The PIONEER WOMAN cometh!

The store was packed with warmly dressed women, most of them sitting on the floor. Every one was polite and cheerful. There were no "scenes"; there was no complaining; there was no pushing. It rather reminded me of Britain where they know how to wait patiently for royalty to arrive. My hub wasn't sure he'd know Ree when she arrived. There were a surprising number of red headed ladies there and he guessed wrong a few times. I assured him I'd know her when I saw her. This well-dressed redhead wasn't her.


My hub called me away from the comfy chair I was curled up in during the long wait. I put aside a huge and gorgeous photography collection of horse pictures (need to look for that book on eBay) to point out that I could pull over a stool and stand on it and have a superb view! He was so right! He also was one of two there that was wearing a cowboy hat. Out of over 200! This is Texas guys! Of course, only about 5 per cent of those there were guys!

Marlborough Man and the punks came in view first. Actually, like fence menders the kids attended to the line markers. They were setting up the chute for all the cows to herd through to reach their Mom.



And Marlborough Man and the kids signed books for folks, too! They were most obliging and considerate and circulated like pros through the mob. Of course, if you are used to working cattle in tight quarters, navigating ladies would be a cinch!

Finally, she descended into our realm from the upper reaches of the store (where apparently a privileged few got their autographs first!) She did get down the stairs gracefully. I LOVED her scarf!


She did a question answer session which was entertaining and informative. She explained about her foundation, her plans for future books, and assured us that she reads all of the comments made to her blog (I'd wondered about that!)






Out of hundreds, I chose three as the best dressed there. This is number one! Her mom makes these bonnets!

And these are number two and three. We talked to them at length but I forgot to ask their names!

Here you see the rest of the Drummonds signing for folks as they slowly progressed upward.

This was just outside the door of the final destination!

And here, we see the hander-out of t-shirts being toyed with. And we see that someone has found something in the store he wants to take away with him!



Now, look at these! First, they prove we made it to the finish line. Secondly, they show how white (no actions, folks) Ree's teeth are and how dingy ours are. And who looks tired in these? Not Ree!




Weeks ago I saw on Ree Drummond (the Pioneer Woman.com)'s book signing calendar, that she would be at Book People in Austin on Dec.3rd. And she was! Although it was a work night, during my deadline week, I determined that this was an absolute must do it or die event! I was really thrilled that my hub wanted to go, too! Mostly he gets his updates on what Ree is up to from me on our homeward commute. He rarely actually goes to the blog, but, his eldest is a big fan of Ree's as well, so we had double incentive to attend and capture her signature. We got so much more than we'd hoped for!

I'll write more about this soon, but right now I'm going to post pictures (they speak well for themselves). Today is my semester deadline and I'm booked solid all day with appointments, so, can't spend much time on this, but wanted to post something! Come back and read more next week!