Breakfast Letters: Goat Shepherdess

Breakfast Letters: Goat Shepherdess: It has come to me at last. The great puzzle of why most of the women in my Fathers line seem to have no provable past. It is as the other ...

Goat Shepherdess

It has come to me at last. The great puzzle of why most of the women in my Fathers line seem to have no provable past. It is as the other “experts” in the field have concluded…..they do not, did not ever exist. My father did not exist either. My grandfather or his father and his medical certificate is not real and neither are the photographs.  There, do you “experts” feel better about the world now, your world? Bullocks! What I cannot understand is your inability to understand human nature. That people are not going to behave in ways you would assume or expect. That not everything is black and white or will fit into a category, that seeing is not always believing. I have read your theories, and the one thing you leave out is the one thing that makes us different from snails. Can I bring to your attention that all of the tracing of the line of Jesus to the beginning of time still does not make Joseph his father? Of course you can turn that around as proof of his inexistence also…..LOL. Let us think about Phebe. She is not listed in the will of the man who she claimed as father. She is not listed in the mothers will or brothers or grandparents either. This does not mean she did not exist. This could mean she did something so horrible her family disowned her. She could have married into the family of her families sworn enemy ( the idea of Romeo and Juliet came from somewhere no matter who really wrote it). She could be the child of any of the male family members and a serving girl, tavern wench, mistress, or any female not married into the family. She could be the daughter of a male family member whose wife died during the birth, at the birth, after the birth and she was brought to a family member to raise. Her mother could have died and the father stricken with grief left the village to become an angry pirate or priest or soldier or never wanted to lay eyes again on the child that caused the death of his beloved wife.  Both of her parents could have died from any number of diseases and another family took her in because she was…… 7 months old and had no one else. She could just simply be the daughter of any couple who died and the family she grew up in gave her their name and raised her and since she was not of their blood and she had married well not written her into a will. I could go on. It also seems to me that the girls this happened to were all born in England and married or died in Virginia. No proof of their parents except what family tradition says.  One more thing….. Servants were not always listed on ship manifests by name just as servant and children were not always listed by name either.  Dr. Clay lied about his roots but that is ok. However because you cannot find any for a girl named Mary she did not exist. John having a manor in 1420 does not mean he is not the John awarded a manor he never gets in 1461. Why do you believe they are 2 different Johns? There is no proof of that. Maybe it is a son or father, cousin? I am glad I am still enraptured by the romance of the mystery of tracing heritage. I pray I never loose it. I wish I had the gift of storytelling and could write beautiful novels about these people. Most of them would make for a romping good read with just a little help from my imagination.

My brother has decided he is a long lost Arabian prince and I am a goat herder…….LOL…..Apparently we did not have the same mom…….LOL. One thing I am very sure of about me .... I am Tamara, Lady Pearis   www.LairdOfLochaber.com  I do have paperwork for that!

I am off to find my missing goats……what will you find today?

Breakfast Letters: Glencoe

Breakfast Letters: Glencoe: It is one of those frosty mornings I crave all year. The air is crisp and chilled. I know that if I step on the grass it will crunch. Ther...

Glencoe

It is one of those frosty mornings I crave all year. The air is crisp and chilled. I know that if I step on the grass it will crunch. There is a sparkly sheen of ice on Charles. I have my pot of tea and the fireplace is on. Downstairs the Christmas tree is lit. Now I have the dilemma of write in my room with the fireplace or write downstairs with the tree which will only be up and lit for the next 75 days, which sounds like a long time but will not be anywhere near that long. I woke up early and thought about a walk and then I thought a walk when the sun is up and warming on my face will be even better. So I will be productive now and then later go.

I brought the trash bin down to the curb this morning and the guy across the street was out warming his truck. So I said hello and do you know what he said?...... Nothing GOD love him. No, this is no surprise to me, I knew he would not respond and that is just a little bit of the reason I said anything. A neighbor who had never met us came by the other day while my favorite Shoe was outside and started chatting her and John up as thought they were new moving in here. He was surprised I had lived here for three years and wanted to know why we had not met. Of course I giggled and thought “really?” He started asking if we had met any of the other neighbors and it was about then I started to desperately find a way to leave the conversation. He did not want to start me up about the neighbors. I was as polite as I could be. I mentioned the man across the street being smacked by his wife one day as he waved over and we waved back, the crazy man who brings dead cats to my house, he could not believe that and did not understand why the neighbors did not appear to like us. Well, why ask me?  Most people react with fear toward us and it has puzzled me for so many years.

I received an early Christmas present in the mail. It came all the way from Scotland. I was so thrilled. There is a CD and a magnet and a sticker and a pin and a pen all proclaiming me as a Lady of Glencoe www.HighlandTitles.com . LOVE it!!! Now I want stationary that proclaims it for my Christmas letters……hmmmm….. Can I copy and paste the logo, crest, seal, over to my letter and use it? The letter they enclosed in my present has it. I have added a photo of my tartan in case any of you are interested in getting me something Scottish.

I am going to finish up the last of the Christmas decorating today.

Are you decorated?

Breakfast Letters: Pumpkin Pie

Breakfast Letters: Pumpkin Pie: My favorite Shoe called me last night all in fuss about pumpkin pie and demanding to know my location. It was 11:30 at night. After much i...

