Lois and Hank Sitting In A Tree!

Today has been nice and quiet. At noon, I heard Kermit outside and went out on the porch to see Tony and Frank across the creek. "Tony! Lunch is ready!" I hollered. "We're having lasagna and ask Frank to join us, because we have plenty." No sooner than I said that they jumped into Kermit and took off down the creek for the road.

During lunch Frank and I started talking about soups, so I got up and came back to the table with the book Easy Soup Recipes that Jon and Sandy had given to me for my birthday. "I love this cookbook," I said, as I sat back down. "The recipes are delicious and simple and..."

Throughout our lunch, Frank checked out the recipes and then we traded some of our own soup recipes. "I am definitely going to Wolfmuellers to buy this book," Frank declared, as I served him and Tony small slices of chocolate cake.

Around two o'clock I went down the hallway to Tony's office. "Tony, let's go outside and move some dogs around." A minute later after taking off my cotton-candy colored Crocs and replacing them with my pink Justin Gypsy boots we went outside.

While I leashed up Hank Hill, T. leashed up Baxter and Honey, in the big pen near our trailer, so he could put them in Hank's and Nellybelle's old pen. After putting Honey and Bax in their new pen, he took off to get La Toya and Maggie, because we were going to try putting Hank with them in the big pen, but that didn't happen, because while I was waiting on Tone, I walked Hank over to meet Lois Lane, who was wagging her tail wildly, in my writing cabin's fenced front yard and they instantly fell in love with each other and started licking each other through the fence.

"Tony!" I hollered into the wind. "Come down here! Don't get La Toya and Maggie. You've got to come see this!"

When Tony walked up holding two leashes in his hand, he smiled. "I would have never of guessed that those two would get along. Then T. and I took Hank and his new girlfriend for a walk, so they could really get to know each other. Twenty minutes later after a sniff-athon Lois Lane and Hank were romping and playing and running around their new gigantic pen. They were as happy as could be and so were we. Then we moved on as I sang "Lois and Hank sitting in a tree. K, I, S,S, I, N, G. First comes love. Then comes marriage..."

As Dr. John and his pen mate Maggie walked with me on leashes towards their new big pen near the gate entrance, we passed Tony walking with Lucy and Ashley Judd heading towards Dr. John and Maggie's old pen.

When I unleashed Maggie and Dr. John into their new gigantic pen they took off running down the fence line and Annie Oakley, in the pen beside them raced along with them. Needless to say, "I loved it, but not as much as they did."

As we walked back to the trailer we were glad to see that Baxter & Honey seemed happy with their new digs and so were Lucy & Ashley Judd and Hank & Lois Lane.

This evening while I was reading in Outer Space I heard the phone ring, but I couldn't hear who was calling, but Tony did. A few minutes later Tony came out on the porch, "Did you know that Jon Wolfmueller just called you? Come inside and listen to his message."

"Hello, Nancy. This is Jon. I just wanted to make sure that you knew that it is eight minutes until five o'clock—not six o'clock, but five o'clock. Bye." T. and I laughed as I punched in Sandy's and John's cell phone number. "Hello, Nancy."

"Hi, Jon," I said, as he and I started laughing. "Thanks for calling me. All of our clocks are set correctly, except for the one that I really love that Carol and James gave to us a while back. The big, fancy Atomic one that shows the weather and has Caller ID. I guess it won't be reset until tomorrow morning when the employees in Fort Collins come back to work. It is driving me crazy. I sure hope that tomorrow is not a holiday..."

I am fixin' to go make us some popcorn, because Tony and I are going to watch the Dallas Cowboys.

Y'all have a great evening!

Rover Misbehaving? Call Sharon Griswold!

Today has been a blast, because of our 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar. This morning at six o'clock when I climbed out of bed, because we have a high bed, I walked into the kitchen and turned on Mr. Coffee, then I checked the outdoor thermometer and it was thirty-two degrees! I was more than thrilled, because that means that Tony and I are done with the mowing until Spring rolls back around.

