Unraveling Spelt

Good morning. I was asked a question yesterday I could not provide an answer for. It was unusual to not know a little something about a subject. My mother picked up a loaf of Spelt Bread at the market. She turned and asked what it was. No clue, a type of fish, grain, baking method, nut?  So together lets discover what this is.

Spelt is a variety of wheat. It is called Dinkle in Germany and Farro in Italy. Spelt has a higher protein level than other wheat. Many people with wheat allergies can eat spelt. Here are some spelt statistics comparing it to other wheat varieties ….

1            30% higher in Thiamin (Vitamin B1)

2           25% higher in B6

3          45% higher in Vitamin E

4        Higher in unsaturated fatty acids (mainly Linol acid and Linoleen acid) which are important for regeneration of nerve cells

5         It is warming and supports good blood circulation

6          It is higher in water solubility, making it easier to digest and aiding in the nutrients being more easily absorbed by the body.

7         Higher percentage of Amino Acids

          Higher level of L-Tryptophan which in turn promotes and aids in the production of serotonin.

a      Carbohydrates 70.19 g

                     Dietary fiber 10.7 g

                      Iron  4.44 mg

1                  Magnesium          136 mg

Spelt was common during the Bronze Age up through the Medieval Times. It was introduced into America in the 1890s. The flavor is slightly sweet and nutty. The husk that protects the kernel unlike other varieties protects it from pollutants and insects so pesticides are not needed during growing.

Well now I need some.

Has anyone else tried to change a ticket with Delta? I did and I can tell you I will never fly with Delta after this. First they wanted $150 just to change it. Then I had to make up the difference in the cost of the flight.  T paid $241 for a round trip to San Diego. To change the return trip date plus the fee was going to be $373. I laughed. She was not amused by my laughter. I exclaimed that I had not paid that much for the entire fare. She assured me she knew how much I had paid and was impressed with my ticket purchasing savvy but if I were to buy the ticket today it would have been $479 round trip. But I am NOT buying it today.  WOW!!! I am thinking. Ok Linda well thank you for…. (I pause) …your help today, she gives me the scripted good …blah blah….flying Delta….blah blah… Again…

I have gone through my list of acquaintances and I have not one who lives in San Diego except a former boss whom I have not spoken to in 16 years. So I shall get my Warrior Pirate on and conquer San Diego on my own for 2 days. WhhooooTTTT!!  I love an adventure!!!!

Did you people know that Delta, Air France and KLM are all owned by the same company? I like KLM. I am going to have to unlike them now.  Dear Southwest I would have used you again except you do NOT fly into Palm Springs. Please change this!!!!

At the flat I live in there is red wood mulch decorating some of the spaces around the complex. For the past two weeks they have been replacing the red mulch with red dirt. Weird I am thinking but maybe more cost effective.  Yesterday I came home to turf being laid out over the red sandy looking dirt. No means of watering said dirt anywhere. I am wondering what is next; removal of some of the older shabby looking shrubs?  I am intrigued.

Lady Tamara www.HighlandTitles.com has a budget to work on.

Maybe I can grow some smelt on my little patch of Scotland www.LochaberHighlandEstates.com with my pumpkins.

Have a great adventure.

Rug Pirate

Mother had been away on a month’s Holiday with her sister and my dad brothers and their wives. She was in West Virginia and Tennessee and parts in between. She just returned and chattered for 3 hours about her adventures. She called me when she arrived at her sister’s house and was telling me about the shark shower curtain and shark bath mats and rugs in the bathroom. She knew I was having a hard time finding a curtain and rugs I liked at a price I wanted to pay. “Mom” I said, “be a Pirate and take them I need those!” She turned to her sister and told her that I had instructed her to take the rugs and shower curtain. I could hear them both laughing.  Last night being Tuesday we went to Mothers house for dinner. There on a chair in a nice neat pile were three bath rugs, no shower curtain. It was not a shark on them but a leaping dolphin. But then that is not the point is it? My mother got her Pirate on and took the rugs as booty for me! Yeah mom!!!! Sorry Aunt Max. I will put them in my bath today.  I forgot to ask, did she ask to take them or did she just take them?