Pumpkin Pie

My favorite Shoe called me last night all in fuss about pumpkin pie and demanding to know my location. It was 11:30 at night. After much incoherent blathering and tears I discerned that the problem was this…. She had been looking forward to a pumpkin on Thanksgiving. She had asked me what the plan was for that day. I had explained to her a week ago that Shaggy and I were going to Grammy’s house. She was welcome to come with us. Shoe has no desire to see Grammy. I am NOT changing my plans. Grammy was looking forward to our visit and a puzzle. Apparently the pumpkin pie that was purchased from an “upscale” grocery store was not to her liking. It was not creamy and it was missing that one ingredient that I add to everything I cook. Love.  After explaining to me that she is my daughter (as If I could forget) and that I am supposed to make Thanksgiving feast for my family (by the way Grammy is my mother) and not anyone else she asks me to make her a pie. But that is not all. She was dis-satisfied with the stuffing they had bought also. The problem I see is some foods are supposed to taste a certain way for special occasions any deviation from that no matter how good it may really be it is just not “as good” or more honestly right. My Grandmother made homemade pimento cheese, my mother learned to make it the same way. She once tried to change the recipe and make it her own version, it was NOT received well. I make it the same way however, mine does not taste like my mothers or my Grandmothers. It is missing that one ingredient. Love. Other pimento cheese spreads can be good, are good, may be good, but none are as delicious or creamy as theirs.  I understand this in a way Shoe does not. Shaggy felt the same way last night but did not know how to express it. All she could say was “Mom next year can we just stay home and you make dinner.” She had not enjoyed the chef’s version of a perfectly normal traditional food.  I do not make stuffing like my mother. My children love my recipe for stuffing. I do not cook the turkey like her or make gravy like her. My conclusion is the Love ingredient.  To be honest having a huge family gathering and traditional Thanksgiving feast without my dad carving the turkey is just NOT fun anymore.  He is supposed to be in the kitchen, not dressed for dinner yet, slicing. Maybe I associate the aroma with my dad…..LOL…  So while my children are dissatisfied with pie and stuffing from other places I am associating the entire Holiday with my deceased father. If he is not here than I don’t want to be either. Is Pizza Hut open? Can I just go visit my estatewww.LochaberHighlandEstates.com in Scotland and skip the whole Holiday next year. 

Not only were my children and myself at odds with the day my mother was too. She was cranky at dinner and dissatisfied with her meal. This is her second Holiday in her new location. That first year it was overwhelming newness. This year it was melancholy. She realized what it was way before I did. But it dawned on me last night when Shaggy wanted to watch football in the living room where mother and I were putting together a puzzle so I could join her in supporting a team I care nothing about. She used to watch football with her Gramps. She was trying to cope her way through her loss by continuing the football tradition. She knows nothing about the game but likes to watch her favorite team play. Gramps would have patiently explained aspects of the game as she had questions. As she switched the channel to the game channel Grammy very tersely said “NO, you can watch it in the bedroom!”  Sam looked fallen and left the room. I was attempting to explain to Grammy when she said in a very melancholy voice with tears in her eyes “it reminds me too much of your dad and I can bear the sound today”.   So there I was stuck in the middle of …. Being a mom and a daughter?  Wanting to give my daughter what she needed and also allowing my mother what she needed. All of a sudden I hear a squeal from the bedroom. I jump up, run in and there she is all smiling and cheerful. As I am asking her what happened I hear it. That voice… her favorite movie star is talking about the last game between rival teams and football. There is Tom Cruise.  The answer to my dilemma is on the TV in that velvety voice talking about her favorite team. I was asking GOD for guidance through the challenge and Tom whether you believe in GOD or not HE placed you right where you needed to be at the right moment and I was thankful. That was my biggest Thanksgiving prayer of the day, Tom. I am Thankful for Tom Cruise.

I will be cooking stuffing and pumpkin pie on Saturday if anyone has not yet had enough or just needs some Love. 

Effen Cucumber

My children came screaming into the house last night that Armageddon was happening and I needed to come downstairs now. At first I think it is them being dramatic but the tone of their voices is oddly not funny. I go down the stairs and out the door and they are pointing toward two very bright lights in the distance that do not appear to being moving but are coming at us. I must admit it did look odd. But that was not all that was going on. They were also telling me to look up something else was going on in the sky. Right as I looked up I saw a brilliant light going streaking by and, then another one. I could only asses one imminent threat at a time so let’s focus on the lights to the east. They certainly did look as though they were not moving like a plane would. They were not on the flight paths to either the airport or the base. Standing still I established their position with the house across the street and realized that they were coming toward us but also moving slowly from west to south. Then the first one made a southern turn and vanished. Moments later the second one did the same. I listened. They came no further in our direction and since they were lower on the horizon I could not see them. My conclusion was helicopters and they did land at the base. The next threat to my otherwise calm and drama free children was the terror is the sky. As Shaggy saw two more and then a third whizz by I realized, meteorites. We were seeing a meteor shower. I dashed upstairs to check it out on Stardate and sure enough we were seeing the tail end of the Leonides. They had peeked on the 17 and were moving on. Mystery all solved and everyone calm again.

