Hair Removal!

Today has been fun. This afternoon we took off, for Kerrville, to meet Kinky for lunch and to run a few errands.

When we arrived at his friend's restaurant the parking lot was completely empty, so we drove up to the door and the sign on the door read, "Closed On Monday," so I grabbed my cell phone, out of my purse and punched in Kinky's cell phone number. "Hi, Kink. We're here and the restaurant is closed on Mondays, so where do you want to eat now?"

After telling me where he wanted to eat, we adios-ed each other and as I was putting my cell phone back into my purse a good-looking, young man, probably in his early thirties, pulled into the vacant parking lot, to my side of Buttermilk and then he waved at us to lower my window.

Since he was wearing a big grin on his face I lowered my window and smiled at him. "Are you Cousin Nancy?" he asked. Tony started chuckling.

"Yes, I am," I answered, as I began to blush. Then he chuckled and pointed his finger at me.

"I knew it was you!" The happy man said. "When I saw the rescue ranch sign on your Expedition, I just had to follow y'all, so I could put a face to your voice. I hear you all of the time on Harley's show." And that made me chuckle.

"I love Harley and I am glad that you listen to his morning show."

"Harley's great. Well, I am sorry for wasting your time, but I just had to meet you."

"Don't apologize. You just made my day and I thank you." Then we adios-ed each other and took off in different directions and T. teased me all of the way to the restaurant.

Kinky pulled into the #2, his second choice restaurant, right behind us, so after greeting each other we started walking toward the door, but we didn't make it inside, because a smiling man hollered out, "Hey, Kinky!" So, we made a detour over to the man and his friend.

While shaking hands with each other, the friendly man introduced himself and his friend to us and then Kinky introduced Tone and me to them. "Kinky, I am Molly Ivins brother and..." Then we had a fun conversation with the men, in the crowded parking lot.

And Molly's brother and friend laughed a lot, after Kink and I told them the funny story about a woman asking me to sign her "A Night With Bob Wills" program, at the Cailloux Theatre, during an intermission, and after I had signed my name she sincerely said to me, as she walked away, "I love you, Molly Ivins. Thank you so much."

After an enjoyable lunch with Kinky we went our separate ways to run our errands. And when we returned home Tony was thrilled, because his "Shed Pal," an incredible cordless pet grooming vac, that he had ordered for our dogs online, had arrived.

Tony tried it out on our dogs while Kinky, The Friedmans and I went on a fun hike and when I came back home I used it on Belle and Roy, again and they loved it as much as I did. So yes, I am endorsing the Shed Pal, that costs under $20.00, because I also used it on our (Roy's, Belle's and Abbie's) chair cushions and it was a fast and easy hair removal device. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Plan B!

Today has been a great day, even though Tony woke me up, this morning, to tell me, "We don't have any water..." His words didn't exactly make me want to jump out of bed with joy, because that meant I could not take a shower and wash my hair, etc.

Normally, temporarily being without water would not have been any big deal, because it happens a lot, but last night I had carefully planned out my morning, because I had several tasks to do besides cleaning the dog pens outside, before we were to leave at 11:00, to go on a picnic with Ellen, Eileen and her sweet dog Callie, that Eileen adopted from us two years ago. So, I said, "I'm blaming this on Mercury in retrograde." T. laughed.

"Nance, it happened, because I forgot to turn off the watering hose, last night, in The Okay Corral..." Then Tone adios-ed me and took off to go drink some coffee with his friends, in Medina, while I drank my coffee and came up with a "Plan B" on how to get everything done before the picnic.

When Tony returned home, about an hour later, we had water within five minutes and because my Plan B had worked out so well—we were where we were supposed to be for our picnic and Tony, Belle and I were five minutes early.

The picnic was a lot of fun. As our hilarious topics of discussion flowed back and forth, Belle's new best friend, Callie, raced around playing with each other. And after we had eaten our lunch we took Callie and Belle down to the creek to let them go for a swim, but Callie didn't want to get her hair messed up, so she waded around in the shallow water, while Belle did a few laps for Tony or else to impress her new found girlfriend. Anyway, the dogs had a blast and we had a great time watching them.

The first thing that we did when we got home, from our picnic, was to thank Belle for not getting carsick and throwing up on me, as she has regularly done in the past and Belle seemed happy about it too.