Yesterday was a cupcake tasting adventure. First stop was red velvet with four different frostings. The red velvet was very chocolaty, in my opinion how red velvet should be. The cream cheese was subtle and not overly sweet. My favorite so far. The idea of cake balls was introduced and we are exploring that option. 

Second stop had giant cupcakes that were more like miniature cakes. Everyone, but me liked those the best. They were moist but not so chocolate. She also had a sample of Chocolate Grenache which was AMAZING!  So far we have sampled cupcakes from 4 different bakeries. I have two more in mind. I still like the idea of cake balls.  We were going to give everyone a red velvet cupcake and then someone suggested mixing it up a bit and offering two different cupcakes so people have a choice.

 Sit where there is red velvet or sit where there is dark chocolate mint. 

That way there is a chocolate and a non-chocolate because not everyone likes chocolate. This is true and I also realized that they did not know that cocoa is a main ingredient in red velvet cake. So they are both chocolate.  Maybe we need an Italian cream as a choice? 

Lady Tamara www.LairdOfLochaber.com is up for suggestions. It has gone from simple to complex. Something I was trying to avoid by choosing just one, however I do like the idea of the choice to sit where you like the cupcake flavor. That eliminates the place cards, an added expense. Hmmmm…

I saw Horatio yesterday; he turned down a road that leads to a Plumbing company and a huge CPA firm. Now unless MR. Green did it in the laundry room with a pipe Horatio was going to see the accountant. However since his accountant would then be my Mothers accountant maybe my mother committed a far worse crime than just pirating some rugs. Maybe she had up her red flag and gave no quarter as she swashbuckled her way to rug theft and he is now dragging up her financials to see if there is a money problem.

 Good thing she has not unpacked yet she may need to make a quick get-away.

Lady Tamara www.LochaberHighlandEstates.com is off to call her Personal Baker for some advice on cupcakes.

Toodles…..

Orange joy bundles

I thought much yesterday about pumpkins and why I like them so much. Not just to eat. I like the way they look. Their round abundant shape, how they appear ripe and firm and ready to offer up their bounty. I like the way the rind looks; tender but at the same time durable like leather. 

The way a pumpkin feels to the touch, smooth and soft, with slight bumps, wrinkles, perfect in its imperfections. I like how you have to wrap your arms around then to pick them up. The way they sound when you pat them, hollow but then not. I thought what I liked the best about them was their color, orange. But yesterday I learned they come in grey. Oh, I knew about the various shades of orange and yellow and the greens and reds. I knew about white ones but the grey, that was a surprise; a plethora of emotion; awe, disgust, joy, surprise, humor, tenderness.

 I have orange ones in my kitchen all year long and to see them anytime gives me joy and cause to smile. They are jolly in their bright orange casings. I would put green and red and golden ones in my bedroom. Grey and pale green pumpkins, those would sit very well in my living room, all year, not just in fall. I have a happy pumpkin on my porch right now. He sits where I can pat him as I pass. We do not carve them at my house. That is pumpkin abuse. I love to see jack o’ lanterns. But I would not do it.

 When my children were little I would buy each of them a pumpkin with a painted face on it which they would name and carry around and talk to. My parents would make a ritual of the pumpkin carving at our house. 

We would buy a pumpkin at a local festival and the next day my dad would make homemade donuts and mom would mull apple cider and spread newspaper all over the table and we would all sit down and watch as my dad took the longest sharpest knife I had ever seen and proceeded to commit surgery on the pumpkin. Mother like a dutiful nurse would hand him a large silver spoon and he would scoop all the stringy seed guts from inside. The aroma of spicy donuts with cinnamon sugar and scented cider mixed with pumpkin was amazing.

 He would then turn the pumpkin around several times looking for the perfect face side and then he created a face. It was never the same. Some years it was funny, some it was scary. He never would tell and we would never know until he turned it around.  Mother then put a fat candle inside and we would take it to the porch and light it. Full of donuts and cider instead of dinner and milk it was a holiday and the start of the season toward Christmas, visions of Santa now danced in our heads

.

