I'm On Fire!

Today has been great, even though our dogs and me overslept this morning. We didn't wake up until 7:30, but by the time Tony had returned home, from the Old Timer, I had already cooked up a big stack of delicious Aretha Frankensteins' Insanely Great Pancakes for him, Ben and me, to eat for breakfast. And needless to say, "Ben is now hooked on Aretha's pancakes too," which is sort of sad, because this morning, I used up the rest of Aretha Frankensteins pancake mix, that Eileen gave to us.

This afternoon I fixed sandwiches for Tony, Ben and me and after we ate lunch Ben and I decided to jam, because Ben had learned how to play and sing, Bruce Springsteen's great song, I'm On Fire. And within a couple of minutes, after Ben had told me what the chord progression was for the song, we put a bluegrass spin on it, which made Tony come out of his office and say, "Y'all sounded fantastic together! I want to hear that again..."

So, Ben played his mandolin and sang the song again for Tone, as I finger picked my guitar as fast as I could and not to brag, we really did sound pretty good. After we had performed Springsteen's song for Tony, he went back into his office aka man cave and that's when Ben I decided to have some fun and turn some old Motown songs into bluegrass songs and we had a lot of fun jamming together, until my fingers were killing me and I had to put my guitar up, for the day.

Early this evening we unplugged everything inside the trailer, because we actually had a few serious thunderstorms, thank goodness. Because we were unplugged, Ben, T. and me and all of our dogs went into Outer Space for a really fun visit. While we laughed and teased each other a lightning bolt suddenly hit really close, so I bolted and ran inside The Cabin, because it had scared me and when I finally came back outside to rejoin them, they teased me relentlessly for being so scared of lightning.

After re-telling them the true story about my mother being hit by an eighteen-wheeler, in downtown Fort Worth, when she was real young and having to have a metal plate put into her head and missing school for a year, with her identical twin, who didn't have a metal plate in her head, which no longer made them identical and the surgeons warning my grandparents, "that my mom was a walking lightning rod and to be careful during electrical storms" and then my mother putting the fear of lightning into my brother Ronnie, sister Cindy and me at an early, impressionable age—they roared so loud with laughter, that we could not hear the thunder going on around us.

When the thunderstorms had ended, we checked our rain gauge and we were delighted to find that we had received over a half inch of much needed rain. Then Ben grabbed his mandolin and adios-ed us, so he could get back to Austin. And that is about it for today, because it just thundered outside and we need to unplug, again.

Y'all have a great evening!

I Hope Your Knees Are Okay!

Today has been a lot of fun. Early this morning Ben came out to help Tony, for a few days, so my morning started out with a lot of laughing, because Ben kept telling us funny jokes.

Around 9:30, our super great dog-walking volunteers/friends; Jim and Eileen showed up, just a few minutes apart and I want to thank both of them, because Jim walked 17 dogs and Eileen walked 16 dogs and our dogs loved it.

When the dog walking was over, I had a fun time visiting with Eileen and Jim, as they rested in the shade and drank water, as we watched Tony and Ben preparing the ramps to load up Kermit, on a borrowed trailer, because Kermit was fixin' to go to Kerrville to get fixed.

When the ramps were set and ready for Kermit, Eileen, Tony, Jim and I slowly pushed Kermit up the steep ramps, as Ben stood in front of the trailer, using a come-along with a heavy chain attached to Kermit's front bumper, hand-cranked to help pull Kermit onto the trailer.

While Tony and Ben tied Kermit to the trailer, Jim adios-ed us and then he drove away. Then Eileen and Ben got to telling hilarious jokes and I was laughing so hard my back began to ache, even though I didn't understand one of Ben's jokes, that he and Eileen had to explain to me, before Tony, Ben, Buttermilk and Kermit took off for Kerrville. "Tony, I think I am going to go to the pound to rescue a dog, while y'all are gone," I said. "Y'all drive careful."