While our dogs ate their breakfast I started fixing our breakfast and by six forty-five T. was outside doing his morning chores in the dark, Queen Bee was busy washing our dirty clothes and Hazel came out of the closet. Fifteen minutes after the floors were cleaned of dirt and dog hair—she went back into the closet and then I jumped into the tub without hurting myself or the twenty-seven year old, plastic molded bathtub.

I have the weirdest bathtub. It was designed for trailers, made back in 1983 and it was meant to look expensive, but it doesn't come close, because I am pretty positive that whoever designed it had not been drug tested and should have been.

Her name is Mellow Yellow. She has been good to me for over fifteen years by not cracking, leaking or falling through the floor to ground level and I appreciate her for that, because thirteen years ago this couple I knew, were taking a romantic bath together with music and candles burning and suddenly their "love" tub, full of water and them, crashed through the trailer floor and landed on the ground below, with them still in it and then the candles quickly burned down their trailer. Fortunately, they were unharmed, but they did fall out of love and got divorced a few months later and I haven't heard from them since.

What makes Mellow Yellow weird is her giant step down into the tub, because it is useless and takes up over half of the tub's space and it makes no sense to me why it is there. I don't need a step down to get into an undersized bathtub. It is a total waste of space and it makes cleaning her hard to do, but I guess it does conserve water, so maybe that is a good thing after all. 

I love Mellow Yellow, but after my friends "Titanic incident," when I take a bath I only fill her halfway full or less and I use those battery operated "fake candles" just in case I suddenly come crashing down to earth. Okay, enough said about Mellow Yellow.

Today's event was fantastic thanks to Eileen Gotke and Ellen Jackson's hard work. The weather could not have been any better and the turnout was good and Mari and two members of The NoMads surprised us when they showed up. After everyone had arrived I introduced myself and then gave them a tour of the rescue ranch, so they could meet all of our dogs. 

Eileen had spent hours last week making up some really cute signs of our Top 10 Dogs to showcase and everyone really enjoyed reading them as we went from one dog pen to another. Thank you, Eileen!

After the tour, Sharon Griswold, the owner of "Rover Misbehaving?" did a great, informative presentation on dog training while everyone munched away on delicious homemade cookies, while sipping lemonade or tea that Eileen and Ellen had made. 

At one point during Sharon's interesting dog training seminar, T. was asked to get our dog, Lucy, a beautiful Heeler / Lab mix, for her demonstration, so Tone went and leashed up Lucy and delivered her to Sharon. Everyone was mesmerized as we watched Sharon work with Lucy and Lucy seemed to love it. When Sharon showed us how to properly massage a dog, Lucy would not quit kissing her on her face and mouth as Sharon rubbed her and explained to us why massage was so important to a dog.

When Sharon's dog training seminar ended I had learned so much from her, as did everyone else who had attended and we cannot thank her enough for volunteering to do the dog training seminar today. Thank you, Sharon Griswold of Rover Misbehaving?—You Truly Rock! And Lucy already misses you and she wants to know how much a massage costs.

This evening Kinky called me from Willie Nelson's bus in Norman, Oklahoma to ask me how the event went. I assume by what all I have written about it—you know what I told him. Then we talked about Pearl, who we think has found her forever home and then we laughed about a few other things. "Take care, Nance. I'll be home Monday. Bye."

This evening at six o'clock I decided to save a little time, so I went around the the trailer and set all of our clocks back one hour, so I don't have to get up in the wee hours of the morning and do what I did last week. It is kind of weird, because right now as I finish writing this it is only eight-fifteen on the kitchen clock, even though it is actually nine-fifteen. 

