Grease!

Today has been great. This afternoon, Tony and I met our dear friends, Les & Denise and Kris & Jim, at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, for our Once-A-Month Lunch Club. Last month we ate at Bella Sera and that was Tony's and my first time to try there delicious Italian food, and it was also the first time for Craig & Deb and Denise & Les. And that is how Bella Sera became Tony's and my favorite Italian restaurant. Before we left Bella Sera that day, we all decided to meet and eat at Cal-Bob's Smoke Shop, for our October lunch.

When we arrived at Cal-Bob's, Kris & Jim were already there or so we thought. "Hi Jim," I said, as he and Tony shook hands. Where's Kris?"

"She's not here," Jim said.

"Darn," I said.

"Nancy, she volunteers on Tuesdays and she should be joining us shortly."

"Oh good."

A crowd was was already there when the three of us walked inside Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack, even though Calvin was busy taking orders and serving his guests, the super friendly owner, greeted us and he took the time to ask us how we were doing. After a brief visit with our dear friend, we found a table for six and sat down.

Kris arrived a few minutes later and then Denise & Les arrived about five minutes after that. As soon as we had placed our orders with Calvin, we returned to our table and did a lot of laughing as we caught up with every one's latest news.

While we were enjoying our delicious BBQ, we got to talking about diets, etc. Then Denise told us that she thinks the food, in a certain English speaking country that shall remain nameless, is the worse, because it is so bland and greasy. "When Les and I were over there people would invite us over for dinner and serve us a plate filled with fried potatoes, mashed potatoes and noodles with no meat or vegetables. It was totally crazy. No wonder all of them are so plump."

When she told us about the manhole covers blowing up all of the time over there and injuring or killing people, simply because of all the grease, all of us burst out laughing.

I couldn't resist, so I jumped in and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry for your recent loss. What was the cause of her death? A manhole cover blew up and killed her. She never knew what hit her."

Anyway, after a super fun, delicious lunch with our friends, everyone agreed that Cal-Bob's Smoke Shack BBQ has the very best Pit BBQ, in Kerrville and the Texas Hill Country. And next month, we have decided to meet at Culver's.

Early this evening, Tony and I went outside to let me take pictures of Bella, Miranda & Blake. We spent nearly an hour outside taking pictures, but because the dogs were so happy playing with us and their roommates, all seventy-two pictures that I took, weren't good enough. So tomorrow, I plan to try again, when the sweet kids, from the Medina Children's Home, are here. So please wish me luck.

Kinky is coming in late tonight after performing in Houston and I cannot wait to see him tomorrow. This coming Thursday night Kinky will be back on the road again, performing at The Hilltop Cafe, in Fredericksburg and I think Carol and I might show up wearing our undercover disguises. And that is about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Book Review!

Today has been great. Last night we got about one inch of rain and the creeks are starting to flow. This morning I received an e-mail from my dear friend, Mari. The Subject: Book Review.

Last Tuesday, when Carol, Tony and I met Mari, at Bella Sera, for a super fun lunch, she purchased two copies of my Cowgirl Sisterhood: Death In New Mexico from me. After I had signed one to Mari and one to her friend, Polly, I said, "Mari, I cannot wait for you to read this and give me a book review, because I value your opinion."

Even though five days have passed since we did lunch together, I would check my daily e-mail often, in hopes that Mari would e-mail me and tell me what she thought of Part II. I knew that she had a really busy week ahead of her, so I knew that she wasn't a slow reader, but I did worry some, that maybe she just didn't think much of my second novella. Authors do that.

Thursday morning, I received this brief e-mail from Mari. The Subject: Book Review So Far. My friend wrote:

"I’m laughing about so much in the book and I’m only on pg. 27! Talk about surprise ‘pops’ that make me just burst out laughing! And some just make me roll my eyes!  Too much fun. Mari"

When I read what she had written I was more than thrilled, because Mari is honest and she shoots straight. Then Friday and Saturday passed by with no book review, so I started worrying again, until I received this book review from Mari.

"Ok I finally have time to do my book review. I finished the book the second time I picked it up. It was just so much fun with crazy and wild (ok, some are subtle) twists, turns and comments and all the requisite ‘danger’ in the characters and plot too. It was like a version of Mystery Science Theater 3000 with the comments from the observers watching the cheesy movies thrown in! I LOVED that show so you know I LOVED this book!

