lauras

It's getting nice & warm in the Tampa Bay area...high 80s all day, low 70s all night. There's plenty of camping space available or you can contact Pip & Judy Redvers about trailer rentals over the long weekend. pipandjudyATyahooDOTcom The days are warm, the jumping is fun, the beers are cold and the stabbings are free! Come on by! Registration at 8am, Sunday 27 May $25 plus 4 jumps tickets - includes video on every jump

Don't forget to put the legstraps on underneath the swoop pants! Have a great time at home!

I was just telling your fellow Sath Efrican, Paul R., about Oren's Big Greek Tragedy. I do believe he shed a tear for his older bruvver and he made the "uuuuhhhhhhaaaaawwww" sound. We've heard that a lot this week! Let me tell you what I heard all Sunday: "My canopy! My new baby!" and "Holy Crap, Randy got stabbed!" All. Day. Long. edit to add I don't give my canopies names but I do know that they're all girls. Touchy, snotty girls that don't like to behave themselves like all the other girls in their class.

Oren loves his tomtom, mostly because lauralaura sucks at navigating. I think it's a little annoying..."turn left in 500 ft, turn left in 400 ft, turn left in 300 ft, turn left in 200 ft, turn left in 100 ft, turn left." Oh. My. God. Shut up already!

My brother lives down the hill from Griffith Park & the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Huge fires there as well and a bunch of homes have been evacuated. Mostly, he's pissed because he just bought a new sofa & area rug last week and now they stink. I don't know if Febreze will help! Kinda funny/wierd coincidence: while Charles was a student at UC Berkeley, he rented a house in the Oakland hills. Huge fire, hundreds of houses burned down, etc. Maybe he should stop living around hills...

This has also been posted in the tunnel forum but it might get a bit more attention here...hopefully that's within the rules?! When watching the final video, pay special attention to the outside center (black with red grips & back). She's a 13 year old holding her own with world class competitors. AMAZING! http://skyleague.com/pages/news/showArticles.php?story=712

Holy cannolli, Batman! Impressive flying, regardless of age. How many hours would you reckon the girls have flown in the tunnel? The video of Ellie makes everyone I know want to hang it up and just drink beer instead.

Holy crap...what a pain in the ass! Still, it's not as bad as the '89 earthquake shutting down the bridge & the various highway & BART collapses. My brother was at Berkeley then & my parents lived in San Francisco. Getting home for the weekend (read: feed me & do my laundry Mom) became quite a trek driving around the entire bay and coming up through San Jose. Nightmare...

I have TomTom on my cell phone/PDA and you can download tons of voices for it. I have even found things like Yoda, Darth Vader and Austin Powers voices. I travel for work and spend a lot of time in random cities, TomTom makes life so much easier.

Oh yeah... I do love Memphis-style barbeque! I have been known to abuse the corporate FedEx account to ship ribs to my house! We tried Whitt's last night. I know, I know, it's a chain (or at least chain-ish) but man, the pulled pork was really good and I love vinegar-based sauces. Actually, the pork was so moist it really didn't need anything at all. And a non-mayo based coleslaw! Yay! Martin's tonight. Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We'll hit a number of the recommendations & will report back! Pancake Pantry is on the agenda Friday morning.

No, dummy! Real barbeque! Clearly, you do not understand. Stand back, Heathen!

C'mon, there has to be a good pit around here! I look for barbeque pretty much anywhere east of Texas and south of Virginia and a pig has to be involved. No beef ribs or brisket for me, thanks. I like my cow served up as steak. Any other Nashville recommendations are welcome!

Staying by Vanderbilt on West End Avenue, but we've got a car and we'll drive for good barbeque. Suggestions please? Thanks!

Yes. Even though Orlando's an hour away, I'm planning on trips to Paraclete's new digs and I'm dragging my friends with me. Having to travel forces us to do a camp vs. an occasional hour which is what we always default to.