Today's 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar was a howling success! And I want to thank our great volunteers for doing all of the work for us. Thank you, Eileen Gotke, Ellen Jackson, June Hartley and Jim McMahon! We love y'all and cannot thank you enough! And thank you, Sharon "The Great Dog Whisperer" Griswold dog trainer! You're the best and we know it! I also want to thank all of the media coverage for helping us get the word out: Harley Belew at The Rose 99.9, Andy, Bryant, Roland and Kim at KVHC-TV Kerrville for having us on their show with Jermaine Jackson, Mikie Baker at the Bandera County Courier and Tom at The Kerrville Daily Times—you made it happen for us! Thank you, so much! We love all of y'all! Dogs Rule And So Do You!

Y'all have a great evening!

Can You Help These Dogs And A Goat!

I am trying to help my friend Grayson and his wife find good homes for their dogs and friendly goat. Due to some tragic incidents which are too much and sad to tell, they are being forced to give up their fur family and my heart goes out to them. They have spent over a year placing their pets and now only have 3 dogs and 1 goat. If you can help by adopting one of these sweet animals please call me as soon as possible because they only have until this Sunday to find them homes. Here are the pictures and write ups that he sent to me.

Wolfie, the Black Akita mix- very friendly, she is spayed and will hug all day if you let her. She gets along with other dogs well. 

Angel is the Chocolate silver Poodle mix, 8+ years old, she is like a stuffed toy, laying next to you forever. She gets along with other dogs and cats and is spayed and house and crate trained. We've never heard her bark.

Mabel is the small black terrier mix. Very friendly, loves attention. She is so cute. She is hard of hearing and doesn't see really well, but makes up for it with love. She is 12+ years old (we think) and is spayed.

Buddy is the Nubian goat from a petting zoo. He is pretty big but loves attention, especially rubbing his head and giving him carrots. He is about 5+ years old and is neutered.  

Please pass this along to anyone who you might be interested in helping. Thank you.

My Finger Wouldn't Quit Bleeding!

Well, I guess that I am just lucky, because today has been a another wonderful day for me. This morning after I walked eight more miles with Leslie, I spent my morning doing paperwork, answering e-mails and returning many phone calls.

After lunch Tony and I went outside and started mowing the rescue ranch, so it will look beautiful for our 1st Annual Dog Adoption and Training Seminar this coming Saturday. Since T.'s back was out, he rode the riding lawn mower and I push-mowed for three hours and then I grabbed the Weedeater and did some trimming around the dog pens.

When we finished working outside we came inside the trailer and sweet Tony plucked fifty-four stickers that were stuck and embedded in my clothes. Thank you, Tone, even though you called me a stickler for yard work. I am thrilled with how much we accomplished outside today and hopefully by tomorrow we can finish it up in three hours or less.

Twenty-two minutes into our nightly Happy Hour, after I drank a glass of  fine, red boxed wine and Tony had finished off his beer the phone rang at six forty-seven and I let Carlton take the call. "Nancy, Tony! Tony, Nancy! Please pick up the phone. This is Mary Chavoustie with Texas Animal Imprints magazine. Connie Strong and I are at your gate and it is closed. We have a present that we want to give to y'all..."

"Hello, Mary. How are you? You and Connie are at the gate?" I asked, puzzled that a cell phone was getting service out here.

"No, actually, we are calling you from Kinky's Lodge. Frank let us use Kinky's phone..." As soon as we hung up, Tony went outside and jumped into Kermit and took off to go open the gate for them.

Two minutes later Connie and Mary pulled up to the trailer, got out of Connie's car, wearing big grins on their faces as they always do, and then the hug-fest began. "We just finished interviewing Copper Love and we love her," Connie said. "What an interesting woman..."

"We couldn't resist coming out to see y'all since we were so close," Mary said.

"We have a present to give to you," Connie said, as she went over to her car and opened the back seat door. "Since we can't be here for your annual Dog's Thanksgiving Dinner we brought you this to help cook their dinner." Connie held up a large, shiny stock pot with a cute kitchen towel, two big wooden spoons and three pot holders attached to it by a ribbon. Tone and I grinned.