I can’t wait for David to read it – we have so much ‘class’ in this edition! He will then ‘brag’ again about being included to all his friends – I guarantee it!

Surely there are no other books by anyone else in your particular genre of writing. These are one of a kind!

Polly’s is ‘in the mail’ to her in Utah. I can’t wait to hear what she thinks. She’s a regular reader of your blog, so she’ll know the names in your book, even if she’s never had a chance to meet Carol.

And honestly – remember the Alamo? At a time like that??? LOL

Mari"

When I read her e-mail I immediately printed it out and showed it to Tony. "That's great, Nance." Then he went into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

I then returned to the kitchen and e-mailed Mari back, to thank her for her book review and to let her know that her review had just made my day great, while Tony was doing some paperwork. And that is about it for today.

Y'all have a great evening!

Queen For A Day!

Today has been great, but I am writing my post early and scheduling it for tonight, because of some possible upcoming thunderstorms later on tonight.

Last night around 7:00, Deanna called to tell me that she and her sister wanted to come out, if it wasn't too late for a visit. "I would love for y'all to come out. I've already written a post for my blog tonight, cleaned and dusted our thirty-year- old trailer and I've just put our new bedspread on the bed, for the very first time!"

I didn't tell Deanna that when I put our new quilt on our bed there was a big problem. The quilt was not the size that I had ordered. I had ordered a Queen size for our bed and the bag said it was a Queen size too, but when I pulled it out of its zippered bag, it was a King size quilt.

When I first put King on our bed, both sides of the quilt touched the floor. So, I pulled the visible side of the quilt to the correct height and I had about a foot of extra quilt lying on the floor, on the opposite side, next to the window, that hopefully they would not see. Then I rolled up some of the extra length and hid it under the pillows and it looked great and that's when I took that picture of it. And it really didn't matter, because within a year, I am sure that Tony's dog Beau will have reduced the size of King down to a Queen size, with rough scallops and holes in it.

After adios-ing Deanna, I gave Abbie her evening pills. Then I went outside and jumped into Kermit and took off, to go open our front gate for them. Once I was back inside The Cabin, I realized that I had forgotten to put up the chickens. So I went outside again and skipped all of the way over to the pigpen and put The Golden Girls back into The Egg Palace.

A few minutes later, I went outside to greet Deanna, her sister Danielle and Hank, Danielle's adorable mutt, which she had adopted from a shelter. "I love Hank," I said. "He is too cute." We then went into The Okay Corral and closed the gate behind us. While Hank was busy checking out the yard, I gave Deanna and Danielle a tour of my writing cabin. And not to brag, "They loved it, too."

When we came back outside to check on Hank, Deanna said, "We are dying to see your trailer."

"Okay, let's go into Outer Space first, so y'all can check out the view." One minute later, we were sitting in Outer Space getting to know each other and laughing, as we traded stories. And I will admit that I talked too much. And they can vouch for it.

Before we came inside The Cabin, Danielle took off to her car, to fetch a bottle of white wine, for Happy Hour, which actually should have been called, Hilarious Hour. When we walked inside The Cabin, Roy, Mama and Belle greeted my newest friends. Then I gave them a tour of The Cabin and yes, they loved it, too and Deanna told me that she wants to bring her husband over, so he can see it, too.

After the tour was given, I was so thankful that they had not seen the rest of King, lying on the floor, near the window. We settled in the kitchen for a fun visit. As they sipped their white wine, which came out of a bottle, and I drank my fine, boxed, red wine we got to know each other. When I told them about Carol being my best friend and wanting them to meet her, we decided that in the near future, we're going to do lunch, in Kerrville, so they can meet her and Tony, too.

During our Hilarious Hour, Deanna bought copies of my Cowgirl Sisterhood: Part I and Part II  novellas and I gladly signed them to her and Danielle. "Y'all please note that these are fiction and Carol, in real life, is not the zany, fictional character, that I have made her out to be, in my novellas and..."

The party ended around 8:45. I had a total blast visiting with Deanna and Danielle and I was sad to adios them and watch them leave, because their visit was so enjoyable. And I was deeply sadened, when I had to go remove King, the beautiful, Queen for a day quilt, from our bed and replace it with Queen, that was once beautiful and had aged from Beau's wear and tear.

