That was poor Beth Bilka- thankfully she was in the second warmup of Silver Ladies III, but the first skater after the warmup was over! From what she told me, she was a little shaky afterward (who wouldn't be?) but skated okay.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Hi everybody. I'm not much of a poster, but I just wanted to tell you all how nice it is to read all the nice things folks say about the competition. There is a core group of about a dozen people or so who absolutely bust thier a$$es to make sure this thing runs well and everyone has fun. I know it means so much to them when people compliment the efforts that they made.

Next time, I hope to be more social and make more of an effort to get to know everybody. Congrats to you all for skating well and everyone here in Duluth is glad you enjoyed yourselves!

Jenny Baker (you know, Rob's partner)

Back to lurking...

Wow, wow, wow, what a weekend!

Peach was (again) so much fun that I don't know where to start. I know, with compliments to my fellow pairs skaters, Rob and Jenny, Larry and Lauren, and Les and Ellen. Four pairs teams and four clean programs! Nova and I skated up to gold this time and did a brand new program. We need to clean up some things and add some more things (speed most of all!) but we were happy with what we did on the ice. I was a little nervous because that morning in practice we had a high-quality fall on the split twist but it was OK in the event.

I was nervous about my freestyle event because I'd been having jump trouble the last couple of weeks, but I was able to talk myself through the program and keep my timing on everything, so managed a clean program and placed second behind the fabulously fast Donna Farver.

I didn't get to see any of the interp programs, but I did see a lot of our SF skaters in other events...

InsideAxel now has terrific speed to go with his jumps and the spins are not too shabby either!

It was great to meet pennybeagle, and her FS program is terrific.

Mskater, another year, another Peach, another party, but this time the light fixtures remained intact. I'm disappointed in you. You definitely win the TIGHTEST onesie contest, that's for sure!

Dani did not in fact drop off the face of the earth, as many of us had feared, and we were all glad to see her.

Terri made her first (I'm sure of many) trip to Peach and came home with a silver medal in FS.

Raye might have entered more events than Becca! Unfortunately I didn't see any of them, but thanks again for the Canadian bear.

Becca is, always, Becca. Which means fun, supportive, strong, and an all-around great lady.

And skaternum, skaternum, skaternum. Providing a year's worth of entertainment to all.

I'll add more later but for now, OH MY!

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

Ah, so it had its desired effect. Excellent! And in that same event, Beth Bilka wore her flo lime green and yellow skating dress, so we really must've given the poor judges a headache during the warmup. We took a picture together afterwards in our ... uh ... vibrant colors.

<blush> Aw, shucks.

Poor Beth. She was in the last locker room down the hall, and apparently the door got stuck shut. It wasn't locked, just completely stuck shut. We were in one of the other locker rooms and heard banging on a door, but we thought it was kids banging on the exit door at the end of the hall, so we ignored it for a while. Finally somebody realized it was coming from a locker room. The rink facilities guys were down there trying to get it open, with all sorts of evil looking tools. Poor Beth! She was a good sport about it, of course.

Well, you across the Atlantic made up for us here in the UK, then. It transpired that every single male skater in the couples compulsory dances, from the top of Advanced right down to us at the bottom of Elementary, was wearing a black shirt and black trousers! One man managed a royal-blue bow tie, and another had a red cummerbund, but the rest were in unrelieved black. I'm quite sure one of the judges gave us 2nd in the 2nd compulsory simply because my husband had changed into his white shirt with black splodges on it! And both he and Other Woman's husband wear white shirts for our respective free dances - but we ladies couldn't understand the shrieks of laughter coming from the men's changing room until we saw them all gathering outside....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Just to chime in...

Had a great weekend! Thanks to everyone who gave support for my test session, it made it alot less intimidating. And a huge thanks to mskater for keeping me focused during the warmup...you should take up coaching! Special thanks to GAFSC and especially Ginger for putting on a very convenient and super smooth test session.

Thanks to skaternum for inviting me to participate in the team event, that was alot of fun! I hope they keep it as an event next year.

My freeskate event was alot of fun, debuting the new program and all. NoVa and DavidT made it a great event by skating very strong (I must learn the hydroblade!!) Of course being the masochist I am, I'm looking forward to skating with Davin and mskater next time around...so I'll start the praying now!

The pairs events were very entertaining, and I watched on with a different interest this year Hopefully mskater's sister and I will be ready to join Nova and Loops and the others soon. Well, at least be on the ice with you, there's alot of work to be done before we could actually "join" you in the same league.

The party was fun again (Tequila Sunrise anyone? Made for a very interesting jumps event first thing Sunday!)...had the chance to talk with several judges which was a real highlight. Their candid feedback will be invaluable.

Nice to meet Stormy for the first time and also to see old acquaintances again.

As usual, Rob and the Gang did a masterful job of putting on a competition. I have helped with our own meet the last two years, and I know it isn’t easy. So big thanks for another job well done.

Can't wait for next year!!

