Fish Tacos!

Today has been a great day. Ben came over early this morning to drink coffee and to eat breakfast with us, before he and Tony went outside to do the morning chores.

Our fabulous volunteers, June and Jim and Ruth, Jim's visiting sister-in-law, came out this morning to walk our dogs for us and we loved it, but our dogs loved it even more.

During a break, after Ruth had walked Guinevere and Underdog she told me that she was a big Kinky fan, so I picked up the phone and called Kink. "Kinky, can I bring Ruth over to meet you? She's..."

Five minutes later, I was introducing Ruth to Kinky, out by the front gate and then we went into the Lodge for a short, but fun visit with him and The Friedmans and Ben's two dogs Valerie and Penny. And before we left the Lodge, I shot Kinky and Ruth, so she could show the picture to her friends and family.

As Kermit took us safely back to the rescue ranch I could tell that Ruth was on Cloud Nine, because she had gotten to meet Kinky, tour the Lodge, meet The Friedmans and Ben's dogs, "The Girls From Austin," sit in a rocker, on his front porch and visit with him, as we watched his Hummingbirds feed from his many feeders. "He is such a nice man! I can't believe I got to meet him and..." She said, as we arrived back at the rescue ranch.

Early this afternoon, Ben and I had a lot of fun making lunch for the three of us. While Tony was back in his office, listening to his country music, we turned on my iPod and cranked up the volume and we started singing Sweet Emotion with Aerosmith.

A minute later, when Tone walked into the big room, he laughed and started teasing us about liking Aerosmith's music, because he only likes country music, so Ben and I quit cooking, for a minute and we started cutting-up (dancing) around the living room, like Ellen DeGeneres does on the beginning of her television show and Tony thought it was pretty hilarious, with our exaggerated dance moves, because I can't dance like the kids do nowadays. 

When that great song had ended and Alison Krauss began singing, we quit dancing and finished frying up our planko-breaded shrimp, for our fish tacos. Our late lunch was totally delicious. Ben ate three fish tacos, Tony ate two, overly- stuffed with shrimp, tacos and I ate just one fish taco and we still had plenty of shrimp left over, for T.'s and my lunch tomorrow. 

At 3:00, two nice women came out to possibly adopt a dog from us and they really liked Guinevere, the sweet Corgi/Sheltie mix, so please keep your finger's crossed for her, that she gets adopted tomorrow.

Around 6:00 this evening, we had more good news, because Rick and Leisa called, from Port A, to tell us that they would be coming to see us Sunday evening, instead of Monday and we can't wait to see them. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Through or Threw!

Today has been a really great day. This morning Miranda Lambert was Harley's Pet Of The Week on his popular, morning radio show. "Harley, Miranda is a lovely Border Collie. She's well trained, not hyper and she is really smart and she is a senior citizen, probably about ten-years-old. A friend of ours rescued her in a neighborhood about two weeks ago..." After a fun time talking to Harley, I went outside to clean the dog pens.

While I was outside cleaning the dog pens, Carlton took two very important phone calls and it made me smile when I listened to the two urgent messages, left by a mom and then by her daughter. Their messages were basically the same—Miranda Lambert was their dog! So I picked up the phone and called the mom first, to reassure her that Miranda was doing great, that we would not adopt their dog out and that they could come out and pick her up after the daughter got off from work today.

Apparently, their friends had listened to Harley and me talking about Miranda, so they called the mom and the daughter to tell them about our Miranda, so the mom and the daughter went online to see if it was their dog, because their dog had gotten out of their yard, two weeks ago, during the stormy weather.

After we ate lunch today, even though it was pretty hot, Ben went outside to do some more mowing, so Tone and I went outside to put Advantix II on all of the dogs and ten minutes later, while T. was putting the Advantix II on Martha Stewart—I made a terribly big mistake trying to use Tony's box cutter knife to open up the sealed packages.

Because I have never used a box cutter knife in my life, I didn't know how sharp they were, so when I pressed down hard to open up the package, the knife cut through the side of my right index finger, through the package and then cut through the vinyl of Kermit's newly reupholstered bench seat and it happened so fast, I didn't even know that my finger was cut and gushing blood.

"Oh no!" I said to Tony. "Tony, I just cut the seat with your knife. I didn't know it was that sharp and when I pressed down, like I do with my dull knives, it went right through the package and made a gash in the seat."

"Great," Tony answered, sounding a little bit sarcastic. Then we exchanged a few words about me cutting the seat accidentally and that kind of hurt my feelings. Then when I looked down and saw my bloodstained hand I got even with him.

I held up my finger and said, "Well, I hope that you are happy now, because I also nearly cut off my finger with your stupid knife." When T. saw my finger and all of the blood, he ran out of the pen and apologized to me, as he examined my finger. And then he apologized to me again, "Please don't ever pick up or use this kind of knife again, Nance. I should have warned you about it..." Then we hugged each other and then we finished putting the Advantix II on the rest of our dogs.

When we were done we went to the barn and laughed about my cutting-edge-accident with Ben for a few minutes and then I jumped into Kermit and came up to The Cabin, so I could clean my wounded finger and put a Band-Aid on it. Then I drove back up to the barn, with my scissors and a roll of Duct tape, so I could put a patch over the two inch gash that I'd made in Kermit's seat cover.

