karenmeal

?:16:0 Woo! Skydiving is fun and doing video still KICKS ASS! I did have line twists on one jump... this has not happened in about 800 jumps. I was glad that I remembered how to kick! "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Hmm.. I was just going to call you about the pills that I found in your mudflap while I was taking your rig apart to be washed. Will you be wanting those back? Is that my tip? Nice. Jeff told me when I got home that you had brought over some cocaine like substance for him to check-out. Have you tried rubbing it on your gums yet? ~Karen the riggah "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Well, I got her when she was about 4-6 weeks old. She bonded pretty strongly to me, but when I gave her to a new home she was introduced to a number of other sugar gliders that she immediately bonded with. I bet now, if someone were to take her away from her little colony she would have some big issues adjusting. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I had one, Suki, for about 2 years before I found a new home for her. If I was more of a night person or an insomniac, she would have been perfect for me. She was one cool little animal. She would chase our 90 pound dog around and ride his back, she liked to climb door frames and then sneak attack you and land on your face. Her favorite game was to just climb things and jump and land on the palm of my hand, then climb, jump, and repeat. I miss her. But she lives at a kangaroo farm now, I figure that is a pretty good home. I found a cool picture of her! She is in the middle of playing her game and about to land on my hand. Edited to add one more thing: Everyone knows about the sugar glider crabbing.. but some noises you may not have heard yet are barking and purring! Suki used to bark for me (sounds like a little puppy yapping) in the middle of the night and the only way I could shut her up would be to let her run around the house for a bit. She would purr for me sometimes when she fell asleep in my hand while I was rubbing her belly. That was really cool.

I recently found out that my dad (62 year old life-long college professor) wants my mom to get a tramp-stamp! I find that hilarious. He thinks that it's sexy, and he is also encouraging her to get her belly button pierced. Personally, tattoos aren't for me. If I ever found (or came up with) the perfect design I might get one.. but I'm not actively trying. I'm really glad that in my wild years I decided to go nuts with the piercings instead. Now I've taken all of them out except for my belly button. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Where am I? "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I think that I'll go mow the lawn now! "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Are you serious? See something different and try to expand your mind.. that is what you do there. Personally, I have Chile, Alaska, New Zealand and some place tropical and isolated (don't know where yet) on my list of places to go in the next five years. In two years I'm going to have a clinical fellowship year to complete and I'm going to try to get a fellowship in New Zealand. It would be so cool to live there for a year, my boyfriend is really pushing for that. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I think that might be Evan's rig on the left.. couldn't say whether or not that is his ass though. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I know that at velocity sports they had a 4 day work week and put in 10 hour days.. maybe sunpath does something similar. Personally, I'm not at all surprised that a skydiving related company only has a 4 day work week. More time for skydiving! Not to mention that probably a substantial percent of employees of gear manufacturers also work at DZs. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

We have fairly regular freefly coaching in Snohomish on weekends. It takes about 45-60 minutes to get to Snohomish from Seattle. (Depending on traffic) If you want more information let me know, I'm there almost every weekend. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Downshifting also comes in handy when you spot a cop and realize you're speeding a little bit. Instead of hitting the brakes and drawing attention to yourself you can just slow down by downshifting! My new car is an automatic, I miss having a manual. I learned how to push start my old car by myself, that came in handy a few times. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

12 jumps this week - 9 for work and 3 for fun. (Although the work jumps are pretty freaking fun too!) I got in 10 jumps on Saturday, that was by far the most I've done in one day. After doing that much video I was just as tired and sore as if I'd have packed all day, but the fact that I was exhausted from being paid to skydive all day made it alright. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Head out to the DZ when your favorite pilot is there and go for some observer rides. If he is a super cool pilot he will give you some extra fun.. or a flying lesson. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Wes opened it and Billy jumps there. It's right on the lake.. not in Truckee. That's all I know. Here is their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/skydivetahoe "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Yeah.. he has lost about 14 pounds over 2 years. Here he was on Monday having a good time before surgery. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Jonah had surgery yesterday to remove a tumor on his leg. He chewed off his bandage last night and wouldn't stop trying to walk on his leg - getting all hyper and confused. Took him back to the vet to get re-bandaged, got a cone collar and some doggy xanax. Thank-god for doggy xanax! Now he is off in la-la land and could care less about his leg and the cone he has to wear. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Hooray! Yesterday was my first day jumping my stills camera. SOOOOO much fun!! Here are a couple nice ones. Now I just need to learn to manipulate the settings better to get optimal exposure and clarity. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Well that sounds pretty much perfect... There is an 84 that is going for sale right now... maybe I should buy it. Just so happens to match my rig too. I really would like to demo something first.. but holy jeebus! $65 to demo a canopy? You've got to be kidding me! "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

So I am really getting into camera stuff and now that I've added a stills camera to my headgear I'm thinking about jumping a canopy that has better openings. Right now I've got a cobalt, I know the reputation is for nice openings.. but this one doesn't open very nice and I've just not been too happy with it. I'm thinking about something like a crossfire.. maybe a spectre. I don't want to sacrifice fun landings for good openings if I have to. Anyone have experience with the openings of crossfire I vs. II? What about when loading up to about 1.8? Any other suggestions? I don't want to go crossbraced due to cost and pack volume. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Learn to pack!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was my part-time college job for over 3 years until I hurt my knee and had to quit. It allowed me to pay all of my bills (except for tuition), skydive some and live fairly comfortably. I probably averaged working around 20 hours a week. One thing that is nice about packing, the harder you work, the more money you make. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I started college right after highschool but dropped out during the first quarter. I spent the next 2 years getting a thousand jumps out of my system and then went back to school full-time. I just finished last weekend after 4 years with a degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

Are you talking about Pete Hill? I thought he was just a proctologist specializing in bullshit. "Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

I hope that I can help lots of people too! Starting in September I will have my first client as a graduate student clinician. I am really looking forward to that with excited-nervous-anticipation.