"OMG!" I said. "Thank y'all so much! I love it and we sure can use it. I swear, y'all are two of the sweetest women I know. I can't believe that you drove all of the way out here to bring us a present. I'm gonna go get my camera. I'll be right back."

When I came back outside—Tony shot us. Mary is on the left and Connie is on the right. Then Mary shot Tony and me with the pot.

We had a short, but really fun visit with these two super cool women and trust me, there was a lot of laughing. After I showed them my new teeth and told them about my whistling problem they complimented me and then we talked about their hilarious "bloody" trip to Walmart to buy our gift, after interviewing Copper. "Before checking out at Walmart we went to the Eye Care department to borrow a pair of scissors, so we could cut the ribbon and I cut my finger on a sharp edge under the lid handle and my finger started bleeding profusely." We all started laughing. "There was blood all over my clothes and jeans and my finger wouldn't quit bleeding," Connie continued. "So, we then went to the Customer Service department and I told them that I wasn't going to sue them, but they needed to remove the stock pot from their inventory, because of the sharp edge and that they needed to give me a Band Aid." Then she showed us her bandaged finger and we laughed. "Tomorrow I am going to call your friend Rick Reichenbach, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper" in Port Aransas and make a date to go interview him."

"Y'all are going to love Rick," I said. "I'll call him tonight. Hopefully, he will invite you to spend the night on the island. It is a totally awesome experience and..."

As the sun sank behind the mountain, knowing that they had a five hour drive ahead of them to get home, they told us that they had to leave, so we had another hug-fest and then we bid them farewell and wished them a safe trip home. "Please tell Joni that we send her our best," I half-hollered, as they drove away.

P.S. 'Erb Cares, I am sorry that I missed your phone call last night. I love you and Karen and please give her and y'all's five dogs a hug from me.

Y'all have a great evening!

I Seem To Whistle Some!

This morning before walking eight miles I called Kinky and wished him a happy birthday. Then we discussed and made a plan to meet at eleven o'clock at The Hat, so Tony could go with him to a business meeting, while I ran some errands.

At two minutes before eleven o'clock we drove into The Hat's parking lot and I was mortified at what I saw! Kinky was sitting inside Mr. Green Jeans with the windows rolled down, puffing on a cigar and surrounded by two squad cars as another one was pulling up. "What in the heck is going on?" I asked Tony. 

As soon as T. parked Buttermilk we got out of the car slowly, because the police were watching us and we walked up to Kinky's truck. "Kinky?" I asked. "Why is your pickup surrounded by the squad cars?" Kinky slowly blew out a puff of smoke.

"Someone called the cops and told them I was smoking in Albertsons. That's what."

I looked down at the grocery sacks on his front seat. "You didn't smoke in there? Did you?"

"Of course not! I know better than that, Nance." Kinky said, as we watched one police car slowly drive away.

"I can't believe this," I said. "Were the Police nice to you?"

"Yes," Kinky said. "They were very nice to me. They came up to the truck and told me that someone had called 911 to report that they had seen me smoking my cigar inside Albertsons. They asked me if I had and I told them no, I hadn't. Then they were almost apologetic about it and told me they were only having to do their job. The Police were definitely nice to me. It wasn't their fault at all that some #@*^* jerk spends his or her time calling 911 about people smoking."

After the other two squad cars took off in opposite directions I said, "This is unbelievable to me. Think about it. What a waste of time and money for the police to have to waste their time checking out so called smoking reports when they could be out there protecting us instead. What a stupid law. It makes me sick..."

"Load up, Tony," Kinky said, as he started up Mr. Green Jeans. "We got mens-work to do. We'll see you soon." As they drove away I climbed inside Buttermilk and headed for 1121 Second Street, the home of Kerrville's ISD— Club Ed.

