The Best Medicine!

Today has been great, but first off, I want to wish Arlene a Happy Birthday again and I hope that your birthday has been a great one.

Late this morning I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and The Friedmans. Like Kinky, Brownie, Chumley and Sophie were all doing fine. But, Brownie made me laugh the most, because he has taken over the couch in the big room, where he hides and guards his dog treats, and like it or not, he has made it clear that Chumley and Sophie are not welcomed.

When Kinky and I went into the big room to visit I sat down next to Brownie on his couch and his tail wagged happily, but when Miss Sophie came up for me to pet her, he curled his lips at her and snarled, so she went away in a snit. "This is my boat," I said, speaking for Brownie, which is an annoying habit that both Kinky, Tony and I do, "and I am the captain of this ship." Kinky chuckled as Sophie jumped up on his lap.

As we visited, I petted "Brown Dog" and every time that I would stop Brownie's tail would begin thumping the couch, until I started petting him again, so I made a game out of it with him. When Kinky went into his office to get something Brownie jumped off of the couch and went outside using Kinky's doggie door and that's when Sophie jumped up and ran over to the couch and quickly snatched two of Brownie's favorite, big Milk Bone treats, and then she ran to her bed, near the fireplace, and hid them under the cushiion, before laying back down in her big, plush doggie bed fit for a queen.

When Kinky returned, I was laughing and I told him why. When Brownie returned and took back the command of his ship he started sniffing the cushions and I could tell that he knew "Sophie the Pirate" had once again, come on board and stolen a few of his treasures, because after he finally quit sniffing around, he looked at Sophie, over in her bed, and glared at her, as she innocently batted her pretty eyelashes back at him. After Kinky and I had a good laugh about it I came back home.

After lunch our great friends and volunteers: Lisa and Matt came out with their friends Chris, Dan and DeDe and her cute son Skipper, came out to walk our dogs! After howdies and hugs I had a short, but fun visit with Lisa before she started walking our dogs with DeDe, Skipper and Dan and that's when I tricked Matt into helping me!

"Can I be of any help, Miss Nancy?" Matt asked, as he saw me trying helplessly to put a screw through a 2"x4."

"Yes, Matt! Please," I said, as I batted my long gray eyelashes, that no one can see, because I don't wear make up, or even know how to spell it correctly. "Come on inside the Space Ship and help me screw this 2x4 into this wall. I don't know why it is so hard. The battery has a full charge, but these screws aren't cooperating with me." I handed the cordless drill to Matt and he quickly went to work. When Matt was nearly done attaching the many 2x4's to an interior wall for me, Tony walked up and started laughing.

"What's so funny, Tone?" I asked, as I stood by the kitchen sink, so not to be in Matt's way.

"Matt, I don't know how she does it, but like me—Nance has you doing all of the hard work for her!" Everyone started laughing.

"I know and she's good at it too," Matt said. "She's a woman and all..."

"That's just the way we women work," Lisa jokingly declared. "Isn't that right, Nance?" I smiled and nodded my head inagreement.

After feeding some apples to Shalom, Roy & Gabby and Little Jewford, the volunteers left and went back to Kerrville and I hated to see them go because I love them. But it was especially hard on Tony to see Matt leave today, because Tony knew it was now his turn to take over Matt's job and be my right hand man.

I hope that y'all are having as much fun as Carol & James and Tony and me are having right now, because we are on a double date, at a comedy club in Kerrville and we should be home shortly. I wrote this early this evening and scheduled it to post at 10:20 tonight.

Have a great evening and May The Force Be With Us!

 or maybe even better,

 If laughter is the best medicine—then I am addicted to it!

Happy Birthday Arlene Wheaton!

Happy Birthday Arlene, of The NoMads! Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear Arlene. Happy Birthday to YOU! And many more! We love you and so do The NoMads and we wish you the best birthday ever! You Rule! And, so do The NoMads!

What's Wrong With This Picture!

Today has been wonderful. This morning after I cooked "Cousin Nancy's Huevos Ranchero's" for breakfast, I called Kinky to see if he wanted some, and then we went over to the Lodge and ate breakfast with him. During our fun breakfast, Kinky told us the funniest thing about what Albert Einstein once said when he was asked, "If he knew what weapon of destruction would be used if there was a World War III." And since I can't remember the exact quote exactly, Einstein answered, "I don't know about World War III, but I do know that if there were to be a World War IV—they'd use rocks." So, to say the least, we did a lot of laughing during our fun breakfast.

