Yakety Yak

I'm always hoping to have new experiences that are interesting and maybe a little out of the ordinary. Little did I know it would include the hide of an animal I never thought I would touch.

I couple of weeks ago I had some friends visiting from Canada, Will and Ed, some of my motorcycle buddies. My friend Michelle from work (Aspire) and her husband Tom also joined us for the evening along with my special friend Russ.

So we are sitting around the kitchen table drinking a little and eating pizza and wings while telling stories and just enjoying each other's company and laughing quite a bit. Somehow hunting comes up and Russ starts telling about the time he shot a Yak. I had never heard this hunting story. I'd heard about the elk in Alaska and the turkey in Texas, but a Yak? So someone say "Where did you shot it?" to which Russ replies "right between the eyes". We all start laughing until someone says, "no really, they are from Tibet, so where in the world did you shot a yak". Russ once again just matter of factly replies "In Ohio". Now we all go hysterical with laughter.

A couple of days later, Russ stops over to drop off some things he had picked up for me. I'm standing in the garage and he tells me to turn around and not look at him while he gets something else out of his truck. Oh wow, I'm thinking, he's brought me a gift. A minute later I feel something heavy over my shoulders. It's the yak skin!

So enjoy some pictures of the Ohio yak. This skin is from the shoulders back as he had the head mounted. I guess he also had the meat butchered. I'm almost afraid to asked any questions about that after the funny answers we got to the other questions about this yak! The second picture is a close-up of the tail. I have since learned that the long yak hair doesn't shed out but the shorter fur that runs along the back can be combed out and spun into a very nice wool yarn that some people claim is nicer the alpaca yarn.

Just in case you are still wondering, Russ did shoot this yak on a game farm in Ohio. He had gone there with a friend not really planning on shooting anything. The owner of the farm asked Russ if he would like to shoot the yak as it was beginning to bother the other animals and was attacking the owner's kids when they were trying to feed the other animals. Yaks are normally a pretty calm animal but this was a Yak who had gone bad.

R & R

Once I get something into my head, it's hard to move it on out. Last night about 8PM I decided it was time to move my bedroom furniture to a different position. I usually have a spring/summer setting and a fall/winter setting. So last night I decide to try a whole different setting that I have used a couple times that I rather like. At 10PM I finally crawl into bed to watch my little TV that now seems a mile away. Since putting the dvr on that TV, the picture seemed so small when I was trying to read the TV Guide.

This morning I wake up and I realize I'm really stiff and sore from all the activity last night so after laying in bed for a half hour, I called into work sick. At 9AM I call into my other job to say I won't be in there either. I decided I've been working way too much, not having a full day off to myself since just about Labor Day. It's a rainy cooler day so a perfect day to get things done in the house.

First I strip the bedclothes off the bed and start washing them. I vacuum in the bedroom then decide with the new furniture arrangement I have room to move my old TV from the livingroom into the bedroom. After moving that and getting the dvr hooked up I try it out and no sound from the TV. I find the two remotes for the TV but even with new batteries they won't work. I finally get the dvr remote to control the TV and yippee, sound!

Time to do more laundry, play on the computer, chat with a friend from Germany, make a couple meatloaf to put in the freezer, make some sloppy Joe's for lunch and dinner, got through some mail, watch some TV in both the livingroom and the bedroom, depending on where I'm working, went though my closest to remove some clothes that I don't wear anymore, downloaded music from itunes, backed up all my downloads to disk and talk to Russ on the phone. Later he stops and picks me up to take me to town to pick up my car which has been in the garage since last week. It was an expensive fix, but now the car is so quiet and sit higher then it has in a while. There is one strange noise in it that I will take it back up to the garage for them to determine what it is, but that will wait until tomorrow or the next day.

Now it's getting dark and I can't believe what a full and enjoyable day I've had! I feel so relaxed and content. I think I'll be able to go back to work tomorrow with a whole new attitude! Guess a little R & R was just what the doctor ordered!!!

More Lyrics

I've mentioned it before and I'm sure I'll mention it many times in the future, but I'm a person who love lyrics. Guess it's my way of enjoying a form of poetry.

Since owning an iPod, I have enjoyed more music, buying a single cut from an album I would never even considered buying. Today I bought a cut from the new Lyle Lovett album "It's not Big, it's Large", an album I learned about when reviewed on CBS Sunday Morning, one of my favorite programs where I have learned about many musical artists that I had never heard off before. John Prine being a perfect example!