I walked inside the Club Ed building and as I was telling a friendly woman that I wanted to sign up for the One Day Portrait Class that requires no skill, a man said, "Well hello there, Cousin Nancy." I turned around and greeted the friendly man. "I'm Phil Houseal, the Director for Club Ed and I listen to you on The Harley Show and I feel like I already know you..." After I signed up and got my receipt, Phil asked me if I had the time for him to interview me for his weekly column that he writes for the Kerrville Daily Times.

A minute later I was sitting in Phil's office being interviewed for the column that he writes about Club Ed and it was a lot of fun. He asked me about what classes I had taken and I told him that my first class was how to play the piano real fast and he knew about me signing up for the drum class with Donna Schloss and we talked about how fun it had been and then I told him about Tony, June and me going to that Drumming Circle at The Yoga Space on my birthday. Then we talked about me doing a class about our rescue ranch and I told him that I would to do it. I really enjoyed visiting with Phil while he took notes and twenty minutes later my last words to him or so I thought were, "I love Club Ed!"

As I stood up Phil asked, "Would it be okay if I took some pictures of you for my column and our next catalog? We could go outside and it would only take a minute." 

I laughed and then explained to him why I had laughed. "You see, Phil, I just got dentures last Wednesday and I would love for you to take my picture. In fact, you will be the first person to take a picture of me with my new smile. I am still having a little trouble talking and I seem to whistle some when I say the words..."

Outside I posed next to the Utopia sign on Buttermilk's front door as Phil shot me over and over again while holding different props in my hands. Before leaving I gave Phil a copy of my new book, Meanwhile Back At The Rescue Ranch: The Dog Days of Cousin Nancy. 

Then we went back inside and the friendly receptionist gave me some paperwork to fill out for my teaching position. Then I shook hands with Phil, said goodbye to them and left the building.

Thirty minutes later my cell phone rang. "Where are you?" Tony asked, calling from Kinky's cell phone. 

"I'm checking out the groceries right now."

"Good. Meet us at The Hat for lunch. We're headed that way now. Bye."

When I walked inside the Mexican Restaurant Kinky waved to me from a blue colored booth that he and Tony were sitting at. "How did the meeting go?" I asked, as Tony stood up to let me slide across on his side of the booth.

"It went great," Kinky answered, and then he started laughing, as the waitress served them their hot meals. "Everyone there knew who Cousin Nancy was, too. They said they listen to Harley and read your blog. And Fourth Coates was there, too..." We had a fun lunch and left thirty minutes later to go home.

Late this afternoon Tony drove me to the Medina Post Office so I could mail out some letters and pick up my package from my friends Karin and Jurgen Pohlmann, who live in Germany. As T. drove me home I opened up the tube and pulled out a birthday card, a letter, an old 1955 Poodle book. As we drove home I read Karin's sweet letter to him and showed him the cute birthday card and the Poodle book which had some very funny Poodle pictures in it. 

Then I pulled out a poster wrapped in brown paper. When I unrolled it I smiled and teared up, because the Boston Terrier behind the pink balloon looked a lot like my Yoda. To say the least I loved it and thought it was beautiful. I showed it to Tony and he liked it too, while we set at the portable signal light waiting for it to turn green on Highway 16. The rest of the way home I couldn't quit admiring the poster. Thank you, Karin and Jurgen! Y'all are tooooooo sweet! I had Tony hold it so I could take this picture of it.

This evening I received two photos from my new friend Phil Houseal. Drum roll, y'all............Here is my first picture taken of me with my new smile. Compliments of Phil.

P.S I just called Cindy and Ronnie and told them to look at tonight's blog if they wanted to see my new smile. Ron just called and said he liked them and I am waiting for Cindy to call back.

Yall have a great evening and keep smiling!

Time Goes By!

Well, first off, I feel like a complete idiot about the time change that happened, but never really happened. Last night or should I say in the wee hours of the morning I got up and reset all of our clocks back one hour and then I went back to bed and had some really weird dreams.