I am really confused.  Men will not give me the time, open a door or be polite. However I seem to have no problem with young men, as in late teens (almost creepy). They open doors while standing as tall and straight as they can, they smile at me, they stare at me, they grin, they let me go ahead of them.  I have them showing off like little man on the bicycle yesterday. He sees me and decides to cruise by and attempt to pop a wheelie on his bike. He gets it off the ground but it is a little. He is embarrassed and scoots off as fast as he can.  It was cute and I very much appreciated the gesture. He thought I was worth his time and energy to perform a daring feat. I Lady Tamarawww.LairdOfLochaber.com was flattered.

MOMS!!!!!! I know the kids are on vacation. I know you want  them out of your hair or picking up last minute items for your Thanksgiving feast however, giving your 16 year old son the family oversized year old Suburban with the glamour package and sending them out…not a good idea. Have you ever seen your kids drive when you are not watching?  Let me tell you. He came roaring (is that a V-8?) through the parking lot and had to slam on your brakes before he hit a very steep curb. After a stop he makes an abrupt left jerk stomps on the gas pedal and zooms further through the parking lot looking for an exit. He spies it as he is passing it and now with another jerk on the steering wheel without letting any pressure up off the gas pedal he turns sharply right. He sees his goal the exit. Does he stop? Does he slow down? I would say he may have let off the pressure on the gas pedal but he did not apply the brakes and without looking makes a right turn, ends up on the other side of the street while accelerating and left a few inches of your tires on the pavement. I believe he was attempting to “drift” your vehicle through the turn. He was not driving a Veilside Fortune RX-7. It was a suburban made by Chevrolet. But that is not the end. He slammed down on the accelerator and careened off down the alley swerving from left to right as he did so in an attempt to copy some fishtailing. I pray he made it home safely.

My exciting day is not over. I go out to lunch with my girlfriends and what is served? A bit of undercooked salmon (there seems to be a trend in the restaurant business to undercook fish…STOP!!!!!)  and, an artificial vegetable. They call it a broccolini. It is un-cutable and tasteless and just lies there limply hanging off the edge of my plate. The salad was divine!  The company delightful, the artificial side dish…really? How about you trade in the broccolini for the ever pretty purple broccoli and really add some color and shock value to your entrees.

But wait, there is more. This restaurant has taken twitters about themselves and turned them into what is supposed to be a marketing gimmick table topper. Really? Do you people even read the twitters you use? The one at our table makes no sense. What is gaaaaaa? It sounds as though the author of the tweet is hacking a hairball. Like the sound Golum makes when he is dislodging a fish scale from his throat. She also speaks in her twitter (yes it is a female her photo and twitter name are on the table tent) of an Effen Cucumber. Is this a kindred species to the broccolini?  Dear educators of American children see what your lack of educating and total dedication to test preparation has done to our children? They are ……. (Thumpers mom is glaring at me…….LOL)

What new vegetables shall I encounter today?

Breakfast Letters: Full hands

Breakfast Letters: Full hands: I have downloaded an application to the Butterfly. It is supposed to be a chocolate Lab named Chudleigh. He is mine now and he is a Lab/W...

Full hands

I have downloaded an application to the Butterfly. It is supposed to be a chocolate Lab named Chudleigh.  He is mine now and he is a Lab/Weimaraner; A sort of Lab the color of charcoal. His name is Baxter. He is now lying on the edge of this letter sleeping. He ate a moment ago and when he was finished he carried off his food bowl and put it at an undisclosed location in the Butterfly. He just now got up and brought me a pair of slippers laid them down and is sitting there watching me. It is adorable. He is like a real dog. He dreams as he sleeps moving to scratch his ear or breathe deeply. Baxter was sent to me in a Thanksgiving card yesterday (thank you Kelly). 

I know this is NOT what you are expecting from me today. What you will get today is Thanksgiving. My hands will be full of blessings today therefore they will be too full to hold on to your sins.

1.   I can write and read. I have a wonderful education from teachers who were not so busy preparing me for a series of tests that they could actually take the time to teach. They enjoyed it and most were very creative and encouraged that creativity in me. I did not just write an interview for English I performed one in costume with a soundtrack.

2.   My father was a tea drinker. He is responsible for my love of the tea ritual. He did not use a pot he made it in a cup for him and me every morning. Refusing coffee because it “stunts your growth” he would say. I am 5’10”. It must have worked.

3.   I have a love for dance. All dance. I was first introduced to ballet when I was 4. Then to jazz, waltz, “Go-Go”, dance team, Turkish Belly dance.

4.   I have lived in Paris. I have been taken to market in the mornings and I can still remember the sounds and sights and the energetic feel of it. But most of all I can remember the smell of freshly baking bread. It wafted down every inch of Market Street, into every store front. I was given a small roll each time by the baker where our maid (don’t all Ladies have maids?www.HighlandTitles.com)shopped for our bread. Sometimes I would be handed an apple or orange or strawberry. I was treated like a princess as I strolled with her through the carts and stores.

5.   I have slept in an igloo. It was huge. I am not saying that because I was 7. The father of my friend who built it was a giant and he could stand straight up in it. There were 5 of us that slept in it that night. It was awesome and I remember my head was cold but I was warm.

6.   I work with the most amazing company. I am treated as a human female. Respect.  I just come up with a possibility and spout out “what if” and the next thing I know it has become a plan, goal, objective, target and we are attempting it. I had told them no at the beginning but they sent their closer to convince me that I was just the ingredient to complete the recipe. No I am not driving an Audi yet but give me a few months.