A few minutes later, after Eileen and I had adios-ed each other, I grabbed my purse, then jumped into Trigger to go to the pound, in Kerrville. When I arrived at the pound, I called Ben. "Ben, I'm in Kerrville, at the pound. Where are y'all?"

"We just dropped off Kermit."

"Do y'all want to meet me for lunch somewhere?"

"Sure," Ben answered. "Tony, the big baby, says he's starving."

"Okay, give me fifteen minutes and I'll meet y'all at..." After quickly looking at the dogs, at the pound, I told the staff that I would come back, after lunch, with Tony and Ben, so they could help me pick out a dog.

Then when I tried to back Trigger out of their parking lot, I couldn't do it, because we were wedged tightly between two cars. So, when I saw a man, that works at the pound walk by, I jumped out of Trigger and asked him if he could please back Trigger out for me, because I have never been good at backing up. He smiled and gladly jumped into Trigger, instantly banging his knees on the steering wheel, because my seat was as close as it could be to the brake. "The first knob, near the front, on the side there, will move the seat backwards for you," I said, trying to be helpful.

After he had moved the seat, as far back as it would go, from the steering wheel, he backed Trigger out for me. "Thank you, so much," I said, as I climbed back into Trigger and moved the seat as close as it could be to the steering wheel.

When I arrived at the restaurant, Tony and Ben were already there, sitting at a table, waiting on me. "Did you get lost?" Tony teased. "We've been waiting for over twenty-five minutes and we were about ready to send out a rescue team to find you." Ben started laughing.

"I'm sorry, I'm late. I had to get one of the men employees to back Trigger out of the parking lot for me and when he did, he banged his knees on the steering wheel, because my seat was too close to the steering wheel." Which made them burst out laughing. Then Ben made a hilarious wisecrack, which I can't repeat, about me being so short.

After a fun lunch with the guys, we jumped into Trigger and went to the pound to get a dog and while we were in the lobby, as I was signing off on the paperwork for Hank, a beautiful, happy, young yellow Lab, the nice man who had backed Trigger out for me earlier, walked inside. "Tony, Ben, that's the nice man who helped me with Trigger. Thank you, so much for backing Trigger out for me," I said. "I hope your knees are okay?" Then Tony, Ben and the man looked at each other, smiled and started chuckling.

When it was time for us to go, Hank and I climbed into the backseat, so Tony and Ben would have enough leg room and a few minutes later, when we arrived at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to drop off Hank, to get him his shots and neutered etc., my face was soaking wet from Hank's constant licking.

When the three of us left the clinic, Underdog sat happily beside me, in the backseat, until we arrived at the restaurant, to let Ben out, so he could drive Buttermilk, with an empty trailer attached, back to the ranch. And I am happy to say that Underdog slept between Tone and me all of the way home. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Wild Zinnias!

Last night I ended up watching, When Harry Met Sally, and I loved it, even though I watch that movie at least once a year, because it is so cute and it makes me laugh a lot.

Today has been good. This morning, while Tony did the chores outside, I decided to stay inside, so I could deep clean The Cabin.

Around 10:00, our dogs started barking inside, so I went outside to see what was going on and when I saw a big, fancy pickup pull up to the Okay Corral, followed by Tony, I left our yard to go greet the visitors. "Nance, Joe and Cecil have just started a rescue ranch," Tony said. "They wanted to come out to see how we did it and do it."

After Joe and Cecil introduced me to Carol, a sweet, young woman, who wants to be a vet and helps them with their dogs, I gave them a tour of our rescue ranch, while Tony went back to doing his chores.

Even though I liked Joe, Cecil and Carol and I had really enjoyed visiting with them, I didn't invite them to come inside The Cabin, like I would normally do, because Hazel, my lavender vacuum cleaner, was standing upright, in the middle of the big room and some of our furniture was out of place, because I had moved it, so I could deep clean. But fortunately it didn't matter after all, because they couldn't stay, because they needed to get back to their shelter, located near Temple.