At six o'clock this morning (which was really only 5:00) when the alarm went off I was having this funny dream that I didn't want to end, because I was enjoying my dream and felt really tired. In my dream I was with Jim (my late husband) standing inside our monogramming shop, holding Yoda, my beloved Boston Terrier, in my arms and we were laughing with all of these people that I didn't know. Then I was rudely awakened when Hank and Toto used my stomach as their launching pad to get down to the floor.

After I fed the dogs I started a load of laundry in Queen Bee, drank my smoothie and then walked eight miles before Tony got home. Then I fixed him his breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen dishes and threw our cleaned, wet clothes into Airy Queen to dry.

When T. went outside to do his morning chores I took care of a little paperwork and then I went outside and reset the clocks in Trigger and Buttermilk, so Tone wouldn't have to do it later. Then I set down and read a few pages of the book, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, that Eileen had loaned to me. I love the book and it is another one of those books that you can't put down.

Around eleven-thirty (fake time) Tony returned to the trailer and I told him that I was tired of eating soup and suggested we go out to eat for lunch, because I was officially taking the day off. "After lunch can we go to the storage unit in Medina, because I want to see if there is anything I have that I can sell on eBay. I'm hooked and I don't have anything to sell."

"That sounds fine to me, but on our way to Medina can we go by and see the buffalos on 2828, so I can take some pictures of them?" I nodded my head up and down and smiled.

Since I am still on a liquid diet we decided to speed things up, so we went to the Sonic Drive Inn for lunch, which we haven't been to in over four years. Tony ate Tater Tots, drank a Coke while he munched on a # 1 Cheeseburger without onions, with mustard, mayonaise and ketchup, as I spooned what was left of a cold, chocolate milkshake into my mouth.

Twenty minutes later T. was outside standing next to Buttermilk shooting a herd of Buffalo with his Canon, as I finished off my healthy lunch. Eighteen minutes later we were standing inside the storage unit staring at "our stuff" that we had forgotten about and obviously didn't need. After we loaded a few possible eBay items to sell into Buttermilk's back seat we headed home.

When we walked inside the trailer—Carlton was flashing to let us know that someone had called, so I pressed the play button and listened. The first call was from Kinky, "Nancy, Tony. Nancy, Tony. Call me. It is not urgent. I just walk to talk to you." The second or the last message was from our friend Jon Wolfmueller.

"Hello, Nancy. This is Jon. It is 12:43 not 11:43. The time change happens next Saturday. I hope you've got the right time now. It is 12:44 now. Bye." I was speechless, but only for a second.

"Tony!" I half-hollered down the hallway. "The time change is for next Saturday. You were wrong, but it is no big deal. We've just gained an hour!" Then I happily went about resetting all of our clocks, again, including Buttermilk's and Trigger's.

Nineteen minutes later I started cleaning the items I was going to put up for auction on eBay and then I shot them and started uploading them on eBay. After putting a framed 1981 Larry Dyke limited edition print, an old wooden wall display for miniatures, a Hermon (the spelling is correct) Adam's collectible porcelain plate titled "Spirit of the Night" by the Western Heritage Museum I was done, so I took a break and folded and hung up our laundry and that is when I discovered another item to auction off on eBay!

As I was wrestling with a coat hanger that refused to come off of the rod in the closet I spotted a shiny thing that was nearly covered up by an old quilt, so I reached up and grabbed it. The moment that I saw it—it made me smile and warmed my heart as fond memories filled my head of the good old days of long, long ago.

Thirty minutes later after shedding a few tears about Jim and our past, I wrote this and uploaded it to eBay to be auctioned off, because I don't need it anymore and it is only taking up space which I have so little of. I hope that it will make you laugh and smile as it did me as I wrote it.