7.   I have a wonderful home.

8.   I can think of 6 impossible things during breakfast.

9.   I know some very amazing people and they are strong and brave and trustworthy, honest, loyal, encouraging. Defenders of right, granters of mercy. They have humor and tenderness and best of all they know my name.

10.       I have a remarkable ex-wifey (housemate) and her fiancé is a good man. Now that I think about it. I call her ex-wife and she is marrying a guy named Lynn……LOL….. I had her listed as wife on facebook in my family section because it humors us both. I then noticed something a few days later as I was adding to my profile that all options for a man relationship had been removed from my selections. There was wife, there was female companion, sister, cousin, brother….etc …. no husband, no boyfriend. Facebook assumed I was Lesbian.  It was funny. I realized the add parameters had changed also that I was being fed. Nothing male oriented, nothing romantic, AIDS awareness and coalitions for women. I have since changed her status. Things are back to normal on facebook.

There are so many many more.

What do you count as blessings?

Twins

In order to keep to the dream to go to Prague for Christmas we started Christmas of last year I looked in all 48 continental states for any state that had a city named Prague. I was not going to allow a few villains who stole my money over employment to steal our dream also. We were going to Prague. I found a Prague Minnesota, one hotel with very bad reviews and a Prague Oklahoma, no hotels but known for the annual kolache festival. We will not being going to any of the Prague’s here. Because Lady Tamara www.LairdOfLochaber.com is a Lady descended from Scotland and filled with Norse thunder I am now considering get a title loan on my car and going to THE Prague.  I would sell my hair like Jo in Little Women if there was a market for it. I will welcome suggestions.

I am being escorted out on a date tomorrow evening by twins. 22or 23 year old twins. Male twins. Red headed very attractive in a Boondock Saints sort of way twins. I am not a cougar. I am a jaguar! I am what cougars desire to be. If you are a Lady of a certain age and you date gorgeous twins raise your hand……No?  I see a few jealous men and professional ball players in the crowd. You Mr. Puerto Rico turn around I want to get a better look…..sit down!  Tony, I will explain to you in a private conversation. Shoe, I will not be explaining to you. Twins, I would like to repeat this performance on my Birthday…….LOL…..

Have a great weekend all; I am going to search online for the cheapest way to go to and stay in Prague. Somewhere near a market with a kitchen so I can cook and we do not have to spend money on expensive food. This now feels like a treasure hunt….excited!

Tiangong 1

 I was there and heard the words of your frustration that flowed from your lips and do you know what I did with them?........

Why do people portray angels as soft fluffy beautiful female creations when the Bible does not actually portray them all that way? Wouldn’t we all like to think they are like Michael and smell like chocolate chip cookies, or even want them to be like Nicholas Cage and just smile at us all the time? Some may even want them to be like Michael from Legion. Maybe they are more like the other angels from the movie Legion. What about those heads with wings some artists painted? Or little naked toddlers with little wings. Maybe they look like that old lady who had fallen in her front yard and you ran down the street to help. Maybe they look like that man behind you in line who covered the 23 cents you were short for your water bill. Maybe they look like that flock of birds sitting in your tree annoying you with what to you sounds like horrible squawking but to GOD and them sounds like beautiful praises. Maybe some of them are soft beautiful fluffy female creatures. But I do not think they are 5’7” tall wearing an $80.00 bra weighing in at 112 and have a thong on……..no I just do not see that.

Did any of you step outside last night and take a look at the Chinese Space Station  Tiangong 1?  It was fun. We waved from my mother’s balcony. She was very excited about the entire thing, going outside often all dusk and checking on its progress as the sun set further and further from it. Until one time she looked and it was no longer alight with the reflection of the sun. They say it is as bright as Polaris. I am here to say that is very accurate. Jupiter is also up there making an appearance but he is on the eastern horizon instead of the western. I have not gone out to look but Mars shows up very early in the morning. Sometimes I wish I had a telescope but I would probably be glued to it for hours. There was also a meteor shower peeking about 3 nights ago. They could not be seen by us because sister moon was so bright.

I read the most romantic love story last night. Maybe it should be in a teachable format. It said so much in about 2 pages. Not a love story in the sense of a romantic novel more of a romancing of you the reader. It was enlightening and wonderful and here it is if you want to read it. http://www.angelfire.com/tx/morninglory/lingo.html

Lady Tamarawww.LairdOfLochaber.com   is in need every other day of a hair-dresser. I have shampooed and fluffed with a magic curling gel and then twisted large sections upon my head to dry. Hopefully they will cascade down my neck and back in a froth of wild tendrils and look glorious. Or, not.

Is Dolly Parton bald up under her wigs?

Breakfast Letters: Tabitha

Breakfast Letters: Tabitha: I awoke this morning to what sounded like the rumbling of thunder. But often while I half-sleep I believe I hear thunder and rain. My ceil...