Tonight, before I started to write this, I checked to see if any new comments were made on last night's post, because earlier today my dear friend Fay had made a funny comment about when her girls were young and she giving them pomegranates to eat in the bathtub, so they wouldn't get stained.

When I checked my comment box I found that my good friend Mari, of The NoMads, had made this funny comment too:

"Those wildflowers look just like zinnias...Methinks some 'tame' seeds snuck into the wildflower package..."

Because I immediately burst out laughing when I read her comment I answered her back with this:

"Hi Mari! Thanks for making us laugh. I just told Tony, "Maybe they are wild Zinnias!""

Then I grabbed my camera and took this picture of my wild flowers, that Tony had handpicked for me, earlier this morning.

And that's about it for tonight, because I'm fixin' to go watch Dallas, that I recorded last night, while I was watching, When Harry Met Sally.

Y'all have a great evening!

Picture Perfect Pomegranate!

This afternoon Tony and I went to Kerrville to run a few errands, but the main reason that I had wanted to go to Kerrville was to buy some pomegranate juice at H-E-B. The reason that I wanted to buy the pomegranate juice was because Sandy and Jon called me last night, to tell me that they had added a teaspoon of it to the water and sugar mixture that they put in their Hummingbird feeders and they hung it up beside another Hummingbird feeder, which only had the clear water and sugar mixture, to find out which feeder the Hummers preferred.

When their scientific experiment, "Do Hummingbirds prefer clear or colored water?," had ended they called me with their test results, "Nancy, the Hummers definitely prefer colored water to just plain clear water! We used 100% pomegranate juice and we only added a teaspoon to the sugar-water mixture and our Hummers only wanted to drink from that feeder. The next time that y'all come to town, you need to buy only 100% pomegranate juice and we promise that you'll attract more Hummers," they told me on their speakerphone.

After running our errands, our next to the last stop was at H-E-B to buy gas for Buttermilk and pomegranate juice for our Hummingbirds. While T. was outside, at the pumps, filling up Buttermilk, I went to the fruit and vegetable section, where the refrigerated juices are kept and I found several varieties of small bottled Pom Pomegranate juices, but they were out of the just plain 100% Pomegranate Juice and I was really disappointed.

Then I looked below the shelf with the small bottles on it and found several large bottles of Pom 100% Pomegranate juice and to say the least, "I was absolutely thrilled until I discovered how expensive it was. Knowing that Tone was outside waiting on me, I decided to go ahead and buy it anyway.

Our last stop was at Wolfmueller's Books, so we could tell Sandy and Jon that we had bought some pomegranate juice, but when we entered their popular bookstore it was full of Kerrverts and tourists buying their books, so we sat down at a table and waited for a chance to tell them.

During a momentary lull, they came over to greet us. "We just bought some Pom 100% pomegranate juice, at H-E-B, and it was expensive. They were out of the smaller bottles, so I bought a large bottle of it and it cost over $10.00."

"You should have bought a smaller bottle of it on the juice isle that isn't refrigerated. It's much cheaper," Sandy said.

"What kind did you buy?" I asked.

Sandy got up, grabbed her iPhone and said, "Here, let me show it to you," then she showed me a picture of their pomegranate juice bottle, which made me burst out laughing.

"Sandy, I can't believe that you took this picture of your pomegranate juice?" I teased. Jon, Sandy and Tony started laughing. "I mean it is a picture perfect pomegranate juice bottle and you centered it nicely, but do you honestly take pictures of all of your groceries? I'm sorry, Sandy, but I've got to blog about this, because there hasn't been much going on for me to blog about lately. And when I get home, I am going to take a picture of our Pom 100% Pomegranate Juice bottle and then e-mail it to you."( And that's exactly what I did when we got home.)

While we were still laughing, some nice people walked into the bookstore and the woman says to Sandy, "Hi, I am Gianna from the University of Texas Press and this is Chris. We drove down from Austin to check out your famous bookstore."

