Christmas Dinners!

Today has been great and so was yesterday. Yesterday, after running several errands in Kerrville, we went to the H-E-B grocery store, on Main Street, so we could buy our rescue dog's Christmas dinner, which was paid for by our great volunteers: June, Ellen, Eileen, Jim, Kris & Jim, "The Mineral Man."

Earlier in the week, they had given me a check for $180.00 to pay for our dog's Christmas dinner and even though we forgot to buy the five dozen dinner rolls, when the cheerful cashier told me the amount, I chuckled, because the dog's holiday dinner cost $179.17. Here's the receipt.

Today we went to Kerrville to do some banking, mail out some thank you letters and my books and then we went to the same H-E-B store to buy groceries for Tony's and my Christmas dinner and it wasn't near as expensive as our dog's dinner, because I used some H-E-B coupons. And, we bought the 5 dozen dinner rolls for our dogs, as our small contribution for their dinner. Then Trigger took us home.

Around 3:40, Mama, my dear old Great Pyrenees, barked twice and then she ran and opened our front door (Because she knows how to open doors and gates.) and went outside. Then Tony walked down our hallway and said, "Did you order something? FedEx is here and then he went outside to meet their friendly driver. Then I went outside to watch.

After the driver had given Tony the box he drove away. When I saw Tony smiling as he approached me, carrying a box with intentional air holes, he said, "Karen and Terry have sent us some more  of those delicious pears!

They weren't just regular old pears, they were Harry & David Brand Royal Riviera Pears, which are considered to be the best pears, grown in Oregon, USA! They are remarkably sweet and juicy pears and can be traced back to 19th century France. They were brought to Oregon's Rogue Valley in 1897, where the climate provided ideal growing conditions. So, tonight before I end tonight's post I want to thank Karen and Terry for sending us those mouth-watering pears. I'm going to go eat one now.

Y'all have a great evening!

Life Is Not Fair!

Today has been so much fun. Tony and I went to Kerrville late this morning to attend our friends/ volunteers second annual Ladies Christmas luncheon. If you are wondering why Tone went to it, it is because this year we decided to include the men.

When we arrived at Lisa's and Chuck's home, Tony and I were the first to arrive and I was thrilled not to be late. I was also very happy that I had remembered to bring a pebble, to place in Lisa's beautiful labyrinth, had remembered to bring the right kind of H-E-B brand guacamole, for Lisa's brisket tacos and had not forgotten to bring signed copies of my novella, as Tony's and my Christmas gifts to these great friends/volunteers.

Minutes after we had arrived, everyone showed up bringing gifts and the food and beverages, that they had signed up to bring. And the fun party began instantly, before Lisa and Chuck had served everyone their beer and wine refreshments.

Because up to now this has been an exclusive "girls only" party, the men stayed in the kitchen talking about men things at their kitchen table, while us hens left our drinks inside their house, so we could follow Lisa outside, so we could walk in Lisa's gigantic labyrinth and place our small rocks at the end of it.

June, Ellen, Eileen and Kris had brought beautiful, very interesting looking rocks and I brought a small heart-shaped rock, about the size of a silver dollar, that I had found in Tom Landry's and Buffy's pen earlier this morning, while I was cleaning it. (Don't worry. After we did our morning chores outside, I washed it in the kitchen sink and dried it, before I put it in my purse to take with me.)

After we had walked-the-walk and placed our rocks in Lisa's super cool labyrinth, we climbed the huge stone steps back up to the house, so we could grab our drinks and then have an official hen-party, outside on their patio.

First we opened up our gifts and laughed about some of them and I was having so much fun, until Ellen told Kris and me, who was sitting right next to me, "Y'all's gifts have not arrived yet, so I don't have anything to give to you. So, you must act like big girls and understand."

Kris laughed and smiled and acted like a big girl should, but I couldn't resist, so I stood up and jokingly, put my hands to my eyes and pretended to cry. "I can't believe that Ellen has ruined my Christmas. Everyone gets a present but Kris and me. Life is not fair..." After all of us had quit laughing about that, we kept on laughing about funny stories that we traded back and fourth. Then we went inside to eat a delicious lunch.

We first started with June's tasty homemade soup, that I want the recipe for, followed by mouth-watering brisket tacos and then Ellen's to-die-for-delicious cake, that she had bought at Central Market, in Austin, last week.

All in all, today's Annual Ladies Christmas Party, was a total blast and Tony can't wait until next year, to attend another one, if we choose to allow the men.

Kinky called me earlier this evening and he told me that his West Coast Bi-Polar Tour has been a lot of fun and that he is looking forward to returning to the ranch on Friday and I can't wait to see him and that is about it for tonight, except I want to say, "Merry Christmas, Ellen! I hope your gift gets here before Friday, because The World ends on Friday."
: )

Y'all have a great evening!

My Second Book Review!

Here's what my dear friend Vern had to say in an e-mail to me about The Cowgirl Sisterhood: The Membership Drive, Part I!

Hi Nancy,

I just wanted to let you know that I received your new book yesterday. It is beautifully done and the cover photos are fabulous!

I started reading it this morning at around 5:30 AM and would have completed it in one sitting except for laughing so much at the part about you and Maya farting when you saddled her up! I laughed so hard that the tears caused me to have to stop reading for a while.

I loved the Vern character and got a laugh out of his business dealings. 