Tabitha

I awoke this morning to what sounded like the rumbling of thunder. But often while I half-sleep I believe I hear thunder and rain. My ceiling fan makes just enough noise to mimic the falling of rain and when a train goes rumbling over the tracks in the distance it sounds like thunder and I drift back off to sleep. But this morning it is real. There is a light falling of rain every couple of moments but the ground is not really wet. There is thunder rolling around over my head. Not the crashing cacophony of a storm, no, just grumbling; slow and steady like the stream we played with in Colorado. Every 10 minutes or so a flare of lightning without the crack to startle and send a surge of adrenalin speeding through your system. It is hazy in the distant hill as though only it is draped in fog. My tea tastes better this morning probably due to the weather.  I have just witnessed the same elderly man walk down the street for the 3^rd time. He probably does not want to stray too far from home in case it should decide to rain. So instead of pacing the neighborhood he is walking the block, good idea. I have opened my curtains and put up the window so I can hear better the thunder and the rain. I can feel the fresh air. I can hear a frightened cat (raccoon) in my yard. I suppose I could put the little guy in my garage for a while. There is a litter box in there and some old cushions. He is presently under the Oleander bushes and they offer a good amount of protection.

    My favorite Shoe came over last night with Jonathon and Jameson.  I was on my way to relaxing with a book of love stories chosen by a man and put in a collection. Odd but interesting. I could not go down and not visit with them. I filled a glass with ice opened the Jameson and filled it up (I did not want to have to come back down the stairs again after another visit with Jameson).  I chatted a bit with them and left her to gossip with her little sister. Good night, good visit, good seeing Jonathon and Jameson and Shoe.

It is seriously raining now but do not get fussed up. I went to get the cat (raccoon) and he was not out back so I looked out front and he is nestled on my porch. I got an old cushion and put it out there for him.

I decided to investigate a little further into Tabitha because I cannot find a source in America or England that actually gives me her father’s name. There are several “well it could be Richard for this reason…..or it could be William for this reason or it might be a fellow named Robert and this is why we think this….” I have no Birth or Baptism or passenger manifests with her name. She is believed to have been born in Warwick, married on the Isle of Wight, Virginia and died in Virginia.  So all that chasing a line on Sunday night I deleted. Am I upset by it? No, it was all fascinating and there were stories from a lot of research attached to most of it. Stories school text books will not talk about and some that will. There were some stories that were little windows into moments in the lives of people that allowed me to know them, like we had met and chatted over dinner and wine. I had believed her dad was Richard but he is listed as living (birth and death) in Ernle, Sussex. Tabitha is from Warwick. I want her real father to step forward please!!!   Shaggy was informed of this tragic series of events and is now looking into other avenues to marry Prince Henry.www.LochaberHighlandEstates.com

My work server quit serving me yesterday at 11:37 so I am about to go Ninja on it. What are you doing?

Breakfast Letters: King Olaf

Breakfast Letters: King Olaf: I decided to give myself a little gift this morning and not set the alarm. I am not prone to sleeping late so I knew it would be well befo...

King Olaf

I decided to give myself a little gift this morning and not set the alarm. I am not prone to sleeping late so I knew it would be well before 8 that I would awaken. It was 7ish. It feels luxurious and decadent to do this on a work day and I may be behind the power curve by I feel on track with my curves. The reason?....many things…I was chasing ghosts yesterday as usual on a weekend when I came across a line of kin that were granted holdings by Henry II this peaked my curiosity and so for a bit of fun I followed the line of descendants. What a wonderful surprise! I am related to Eleanor of Aquitaine, William the Conqueror, The Earls of Hertford, The Dukes of Normandy thanks to the first Duke marrying his mistress, all of the Kings of Norway and of Sweden. Mix in some royalty via the marrying of daughters of Denmark. We even reigned over all of Wales courtesy of taking the castle at Fontenay. I have not even scratched the surface of the wives and their lineage. This all through one little woman named Tabitha to her father and beyond. Tabitha is my 9^th great Grandmother. I told my daughter with a history like that she could marry Prince Henry. www.HighlandTitles.com Lady Tamara……of course I am. My great Grandfather King Olaf took a fancy to Alt Clut and wanted to possess it. Many years later another great Grandfather who had arranged a wedding between baby Queen Mary and Henry VI hid her there. Such intrigue and adventure…I LOVE it!!!

There was a Horatio sighting yesterday in town. I was sent a photo from one of my Horatio watching clan members. He was on Pat Booker Road.

Is there anything better to eat than fried cabbage and mashed potatoes? Except maybe grilled cheese and tomato soup….mmmmm

Speaking of food I must get to my kitchen and start and a Marinara sauce……

Ninja ad

I am sitting here staring at a blank sheet of paper and wondering what I have to say today. I am strangely silent. This fusses me up a wee bit. I seldom am just silent. Perhaps I am in mourning for what I cannot do. Perhaps I am just exhausted from my week, Perhaps I have wandered once again into a stand of trees and cannot see that it is just a few and not the whole of a forest. I do have a photo safari later ….maybe I am conserving energy. Maybe I am depressed over the Prague adventure. You see Shaggy and I were going to go to Prague for Christmas this year.  We had started planning the whole trip last November. I had saved up a wee bit over $5,000 and was adding to it a little at time from my new job. A job that I was told would start paying off  small but after we went live at the end of November would be better and better. That did not happen. It did not go live, it did not make money therefore I made no money and I had to start using what I had saved to survive. Then Christmas came and it was still not live and I was promised a greater percentage of commission and profit sharing to the tune of 17%. I refused the greater commission and I asked for a smaller percentage.  Granted.  Still we did not go live. This went on for months and before the end of February I had used all of my savings. I kept getting promises from the owner, while another owner was all doom and despair. One kept telling me that he had a track on two investors and we would have money he kept telling me he had appointments with investors and that they were millionaires and that him and J would be out of the office and out of the city and meeting with these investors and all would be well…..keep working. He would be out of the office, he would be gone. I assumed he was doing what he said. Both of these owners behaved as if they knew what the other was doing. Maybe I was not the only one being lied to…… he was attending meetings alright but they were NOT with investors were they?   This ended in April with the company owing me over $2000. Now I am in a battle to get what I earned and the commission at the rate I was told.  I have J1 saying one thing to me and another to J2 and now J1 is denying everything he said to me. What I cannot understand is why I who have no reputation for harming others in a work environment am not believable and yet J1 who has had similar issue in two other states is believable. Curious the things you can find out with good Counsel. J2 if he is lying to me about what he was up to then maybe he is lying to you about what he was up to also. He lied to me about things, has it never occurred to you that he is lying to you? Why are you so quick to believe I am the one not telling the truth?  This is a question I put to you. My actions were based on what I was being assured of, promised and told by J1. He told me we had investors right up to the day I was let go and for a week even after that. He even told me to call you, to get paid that one of the investors had come through and you had money. Do you remember me texting?