Lady Tamara www.HighlandTitles.com has cupcake tastings this morning so I must be off. I wonder could I farm my little plot of land in Scotland and become a pumpkin Lord? How many pumpkin plants can grow on …..

Stingy Jack

I am out of tea this morning.  I have had cocoa and coffee all weekend. So…. I am drinking Pumpkin Chia Late tea; smells wonderful, like fall, tastes like warm pumpkin pie.

 Speaking of pumpkins, I ordered one of the cream cheese pumpkin muffins form Starbucks Sunday morning and was I in for a surprise. I usually avoid their pastry because they tend to be dry. The muffin was moist and flavorful and creamy and very spicy. Well done Starbucks, well done.

A pumpkin is a squash. It is native to North America. Pumpkins can weigh anywhere between 1000 pounds to 1 pound. Seeds dating back over 2000 years have been found at sites in Mexico. The word pumpkin originates from the Greek word pepon, large melon. The French called them Pompon and the British Pumpion. The American colonists called them pumpkins. They are found in a variety of colors, orange, yellow, dark green light green, white, grey and red.

The main nutrients in pumpkins are lutein an antioxidant, and alpha and beta carotene which generates Vitamin A. Antarctica is the only continent which pumpkins cannot grow. The Connecticut Field variety is considered the traditional American Pumpkin. The seeds are a good source of zinc, magnesium, copper and protein. Pumpkin has a fiber content which aids in digestion. 564mg of Potassium 49 calories, 37 mg of calcium 2650 IU vitamin A and much more are offered per 1 cup cooked pumpkin.

Most parts of the pumpkin are edible, flowers, shell, pulp, seeds and leaves. Pumpkin seed oil is used in Eastern Europe in cooking.

Canned pumpkin is suggested by veterinarians to feed cats and dogs that may be experiencing, digestive problems, diarrhea or hairballs.

Pumpkins are a fruit.

History of the Jack-o-Lantern

People have been making jack-o-lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with it ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O’Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o’lanterns.  Source…The History Channel

Virginia in County Cavan Ireland holds a Pumpkin Festival every year and Lady Tamarawww.LairdOfLochaber.com who is crazy about pumpkins (just look at her kitchen) has added this event to her Bucket List. Join me?

Viking Raid

I diced up the chicken breast and chopped a spicy white onion. I blended the Hatch chili with Verde sauce. I lightly fried the tortilla to make it more pliant and after rolling chicken, onion and cheese up in it I poured the Verde sauce over it sprinkled on more cheese and baked. 

 A pot of black beans and dinner was served. Delicious aromas flooded the house.

 After the feast was consumed Shaggy decided that it was time for Halloween M&Ms; they are most flavorful.

 My M&M preference list is Halloween, Easter, Christmas, then the everyday variety. Back in the day of only regular bags, before the despised blue ones, back when there was still a pretty tan one; I would buy three large bags on the first day of October. I would open them pour them onto a plate and sort out all of the red and green ones. Put them in a zipper baggie and into the cabinet. That left only the yellow, orange, tan and brown. I would pour them into a candy bowl. They were beautiful, like fallen leaves. At Christmas I would put out the saved red and green ones. I would buy 3 more bags and separate out all the red ones into a zipper bag and sort all the green ones into a zipper bag I baked Christmas cookies with the remaining colors and on Valentines I put all the red into a bowl and for St. Patrick’s Day I put out the remaining green ones. Shaggy sat at the table reminiscing about the St. Patrick M&Ms wondering why they did not make those anymore. I laughed and told her that I made those bowls of Holiday M&Ms; you could not buy them in Holiday colors back then. She was amazed. The look on her face was priceless, the sparkle in her eyes as she smiled realizing the magic I had woven into her childhood. She got that warm happy glow, the one you get when the object of your desire proclaims love for you. All that candy sorting for all those years was suddenly worth every moment. I had no idea what it meant to my children. I did it because it was visually pleasing to me. Because it created Holiday magic and was a very inexpensive decorating tool.