Ten minutes after we got back home, our super volunteers Eileen and Lisa showed up to walk our dogs, so I went outside to greet them and to my surprise, Lisa had brought us a tree, for Tony to plant, in honor of his brother Rex, and Eileen had brought a beautiful vase filled with beautiful flowers for us and their sympathy card was so sweet.

After we carried them inside the trailer Eileen said, "I think Sharon is coming out today too, so she can work with Annie Oakley." And then there was a knock on the door and it was Sharon Griswold, the incredible dog-whispering trainer of, "Rover Misbehaving?"! After a fun, but short visit, because they wanted to go outside and get to work, I invited them to come outside and take a peak to see my latest improvements to the Space Ship. As we walked to my new1976 motorhome I started telling them about the cabinets that I had painted.

"Wednesday afternoon, after I was finished with all of my paperwork and business, I decided to take down the kitchen cabinets and paint them and it turned out to be a lot more work than I had expected it to be," I said. "I numbered each cabinet as I took them down and then started taping off the six cabinet doors, which nearly took me an hour to do. Then I started carefully painting them. And it was hard, because I am not a good painter and can't paint a straight line."

Then we went inside the Space Ship and I loved the girls reactions! After everyone told me how much they loved my latest improvements I said, "Thank y'all. Now tell me, what's wrong with this picture?" And pointed to my newly hung cabinet doors on the passenger side of the van.

They looked at the cabinets and then asked, "What? They look beautiful." So I started laughing.

"It's a Nancy. I did it again. The second cabinet from the end is painted upside down!" And we all started laughing. "Because I forgot to number that one at the bottom, so I would know which was the top and bottom. And then I did the dumbest thing yesterday before I hung them back up. I decided to paint the inside doors lavender with spray paint and I covered up all of the numbers, so none of them are hanging in their right places..."

"They look fine, but all you have to do is repaint it," one of them suggested.

"Nope. No way. I will never do that again. I have accidentally turned my Space Ship into another "It's A Nancy" and who knows, maybe someday it could become valuable." After we all laughed about it, Lisa and Eileen took off to go walk some lucky dogs, while Sharon went to do some whispering-work and massage therapy on Annie. Here are a few pictures of Eileen and Lisa working with Sharon to help Annie settle down around other dogs and people—and it worked—thanks to Sharon Griswold!

Sharon with Annie "sitting and under control."

Lisa with Maggie and Eileen with LaToya 

Annie behaving herself and acting calm.

Sharon fixin' to massage Annie while whispering to her.

Around noon Eileen and Lisa took off to go eat lunch in Medina before heading back home to Kerrville, while Sharon and I drove Annie around in Kermit to see how she would react and Annie passed with flying colors! For the very first time since we got Annie—she was calm when we petted her, acted like Kermit was no big deal and we were totally thrilled about it! After a long talk with Sharon about Annie and her out-of-control issues and how to handle her progress, Sharon suggested that she come out every Friday to work with Annie and she is convinced, as we are, it won't take long for Annie to become the super dog that we know she is. Thank you, Sharon Griswold! Your magic worked miracles on Annie today!

This afternoon our last stop in Kerrville before going home, was to go by the music store, next door to Wolfmueller Books, because I am thinking about buying a dulcimer and taking some dulcimer lessons at Club Ed this Spring, because I love Club Ed and dulcimers and also because my great brother-in-law Ray (married to Cindy) is an incredible dulcimer player.

Our plan was to go to the music store first and then drop by and say hi to Sandy and Jon, but when we walked past Wolfmueller's opened door we heard Sandy say,"Hi, guys! Come on in."

"Hi, Sandy and Jon," Tony said. "We're going to the music store to see if they have any dulcimers on sale. We'll see y'all in a minute."

When we walked inside the crowded music store I saw my good friend Phil Houseal, the Director of Club Ed, and waved to him as he was paying for his purchase. Then we got to visiting. "You must be Tony! Cousin Nancy's husband," Phil said, as T. and him shook hands. "I want you to meet my friend Karen Shirer, she teaches guitar at Club Ed." After Karen and I shook hands I told Phil that I loved Club Ed and was thinking about signing up for their beginners dulcimer course and he was thrilled to hear it, even though he hasn't heard me play a dulcimer. "I really enjoyed reading your book, Cousin Nancy," Phil said. "And I want you to know that I have sent a copy of your book to my brother..." And I was thrilled to hear that, so I guess you could say, "That seeing Phil today was more than thrilling." You Rock, Phil!