A few minutes later, around 4:00, the dogs started barking to let us know that the daughter had arrived, to pick up Miranda, so I grabbed my camera and Miranda's adoption form and then Tony and I jumped into Kermit to go meet her.

After we had met Lauren and her friend, they followed us to Lulu's and Miranda's pen and while T. tried to put a leash on one very excited, happy dog, Lauren told me that Miranda's real name was Maddie and that Maddie wasn't ten-years-old—she was actually twelve-years-old. Before they left to take Maddie back home, they thanked us over and over again for rescuing Maddie and then I took this picture of their happy, family reunion.

When I told Kinky all about Miranda/Maddie's story, he was delighted with my good news and he was glad that our Miranda had been reunited with her loving family—all thanks to my dear friend, Harley Belew and those friends of theirs, that listened to him on his popular, morning radio show this morning.

And that is about it for tonight, except for one more thing. This afternoon when I checked my blog and reread what I had written last night, I found a huge spelling error. Because I was so tired, and also because my spelling has literally gone to pot, in the past few years and it just isn't what it used to be, I used the word "through" when I should have used the word "threw" and I am sure that many of you caught my mistake, too and probably thought to yourself, "OMG! And she's stupid, too!" Anyway, I hope that it made you laugh. And please note that it has been corrected.

Y'all had a great evening!

P.S. I purposefully used the word "had" instead of "have" above—in hopes to make you laugh, once again, because laughing is so good for your health.

Happy Birthday Ellen Jackson!

Since I unfortunately missed Ellen Jackson's 70th surprise birthday party last night, that her sweet sister June threw for her, along with the rest of the Fab 4, Lisa and Eileen, I want to hopefully be the first to wish her the greatest birthday ever and so does Tony, so here we go.

"Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday Dear Ellen. Happy Birthday to You. And many more!"

Ellen, Tony and I absolutely adore you and because you never stop amazing me with all that you do, you are one of my heroes and a true inspiration to me. And besides that—you're way to cool! Have a great birthday and Ben and us will see you on Friday, to celebrate your birthday some more. We love you!

Going All In!

Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch Press Release: Our friend Bobby Hedderman loves animals and he wants to help our rescue ranch and we thank him and wish him luck!

MEDINA, TX – After a 45-year hiatus, singer-songwriter Bobby Hedderman has written and recorded a song benefitting the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch. “Going All In” is available to download for free with the option to donate.

Bobby will give 25% of donations from “Going All In” to our dogs and cats. The remainder will fund his “buy-in” to the 2012 World Series of Poker, where he will donate an additional 25% of his winnings. This could potentially be over $1 million to help care for thousands of needy animals. 

Founded in 1998 by Kinky Friedman, Nancy Parker-Simons, and Tony Simons, the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch has saved over 2,000 pets. Donations from “Going All In” will help buy everything from food bowls and leashes to responding to an emergency rescue. 

Bobby’s song can be downloaded on his new website BobbyHedderman.com. 

Happy Birthday Karen Cares!

Today is our dear friend, Karen Cares birthday! And Tony and I want to wish her the best birthday ever.

Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday to You. Happy Birthday dear Karen. Happy Birthday to You. And Many More...

Karen, I hope that you and 'Erb have a fun time celebrating today and we wish that we could be there to celebrate with you. Have a great Birthday!

A De-Clutter State Of Mind!

Today has been great and I finally feel that I'm back in the saddle, again. Early this morning I did Big G's radio show and Miranda Lambert, the sweet 10 years old, Border Collie, was his Pet Of The Week.

After lunch today, we hopped in Trigger and took off for Kerrville to run a few errands and our first stop was at Wolfmueller's Books, so we could say hi to Sandy and Jon and to give them some books we'd read, because I am in "A De-Clutter State of Mind."

Actually, I am into this de-cluttering thing right now, because I want to do a little redecorating inside The Cabin, which in reality is our beloved, 30 year-old Fleetwood trailer. It all started when I bought this Premier Issue of the magazine, "Romantic Prairie Style," which I think is a pretty cool magazine, because it is filled with lots of beautiful pictures, along with some great decorating advice. So, that is why I feng-shui-ed my books today and gave them to Jon and Sandy, in case they might want any of them to sell.

As soon as I get all of my de-cluttering done, which I'm sure will probably take me quite a while, I plan to first make a lamp for the big room, out of this old, rusty milk can, out on our front porch, that I bought years ago, at a garage sale, in Medina.

I already know that it needs plenty of sanding before I paint it, but I am not sure what color, if any, I am going to use. It is going to be a fun project for me and I know that when I am finally done with it—I'll be bragging all about how I did it all by myself, including the wiring, as I give Kinky, Carol and Ben and the rest of my great friends, including some strangers, "Now, the light's on— and now the light's off," live demonstrations of my light show.

Before I go tonight, to begin de-cluttering my office, I want to show y'all a great picture that Tony took this past weekend, of Ronnie & Nita's dog, Gus, flying through the air, before he landed in the water, to retrieve a stick for them.

Y'all have a great evening!

A Total Blast!

My fun weekend with Ronnie & Nita and Cindy & Ray was a total blast, but today has not been good, because of some serious plumbing problems that started around 5:30 tonight.

Tonight I was planning on writing about my family's fun visit this weekend, the kayaking, the jam sessions, etc., but the time has gotten away from me now. So, hopefully tomorrow will be a much better day for me and I will have the time to do what I love, which is writing.

Y'all have a great evening!