After I returned a few phone calls, I went down the hallway to tell Tony, "I'm going to take Roy Rogers swimming over there, because I want to find out if he can swim. Do you want to go?"

"Not really. I was thinking about taking a nap, but I will if you want me to."

When Roy and I had arrived at the creek, where we had picnicked at earlier, he was excited to be off-leash, but even more excited about my Baggie filled with sausage like doggie treats that I had taken, in case I needed to catch him.

After Roy had run around marking every place where Callie and Belle had peed, we walked down to the creek. He stepped into a shallow place, drank some of the cold, clear water, but he didn't seem real interested in going swimming, so I picked up a few twigs and flung them into the creek, in hopes that he would jump into the creek and retrieve them, but he didn't. All he seemed interested in was the contents inside the small Baggie, that I held in my hand, so I came up with another Plan B, for the day and it worked.

As I tossed one wannabe floating sausage doggie treat after another, into the water, Roy turned into a dog's version of Esther Williams—beautifully swimming all around the creek, to gobble up his delicious treats and not a one of them had the time to sink to the bottom and I was delighted, so I made a short, one minute video of him swimming around, to get his treats and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as he enjoyed it.

So, since I am hooked on Keb' Mo's music, I used his song, Life Is Beautiful, for the background music and for the title of this video. Enjoy!  Life is beautiful! (Even though my video skills are rather limited.)

Y'all have a great evening!

Do Not Open! Hacked Off!

Well, it looks like Tony's e-mail account has been hacked and we are hacked off about it. We didn't find out about it until this morning, from a friend.

When I went to my old e-mail account that was hacked a few years ago, sure enough, there were 3 e-mails from Tony, with no subject, so I opened each one and all 3 e-mails had different links to follow and of course, I did not click on the links, because who knows where they would have taken me.

So, to help Tone, who has now officially changed his e-mail address, please do not open any e-mails sent from Tony's old address, because he did not send them. I'll write more later.

Gloria Doidge!

Today has been a great Friday, even though Mercury is still in retrograde, until the 12th and it is also F.M.T. (Full Moon Time) again.

This morning before we did our morning chores, Tony helped me hang up, "The Okay Corral" sign on the newly, painted black, entrance gate to it and we love the way it looks on the gate.

While T. fed the dogs and I cleaned up their pens, The Best Volunteers In Texas, began to arrive and Jim was the first. Then a few minutes later came Ellen, Eileen, Lisa and Baxter, followed by Dottie and David and we were thrilled, but our super rescued dogs were even more excited to see them, because they knew they were going to definitely go for a fun walk and if they wanted to—a swim, in Wallace Creek.

When Tone and I had finished our chores I invited Eileen and Lisa, because they were up near the barn, to come see what we've done to improve The Okay Corral, but before we took off to go see it, Lisa gave T. and me some cutely decorated, white chocolate covered pretzels and butterscotch covered pretzels, with tiny chocolate Easter eggs, in the center of the nests and they were totally delicious. 

And then Ellen surprises me and tells me that she had gone to the Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation fundraiser, in Boerne and at their silent auction she had bought me a pink cowboy hat, worn by the late, famous Rodeo Queen Gloria Doidge and I immediately fell in love with it, but I could not thank Eileen enough, at the time, because my mouth was full of Lisa's homemade, mouth-watering, white chocolate covered pretzels. "Thank you, Eileen! I love the pretty, pink cowboy hat and I cannot wait to wear it, while riding Maya!"

I would show you a picture of Lisa's adorable Easter egg treats, but we have already devoured them and gained a pound, but I can show you the beautiful, famous cowboy hat that Eileen gave to me as a present. 

When our volunteers had walked all of our dogs we followed them over to Koyote Ranch, up the road, to eat lunch with them and Tony and I really enjoyed it, because all we did was laugh at their hilarious stories and latest, crazy antics, that they shared with us.

After lunch, Tony got on our riding lawn mower to cut the grass, so after returning a few phone calls, I went out to The Okay Corral to stain a bench and to also spray paint an old, metal chair a plum color, that was in desperate need of a new paint job.

And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening!

Purple Windmill!