Thanks for including my character in your really funny adventure novella.

Please give Tone my best and tell him he has become my photo hero.

Peace and love,

Vern the Hippie

My First Book Review From Mari!

 Mari of the NoMads said...

Shameless plug for Nancy's new book here:

If you enjoy this blog and have followed it for any length of time, you will LOVE the book! This reader found herself drifting in and out of reality/fantasy as the lines do 'blur' in this book.

It's a blast to read.

And if you follow this blog, you know that I dislike being left 'hanging', as in when Nancy ends her blog posts "to be continued".

So that's my only complaint about this new book and you know it would be MY complaint - waiting for the sequel is the longest TO BE CONTINUED wait I hope I EVER have to endure! LOL

Buy it - you'll like it!

I think Nancy has created some wonderful characters in this book - she and Carol are liable to become America's favorite new heroines!

Personally I can't wait for the movie!

December 14, 2012 6:43 PM

Can You Hear Me Now?

Yesterday was a lot of fun for Tony and me. Our lunch with Mari was a total blast and yes, she and I out-talked Tone. In fact, T. only got to say fourteen words. After we had ordered our lunch, Mari gave me some really nice Christmas presents which I loved. Then I gave her a signed copy of my new novella, because she and her husband David are some of my favorite characters in it.

During lunch we talked about dogs. Her super trained, award winning agility dogs and Tony's and my personal not-really-trained-so-well dogs. We had a long, serious talk about how hard it is to find and buy Made In The USA products, because China makes just about everything now days. Then we talked about our friend Lori and her family opening up a Popeye's Chicken franchise in Kerrville. Then we started talking about getting older. We laughed about no longer being able to multi-task like we use to do, our forgetfulness and our aches and pains and that's when Tony finally got to speak.

"I use Kinesio tape for my back and shoulder," he said. (Nine words)

"What's that?" Mari asked.

"It's used in sports medicine and it has really helped Tony's back," I said. "Hasn't it, Tony?"

"Yes, and my shoulder, too," he said. (Five Words)

After I had told Mari all about the tape she told us, "David uses Salonpas to help his back and shoulder and then she told us all about the heated patches and where to get them.

So after a really fun lunch with Mari, we went straight to Walgreens and bought Tony Salonpas heated pads. Then we went to Wolfmueller Books to see Sandy and Jon, so they could buy some books from me for them to sell. Then we went to the Post Office so I could mail some books and then we came home.

Our dear friend Fourth came over around 6:00 to visit with us and to buy some more books, because his wife Lynda had just finished reading my novella and they wanted to give them as Christmas presents to their friends. And during our fun two-hour Happy Hour, we laughed and traded stories until 8:00, because Fourth needed to go home.

Today has been great. While Tony and I were outside doing our morning chores he told me that our dear friend Jimmie, who just turned seventy-years-old ate Chinese food for the very first time in his life and when Tony read it on Facebook he asked Jimmie why he hadn't ever tried it his response was, "I love BBQ and am a meat and potatoes kind of guy." (We love you, Jimmie!)

We went to Kerrville after lunch, so we could go to The Rev radio station, so we could drop off signed books for Harley and Big G, pick up some groceries at H-E-B and so I could mail out more books at the Post Office.

When we arrived at the station, Big G was in the lobby and after howdies, handshakes and hugs I gave him the books and then we had a fun conversation with him, before he had to get back to work. After mailing out more books we went to the H-E-B, on Highway 16 for two reasons, get groceries and get Tony's new ten-dollar Trac Phone working.

Last Tuesday, Tony and I bought each other new ten-dollar cell phones for Christmas, because ours were 1st generation and over twelve years old and Tony's no longer worked. That evening he called Trac Phone to get our phones activated and our minutes moved over, but there was a problem, but he didn't know it.

The next day after he had gotten our cell phones activated, his wouldn't let him make a call, because of a SIM problem. And because we have no cell service out here to check the phone, we decided before going to Kerrville today, that Tony would sit in Trigger, where there was a signal and use my new phone to work out the problem, while I bought groceries.

When I returned to the truck with our groceries, T. was still on the phone trying to get his to work. When I climbed into Trigger, Tony was talking to a tech and then when the tech put him on hold, Tony says, "Les came by to say hi to me, but I couldn't talk to him because the tech was giving me instructions. I feel terrible about it..." A few minutes later Tony's phone was activated and working!

When we got home I shot our good friend Les an e-mail explaining why Tony couldn't talk to him and that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Fourth!

Today has been so great, but I can't write about it tonight, because it is close to my bed time. Early this evening our dear friend Fourth, who is one of the quirky characters in my fiction novella, came out around 6:00 to buy some more copies of my book and after a couple of glasses of my cheap, boxed wine we got to talking and trading funny and interesting stories back and forth and before we knew it, it was already 8:00 and Tony and I had a blast visiting with him.

Tomorrow evening I promise to write about today, which will include our fun lunch with Mari, of The NoMads and our day.

Y'all have a great evening!

Cloud Nine!

As you can well guess, I am on Cloud Nine tonight, because my books arrived at 4:20 and I am thrilled with how they turned out and how many I have already sold.

Other than the excitement of receiving my books, nothing much has happened out here today. So, I am going to spend my evening packing my book orders, so I can ship them out tomorrow.

Y'all have a great evening!