Bad intel. edit to add a little rant & not a response to phoenixplr: I have 3 rides on the Wings system - all with very fast, very clean deployments. Riggers that whine about how the Wings packs up should give Henri & Marko a call and sort it out. You don't have to be a fan, but puhleeze, if you don't understand how the deployment sequence looks on the ground vs. in the air or can't pack something up to look nice, it's YOU, not the H/C. That applies to every system on the market that's passed the TSO requirements. Call the manufacturer if you're having issues. They really really want to help riggers in the field!

Yall's dilly dallying in the door always hoses us poor wingsuiters. Oi! You've got all that extra nylon, a main AND a reserve! If you still can't make it home...para-hiking builds character.

yes mistress Awww, no one fucks with The Jesus!

Chuckie Baby: just make sure your nylon "enhancements" stay in the Birdy House. Everyone gets 50 seconds of working time, even if *you* can stay up there for 2+ minutes. Bring your usual suspects - they can all experience normal freefall speeds again! Gail: see ya there, chick. Bill: all jumpsuits must stay fully assembled during the meet. This year, the judges will not be so sympathetic towards faulty lycra! Freeflyers will not need suits with cucumbers. We'll just grab extra fabric and flesh as necessary. Rick: you'll take what you get, Beotch! Forgot to mention that smack talk, betting & mild threats of bodily harm are encouraged throughout the meet. Pushing teams into the swoop pond is ok too, but we'd rather you wait until the end of the day & everyone's got their gear off.

Mark your calendars! Oren's running his 5th annual 4-way Scrambles this Memorial Day weekend. All levels are encouraged to participate - just have an A license, 4 jump tickets and $25 to cover video on every round. A number of freeflyers and CRW dogs have participated in the past so don't be shy if you think your RW skills are a little rusty. 15 teams were assembled last year and this year should be even bigger! The Format: - Show up at Zhills at 8am, Sunday morning - Register with Oren & hand over your tickets & $25 - You will be assigned a team according to your experience level. Each team is comprised of an experienced jumper, 2 intermediate jumpers and 1 beginner. We try to distribute as evenly as possible to keep things fair. - 4 rounds are jumped during the course of the day & judged. There will be video on every jump. Points are tallied on a score board. - Sally Hathaway (Team USA 4-way champion) will provide free coaching for the teams. - No ringer teams EVER. The competition is very tight and last year 1 point separated first & second place. 4 teams tied for third. Plenty of prizes as usual. Last year's top teams won tunnel time, 50% off Wings certificates, PD t-shirts, Skydive City sweatshirts, free packing tickets as well as a random drawing of all the participants for 3 free Larsen & Brusgaard products. This year's special showdown: Bu Klinge, 2006's King of Scrambles, will have to face Alicia Wolfe, the winning team captain 2003 - 2005. Witness the drama! Contact Oren at okalbATyahooDOTcom with any questions or if you'd like to register early.

If you're tracking all the way back along jump run, you've got bigger problems than just landing out.

My cousin was one of Larry Ellison's executive assistants. He had a pack of them and referred to them as G1, G2, G3, etc. I believe G = Girl. The campus was fan-bloody-tastic, the employee parties epic, and salaries & stock option plans were generous - but they had to be because it was Hell On Earth. Or maybe that was just if you were in direct contact with Maximum Larry.

Could you please come over and re-org my entire life...and Oren's too? I offer a whole bunch of jump tickets at Skydive City, a bedroom while you're busy getting our lives in order (and/or jumping) & free reserve repacks for at least a couple of years! Please pretty please!!!

You're right. You haven't gratuitously insulted me even once. I'm getting bored waiting for you. Ok. "GO FUCK YOURSELF!!" -Or- "KILL YOURSELF." Happy? Holy crap. You two need to take a couple of xanax and meet up at the Ranch's Fight Night this summer.

I laughed, I cried, it became a part of me.

That's fantastic...so much better than subjecting the guests to the Macarena or *drumroll please* the Electric Slide.