canopycandy

Your boogie? Ahem. But yes, the Boogie did rock. And you're right -- it'll rock even harder next year. In the next year I'm going to perfect my freeflying skills so that Rook will be all, "Your science is tight, yo. You should join Alchemy." And I'll be like, "No thanks. But maybe you can join my team sometime when you're good enough." Bolas -- I remember you now! Nothing like bad pick-up lines to jog the memory.

Hmmm ... I don't remember anyone on the mike trying to do initiations (I'm already a bumpy brother -- #1090). But I was the loud, drunk jackass in the "I did Justin three times" T-shirt who was trying to tie everyone together with caution tape at the bonfire. It was my way of bringing everyone together.

Over just six days: * I celebrated my 200th jump * I jumped from a helicopter, two different Otters and the incredible Mike Mullins King Air * I made jumps with some incredible skydivers * I partied like a rock star * I had two pilot chutes in tow (the first one I cut away; the next I punched and cursed and fought until it gave me a canopy). We think I might have a problem with my equipment. * Survived my first cutaway!!! * Made new friends and caught up with some old ones * And I didn't manage to sell my old reserve, but everyone said they liked my signs for it. How was the Boogie for you? ** Maggie **

Not sure about Birdman. But everything is going to be a blast anyway. I can't wait!

You should come! Freefly organizers include Orly, Rook, TJ and more!

Who's coming to Richmond this year?

Congrats Amazon!!!! I'm so incredibly proud of you. I can't wait to tell everyone about your accomplishment.

I HATE cats, I'm terribly allergic to them ... and I just adopted a cat about a week ago. His name is Kung Pao Kitten. (When we first found him, he squealed like the chick in "Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.") He's a stray that somebody dropped off at the skydiver farmhouse. With several dogs and cats already living there, they couldn't deal with one more. And then the tiny kitty leaned over and began rubbing his big head on my feet, and it was all over. I was in love. He's the sweetest, most affectionate kitty in the world. He loves to sleep on my neck (not good for my allergies, but hopefully I'll get used to him), and when he purrs, his entire body vibrates like a jackhammer. We play lots of games together. Like "Wait Until Owner Falls Asleep and Bite Her Toes." He also nibbles on my earlobe and bats my hair around. And I bought him a little kitty harness and leash, but he's not too good at walking around with me yet. Instead, he rolls onto his back and claws at the leash. He's black and white. He has a big black patch on his head that some say makes him look like the Outbreak monkey -- but I think it looks more like a helmet.

Here's my letter to the editor about it: To the Editor: As an enthusiastic skydiver and a journalist, I'm always happy to see stories about parachuting in the media ("New Thrill for the Bored-With-Just-Parachuting Set," Aug. 23). But I fear your article about the discipline of swooping might have done a disservice to the sport. First off, swooping isn't some last-ditch effort for "thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies" bored with skydiving. It's yet another discipline in an already exciting sport. Also, lumping all types of swooping together is like saying, "There's this new thing called running! And that's what these crazy athletes do -- they run!" without distinguishing what makes one track event different from another. Swoop meets can include competition in speed, accuracy, distance and freestyle moves. All require discipline and advanced canopy piloting techniques. Finally, you portray jumpers as radical, Mountain Dew-commercial types. In reality, however, skydivers are dedicated to safety. We might push the envelope sometimes, but we do it with preparation, training and caution. The people I jump with are so passionate about the sport, they want to be around to do it again next weekend. They don't have a death wish. Most swoopers have years of experience under their belts and downsize gradually from large parachutes to those picnic blanket-sized canopies. The extreme thrills the story describes are done by jumpers after hundreds, even thousands, of conservative landings. And what is described as a seemingly "free-fall death plunge" is actually the result of controlled techniques, mental awareness, full knowledge of skydiving gear and many years of practice. Sorry to break it to you -- skydivers are actually a pretty safe bunch.

I've haven't named my canopy, really. I just sweet talk my Spectre and call her "Baby" a lot. But when I'm trying to get her in the bag, that's when I get all Ike Turner. I curse at her and smack her around. And then I'm like, "I'm sorry baby. I didn't mean that. I love you." However, my rig is named Victor (the Vector), and he came to bed with me the first few weeks I owned him, to the dismay of my boyfriend. (Boy would always whine, "Is Victor EVER going to leave the bed?!?")

Make that THREE girls. I can't believe I've never heard of BlueBook before. What stunning images!!!! And what a lovely way to showcase our incredible sport.

Ew. I'm sorry. Maybe you could find something decent in a neighboring town. Or you could make faux sushi with some of that fake crab stuff. Or you could get a little crazy and try something vegetarian!!

You could always try making your own. It's actually much easier than you might think. Visit a local Asian market for some cheap nori. Then pay a visit to your local fishmonger for sushi-grade fish. Prepare the sticky rice -- just white medium-grained rice with rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Slice up the fish and gather an assortment of things to put inside the rolls, like cucumber, carrots, avocado, sesame seeds, cooked egg, etc. My boyfriend really likes smoked salmon with cream cheese. It's pretty simple to make makizushi (the rolls you're probably used to), especially if you have a bamboo mat for rolling. You can find a lot of step-by-step directions online. Temaki (hand rolls) are really easy too. You just put a bunch of crap on the seaweed and roll it into a cone. I think it's incredibly difficult to make the nigiri zushi, (the little dollops of rice with a sliver of raw fish on top), even though it looks easy. My rice doesn't stick together all the time. I buy pickled ginger at the Asian market as well as powdered wasabi, which stays fresher than the tubes of already-prepared stuff.