LOL…… I think that this is the cause of my fuss. That trip to Prague we, Shaggy and I, should have been preparing for. I feel a little better draining some more of the festering poison. Not the whole experience…just the owing me the money I earned. That is the poison. The lies told to both us J2 that is poison. 

mmmmm….. maybe if I buy a lottery ticket I can win the money and take that Christmas trip to Prague my daughter and I had so carefully started to plan. I can feel a little spark of hope…..warm.

One more thing J2….. I am Lady Tamarawww.HighlandTitles.com not just Tamara.

Since my favorite Shoe is reading this and feels left out because I never mention her.  I must tell you what her man did. She decided that since they are rock-stars they needed body guards. They discussed this and decided they needed body guards with Ninja skills. He placed an ad on Craigs List for Ninja trained body guards. She thinks and so do I that this was a very sweet and romantic gesture.

I wonder did any Ninjas apply?

No water

For the past few months my daughter has attempted to order from two different McDonalds water with her meal instead of a soda. Every time we are told that they cannot do that. They cannot serve water in a cup. “We cannot do that”. Several months ago this was not a problem. We could order water. Now they try to sell me a bottle of water. Do McDonalds stores not have water in them? Are there no faucets? I have been inside a many McD and walked up to the soda fountain and pushed the little lever next to the Orange dispenser and had water. Slightly orange flavored water but it was water. Now, they mean to have me understand that there is no water anywhere inside a McD? Bollocks! I at first believed it was a Texas thing but while Shaggy was in California she ordered water at a McD and was told no that they could not do that, there was no button for it. Button for it? I think we are on to the problem here. No button…..in other words there is not an option on the key pad of the cash register to choose water in a cup instead of  Diet coke or Sprite or tea. Whose brilliant oversight was that? Was it an oversight or is it the policy of McD to serve only soda or tea? Why are they insisting on humans only drinking a fountain soda or tea? Why are they pushing Dasani water on us? Is there something in the water at McD?  IS there something in the soda and tea? IS there something in the Dasani? They get the same amount of money from me no matter what I ask for in the cup. We have devised a plan to get around this. We will be ordering a Sprite. At the window we will say it was ordered wrong please just give us a cup of ice and water. Back to the button on the register; this is a wee bit scary! If it does not exist on an electronic device it does not exist in real time? Teenagers working in these stores do not have the ability or intelligence to think and solve for themselves? Why educate? Why teach them anything at all other than to push or touch buttons that will tell you all you need to know. We waste their precious education on preparing them to take a test that will measure the schools inability to teach them anything and then we punish the schools whose students do not have scores in keeping with the average of the nation by removing their funds and giving them even less to work with to educate so that these students can work at McD and only have to push a button on a cash register. Maybe instead of pushing them to prep on a national test that teaches them ?....... We ask Jason and Bella and Grace and Tyler what they may want to do or become and train, teach, educate and hone their skills in that area so that they are ready to enter the job market. Not all of them are rocket scientists nor do they care about how we allegedly got to the moon? They are in concentration camps so they do not need an understanding of that either. Maybe he just wants to be able to rebuild the engine on a 1976 Camaro and restore old cars? Maybe she wants to work in the forensic science arena. She does not care about politics of 1967. Anyway….. we went to Whataburger earlier this week and we ordered water with our meal and guess what…… we got water. No questions, no hassle, just a choice…” bottled water or water instead of soda ma’am?” We were thrilled. Lady Tamara www.LairdOfLochaber.com  has chosen a new venue for that  once a week junk food night.....I can get water!!! 

What is in your cup?

Psalm

I had an event dream last night. It went through many phases and ended actually on a note of fun. As I was interpreting my dream this morning it was very disturbing and I felt a bit disenchanted and hopeless. These feelings always lead me to taking a walk with GOD and chattering, which I did. After HE smiles at me with a bit of laughter in HIS voice we talk through what the dream really was about. It was my life over the past year. From the moment of my escape to the crashing of the ladder, the limping through town to the reality of who was there as I finished. It is strange looking out over the vista of the past year of your life and seeing it all from a safe distance as opposed to being enshrouded in the forest of it. There really was no huge dark forest; there were small stands of trees and valleys that were in fact small streams that provided a much needed respite at times. I am reminded of David as this goes on and my life in High School as I found a Psalm every time for every situation. Weird, now that I think back on it but, then not really. My dad wrote me letters every morning and quoted a Psalm at the end of each one and slid them under my door before he left for work. I thought it was a bit corny but cute back then. I understood not as much about what he was doing then as I do now. My mother could count on one hand the number of love letters my dad wrote to her; I cannot even recall how many he wrote to me. Not that the letters he wrote would have been considered love letters by most people’s standards. They were in fact letters to me from my dad out of love, with love, to encourage and to explain to me what he could not say. Psalms so to speak. I wish I still had them. I did save every one of them for years and slowly after 5 moves they vanished. But then it really was not the content it was the action.

