Keep On Laughing!

Today has been great and so was Friday and Saturday. In fact, the last three days have been filled with  so much fun with our dear friends, that I didn't have any time to write anything for my blog. But that's okay, because tomorrow, after I've rested and get back into the saddle again, I will write about our super fun, exciting weekend.

And as a teaser, tonight I am going to leave you with a picture that Tony took yesterday, that I have since turned into a sepia photo to make it look old, of the entire cast and crew of our Longmire—Texas Style video spoof.

After Gerry Olert had shot the final scenes, inside Big Jim & Lady Liz's Grey Goose Saloon, with us and Chet, to complete our humorous Longmire video, we went outside and stood, on the porch, so Tony could shoot us, too. And please note that I have enlarged this picture for the blog, that it unfortunately extends/bleeds over into the side bar area, but who cares.

Y'all have a great evening and keep on laughing!

General Grant!

Today has been great, even though we've been busy running errands today. This morning after Tony did the chores outside and I had caught up with the rescue ranch paperwork, we caravan-ed to Kerrville.

Trigger and I followed Tony and Buttermilk, to Balser's Northside Automotive, in Kerrville, because Buttermilk needed a tune-up, oil change, etc.

After we dropped off Buttermilk, we walked across the parking lot and ate a quick lunch special, at the Acapulco restaurant and it was delicious. Then we went to Walmart, J.C. Penney and lastly the Post Office. Then we came back home.

When we got home I went over to Kinky's to visit with him, author Mary Lou Sullivan and his old friend Russ, who are both visiting him. Mary Lou is here to do more research for her authorized Kinky biography that she is writing and Russ is here to visit with his dear friend Kinky and Tony and me. (And rumor has it that Russ is seriously thinking about adopting our sweet Katee Sackhoff, who is only two-years-old. So please keep your fingers crossed for her.)

While I was over at the Lodge, Kinky showed me this beautiful, framed, photo that was given to him when he was up in Fort Worth, last week. "Nance, Spanky McFarland's son gave me this framed picture of Spanky and it is signed by Spanky..."

I loved it, because it was the cutest picture of Spanky, when he was a child actor, sitting next to another actor, whom I did not recognize. And because the picture of Spanky was given as a personal gift to Kinky, I only took a picture of Spanky's signature to show it to you.

Then Russ, Kinky and I started trying to remember the names of the four main characters that starred in the 1930's-1940's Our Gang also known as The Little Rascals. And I got all four names first, including Petey's name, the famous dog that had a magic marker circle around one eye.

When I got back home, I quickly did a little research about Petey and I found out that Petey's grave is famous and it is located, in Silver Spring Maryland. And the dog's real name wasn't Petey. It was General Grant of R.K.O. or Jiggs and his sun sign was Cancer, born in 1928 and died in 1938.

I loved Petey so much, in fact, every time that he appeared in a Little Rascals episode, I'd always wish that he was my dog, even though I loved Tuffy, our family Blue Heeler mutt who actually taught me how to walk, by letting me hold on to his short, crooked tail. And I am sure that there are many others who also felt the same way that I did about Petey, because he was so sweet and so smart.

And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

What Is It?

Today has been great. Tony and I spent most of the last three days mowing and weed-eating and our rescue ranch looks beautiful once again. I'm not a real big fan of pushing a lawn mower around the pens and the yards, but it is really great exercise for me, so I am actually not complaining.

Last night, after we had finished mowing, I came inside and decided that I needed to trim Little Debbie's nails. So I went and found our Pedi-Paws battery-operated nail grinder for dogs and I placed it by Roy's and my chair. Then I started a load of laundry and then Hazel came out of the closet to help me remove another recent pile of dog hair scattered all around The Cabin.

After Hazel went back into the closet I walked into the kitchen and heard the strangest sound and it sounded like it was coming from outside, near the window by Roy's and my chair. "Tony," I half-hollered, down the hallway. "Please come in here."

Three minutes later, knowing that it wasn't one of my many emergencies, by the tone of my voice, Tony showed up. "What is it?"