So we don our shoes grab our purses and out the door we go, driving to CVS because it is close. We scour the Halloween section and no Halloween M&Ms. we leave, but not quietly, expressing our displeasure of finding none as we leave and drive to our local market. We walk to the very back where they cleverly place all the seasonal items. Not once are distracted by displays of …. Well I am not sure what they were attempting to entice us with we were on a mission that had become more serious for the lack of finding the desired bag of delight. To our further dismay they had none on either side of an aisle that was filled with one kind of candy bar or another, Eyeballs, fingers, pretzels, chocolate miniature favorites but not our M&Ms, 20 feet of assorted treats and decorations and hats and masks.  We have become more determined and if we have to drive all over Texas to find them we have resolved to do so.  Our next stop is Target. We are Vikings and we are pillaging village after village in our quest for chocolate Valhalla. At last we find them. Grabbing a bag we dash to the register and when Karen asks if we found everything we both shout YES!!! And they are delicious! I love it when we have a successful mission.

But wait there was more. On our way into the store Shaggy spies a large dark oddly shaped thing on the wall outside. ‘MOM!! Look at the size of that bug.” I am dreading looking over at it especially after the giant fairy body we found on our front bumper and the Texas sized water bug that was waging an attack in my kitchen. But I am happily surprised. It is a moth. A very large moth with a wing span longer than my hand. The colors are like tree bark. She was beautiful. But why was she on a wall when 20 feet away was a tree where she would have been disguised and safer. We stopped and enjoyed her beauty and size for several minutes resisting the urge to touch her velvet looking wings. Hope she was safe all night.

Lady Tamara has received several suggestions for a new name so as not to be confused with the other Tamara.  Lady Lochaber, Princess T, Mara, TP, T, I have not decided.

Have you decided to make your dad a Scottish Laird for Christmas? You can at http://www.highlandtitles.com

Name change?

Could someone please point out to me if I am wrong? They put a stop sign on the corner, and then paint a line across the road. I believed where we are to stop at the line before turning or going forward. Is this line meant as a challenge?  I dare you to stop beyond it? Please stop on the other side? Stay behind this line as you come to a stop? I do not remember covering this in drivers ed or in comedy driving school. I have even seen people come to a stop 9 feet beyond the sign and block a crosswalk as if they have every right to be there. What is with those drivers who charge up to a stop sign not slowing down at all only to slam on their brakes and come to a stop with the beak of their vehicle 5 feet past a stop sign? Do they believe that the passing traffic will come to a halt to make way for them because they are aggressively driving? Is it a challenge? An act of defiance? How dare you put a stop sign in my path?

While we are on the stop sign rampage… humans in oversized pickup trucks pay ATTENTION!!! Some of us do not feel the need to beef up our insignificant selves in an oversized vehicle.  A stop sign or stop light is not a challenge or an affront to your wee tiny ego. Let me tell you a tale. You are in your truck. A jacked up, 4 wheel drive, diesel chugging, dualy , 4 door truck.  We are on a two lane road. We get to the intersection you get into the left turn lane because you are turning left and you come to a stop 9 feet beyond the line with your beak almost in the lane of traffic. I pull up to the stop sign as the line dictates. I am turning right which I can do if my lane is clear. BUT I CAN NOT SEE IT!!!!! I can see you and the back door of your truck. You are waiting and waiting.  I inch up a bit to see around you praying there is not a vehicle coming my way. As soon as you see me moving forward you start moving forward also. Yes that helps me out you bloody freak! It is NOT a race! You are turning left I am turning right. In an instant I realize that if you are moving forward into the traffic there cannot be traffic coming and if there is they will slam into you and you my friend will be the barrier between me and the traffic.  I bravely move forward and complete my turn. Thanx for being the buffer!