Kelton

Thanks everyone for all the kind things you said about our efforts to host the peach classic. The work that goes into it is unimaginable and at times you wonder if it is worth it. I feel prepared to put in the work again for next year after reading all your enties. It will be so hard, though because we are losing a lot of our core volunteers (kids quit skating-what's up with that?)
Thanks to my team Duluth Guys and Dolls, for such a fun event. Completely forgot that there were any judges and it was so great to feel like everyone on the ice just wanted everyone else to do their best.
The party was so much fun, thanks to all the "Jenny's" who came out to dance with me for "Jenny, Jenny!"
I can't wait to see everyone again next year!

Saturday's pics are up:
John Riggs Photography

ETA: they got a picture of my underwear banner! It's in with the pics from Pre-Bronze Ladies II Freeskate. My drawers are famous! Hee hee.

ETA2: they've got some of the events mixed up. E.g., some of the Bronze Ladies III freeskates are under No Test Compulsory Moves! And some of the Silver Ladies III freeskates are under the Pre-Bronze Ladies Freeskate IV & V (like Loops).

Skaternum,
LOVE the new signature!!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Speaking of which, when will the rest of us be treated to the sight of The Calendar Boys? Will a link be posted?

I still have to convert it to pdf, then I'll e-mail it upon request.

I'll know I can skate when there are decent pictures of me!

Hugs!

Dani

Proud Owner of a The Men of the New Years Invitational Calander

;-)

Thanks for the link to the photos!

ROFLMAO!!!

Yeap! I thought that woman in the Pre-Bronze Ladies IV and V looked FAR TOO YOUNG to be in IV and V. (Plus I've already met Loops so...)

Look forward to getting that New Year's Invitational Calendar from you...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

The calendar siggys are a hoot!!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

I'm home from one of the best weekends of my life!

To the Georgia Figure Skating Club - Awesome job of putting on a first class competition. I know how much work an event like this is and your efforts are appreciated by everyone
To Beccapoo2003 - Thank you for lighting the fire under my butt to enter.
To the Clueless Team from Huntsville - Thank you for inviting me to be on your team.
To Alliegator66 - Thank you for making me feel welcome on that first afternoon.
To CoSkater64 - It was nice to see you again. I always enjoy watching your very elegant skating style.
To TerriC, Skaternum, LoopLoop, NoVaSk8r, Dani, It was great to meet y'all in person and have faces to go with the names.
To others on this forum who were there, but I wasn't able to put pen-name together with the actual person - I will figure out who you are next time. If I have already met you (Stormy, Inside Axel, PennyBeagle, mskater, skatingatty, IceT, and anyone else I may have missed) - greetings and salutations.
To the Underwear Phantom - Thanks for letting me be part of the fun!
To Rob, Tina and Becca and everyone else who was involved in organizing it - WONDERFUL PARTY!!! Cool costume, Becca.
To Dani - Yes I was in the same hotel as you and Becca, too bad there wasn't an opportunity to get together on the Friday night, that would have been fun. Next time!!
To TerriC - your interp gave me goosebumps
To Becca - I don't know which I enjoyed more - Mr Bones or Trogladytes

To everyone - GREAT SKATING!!!!!!

Thanks Loops, NoVa, Skaternum for all the nice things you've said -- shucks!!

To DebbieS and Jazzpants - I'm sorry you missed it, but we will see you there next year, Right?? And Jazz - I'll be seeing you in San Fransisco in November

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

Not sure I'll be at Peach next year given my financial circumstances, but Skate SF... yup, yup!!! You will!!! Look forward to it!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Not only did they put my pictures in Pre-Bronze IV and V, it looks like they missed the first half of the program altogether. Oh well.

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

Sunday's pictures are now up, and they're even more of a mess than Saturday. They didn't even bother to list them by event -- there are just pages and pages of thumbnails.

Compared with other photographers I've seen at competitions, I'm not impressed with these guys. They had no way to view your photos at the competition. They've made it incredibly difficult to find your photos. The pictures themselves aren't that numerous or great. And they're not even offering the option of buying the digital image -- only print photos.

Other photos:
http://www.bobrausch.org/peach2005/peach2005.html

I love #23--what a gorgeous position. The calendar creator is also a wonderful spirla creator!

And -yowser- to #67!

Nice face of me in #105

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

There were a total of 2 pictures from my jumps event and none in the air! I looked at the photos there and bought a couple because they looked very retro and figurey (if that is a word ;-) The print quality is horrible.

Of course, it is better than my first Peach where the guy LOST all of the photos!

Dani

Still looking for that elusive jump shot of me!

I agree with Nova's assessments of the pictures - wow Skaternum's spiral is, uhhh, WOW!

I like that #56 is the same as pretty much every other picture at a competition that contains my friend Brenda - she is reading her book ;-)

Dani

Dani,
Look through your PM's! I sent you one for the Haloween Classic!

I thought it was bad enough that I didn't get any nips, but no pictures of me- geez- I feel like chopped liver!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"