To prove how a stupid thing, like a quilt, can make me so sad, I took these pictures of King, last night, pretending to be a Queen and then the old, ragged Queen, that now sadly graces our bed once again, thanks to Beau. I hope these pictures don't depress you, too. Also, please note that I cropped the first picture, at the bottom, so you can't see the rest of the quilt lying on the floor.

Carol called me this morning and she could not wait to hear about Deanna and Danielle's visit and we laughed and laughed. She is so looking forward to meeting them, as much as they are about meeting her and Tony. And that is about it for today. I hope that we get a lot of rain, without thunderstorms, tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Dale Evans!

Today has been great. Early this morning Suzanne, one of our super volunteers, came out and started walking our dogs for us. Not long after that, our friend, Eileen, a famous member of the Fab 4 volunteers, brought along her sweet sister Dean, who is visiting her for a few days. Our friend, Lisa, another famous member of the Fab 4 volunteers, played chauffeur for them and delivered Eileen and Dean to the rescue ranch, so they could walk our dogs.

The volunteers and everyone at the rescue ranch loves Eileen and Dean, because they are so much fun to be around, because they are so funny and they keep all of us laughing. When I went outside to greet them and to thank them for coming out, we hugged each other and immediately started laughing at one of their remarks. "Y'all are so much alike, y'all could pass as twins," I said.

When they took Rocky and Rockett for a walk, I tagged along, because they are so much fun to be around and when I am with them all we seem to do is laugh. So, this morning with those two was a lot of fun for me, because I love to laugh as much as I can.

For the past two weeks our friends/volunteers and us have been secretly talking and e-mailing back and forth about doing June's belated surprise birthday party. And today we pulled it off. Yesterday, while Tony and I were in Kerrville, we went to H-E-B and picked up a birthday cake for June's surprise, but not forgotten birthday, which was back in August. She's a Leo, like Tony is.

On our way home we stopped at the Medina Highpoint Resort. When I walked inside I saw my friend Pete. "Hi, Pete. I need a favor. Tomorrow we're having a surprise birthday party here and I was wondering if y'all would let me drop off the cake?"

"Sure Nancy, not a problem," Pete said. "Listen, I have just finished reading your two hilarious novellas and I loved them. I never quit laughing. I want to talk to you about a couple of ideas I have...."

After talking to Pete and getting excited about his proposals, Sarah, at the other counter said, "Nancy, I love your books. I read them straight through and since I spent over twenty years in publishing, I want to talk to you about a few ideas that I have...." As soon as we got home I called Carol and told her my good news.

Around 11:30 this morning, after the volunteers had walked our dogs, we drove up to Medina Highpoint Resort, to surprise June and to eat lunch and it was a total blast. First off, we really surprised June, when she and Ellen walked inside. June's birthday cake was sitting on the table, surrounded with gifts and cards and we all hollered, "Happy Birthday, June!."

When June sat down at the table she first opened up Tony's and my two presents, wrapped in foil. She laughed out loud when she opened up one and discovered that it was an alien-attracting-helmet, that I had personally made for her. Then she immediately put the pot pie helmet on top of her head and tied it on. Then she opened up our second gift and seemed to be thrilled to get a signed copy of The Cowgirl Sisterhood: Death In New Mexico. Then she asked Carol, Brandon and Tony to also sign it. "This book is now worth a lot of money," she teased. We all laughed.

"Then I am going to be watching eBay more often," I joked.

Everyone burst out laughing at June, wearing her custom made alien-attracting-helmet. Then Carol joked, "I bet you could get out of jury duty, wearing that helmet." During our super fun lunch, I took a cute picture of Dean and Eileen, posing for me. Dean is the one on the left.

After everyone had finished eating lunch, June got up and borrowed a spatula and a giant knife, that looked like a sword. When she returned she made a wish and then blew out the candle and started to cut slices of cake. Look at the size of that blade!

Late this afternoon, we rescued a dog that was dumped along with her sister, on Deanna's ranch, in Uvalde. Deanna and I have been playing phone tag and have been talking back and fourth on the phone this past week about her bringing Frieda to us on Saturday. Frieda's sister was luckily adopted by one of their friends.

It turned out that it would be better if Deanna brought her later today and after a really fun conversation with her, about Frieda, dogs, ranch life, etc. she offered to drive Frieda straight to Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, because she was going to have dinner tonight, in Kerrville, with her sister. 