We are out of coffee. So after a meet last night we drive over to my favorite store World Market to buy some. Shaggy wants pumpkin spice coffee; sounds good to me too. They have some $8.99 WOW!!! So we wander on back to the grinding coffee area to further explore and there is Hazelnut for $4.99. I notice every other coffee is $4.99. Are pumpkins a rare and delicious treat that they are so much more expensive?? I am drinking the Hazelnut this morning. Not as tasty as the mystery blends at Central Market but it will do this morning.

Lady Tamara www.LairdOfLochaber.com  has a Gala Meeting to prepare for. Marty that means I looking for you and Sally… I am also looking for your dancer.

This is the only traffic I wish I had to deal with, Badgers at my Estate in Glencoe. www.LochaberHighlandEstates.com

One more thing... there are now 2 Tamara at the job site. I need to change my name. I will take all suggestions.

Enjoy Talk Like  a Pirate Day!!!

Man in Van

I have made my turn into the lane closest to me. I am driving, there is an SUV in front of me and bit ahead of the SUV is a grey minivan (of course I think soccer mom) in the next lane over. 

All of a sudden minivan changes lanes over in front of the SUV which slams on its brake giving me a moment to react and slow down. I am assuming it is a crazy woman with like….4 screaming toddlers and she are (the power that creates Word feels that there should be an are in that sentence instead of an is) at her limit. But wait, she was not done. She then brakes suddenly causing the SUV to again slam on the brakes. The SUV out of a sense of outrage has since been tailgating the minivan in retribution for pulling directly in front of him. (Very wise choice…)Keep in mind the minivan has not used a turn signal, not once in two maneuvers. Instead of positioning her minivan into the turn lane in one smooth motion she rides the dividing lane for several moments slowly committing her van to the turn lane. I have switched lanes, using turn signals, so as not to be involved in whatever disaster they are heading into. Then she pulls sharply out of the lane and stops waiting to make a left turn into the bank. The speed limit on this piece of road is 40 so that is how fast we were going when all this happened. The SUV again brakes and then once she is committed to turn the SUV stomps on his gas pedal and roars away. I look over to see this crazy female to verify she is not blonde or Asian as are most of the bad jokes about drivers. To my surprise and gales of laughter it is not a female with bad habits it is a male creature resembling Billy Zane in a minivan and he is talking on the phone driving, one handed apparently clueless that he is not the only driver out there.

Can someone please enlighten me to the wisdom of putting stick people or aliens or turtles on the back window of your SUV or van that represents your family from parents to the 3 daughters and 1 son?

 That tell me where they go to school by claiming in a bumper sticker that they made the honor roll at Rock Hudson Elementary. With megaphones so that I know Amanda and Tiffany are cheerleaders and Tyler plays soccer. 

Do you people have any idea the amount of personal information you are sharing with a criminal mind?  They now know you are not home a lot. They can easily get school schedules and team schedules. I wonder if these same parents complain about what an unsafe world it is.

I worked at a registration table at a Rotary Golf tournament yesterday and had a wonderful time. I then jumped on the beer cart with L and off we drove serving beer to thirsty golfers for hours. Best job of the event. However due to the size of the keg and the container that housed it and the ice I had to sit straddling the handrail. I now have a bruise on my inner thigh the size of a large baking potato that is swollen and decorated in shades of blue, red and brilliant hues of purple. We were only told once that we were making too much noise. Driving through the 18 hole course was a get back to nature trip. We saw deer everywhere, doe and fawn still wearing their spots.

 Squirrels that were not quit black, more of a mottled grey that melted into a dark brown. Not your typical red bushy squirrels you see in your yard but more like the black ones you see in California. We even saw one climb out of an oak tree with his face so stuffed with acorns that his cheeks were twice the size of his head. There was a gopher or ground hog or some sort of varmint on a short cliff overlooking the creek. We came upon a brilliant green snake that someone had killed on a bridge. Very sad. We rescued a turtle only to have him fly out of the cart as we careened around a curve and down a hill. A bee even landed on L’s foot and started to crawl around her ankle causing here to get the creepy tickle it will sting me freak out. We stopped and I rescued her foot and the bee that I turned loose onto a tree leaf. I believe he was after the beer that had been spilt on her foot.