Today has been great. This morning before Tony and I did our chores outside, we invited Kinky to come over to see our newly improved Okay Corral and he seemed to be very impressed with what we've done to it. "Kinky, can you believe that over ten years ago—this was the Friedman dump?" Kinky chuckled.

"What y'all have done to improve this piece of the property is amazing to me. The entire rescue ranch looks beautiful and it is a very special place. I like what y'all have done to the Okay Corral too..." As he sat on top of the picnic table, I pointed out our freshly painted purple windmill and then I bragged about our new flowerbeds, the solar lighting, etc., but what Kinky seemed to like the most was the purple windmill.

Late this afternoon Tony and I went to Kerrville to run several errands. Our last stop was at Wolfmueller Books to visit with Sandy and Jon and to talk about our next upcoming trip, that we are taking with them, which by-the-way is a secret for right now. 

As Jon looked at a hand held map and Sandy looked at a map on her iPad we discussed which route to take, what time we we're leaving, etc. and there was plenty of laughter through out our fun conversation. Twenty minutes later, when my back began to ache and we had a plan—we adios-ed our dear friends and came back home. And that is about it for tonight.

P.S. After we told them about the Sparrow Hawk scaring me and flying away with a sad, little Sparrow, he looked up the hawk, in a bird book and it was definitely a Cooper's Hawk. "It says here," Jon said. "Known for ambushing small birds at bird feeders and small mammals... "

Y'all have a great evening!

The Aren't People! or Life Is Beautiful!

Today has been a great day. This morning after Tony and I did our outside chores, we discovered that my faithful sidekick and companion, Roy Rogers, was in the dog house sort of, because he had wanted to come inside The Cabin, while we were working, so he single-pawedly tore up the new screen on our front porch window.

After I gently scolded one of my dearest friends, for tearing up the window screen that we had just replaced, last month, I leaned over and hugged and kissed my ninety-three pound, sad-eyed looking dog. Then I laughed and said, "It's okay, Roy. Don't worry about it. We're just not meant to have nice things. Some people are and some people aren't and we are—The Aren't People..."

Then I came inside The Cabin, grabbed my camera and took this beautiful picture of Roy-Boy looking a little guilty, through his newly torn up screened window, that he alone had done, because I could not be mad about something as unimportant as a ripped-up window screen, because it can be so easily repaired.

After I shot Roy, with my camera, Tony and I went outside to do some more beautification work in The Okay Corral. While he patiently planted dozens of my beautiful flowers in the wood-lined flowerbed, I spray painted the bottom part of our big windmill—purple. Then T. painted the top part for me, because I'm too short and the windmill, right next to my writing cabin, looks absolutely beautiful! Thank you, Tone!

While T. dug six deep holes to plant our new blooming Blue Plumbago plants, which are so beautiful and also my favorite blue plant—I stole rocks from our old fire pit, that we are going to redo using much larger rocks and I made a rocked-lined flowerbed, along the fence, in front of our beautiful, newly painted purple windmill.

Two hours later, we called it a day for The Okay Corral and then we sat down in the metal, lawn chair rockers to rest and to admire the beauty of our work today and five minutes hadn't passed, before I had the living daylights scared out of me. "OMG! Tony!" I screeched like an owl, as we watched this giant bird, just a few feet away from us, by his bird feeders, dive down and grab an innocent, sweet, little Sparrow eating seeds off of the ground and then it flew off with it! "Did you just see that Vulture do that?"

"That wasn't a Vulture, Nance. They have a name, which I think starts with a "P", but around here we just call them Sparrow Hawks..." Even though Tone explained it to me—I was sick about the poor Sparrow's fate—it never knew what hit him/her.

Before I end this beautifully written post tonight I must apologize to you, for purposefully over using the word "beautiful" so often, because while I wrote this evening—I've been listening nonstop to my new favorite Keb 'Mo song, Life Is Beautiful, because it is one beautiful/happy/upbeat song, that I am totally in love with, which earlier this evening I finally learned how to play all of the way through and can now pick on my guitar—that Ronnie made for me.

Y'all have a great evening, because life is beautiful and torn window screens don't matter at all.

Academy Of Country Music Awards!

My arms, legs and back are no longer aching, because I have spent the day inside The Cabin doing paperwork. I'm watching the Academy of Country Music Awards tonight and I am loving it.