Shoot. That's the same weekend I wanted to have an "Oh My Goth!" boogie at my home dropzone. (I thought that would tie in well with Halloween, plus make for some interesting photos.) If only I could be in two places at once.

I can't wait!!! I took a bunch of days off work, and I've been saving up money for jump tickets. It's going to be the best time ever. I can't wait to spend some time with Scotty and Tami, since I only met them for such a short time in Z-hills. I'm looking forward to trying out all sorts of different aircraft. I can't wait to meet a bunch of people from other dropzones. And most of all, I'm looking forward to doing some mad fun jumps with my fellow Pink Mafia sisters!!!! If I wanted to, I could actually pee myself with excitement right now ... but I think my employers would frown upon that.

GREAT movie. I happened to hear an interview with Simon a couple days after I watched the video. He said he was shunned by climbers in the U.S., but people in Europe supported his decision. I thought that was really interesting and made a decent point about how people in different cultures approach the same situation in different ways. I honestly don't know what I would do in a situation like that. I probably would have waited way longer to cut the rope, maybe until I did everything possible to figure out what exactly was happening below me. After watching the DVD, I said to my boyfriend, "Isn't it interesting that a film about a climbing emergency is two hours long ... but a film about a skydiving emergency would be just two minutes?"

That sounds kind of like Cincinnati's goetta, a mixture of pork, beef, steel-cut oats and seasoning, packaged into a roll or loaf, then sliced and fried. But I don't think people put syrup on it.

Cajundude, It's funny that you mention you're from the south where people eat non-weird food. I was born in Georgia and was raised by a socially conservative father from Indiana and a mother from Germany. So for the first 10 years of my life or so, I was raised on meat, meat, grits, sausage, sauerkraut and more meat! We often had bizarre German foods, like blood sausage, headcheese and liverwurst, right along with greens that were cooked with bacon fat. Maybe that's what made me grow up this way!

What's scrapple? It sounds like it could be related to Snapple, but I'm guessing it's not ...

There are many reasons why. The first is that I started doing research about it, and it really made sense to me. Cooked food is dead. But living foods = life. Like, if you take a plate of cooked food and bury it in the ground, it will ferment and rot. But if you bury a plate of raw foods, things will sprout and grow -- there's a lot of potential for life there. The same thing happens in your body. When you start to think about what food is supposed to be -- that every bite should add to a person's strength, energy and beauty -- it seems incredibly smart to go for the purest form of nourishment. It's really simple to me. I believe you get more nutrients from things that are vital and bright and alive rather than foods that are cooked, canned, salted, skinned, diluted, dissected and/or irradiated. There are other things that come into play. I've read a lot about the enzymes in living foods that are necessary for digestion, as well as the cleansing and healing abilities of food in its natural state. I also really like injesting simple plant matter. It makes me feel like I'm not using more than my fair share of the Earth's resources. Plus, I figured there's no harm in trying it for a while anyway. For a long time I was one of those vegetarians that didn't eat any fruits or vegetables. I lived on pasta, chips and salsa, potatoes, rice, etc. Sometimes I had entire days of almost nothing but soy products. I figured doing this would be an improvement over the way I had been eating. And it has been! Another important thing for me is that my dad has heart disease and my mom has Alzheimer's Disease -- and eating better is one of the simplest ways to improve one's health. This is a small sacrifice for me to make if it means I have a chance of staying sane and healthy in my old age.

Right now I'm a raw foodist. I eat only raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and seaweed. I've been doing this for four months now. Prior to this, I was a vegetarian for a long time and an on-and-off vegan. But some raw foodists eat raw/unpasturized cheese. (A very small minority eat raw meat for reasons I still don't understand. Yuck.) I don't know if I can eat 100 percent raw for the rest of my life, and I don't know if I want to. This is a personal decision I made for my health and well-being, but it's not about denial whatsoever. So I'll probably end up eating bites of cooked food here and there or a cooked meal every month or so. (But even then, I'll probably keep it vegan.) I find that my body thrives on this way of eating. My digestion is incredible. My cheeks are rosy all the time without any makeup. I have more energy and I need less sleep. In many ways, I think I've even become a nicer, more thoughful person. The diet is tough to maintain at DZ, however. I have to bring my own stash of produce and lots of tupperware filled with raw gourmet (yes, there is such a thing!) meals. Some of the foods seem strange or odd at first, but a lot of people at the DZ have sampled some of it and really like it. In fact, one of the biggest problems I have now is that so many people want to eat my food! There are drawbacks to raw foodism. It can get expensive, especially since I try to stay with organic produce. Preparing food can get to be time-consuming and labor-intensive. And sometimes I hate the fact that I can't be like everyone else and run through a drive-through for something convenient. But I feel incredible. I really feel like I'm living compassionately in regards to the environment. And, as I carefully plan my meals, I truly believe that I'm doing what's best for my health -- that I'm extending and improving the quality of my life.

If you like alternative rock, you'll love www.woxy.com. I'm in love with this radio station. You might remember them from the movie Rainman, where Dustin Hoffman repeats incessantly, "97X. Bam! The future of rock 'n' roll."

I saw an incident (a non-fatality) this weekend. It didn't scare me enough to quit skydiving, but it got me pretty shaken up. Everything seems so much more fragile now. Have any of you ever seen an incident? How did you deal with the situation?

Anyone who knows Vern from Skydive Wayne County knows all about his Big Perm Groupies. I'm BPG #7.

I buy Homies too!!! But mine aren't Mexican. I first saw them a few years ago in Pittsburgh, and they were a couple inches tall, much bigger than the ones I get now in vending machines.