"What is that weird sound? Listen. Do you hear that?"

Tony walked over to the window, by Roy's and my chair, and he picked up the buzzing Pedi-Paws and he chuckled, as he held it up and flipped the switch to turn the thing off.

Then he grabbed his camera and went outside to take some more awesome pictures of the beautiful birds that so often frequent his many bird feeders, in the pink cabin's front yard.

After he left I turned on my iPod and sat down in Roy's and my chair. Then while listening to some of my favorite music I picked up Little Debbie and gave her a pedi-cure, while she peacefully slept in my lap. Then I did Big Al(ice)'s nails.

Late this afternoon, our good friend Leisa is coming to visit us and she is going to spend the night, in my pretty, pink, writing cabin. And that is why I am writing this early, because Hazel and I need to do some last minute house cleaning, etc. so it doesn't look like we live here.

Y'all have a great day and evening!

All You Need Is Love!

Today has been great! Especially when I read that our dear friend, Stephen K. Morris, a great singer/songwriter, musician, made this exciting announcement on his Stephen K. Morris Facebook page today! Stephen wrote:

"I've been excited to post this. Starting April 3rd I will be hosting a "Songwriter Spotlight" each Sunday afternoon from 4:00 - 7:00pm at The Auslander in Fredericksburg Texas. 

As we build this show my goal is to host a local or traveling songwriter every Sunday. We will trade songs, stories, and a joke or ten. I'd like to see this series grow to be a much anticipated listening experience for locals and tourists alike! 

My first guest Songwriter will Be Mr. Chet O'Keefe. Chet is a great writer and performer. He has shared musical offerings across the globe. His songs are descriptive, musical, thought provoking, and finely tuned.

Please come out Sunday April 3rd and show Chet some hill country love! This will be a great sendoff for Chet as he prepares for a Canadian tour.

Let us lean in and listen when it's quiet and stand up an Rock when we're ready!"

As soon as I read Stephen's wonderful news about Chet I immediately went to my Facebook page and shared it with all of my friends. Tony and I can't wait to go see Stephen & Eva, our great friends and then get to listen to Chet perform his awesome, powerful music, at the Auslander, on Sunday, April 3rd.

So today, because I love Stephen & Eva and Chet so much and their beautiful music, I'm asking all of y'all that read my blog to please help me get the word out about Stephen hosting his first "Songwriter Spotlight" with Chet, at the Auslander, so we can show them just how much we appreciate them and their music.

Tony just told me that I need to finish writing this for now. Because Tony and I have to go, to Medina, in just a few minutes, to go pick up Stacie's (Our sweet sister-in-law.) slightly used recliner that she has given to Tony, because she and Sam have recently redecorated their beautiful home.

So as I finish writing today let's spread the word about Stephen K. Morris and Chet O'Keefe's Hill Country Songwriter Spotlight Happening and also spread some love too while we're at it, because we all know that all you need Is love, because our world needs to spread as much love around our planet as fast as we possibly can.

Y'all have a great evening!

The Dynamic Duo For The USA! or Oddinary Objects!

Today has been great and so was Sunday, when our dear friends Denise & Mark and Pamela, their super nice friend, drove all of the way from Austin, to come visit with us.

Their visit was a blast from the past and Tony and I had so much fun with them. When they first arrived here we went outside to greet them and after I had hugged Mark, we saw his T-shirt and all of us started chuckling. "Oh my goodness!" I said. "I've forgotten about that T-shirt. Kinky has got to see this. I am going to go call him right now, because I know he is planning to go to town pretty soon.

When I called Kinky, I told him that Mark & Denise and their friend Pamela had just arrived and then I asked if we could come over right quick, because I wanted him to see Mark's T-shirt. "That's fine, Nance, but I'm going to Kerrville and I need to leave pretty soon."

A few minutes later, we were over, at the Lodge and when Kinky came out to greet us, I said, "Kinky, take a look at Mark's T-shirt. It's a blast from the past." When Kinky saw the T-shirt that has a not very complimentary picture of Kinky and me on it, all of us burst out laughing. Then Mark slowly spun around, so we could read what it said on the back of his T-shirt.