I have been following in the footsteps of David. Not with Bath-Sheba, LOL…… But with enemies, people I believed were like family, crises and terror (some of you may think…. “and this is not normal for you Lady Tamara?”)  When you are sitting on the ground looking up Big Foot is much bigger.

Thank you for your patience, your kind words, your ability to smile at me, your ears as you listened to me, your time as you would stop what you were doing and give me a few seconds. In my dream last night my daughter is with me as I limped through the village but at the end as I was paying for a service done to me I was surrounded by people who were smiling and jovial and standing with me including me slowly into their worlds. In my real world here my daughter was with me every step through this. My instinct was to protect her from the results of the evil done to me, what she did was constantly say….”come on mom lets go”. She reached out to me now twice in her life time and gave me cause to keep moving. The birth of this child was no accident.

Perhaps I should make her Lady Shaggy www.HighlandTitles.com……..LOL…..nope I better use her real name……LOL

I arrived at the Gala venue at 3:15. The event started at 6. I had twisted my silky dark hair up into a chignon, fastened it with sparkly pins, applied enough curling gel to my strands to make curls last for days (they did) and secured the pin curls with pins. My car is overloaded with 75 large silver Swag Bags for all of the guests. I am exhausted and very close to not attending the evenings function. Three of us had worked from 3 – 7:30 the night before preparing the bags, the lightest of which weighed in at about 4 pounds. They were filled with swag from many of our members that just days before my business associate (L) and I had gathered. I am much stressed; we have not seen or heard from our committee head. She did not say she could not be there to help set up the bags, nor did she come by after work to see if we needed help. She did not offer to help transport these bags, or set up the venue. It is now 5:30. L and I have set up the tables. We have put the correct swag bag at the correct table with the correct name; we have set up the sponsorship level of the tables in conjunction with the front of the room. I rush upstairs and I apologize to anyone I snapped at on my way to the room. I still need to prepare the door for the speakeasy. I draw on an immense amount of eyeliner and brush on some powder and paint on some juicy garnet lips. So much for makeup….. I pull the pins out of my hair and the curls on the side jump back up into tight little blobs of curl. NOT what I had in mind but it does look very 1926…I am pleased. (First smile of the night). I slide my dress on throw my lip sticks into an evening bag strap on my shoes and off I dash downstairs. I do not even have a chance to take one last look at the dining room. I shroud the door and just as it is about to be 6 there is still no sight of our committee head.  I am now convinced she will show up late and take all the credit for the evening’s success. The guests start to arrive and to my surprise and immense joy many of them have made the effort to appear in 1920s style evening wear. They are even providing the speak word. One door is unlocked and easy for me to open to admit the guest after the proper word is delivered the other door is locked. I open it enough to allow them to see me and I can see them and offer entrance. One guest not paying attention and not seeing I have opened the door and my head is there cannot open the ancient (1891) door so he slams his body into it and it bursts open missing my face by a moment. The shroud covering the door falls to the floor, he steps all over it, he looks at me and says what word as he shoves his escorts through the entrance. His wife exclaims “you nearly hit her head!” he says “she is fine” and off he drags them. Still the head of the committee has not arrived. Cocktails are being served and L is sure I am getting my share however I do not even know what the appetizers are. At last, moments before dinner is served in she walks with her escort, hair looking fabulous, makeup perfect and a beautiful little red fringy dress. Has it crossed her mind that she did not make sure there were programs, place cards, gifts or anything else? Did she pause to wonder who decorated and set things up? Is she thinking who is staying last to ensure things that need to get back to us do?    As we, L and I, are setting up she remembers we had joked to Cass about my place card saying princess since that is what L calls me. I sign up for events as Lady Tamara. Cass knows this. L laughs and says my card say Lady Tamara Pearis. I smile. Later as I finally am able to sit to dinner I look at my place card and there in a beautiful script is written my name and it does say Lady. For some reason this one single moment is the very high light of my night. I relax, I smile, I even receive a Chairman’s award from the Executive Director and the Chair of the Board. That is a total surprise and causes me tears which now have me looking like the Joker from Batman or Jet Lei from the Crow.  Lady Tamara in writing at a table …… I loved jumping in and taking charge of what I could on that committee. So…….maybe next year I want to be the head and host a few meetings and then just show up and be fabulous.

I am NOT that type of Lady…. I am A Scottish Warrior Lady and strapping on my Claymore and targe, kilting my loins and heading to battle is more my style.

Lady Tamara www.LairdOfLochaber.com ..................... Priceless 

Breakfast Letters: Paris' Hilton

Breakfast Letters: Paris' Hilton: I Lady Tamara www.HighlandTitles.com would like to invite you into my last few days of adventure in Colorado. We decided one afternoo...