"In 1984 my late husband, Jim Parker and I won 1st place in our sailing division, at the annual Austin Yacht Club Turnback Canyon Regatta, a two day event every Memorial Day. He got the honors and this handsome 10-1/2" pewter trophy plate and I only received a keychain for crewing for him and doing all of the hard work: like changing out the sails, winching in the sheets, while hoping not to get knocked in the head by the Boom and sunburned, etc. When I think about it now, it makes me laugh about our fun-filled sailboat racing days way back when. And, not to brag, but Jim and I won 1st place at the Turnback Canyon Regatta—three years in a row and I think we still hold the record for it.

I lost my two-dollar keychain somewhere down the road of life and when I found this trophy that he prized, tucked away in my closet, I decided to put it on eBay, because it is just taking up space. If you buy this prestigious trophy you can put it out for display and impress your friends with telling wild stories about how you won this trophy on a Catalina 22 named the "Bull Sheeter" in the non-spinnaker division. And I promise not to ever tell. Happily, my sailing days are over, but I will always have those fond memories—unless I get Alzeihmers. Happy Bidding and the shipping is free—no pun intended!  : )

P.S. If I can find my leather sailing gloves I will throw them in for free if I can find them and my dogs didn't eat them...

Y'all have a great evening! It is now 8:30. 

Chicken Fried!

Today has been great, but tonight's post is going to be short, because I want to play my guitar for a little while before I have to go to bed early, so I can get up at 1:00 to reset all of our clocks.

This afternoon around two o'clock the dogs outside started barking to let us know that someone was here. "I hope that it is Robert and Traci's friend, David, coming to adopt Nellybelle," I said, as Tony and I walked out the front door to go greet the stranger getting out of his black Jeep Cherokee.

In a matter of minutes David was no longer a stranger to us—we liked him, as Traci and Robert had promised. When we reached Nell-Bell's and Hank's pen it was love at first sight for David and his new-found forever friend. But, Hank was a little bit jealous though, as he watched David and Nellybelle fall in love.

"Betty Boop is a great dog," David said, as he petted his newest best friend. "Last night I was over at Robert and Traci's house and Betty and Jake just slept peaceably near our feet as we visited. "They are so happy about adopting Betty Boop and so is Jake. You should see the pile of toys that they have already bought for her!"

Thirty minutes later after we had visited with David, he anxiously signed Nelly's adoption papers and told us that he could not wait to take her home. Before they drove away I took this picture of Nellybelle and David.

After I filed away Nelly's adoption papers, I went over to the Lodge to visit with Kinky and tell him the great news about Betty Boop's and Nellybelle's super adoptions. To say the least—he was thrilled. Then we went outside. "Nance, I still can't believe how beautiful your new teeth are," Kinky said, while he carried in one heavy plant after another inside, so the soon-to-be freeze wouldn't kill them.

"I know, Kinky. Wednesday afternoon, when we went to Kerrville for supplies, we stopped by Wolfmueller's Books and Sandy and Jon thought my teeth looked great, too and they told me that you had told them that I should have done it years ago." We were laughing about it when Frank walked up and greeted us. Then we went inside, so Kinky and Frank could watch the UT / Georgia football game.

As I pushed balls around the pool table, trying to sink them into the pockets, we visited, as they watched the game with the sound muted. An hour later Buttermilk took me home.

Tonight T. and I had an enjoyable dinner with Lisa & Mark-In-Mississippi—in Kerrville. Tone and I love Lisa and Mark and they love each other. The four of us did a lot of laughing as usual, as we ate dinner. During one part of our conversation Mark told T. and me that he was born in DeQueen, Arkansas and had lived there for the first eight years of his life, but he didn't know our friends Nelda and Jimmie Dunn. He couldn't believe that we had friends from his small hometown.

"Mark, I had never heard of DeQueen, Arkansas until I met Nelda and Jimmie," I said. "It is a small world isn't it?" Then Mark told us that his father had been a doctor up there and I cannot wait to find out from Jimmie and Nelda if they remember his father.

Well, that is about it for today. I'm going to go get my guitar out of my office and try to figure out how to play one of my favorite Zac Brown Band's songs—"Chicken Fried."

Y'all have a great evening!