Before we adios-ed each other, we discovered that we have a lot in common, she and her sister are maybe going to drive out here this evening to meet me. (Tony and Brandon will be gone, because they are going to a Medina High School football game.) I promised to give them a tour of the rescue ranch, including The Bunkhouse, my writing cabin, Outer Space, our screened-in porch and show them the inside of The Cabin. I am dying to meet her and her sister and I hope that they do come out. Oh yes, she also can't wait to meet Carol, because they are both big time cowgirls, so we are going to do lunch soon with her and her sister, in Kerrville. 

I hope Deanna and her sister really do come out tonight, because I just took that old bedspread that Tony's dog, Beau, has enjoyed chewing up and have just replaced it with my brand new bedspread. I love how our bedroom looks, but as soon as Deanna and her sister leave, the new bedspread is going back into it's plastic bag and the old raggedy one will replace it. And that is about it for tonight, because now I need to drag Hazel out of our bedroom closet, so it won't look like we live here.

P.S. As soon as Deanna and I adios-ed each other I called Susan, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic. "Hi, Susan. It's Nancy. We've got a rescue dog coming in tonight. The woman's name is Deanna and I am naming this dog, Dale Evans." Susan chuckled.

Y'all have a great evening!

Grease Guilt!

Today has been great, even though last night, thanks to Roy, I could not remove the grease from the kitchen floor no matter how much I steamed cleaned it. This morning when Tony and Brandon returned from The Old Timer, in Medina, I complained to Tony about how disappointed I was not being able to remove the grease stains last night. "The stains will eventually go away in time, just like the flour that was stuck on the floor."

"You had flour stuck on your floor?" Brandon asked.

"Yes," I said. "In 2007, Abbie went nuts one night, after we had gone to bed. She flung an entire sack of flour all over the big room and the kitchen, and Tony tried to remove the flour with a wet mop, while I was still sleeping. We had flour stuck all over our kitchen floor. Actually, it was pretty funny and I even wrote about it. In fact, my Flour Power, story was my very first story that I wrote for my blog." Then I looked Flour Power up, in my archives, on the side bar and I was shocked to see that it had happened, on September 28, 2007—just three days shy of being six years ago, when Abbie made our trailer look like it had snowed inside, with snow drifts here and there.

"The grease stains don't look that bad," Brandon said, trying to cheer me up. "They'll go away some day."

Today has been a very busy day for me, with some very exciting, good news about my novellas, but I can't divulge that information, yet. Around 4:30, I decided that my work for today was officially over. So, I decided to make up a funny sign about Roy's grease stains and then take a picture of Roy wearing the sign.

When I tried to tie the sign around Roy's gigantic neck, he balked and pulled the string out. So I asked him to please get up on our bed, which he was happy to do, because I guess he thought it was "nap time" for us. He circled on the bed and then he laid down. I then pushed the sign close to him, to make it look like he was wearing it. Then I took his guilty-looking picture.

Because it is hard for me to read the sign in the photo, his grease guilt sign reads:

BECAUSE I RAIDED THE TRASH CAN

AND

GOT GREASE ON

 THE WOODEN

KITCHEN FLOOR,

THAT NANCY CAN'T REMOVE.

I AM GROUNDED AND HAVE TO WEAR THIS

STUPID SIGN ALL DAY LONG.

BUT IT WAS WORTH IT, BECAUSE

 I LOVE HER FAJITAS, TOO! - ROY

Y'all have a great evening! "Come here, Roy. I love you so much..."

Twins!

Today has been great, even though our air conditioner froze up for several hours. This morning after we ate breakfast, just to make sure that I had burned off the Lasagna calories I ate, at Bella Sera, I went outside and started mowing with a push mower. I mowed down the grass in Lois Lane's pen, Rufus and Roxanne's pen, Tuesday Weld and Rio's pen, Rocky's pen, an alley and Chad and Jeremy's pen.

Then I jumped on (I slowly and awkwardly climbed on with Tony's help.) Zorro, our riding lawn mower and mowed down the tall grass in Baxter and Honey's pen. Then I quit and came inside to make lunch for Brandon, Tony and me. We had Fajitas.

Then our air conditioner froze up and we turned it off and only turned on the fan to help melt the ice.

At 3:30, I went outside with my camera to take pictures of Peggy Sue, Kate Middleton, Miranda Lambert & Blake Shelton, Gretchen Wilson & Willie Nelson, to send to Pat, our fabulous webmaster, to post.