I got home to open to my email to find a note from my editor that I get a press pass this year!!!!  Whooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lady Tamara  www.LairdOfLochaber.com is now official. No more telling people who I am and they looking at me with a bit of hesitation. I am also buying a new camera!!! So if anyone wants to contribute to the Lady Tamara Camera fund please do so.

What adventure awaits today?

Pattern / He Sails :: COLOURlovers

Pattern / He Sails :: COLOURlovers

Luther Did Not Have A Wife in Indiana

I did some ghost hunting this past weekend and my 2^nd great grandmother’s last name is Given. Try google-ing up that as a last name. John Given….highlight John was given a puppy for Christmas. For every 8 of those a real clue came up. Then poor old John Given II is not being given the credit he deserves. He was a Captain in the Revolutionary War and was in charge of a militia of Rifle men. He was at Point Pleasant and Jamestown. His valiant war record is being given to his father who was involved with King Georges War with the French in 1742. I wonder how many people are actually doing research and how many copy and paste stuff over and over.  There is a crazy out there who has decided that my Great Grandfather Luther, who I have documented proof is mine, was married to some woman in his lineage and has copied and pasted all of my photos. He was NOT married to her! He did NOT lead two lives. He lived in a small village and owned the local Mercantile where he went to work every day. He did NOT have another wife in Indiana!!!!

My daughter brought me home some Mad Hatter Tea form Disneyland. It is black tea with Apricot and Vanilla and spices and tastes like Birthday cake. It is wonderful for my afternoon tea. I have some little French biscuits I nibble on with it. Only problem is now that I am going into an office every afternoon I have no way to boil water. Ideas?

Lady Tamara http://www.highlandtitles.com will work a golf tournament this morning so I had best be going.

But first let me tell you how I received my Title. Go to and click on the buy you plot tab and just get started. Mine is just on the edge of the southeast corner of that 100 ft. plot. We may not be neighbors but we will be working together to preserve a beautiful estate and our wee bit of Scotland. Did you know there are more people of Scottish descent living in America then there is in Scotland? But how many of us own a wee bit? Me me me Lady Tamara.

 So can you!

Judging You

Interesting to see how people behave around something they do not understand, something that they deem unusual, and something that they cannot confine. People tend to put other people who are not like them in a category of people who they decide are beneath them. The people who were native to America at the time those born abroad (I was born here I am native) came here, were treated with disrespect and disdain because they were different. So they were beneath the white man. 

They treated black people the same. They were different in color, in dress, in beliefs, in customs. That made them beneath. They treat their own kind the same way. The dress, the custom, the beliefs are different they are beneath.

 I suppose we all judge. You judge me because of how I dress, fix my hair, wear my jewelry, I have tattoos, the shoes on my feet, my choice of fragrance, the purse I carry, how I wear or do not wear make-up, the sounds I make when I move (bells). Guess what! I am NOT constrained by outer armor the rest of you seem intent on covering yourselves with.  Does all of that give you joy, happiness, freedom?

 I judge you because of your attitude toward me. That is wrong. I apologize. There are people who smile at just the thought of me.

Lady Tamara is apparently on a quest.

Lady Tamara www.HighlandTitles.com had a dream last night and in it she observed 7 lizards. Those lizards were pointed out to her by a man who said he was a sailor.