"That's a great T-shirt," Kinky said. "I still have mine. I think. Where did you get that one?"

"Nancy gave it to me many years ago, when she and Tony and us spent the weekend with Rick, at the Lighthouse, in Port Aransas...."

We had a great visit with Kinky and we ended up staying over there for over thirty minutes, because all of us were having such a good time.

We spent the rest of our fun day, sitting outside, in my pink, writing cabin's front yard and if we weren't laughing we were talking non-stop. And before our great friends drove back to Austin, Mark took off his jacket and posed for me, so I could take a picture of the cute T-shirt, that a fan of Kinky and me had made for us and her to wear.

And Pamela, gave me one of her Oddinary Objects business cards, because Mark & Denise had raved to us about how cool and popular Pamela's shop is and how much fun they have shopping there.

After the handshakes and hugs we adios-ed our dear friends, even though we didn't want them to leave. And that's about it for tonight.

Y'all have a great evening!

Long Time Longmire! or TOYODA!

Yesterday, we mowed some more and now my back is aching, but that's okay, because I needed the exercise and the rescue ranch looks beautiful, with the exception of a few pens that still need mowing.

Right now it is 9:30 in the morning and a couple of our great volunteers, Kay and Jim, are already out there walking our dogs for us.

Before writing this I checked my e-mail. My dear friend Mari sent me an incredibly great video to watch about a beautiful, nine-year-old girl's performance on Hollands Got Talent and she was so talented it made me tear up, because you could feel the love. So if you would like to have a feel-good moment you can check it out by clicking here.

I have some exciting news to tell you about our upcoming Longmire—Texas Style video spoof. Finally, the stars have lined up for us: the date and time, the actor's and crew's availability to be at, a secret location, the first week of April, to get our dear friend and videographer, Gerry Olert, to shoot the last two scenes.

If you recall, we are making this spoof, in hopes that the real Longmire cast and crew will invite us to come to one of their sets, in Northern New Mexico, to watch them shoot a scene.

 After we have our wrap party, and Gerry goes and does his editing magic and we get to post it on YouTube, we are asking everyone that we know, including y'all that read my blog, to please help us make it go viral by cross-posting it to all of your friends.

And as a teaser (in hopes that y'all will help us, get it out there) here are a few pictures of our Vic, played by lovely Lisa and our Ruby, played by too-sweet Eileen and Little Debbie and me.

After our friends/volunteers walked our dogs we went to eat lunch, at the famous Apple Store, in Medina. Tony and I were the last to arrive, because he had to lock our gate and we also had to stop at two temporary signal lights on 16, because of road construction.

We parked Trigger, across the street from the Apple Store, next to June's car and before we went inside to eat, I took this picture of this cute bumper sticker, that is on June's Toyota's back window. 

Our lunch was delicious and fun, of course, because we did a lot of laughing. And when we got back home, I went Online to Amazon and immediately purchased two of the TOYODA bumper stickers, one for Chet to put on his Toyota and one for me to put on one of my guitar cases.

Late this afternoon I went over to Kinky's Lodge and I had a fun visit with him. We sat outside, on his porch, with The Friedmans while watching a few Hummingbirds test-the-water, in five of his five feeders.

Before I came back home, Kinky asked me to listen to his latest song that he has written, because Kent and Ruthie had loved it. So we went back into his office and sat down. When Kinky started to play his guitar and sing his song, Sophie, who was sitting under his desk, started rapidly scratching at the rug and Kinky, paused and asked her to please stop doing that. And she immediately stopped.

His beloved overweight Sophie, who definitely needs to exercise more or go to, a fat camp for dogs, started rapidly scratching the rug again. And Kink paused again and she immediately quit scratching the rug.

Well, throughout the singing of his beautiful song, Sophie continued to scratch the rug every time that he started singing. When the song ended I told Kinky that I loved the song, too and then I said, "Kinky, Sophie was scratching the rug, only because she wanted to play percussions with you." And that made Kinky laugh.

Well, it is now 4:30 and I must finish writing this, because it is beginning to thunder outside and that means that I need to go unplug everything now.

