-old Chihuahua was Harley asks, "Cousin Nancy, are you watching us on the computer, because I have something to show you. Go get it and bring it in here." Here's a picture of James Dean.

"No, Harley, I'm not. Our internet just went down. What is it?"

"We rescued, well Sarah rescued a newborn, little goat whose mother died. Do y'all rescue goats?"

"Yes, we do, Harley," I said. "We rescued Buddy, a gigantic Nubian goat on Monday and yesterday we found a forever home for him...." As I told Harley about Buddy, Tony walks into the big room with his laptop in hand and shows me the cute little goat that Harley has in his studio. "Oh, Harley, she is adorable. Tony showed her to me on his computer."

"You want her? You want to bottle feed her?" Harley asked, then there was a little too long—moment of silence. Then he laughed. "What if we bottle feed her and you take her after she is weaned?"

"That sounds great! Maybe Charlie and Ellen would want her, so she could be Buddy's companion..." After we talked about that I changed the subject on Harley. "Guess what I am fixin' to do?"

"What?"

"I'm leaving here in thirty minutes for Club Ed's portrait class taught by the award winning artist, Joan Sullivan! I can't wait!"

"That's great Cousin Nancy, but why are you doing this?" Harley asked.

"It's another bucket-list deal," Then we started laughing. "It is something that I've always wanted to do."

"Now, I'm starting to worry about you," Harley said, which made me laugh. "What else is on your bucket-list?"

"I guess motorcycles," I answered. "And Club Ed has a class for that, too."

"You want to ride a motorcycle? Have you ever driven a motorcycle?" Then we started laughing, again.

"Yes, I have," I said. "When I was eighteen years old, I kept flunking my driver's license test, because I couldn't back up, so my sister Cindy loaned me her Honda 50 Automatic, that she had won in a radio contest. I had to get a license for it and I passed it, because I didn't have to back up. In fact, I still have my motorcycle license and am legal to drive a Harley, but that's never going to happen, because they are too big for me."

"So, what would you drive?" Harley asked. I started laughing, again.

"I guess a Mo-Ped or something like that..." Then Harley changed the subject on me. It was his turn.

"We're your ears burning yesterday?"

"No. Why?"

"Club Ed's Phil Houseal and I were talking about you. He's a great guy."

"I know. I really like Phil, too and I love Club Ed..." After the show ended I looked up at the Atomic Clock above the water cooler and realized that I had talked way too much, because I still had to find a portrait to use for Joan's class and print it out in color and in black & white. Ten minutes later I came out of my office with black and whites and color pictures, one of Tony and the one of me, that Phil Houseal took of me with new teeth. Ten minutes later, Buttermilk and I were on 16 heading for Kerrville, as I listened to The Harley Show.

Three minutes before our class began I met Joan Sullivan and she and I had a fun visit with two of her other students: Virginia aka Dina and Billie. Then we got out our watercolors, water, brushes and pictures that we brought to paint and the fun class began. After Joan suggested that I paint my portrait first and do Tone's later, she explained some basics about washes and techniques for portrait painting and then she passed out some supplies and instructed us what to do.

As our class began seriously working on their first portraits, I started laughing a lot at my portrait as it quickly progressed, because let's say, "I sort of over did mine to say the least." I even got Joan, Billie and Dina to laughing as I joked about my faster-piece artwork. 

As I admired and praised everyone's artwork but mine, my stomach started growling loudly, but  everyone pretended not to hear it. Finally, I burst out laughing and said, "Y'all, my stomach is growling and I am not hungry. I had a smoothie for breakfast and I guess that I should have also eaten a piece of toast with it."

An hour and a half later, as my artwork started to digress rapidly and literally take a nose-dive, my nervous stomach started to make even stranger, louder gurgling sounds, that would cause me to uncontrollably burst into loud laughter, which would then startle the artists and then make them start laughing. I was pretty embarrassed about it all, but I counted my blessings, that I didn't also have gas. 

When it was time for us to break for lunch I jokingly told Joan, "My self-portrait looks like I am a visitor from another planet and it is starting to scare me." Joan started laughing. "I mean, look at my teeth, nose, eyes, neck and..." Joan, a fellow Libra, who I really liked, laughed and then she looked at my picture and burst our laughing and so did I. "What can I do to fix it? I had promised to post it tonight if it wasn't goofy looking and it is goofier than h#@*. I could burn it?" After Joan studied it, without trying to laugh, she gave me a few suggestions on how to fix it. Then Buttermilk and I took off for Randy's & Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant.

On our way to the coolest restaurant in town I decided that I needed to over eat, because of my whining stomach. After I sat down at a table in the crowded place, Lisa came over and greeted me and a few minutes later I enjoyed another delicious meal at our friend's fine eatery and it made my stomach quit rumbling—thank goodness.

When I returned to my class I took Joan's suggestions to heart, but it didn't help, because I am not skilled or talented enough and I quickly realized that I am not meant to be a portrait artist—I'm supposed to paint mountains to remember and canyons to forget—not me.

Around two o'clock we had a nice surprise. Phil Houseal showed up at our class with his camera and then he started shooting us. "Cousin Nancy, your story that I wrote for Club Ed is going to be in next weeks "Community Journal" on Wednesday..." After talking to all of us he went outside and came back with a video camera and shot us again. Before Phil had left the building he had all of us laughing. Like Harley Belew at the Rose 99.9 likes to say, "Phil is one great guy." And I totally agree with him.

An hour later, after a very fun day, I packed up my art supplies and my pitiful, goofy looking self-portrait and then I sincerely thanked Joan Sullivan, who is an incredibly talented artist and instructor, who has now become a new friend and kindred spirit of mine, for a wonderful time and then I bid her and my friendly classmates adios and then Buttermilk took me home.

As Buttermilk drove me home I thought about Joan Sullivan, a woman who I so much admire for many reasons, my friendly classmates and Phil Houseal and what a wonderful time that I had today. I want to thank Phil and Joan for another great experience with Club Ed. I love y'all and thank you for enriching my life and I highly recommend Joan's art classes and Club Ed to everyone! They're the Best!

After telling T. how much fun I had had today in Joan's art class today and how much I had learned, but really needed to practice some more—I showed him my first attempt at a self-portrait which I have jokingly titled, "Ears, Eyes & Nose Need Doctoring Not To Mention The Hat..." 

When Tony looked at my first attempted self-portrait he bit his lower lip, as I had expected and he tried not to laugh, so green tea came flowing out of his nose which made me laugh out loud as he coughed,  choked and tears filled his eyes! After wiping the light green tea off of his face with a paper towel he nervously asked, "What does mine look like?"

"I'm doing yours tomorrow if I have time. And I can't wait! I promise that it will be much better than this one. I over did it on this one and..."

P.S. Billie's portrait of Abraham Lincoln turned out to be totally awesome and looked like an old photograph, as did Dina's portrait of her handsome grandson and Joan's forty-something son. 

Y'all have a great evening and keep laughing!