"Well, you've come at the perfect time, because one of your authors, Nancy Parker-Simons is here with her husband Tony. I'm Sandy and this is my husband Jon..." And the rest is history and it was fun.

Here are a few pictures that I took this evening of our beautiful wildflowers, that Tony planted a while back for me, because my favorite flowers are wildflowers.

Tonight, because of the sad passing of Nora Ephron, a woman whom I greatly admired, I plan to watch either When Harry Met Sally or Sleepless In Seattle or You've Got Mail or Julie & Julia, because they are my most favorite movies.

Y'all have a great evening!

Thirty Hours!

Today has been a nice, quiet day. This morning I helped Tony with the morning chores outside and it was harder than usual, because Kermit is temporarily dead, because of a dead battery. While Tony was in town this morning he purchased a replacement battery for Kermit this morning, but the new battery cannot be used yet, because the directions on the battery said that after adding the acid, that came with the battery, it cannot be used, for thirty hours after adding the acid, so we were on foot, the whole time this morning.

The only good thing to come out of all of this "thirty hours waiting period" is we walked around outside for nearly two hours and we got our exercise in, for the day. Even though we have never had to add acid, that comes attached to the battery, or have had to wait thirty hours before usage, I have a whole new appreciation for Kermit.

This afternoon, while cooking up another Cousin Nancy Freata, using olive oil, to saute diced onions, minced garlic, mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, sliced tomatoes and red bellpepper—Kinky called me from the road, so I put him on speakerphone, so I could continue cooking our lunch.

"Hey, Nance! How are you doing?"

"Hi, Kinky! I'm fine. Where are you?"

"I'm on my way to Rochester," Kinky said, sounding upbeat."

"How's your Bi-Polar Tour going?"

"It's been really great. Every gig has been sold out and I've met some really nice people along the way," he said, as I began cracking five of our Golden Girls' eggs into a bowl.

"How's Tony doing?"

"He's fine. In fact, we're all doing fine," I said, as I dumped a handful of crushed Fritos into the bowl of eggs and began mixing them together. "Not much has been going on these past few days, so I have been getting a lot of writing done on my mystery novel."

"How's Toto doing?"Kinky asked, as I poured the egg mixture into the hotter-than-hot skillet.

"He's really been slowing down lately. He has his good days and he his bad days and it seems that all he wants to do is sleep," I said, as I added small cubes of Muenster cheese into the hot skillet, filled with the sauteed vegetables and egg mixture and began to stir.

"I'll be back at the ranch, on the morning of July 2nd, Nance," Kinky said, as I sprinkled some crushed red pepper and Parmesan cheese into the skillet and then stirred some more.

"That's great, Kinky," We've missed you and I can't wait to see you," I said, as I slowly stirred everything around, in the skillet, for one last time, because the eggs had already set.

"I've missed, y'all too," he said, as I removed the hot, heavy, red enameled, cast iron skillet, from the stove top. "Keep up the good work that y'all are doing, Nance and please tell Tony that I send him my best."

"Will do, Kink. Have fun. Bye," I said.

"Bye, Nance. Take care."

"Tony!" I half-hollered, so he could hear me in his office. "Lunch is ready!" Then I turned off the phone and we enjoyed eating another delicious Cousin Nancy Freata (Frittata). And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening!

Yeah!

Today, nothing much has happened out here worth writing about, except that I have spent the majority of my day writing my mystery novel and not to brag, "It's looking good and Carol is in it!" Yeah!

Happy 39 Years Wedding Anniversary To Sandy & Jon!

The other day, while I was visiting with my dear friends Sandy and Jon Wolfmueller, of Wolfmueller's Book, the greatest rare book store in Texas and found out that today is their 39th wedding anniversary I could not resist posting this, because I adore those two.

Happy 39th Wedding Anniversary to Y'all. Happy 39th Wedding Anniversary to Y'all. Happy 39th Wedding Anniversary to Sandy & Jon. Happy 39th Anniversary to Y'all. And many more...

We truly love y'all!