Oh man.  This trip was fantastic.  I'm sitting in a private jet right now with Jeff Madsen, Brandon Cantu, Layne Flack, Pam Brunson, and myself.  We got a ride here on a limo from Ft. McDowell Casino, parked at the private hangar, and got into the jet, owned by the TASER foundation.  Pretty awesome, I've never experienced anything like this.  Never been on a private jet before.  Every year the foundation puts on this charity tournament to support families of police officers fallen in the line of duty.  Last year they raised half a million, and this year we think they did better.  Here's what we did:

Got there on Thursday, got picked up at the hangar by the limo, and drove to the Scottsdale Gun Club.  There they had set out for us a Glock 17 (9mm handgun), AK-47, HK MP-5, HK somethin 32, a .223 full auto; and the big guy, a FN 240, the replacement for the M-60, the machine gun that's strapped to the top of Hummers and helicopters.  We

So I stopped writing there because Derrick the co-pilot looked at me and said, "Want to sit up here for a while?"

I got right up to the point in my flight training where I was ready to solo.  I just needed to pass a written exam, and when I was told to review for it my only way to do so was with the book, about 200 intense pages of material, and study using the end of chapter exams.  I really wanted a study guide, or something to make flash cards with, but nope.  Then I got busy, started going broke, couldn't schedule with my flight instructor, and haven't been up since sometime in the Fall of 2008.  Just last week I looked into getting back into it, and had talked to Coyote Aviation at Henderson Executive Airport that weekend.  Hell yes I would like to sit in the two seat in a private jet.

I strapped on the headset and John started explaining everything.  He knew where I was in my flying so talked details and it was awesome.  Those things are ridiculous, the entire time I was in the seat neither of us touched the yoke.  In front of the two seat all the instruments are the old mechanical gyroscopic avionics, the same stuff on the Cessna's I've been flying.  So, when information came in over the radio, I adjusted all the mechanical instruments.

Kinda counts as flying a jet?

Cool moment when we were near Kingman, AZ I heard "Cessna two-one-one-four-uniform" talk to Los Angeles approach.  I'm like, "I've flown that plane!"  Only one ever.  Heard it on the radio.  They kicked me out of the seat just before landing and let me kneel right up there and watch.  It was very cool.

It's 2:41 am and I'm playing day two of the Venetian $2500 main tomorrow.  80/269 are left, blinds are at 500-1k, I have 38k.  I didn't play very well today due to being pretty dang tired.  I got nine hours last night and still was bushed from this weekend.  I'm glad to be on to day two and after I finish this blog am going to hit the hay.

Therefore, unfortunately, you're only getting the super quick story of this weekend.  It took me an hour to tell Shelley about all the adventures over dinner.

• Shot machine guns.
• Walked across street to free dinner at Kevin O'donnell's place in Scottsdale.
• Watched (and video taped, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcSXTZDR4VU, 2:17) Brandon Cantu get tazed.

• Played charity tournament Fri morning, was too hungover to golf.
• Started drinking wine at 5:30pm.  Hung with Pam Brunson and Marvin "Young MC" Young (just bust a move!) until 6:30pm, because everybody was on the golf course.
• Hung in the hospitality suite with everybody, taught some poker, ran a 2 table tournament, and drank enough wine to be really smiley and have stained teeth, so I was the "funny guy with red teeth."

• Big charity tournament next day, busted shortly after 2nd break.
• Started $4-8 semi-turbo twelve game, lost $375, mostly to Tom and Julie Schneider.
• Got on a bus on with a dozen people, were driven about 5 minutes down some dirt road to the middle of the reservation, and were thrown a party at this old corral type area.  There was a great big open air room with a stage and a live country band on it.  Two different bonfires going, an open bar, and several western activities outside like a quickdraw contest with real single-actions and blasting caps.
• John Aylward told me, "You're a funny mother****er!"
• John Bunnell wrapped his arm around me and talked awesomeness to me for about five minutes, something I haven't felt in about thirteen years.
• Mark Willis (country singer, Nineteen-Something) is a member of the TASER Foundation board.  He played the tournament, flew to Vegas to do a show, flew back, drove down a dirt road to the bonfire in the middle of the reservation, and performed.  He played 3 songs climaxing in Nineteen-Something.  Our crowd of forty wouldn't let him leave though, they played an encore, and it was Journey, Don't Stop Believing I think, and was just fantastic.  I'm a Mark Willis fan.
• The after party ended up in Layne Flack's suite.  The lineup, if I recall correctly, was, Gordon Clapp, Robert Remus (Sgt. Slaughter), Karri Turner, Don Yates (Wolf from American Gladiators), Layne, Madsen, me, and a couple others who left early enough that I can't remember exactly who else was there.
• It turns out that Gordon gives an incredible monologue, as he recited most of Act 3, Scene 1 from Hamlet (the to be or not to be one).  It was moving. Sgt. Slaughter is a total sweetheart, always smiling, pretty quite, but generally hilarious.  I really enjoyed being around him. Karri Turner is a hoot.  Cute blonde bundle of energy and smiles.  Went from talking about $1100 some designer name shoes to shooting guns in perfect transition, and was especially proud of "shooting a fifty out of a helicopter in Iraq."  Wolf is also an incredibly deep and passionate man.  Turns out he's into country music, sang one of the songs off his upcoming album to us and it was really, really good.

It was a very neat weekend.  I feel privileged to have been a part of it and am looking forward to next year.

Sleepy time now.  Day two tomorrow.

Peace and good luck,

Devo