So today I decide to check out this Lyle Lovett album because of a cut I heard on the CBS Morning News called "Don't Cry A Tear For Me". The lyrics touched me because I know that soon someone will be walking out of my life.

Don't Cry A Tear For Me

Go if you must go

Turn if you must turn away

Don't Cry a Tear for me

Laugh if you can smile

Run if you are walking away

Don't Cry a Tear for me

Shout if you can speak

Sing if you mention my name

Don't Cry a Tear for me

Low in the Valley

Stand in the wind and the rain

High on the mountain

See the sun shining again

Shout if you can speak

Sing when you mention my name

Don't Cry a Tear for me

So go if you must go

Turn if you must turn away

Don't Cry a Tear for me

Another obsession taken care off

For about a year now, I've been doing research about flat screen TV's. Then my son bought a plasma TV for his fiance'. Next my daughter and her husband bought a LCD TV. I continued to do research, trying to decide what I really wanted, what size would work best in my livingroom, plasma or LCD, 40", smaller? Larger? Do I really want to spend the money? After all, the TV in the livingroom was working just fine and it was only a few years old, maybe 7 yrs at the most.

Then one day while I was looking for paperwork on something else, I found the paperwork on my TV and I realized my TV was at least 13 yrs old! Suddenly I didn't feel so quilty about lusting after a new TV.

Each work I would look online for the best deals at Circuit City and noticed each week they seemed to offer 18 month financing with no interest. This is the type of deal I've taken advantage of in the past very successfully so figured this was the way to go.

This Sunday for some reason, once I checked the ads, I convinced myself that it was the right day to buy the new TV. After church, I called my future daughter-in-law to see if she would be available to bring her truck to the store to pick up the TV for me. Off I was on the bike to go pick out which model I wanted and to apply for the financing. Krista got there while I was waiting for the good word from the bank that my application had been accepted. I took her over to see the two sets I was trying to decide between when the salesman walked up to me and told me that my application had been declined! I was shocked! I have an excellent credit rating. He looked sheepish, explaining it wasn't Circuit City but the Chase Bank that had rejected me. The only reason I could come up with in my mind was the slight mess I had with my taxes this past year that my "taxman" had screwed up on me but I had paid them off and the checks had cleared.

Krista and I walked out of the store, stood in the parking lot talking for a while and were just about ready to say good-bye when my cell phone rang. I didn't recognize the number but answered. "Ms Striegel? This is George the salesman at Circuit City. The bank just called us to let us know that their computer had a problem and you shouldn't have been declined. Are you still interested in the TV?"

Back into the store we went to finish the paperwork with me finally on the phone with someone from the bank to answer a few secruity questions. The last few questions would be her giving me names and I had to identify if I knew the people or not. Ok, I'm ready, what's the first name. Gerald Cook. OH SHIT, why did he have to come into this whole deal??? I told the lady at the bank, yes I knew him. "Where does he live". I then started to laugh and finally said to her, "that is my ex-husband and I don't care where he lives". She then gave me the town and yes, that is where he lives. Next name, Nicole Cook. "yes, that is my daughter but that isn't her name now, she is married now.

(At this point the rest of the blog for today was lost and I can't remember exactly what I finished the blog with but I'll try anyway)

So I finally get all the financing paperwork done, pick out the TV I wanted and start the paperwork on that. After all was taken care off, the sales guy says to me "I'm going to try to get you some money off of the TV for all we put you through today". Away he walks and of course I'm thinking I should get the TV for free, but when he returns he tells me that I'm going to get $50 off the price. I then try to give him a $15 coupon Krista had given me but he gives it back to me and pulls out a $40 coupon that he uses instead. So I got $90 off the price of the TV!

We get it home and set up and I enjoy the evening playing with the controls getting the best picture and sound for my room. I call Time Warner to take advantage of a 3 month price break on my HD DVR thinking I'll have to wait a couple days for the new cable box to arrive only to learn that my present digital DVR is HD compatiable and only needs the signal sent to it to set it up. How simple is that? Yippee.

I spend the rest of the evening seeing what channels are HD and which aren't and I'm even surprised by how many commericals are HD. As the evening progresses I'm beginning to think that the picture on the HD isn't really anything special. It was time to head to bed, goin in the bedroom and turn on the TV in there and take a look at it and think to myself, wow, what a crappy little picture! How quickly I've been spoiled!!!!!