Paris' Hilton

I Lady Tamara www.HighlandTitles.com would like to invite you into my last few days of adventure in Colorado.

We decided one afternoon after a late lunch and before a cozy late dinner to take a drive out into the Rockies. We went from Interstate Highway to State Highway onto a county road that soon became a dirt road that meandered its way through a forest and eventually became a dirt trail. Some of this trail was still covered in snow and ice. We passed an old, hand dug, hand reinforced (as in no visible nails) busted up falling down mine( see photo). This vision of creepy haunted mine only helped to serve my soon to be “what have we done?” imagination. Several hundred feet after the mine we come upon several signs tacked on trees and an open gate on the trail that warn of private property and keep out. There is no place to turn around except for a slightly wider section of road inside the property bearing the warning. We crossed the threshold. We started the process of a 7 point turn to maneuver ourselves out of there. Now it is usually at this point in the movies that the bad thing happens. We were vulnerable, sideways to the only escape route. I just knew that at any moment a gaggle of unshaven ruffians shouldering their grandpas shot guns would bear down on us. Nothing happened so far. We make our turnaround and head back down the trail to the gate. Do we go through the gate? Just as I am about to relax Tony stops; still inside the property line and the female inside my head is screaming. I have a vision of becoming some woman starved mountain man’s girlfriend, firewood chopper and rabbit skinner. I am watching our 6 in the mirror as if my life might depend on it. He gets his GPS bearings and slowly moves forward. I sigh and he looks over and asks……”what?”

Dinner that night was the best tasting food ever!  Partly because I was not being held prisoner by the sons of the Deliverance crew and partly because only people from The Czech Republic can make stuffed green pepper like my mother, cooked red cabbage, dumpling and a steamed bread dumpling gently decorated with creamy brown gravy.

On another day, on another adventure we were driving up from Bolder to the grave sight of Buffalo Bill (photos on my Facebook page) on Lookout Mountain. We pass a few other vehicles coming down, several bikes with spandex clad people peddling up the incline and several coasting down. What we did not expect to see was a boy in a stocking cap, scarf trailing behind him in the wind, ski suit and boots careening toward us around a sharp curve on a skateboard. He survived.

Still on another day as we are trekking up to the summit on the Guanella Pass (see Facebook also for photos) we round a turn in the road and there charging down the pass coming around a curve is motorcycle boy. Popping a wheelie and hitting his throttle like he believed his bike was a horse and he was about to win a joust.  He also survived.

As we reached the summit we spy a red truck off to the side of the road buried in snow to his wheel wells on one side, axle on the pavement at a large drop off from the road. There are three people in the truck. We stop to assist if we can. One shirt clad lad gets out finds a tie down strap and we make three attempts to free him. We are not successful. I notice that none of the kids are wearing coats. It is only about 42 but it is windy and feels much colder. Do they not live there? Do they not know it could become chilly? And is it me or if you live in a place that tends to get snow covered and you own a truck would you not also have an emergency tow chain? We did and used it several times for ourselves and to assist many others. But then we lived in Alaska. Maybe it was the law. After we tried to help the over wrought teen became snippy and refused any further assistance. We were going to offer to notify park rangers but he insisted he could deal with it. I sure hope they made it home. No, we did not leave them alone. There were three other trucks and 2 cars up there. Please!

We pick up a brochure from the lobby of the Community center that advertises Silver mine with tours and adventure. We follow the directions and cannot find the mine. We drive back by again, nothing. We remember a time in California when we went on an adventure into some coastal mountains looking for Lorna Doone winery. We never found that either. We are convinced that the two places are owned by the same people.

We drive up to a state park that boasts fossils in a huge fossil bed. We arrive and there is a fee to drive around and hike around and basically just be there. NO. We turn back and head back up the road to an old pioneer farm we had passed to check it out. I am thrilled to find a restroom, rustic, but usable. So I avail myself of this and as we hit the trail to the buildings we pause at a sign to find out who had settled there. It is part of the fossil park and please go pay at the visitor center. Really?  I am awaiting my ticket in the mail for peeing and not paying for the privilege to do so.

We spent a part of the day on Halloween exploring an ancient pioneer cemetery (photos on Facebook). There were headstones from 1873 on to the present.  There were stakes in the ground with numbers on them and some had old plaques attached to stakes with no information except one that said unknown infant. This one still lingers in my mind. What was odd was that almost all of the graves were children. Staring from birth to about 14, and maybe only a few adults, the deaths of the children occurred in 2 separate years.  One group was about 1887-1889 and the next group was from about 1892-1893. The adults born were all born in the 1890s and died in 1930 and beyond. Where are the adults for the all the children? Because the adults buried there were all children at the time the other children were born and dying. If I can find 15 minutes in my day I will scour the web for info…..I love a good mystery/puzzle.

I will end this letter with this. Everywhere I go and I stop at a Starbucks there is usually a wait, sometimes short most of the time long. We found one that had no wait. But as Murphy’s law is always in effect the minute we publically said we were at Starbucks a man walks in behind us, then a bus pulls up and about 11 Paris Hiltons unload in dresses and shorts and jeans with skimpy shirts. No wonder they needed coffee, they were freezing to death. Paris’ this is not the mall!!!!! It is a small coffee shop in a little village elevation 8,000 feet and it is October in Colorado!!!!

I have errands needing my attention.

Have a wonderful cold day adventure today!