After we left the music store empty-handed we went next door and had a fun visit with Jon and Sandy. 

Tonight I have posted a new, short youtube video that I made over eight years ago about some of the great dogs and animals that we have rescued and I hope that you will check it out. It starts out with the rescue ranch being in Utopia at my mini-ranch in 1998, where we started the rescue ranch, and then moving it here in 2002 and it basically ends with Jerry Jeff Walker, Kinky, Dwight Yoakam and me backstage at the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch benefit held at Bob Cole's Hill's Cafe in Austin. I have titled it Have I Told You...

Have a great evening and May The Force Be With Y'all, because I love you.

Happy Birthday 'Erb!

Today is my dear friend Herb Cares birthday! Kinky, Tony and I love 'Erb and think the world of him and his lovely, sweet wife Karen, who are, by far—the best ballroom dancers on the planet. In fact, they even know how to do the Texas Two Step.

Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear 'Erb. Happy Birthday to You. And many more! We love you and You Rock 'Erb!

Tony's Brother Rex Passed Away This Evening.

Happy Birthday Ben Welch!

Today Ben is Ben Welch's birthday! Tony, Kinky and I love Ben and we wish him the best birthday ever.
Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear Ben. Happy Birthday to You!

On The Cover Of Texas Animal Imprints!

Today has been great. This afternoon while we were in Kerrville, we stopped by Wolfmueller's Books to say hi to Sandy and Jon and to get them to sign Lynda's soup cookbook that she won in my contest, and to show off Tony's pictures on the cover and his beautiful pictures inside the Texas Animal Imprints January / February magazine!

When we arrived at the bookstore Jon greeted us from behind the checkout counter. "Where's Sandy?" Tony asked. "I bet she's out buying more books."

No, she's not out buying books today," Jon said. "She had to go home to pick up a book." Then we started laughing. "She should be here any minute..."

"Jon, I brought Lynda's cookbook to get y'all to sign it. And if you don't mind, keeping it here until Mari can swing by and sign it, before I mail it to Lynda."

"Sure, that's fine. We don't mind..."

"Well, Tony is becoming a famous photographer, Jon. Take a look at his beautiful picture on the cover of  Texas Animal Imprints January / February magazine!" I said, as I handed the magazine to Jon, so he could look at it.

"And Joni, the publisher, also used one of Tone's pictures for Connie Strong's great story about my friend Cindy, when she interviewed her about her documentary "MANITOU-API: WHERE THE SUN RISES" and Tony also took these pictures of Pilgrim and Pumpkin for my column that I wrote! Isn't this great!" I bragged, as Jon quickly thumbed through the magazine to look at all of T.'s pictures.

"You're good, Tony. These are beautiful photos," Jon said, as Sandy walked in the back door and waved to us, before coming up to join us. "Sandy look at Tony's pictures..."

"I love these, Tony!" Sandy said. "Congratulations." Then Kathleen Keen walked in the front door. After greetings, Sandy handed the Texas Animal Imprints magazine to Kathleen and said, "Tony took these pictures..."

"Tony! I love your pictures, especially the one of the sunset."

"He took that one from our front porch," I said. "I love all of his pictures! And you can go online to read Texas Animal Imprints January / February magazine right now. Y'all will love Connie Strong's article about Cindy, too. And Kinky's column."

A few minutes later Kathleen had to take off and then some customers walked into the bookstore, so I looked at books while Sandy and Jon helped their customers. Before leaving their bookstore, I bought these two books about my hero, Mark Twain! And, I a can't wait to start reading them.

Around four o'clock today, I went over to the Lodge to show Kinky my new books, Grant and Twain: The Story Of A Friendship That Changed America by Mark Perry and Who Is Mark Twain by Mark Twain himself, that have never been published before! "I've got and already read Who Is Mark Twain, and it was good, but I would like to read this one."

"I'll loan it to you as soon as I finish reading it," I said, before we went to visit with The Friedmans in the big room.

Tonight, as soon as I finish writing this blog, I plan to start reading the Grant and Twain book. I am so happy for Tony about his photos being on the cover and in Joni's beautiful magazine, Texas Animal Imprints and I hope that you will subscribe to Joni Daniel's great magazine and check out the January / February issue online. And please read my column about...

To Be Continued...

Have a great evening and May The Force Be With All Of Us!