When I returned to The Cabin and downloaded the pictures, they all turned out good, except for Miranda and Blake's, because they wouldn't pose for me, because they were so happy and wanted to play with me. So tomorrow, when I find the time, I will ask Tony to help me take their pictures.

When I uploaded the pictures to Pat, she shot me back an e-mail to let me know that she can post them by this weekend and I am thrilled about it. Here is a preview of some of our newly rescued dogs, minus Blake & Miranda and Bella, because Bella is still at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic.

Gretchen Wilson, one-year-old

Kate Middleton, two-years-old 

Peggy Sue, four-years-old

Willie Nelson, six-months-old

Carol called me early this evening and we had the best laugh about the undercover pictures that Tony took of us wearing those goofy undercover glasses, at Bella Sera. She joked, "They make us look like men."

After we had quit laughing, I joked, "Yeah, men twins."

When Carol and I adio-ed each other, Tony came inside and turned on our central air conditioning system and it is working! Now Tony's happy, our dogs are happy and I am happy. So life is good sort of, because earlier today, when I went outside for a few minutes, Roy raided the trash can, so now I am fixin' to steam clean the kitchen floor.

Y'all have a great evening!

Bella Sera!

Today has been great. Kinky called me this morning. He was leaving Oklahoma City and on his way to Texarkana. After we had talked about The Friedmans (His three dogs.) and The Samets (His four cats.) I told him, "Kinky, our friends Jimmie and Nelda Dunn sent me an e-mail. They will be at your show in Texarkana. Please tell them that Tony and I said howdy."

"That's great and I will tell them y'all said howdy. By the way..."

Early this afternoon, we picked up Carol, so she could ride with us to Bella Sera,  in Kerrville, to enjoy lunch with my dear friend, Mari. When Carol came out of her house she was wearing her undercover glasses and Tony and I burst out laughing. (Yesterday, Carol had suggested that it would be funny if we were wearing our undercover glasses, in the restaurant, when Mari walked in.)

When we walked inside Bella Sera, our favorite Italian restaurant, the friendly staff greeted us. "There is going to be four of us," I explained, "and we are playing a joke on our friend." After the three of us sat down at our table, Carol and I posed for Tony and the waiters and waitresses thought it was hilarious.

A few minutes later, Mari arrived and we scrambled to put our undercover glasses back on. When Mari saw us, she burst out laughing and we didn't quit laughing until we adios-ed each other, in the parking lot. Tony and I ordered Lasagnas and Mari and Carol ordered Nick's Salad with Salmon and all of us agreed that their food was absolutely delicious. 

We told jokes, Mari told us about the great time that she had at the National Cowboy Symposium, in Lubbock, what she thinks about Austin, the food in Kansas and we could not quit laughing. We talked about Carol's and my temporary tattoos, hearing aids, The NoMads winnings at the dog agility trials, Tony's and my dogs, Carol's dog, Scout, that has abnormally large paws and Tony actually got a word in edgewise and told us a very funny fish joke. To say the least, lunch was a blast even though Mari didn't notice my hair loss.

After we adios-ed Mari, we jumped into Buttermilk and headed to the pound, so we could rescue a sweet six-month-old, black, female Labrador that was very happy to see us. After Tony had loaded the pup into a crate we took off for Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic. On our short drive to the clinic we tried to come up with a name for the pup and Carol suggested Bella.

"I love the name," I said. "We'll call her Bella (Sera) since we just ate there. I wonder what sera means?"

"I know Bella means beautiful," Carol said, "but I am not sure what Sera means." Then we got out of Buttermilk and went inside Hoegemeyers to drop off Bella to get her shots, a checkup, spay, etc. 

Our next stop was at Home Depot. And our last stop was at So Fast Printing, so Tony could pick up more of his beautiful postcards to sell, because every time he prints more, they sell out quickly. Then we came back home.

Early this evening I went outside and mowed down the grass in a couple of dog pens, using the push mower, because I ate so much at lunch, I needed to burn off the extra calories. And that is about it for today.

FYI: Yesterday morning I told Brandon and Tony about them not noticing my hair loss. Brandon immediately apologized and I laughed and told him not to worry. Then Tony says, "The reason that I didn't notice your shortened ponytail is because I am always looking at your beautiful smiling face."

After I finished laughing at Tony's remark, I said, "You know that's a bunch of B.S., Tony. You can't worm your way out of this one, but I do love you anyway."

Have a Bella evening!