Tell me your dream…

Carl and Dot

Can someone help me wrap my head around this situation which I blew off at the time but has come back to play through my mind like a melody I am trying to remember. A company I work with was going to put out a directory in a magazine format and sell space for listings and ads. Carl was selling this idea to an organization we shall call Dot. Carl presented and explained that I would be the representative from the company who would deal with the clients and see them and communicate with them and build the relationships with them. Now keep in mind I was an account executive in this same area for a local publication so this type of work with these same people was not going to be new. I was very good at that job. I have relationships still with past clients. They wish me back. Carl did a wonderful job getting his idea across I assume, I was not there. Dot took a while to dwell on the proposal and came back at another meet and told Carl the idea was great but not if I was going to do it. Dot wanted Carl to sell the ads to promote the publication. They convinced Carl that since he owned the company he should sell the ads. People would want to deal with Carl not me. NOT me. This would take Carl away from other duties in the company such as running it. I was given this as some sort of reasoning and told over the phone. Carl and I had talked face to face about this plan numerous times since it was going to involve a lot of my time. He wanted to be sure I was agreeable to handling the campaign. I was. But Dot did not want to approve the campaign if I was involved. I suppose they cannot tell her who she can work with but they made it clear who they would not work with.     

Oh…..

HA!!! I am not a black and white thinker. I am not two dimensional. I do not think inside the box therefore, I do not grasp all things that are. Writing this down made it that way just now. I can see clearly now the rain is gone…..

When GOD closes a door….. look!...... a window.

Glencoe

Lady Tamara  www.LairdOfLochaber.com has shifted her focus. If the consensus of Dot was in that one rejection (which it was not, there were other incidents) than I shall go play in other places where odd and unusual are celebrated and revered. I was given advice a while back with maybe hidden intentions but….

Glencoe

I have a few commitments left to see through with dot. Because of a little ribbon I wear called integrity I will follow through with my best.  When those are complete I am done.  Why was I putting myself through this ugliness from dot?

I am so tired of hot, humid, Texas…..so tired. Sorry mom but if I get a chance to live somewhere else I am going. Hahaha although she feels anywhere further than 15 minutes from her is too far. Mom! Why this sudden attachment. It freaks me out!!!

Glencoe

What will you let go of today that tethers you down?

Kilted Walker

Good morning,

So there I was driving home from Houston. We had driven over for James’ Memorial and were driving back the following day. Thank you Glen for sharing your home, when I realized I had left my phone and charger and was more than halfway home. At first I panicked but then I remembered I could not abandon the baby I have named Stillness so I kept going. I would send Glen a message on facebook when I got home. Right at about that same moment Scott sends Shaggy a message saying he has my phone and has taken it back to Austin. This is good news as Austin is much closer than Houston. So my phone has taken a vacation; which means if you are trying to reach me you will not but it also means I cannot reach you. I hope to get it back by this weekend.

I went to an event in my village that is called Heroes walk and shot some photos for the local paper. While I was there enjoying myself people watching I captured the best dressed guy at the event. Yes he is wearing American flags as earrings. Love it!!  This was a wonderful event and a huge amount of people showed up including Mark Gonzales from Senator Cuellar’s office. I always enjoy seeing Mark at events. I love how he can shift gears so fast from friendly casual with me to the job of representing the Senator to the people. They had a dove release at the event. This may be hard for some of you to believe but I have never in my life seen a dove release. It was so beautiful and oddly emotional. The woman who owns the doves is very good at her job. We had a woman who was at the pentagon on September 11 2001 as a guest speaker. She did a wonderful job. She release the first dove and 2 firemen released the rest from 2 baskets. Apparently there was an international dove release, over 6 thousand doves worldwide in honor, not only the USA but, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and Australia to mention a few.  I can take that off my bucket list. But maybe I will add see dove release in Scotland, Ireland and Australia.

About the attacks in Egypt and Libya yesterday…. I am NOT a fan of Hillary C but this is the best thing ever to come from her mouth. "The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind."

I was bitten by the Southern bug last night and made fried pork chops, hash browns and beets for dinner. Weird huh?.....

This is weird tooo…. These lyrics from Oh Susannah

It rained all night the day I left

The weather it was dry

The sun so hot, I froze to death

Susannah, don't you cry.

What exactly does it mean? Is he lying or drunk or not even in Louisiana?

The sun so hot I froze to death???

I do not get it.

Hey Boss if you are reading this I have a proposal to go over with you. I will be at the Chamber office at 9 call me there.

Lady Tamara http://www.highlandtitles.com will be writing thank you notes for the donations to the golf tournament.