Some victory....and frustration

Had a blast out at Lippold park with James yesterday. I got there at around 1:00 to find James taking a break after already tearing it up for about an hour. Winds were 10-15 (maybe less during the lulls) out of the SSW. After I got rigged up and launched I walked up wind and got on the board right away and started riding! I was staying up and doing pretty well. Although I was getting pulled downwind like crazy. The problem was that I was unable to hold an edge against the power of the kite and therefore I got pulled more downwind instead of being able to go side to side....oh well, it is a common issue for beginners. So, I'm sure I'll get better with some practice.

After my first run was over so quickly I self-launched my kite and walked back up wind. The wind was starting to get more gusty and I wasn't able to get on my board and get going. When the kite was high enough to get wind, I was getting pulled too much to put my board on. And when I kept the kite low I was able to get the board on, but the kite didn't get enough wind to stay in the air and it crashed. Very frustrating!

Eventually, James got tired and asked me if I wanted to try out his new kite (which is a gi-normous 21m). I was so frustrated with my kite that I gave it a whirl and was up and riding again in no time.....unfortunately I was also all the way across the field in no time as well. I'm just gunna have to do some snowboarding to get back in practice of edging hard.

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In other developments, last Thursday was quite a wild night. First of all we went to a party that was taped live and aired on tv for this girl from Chicago who made it to the finals on this season's Apprentice. It was fun, but I didn't know the girl and frankly, I didn't care that she lost either. Now the real fun came afterwards when we went with our friends Ken and Liz to a party hosted by Maxim and Coors Light (some guy had randomly walked up and gave Sara the tickets).

We got to the party and proceeded to skip by everyone else in line and walk right in (yes, I am a hypocrite for hating whenever anyone else does this, but hey, when it's you that gets the privilege of not waiting in line, it's just a different story). As we walked in we were greeted by a treasure hunt of sorts in order to get a "mystery prize." You had to make your way around and get a card punched at each stop by some scantily clad Coors girls decked out in silver bikinis. After picking up our free Coors Light we made our way around the different stations and during this process we unknowingly walked right back into the VIP area. We had just walked right past the guard who pulled back the rope and let us right in. What tipped us off as to the accomplishment that we had just pulled off was the fact that everyone around us was wearing VIP badges....oh well! As we sit and lounge in the plush couches backstage the MC walks right by us on his way to the stage....followed by Kyle Orton, Jerry Azumah, Nathan Vasher (all of the Chicago Bears), and Neal Cotts (Chicago White Sox). When they came back off of the stage I took this picture of Orton, Liz, Vasher, and Sara. This is just how I roll!!!