Y'all have a great evening!  

Watch What You're Saying!

Today has been great. Last night Ruth Buzzi and her husband Kent were over at Kinky's and they invited Tony and me to meet them for breakfast this morning, at the YO Hotel, in Kerrville. And I said, "Yes, we would love to."

But I lied, because I had forgotten that we had scheduled an appointment for a couple to come out to the rescue ranch, this morning, to check out our dogs. Anyway, when I saw the date circled-in on my
hilarious Cow Abductions & UFO Sightings 2016 calendar, that sweet Eileen gave to me, I immediately sent Kent & Ruthie an e-mail to cancel our breakfast date.

This afternoon our lunch-a-month club met for a fun lunch, at El Bracero De Jalisco restaurant, in the same parking lot as Wild Birds Unlimited, one of our favorite hangouts.

It is a fairly new Mexican restaurant, next door to the Home Town Crafts store and it was Tony's and my first time to eat there. Oh my goodness, their food was absolutely delicious and the waitresses were very friendly. And believe it or not, Tony and I didn't order the same thing on the menu, but The Mineral Man and I did. 

Jim and I ordered the "Special Dinner" which included: one beef enchilada, one tamale, one poblano pepper, one beef taco, re-fried beans with rice and a guacamole salad. Seriously, it was more food than I could ever possibly eat, but I did my best and so did Jim. And all of us agreed that our meals was more than delicious.

While we were enjoying our friends and the mouth-watering food, I commented about Jim's new birthday watch, "Now Jim, that's a watch worth watching. I love it, because it is so big." So the next thing you know, after Jim had told us about his huge wrist watch, we were all talking about our favorite past and present watches that we've had.

Denise told us that her two favorite watches were the purple watch, that she was wearing and the turquoise one that is exactly like her purple one. "Well, for Christmas," I said. "Tony got me the cutest hot pink, solar watch. And I love it, but our good friend Lisa had to set it for me, because I couldn't figure out how to do it. I'm not good at that anymore. And the only thing that I don't like about it, is that it's alarm always goes off, at noon, everyday. And I don't know how to turn it off. And now, I need to reset it again, because of the time change."

"Nancy, what kind of watch is it?" Jim asked.

I shrugged, because I couldn't remember and then it came to me, "Oh, it's a Casio."

"Listen Nancy, send me the watch's model number and I'll go Online and look it up in the manual," The Mineral Man said. "It'll be a piece of cake to fix. I promise you." Then Tony told us about him, many years ago, getting a real good bargain, on a Gruen watch, in Fort Worth, that only cost him $70.00, because the store was going out of business and slashed their prices. 

After our super fun lunch with friends, I walked across the parking lot and mailed a letter, then walked over to Wild Birds Unlimited, to meet up with Tony, who had driven over there. As always, our good friend, Marguerite and I started talking and laughing about Scout''s and Henry Standing Bear's latest, hilarious adventures, while Tony was busy picking out some suet, birdseed, etc.

Then Marguerite told me that she had talked to her friend Lenore, who teaches classes on how to train your dog by using a Clicker. Because Marguerite and I want to train Scout and Henry, together, because we know it would be a laugh a minute with those two rascals. "Sounds great. Let's sign up for her classes!" I said. "Tony, I'll take the course and then I'll come home and teach you what I've learned in the class. That way we can both train Henry. Okay?"

Tony chuckled, and then said, "It's fine with me as long as you don't forget everything that you've learned in class, by the time you get back home."

After we had quit laughing, Marguerite said, "Don't worry about that, Tony. Lenore gives out handouts to take home, so we can do our homework with our dogs."

So, as I finish writing this, it looks like Miss Scout and Mr. Henry Standing Bear will soon be going to school together, attending a once a week class, for five weeks straight, with Marguerite and me. And I am looking so forward to it, because Tony's and my sweet, rescued, four-month-old, Great Pyrenees/Lab mix pup is literally growing in leaps and bounds, by the minute. Seriously, he now weighs over forty pounds!

Y'all have a great evening!