April Update

NEXT OUTING
Our next outing will be Saturday, April 28th. We'll likely leave mid-morning and get back mid-afternoon. Location TBD...

THANK YOU
Thanks again to all who have supported and continue to support David S. in Iraq. Thus far, he's received a BoreSnake, tons of snacks, a very nice SOG folding knife and a SureFire helmet light. His wife and family have also received notes and gifts. Thanks for letting God use you to bless them.

If you have a friend or family member serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, please let me know. I'd like to at least send them a note and a BoreSnake (very quick, handy gun-cleaning gear) and be praying for them. Thanks!

GOING CO-ED
Plinkers is going co-ed. I've debated this for awhile, but I think the pros outweigh the cons. We've done a couple of co-ed outings in the past, and they were great fun (and a little humbling...with first-shot bullseyes and that sort of thing). My reasoning is as follows: 1) Anyone who wants to become more than just familiar with shooting and firearms really needs to do it more than 2 or 3 times a year. Not every woman will want to join us for each outing, but I want to allow that option for those interested. From a sporting perspective, it's just like anything else--practice makes...better. 2) If another aim of Plinkers is promoting chivalry, I have to recognize that making men into effective protectors is not sufficient. Women should be encouraged to do that as well. A good man is hard to find, as they say, and not guaranteed to be around when needed. And, 3) It's just fun to have a mixed group! Men should feel free to bring their spouses if they'd like, and women just wanting a challenge all their own should feel welcome as well.

Let me know if you're interested in going on the 28th. If you're new to Plinkers and have questions (or want to give me a hard time about going co-ed ;), feel free to contact me!

Splat!

For February, Plinkers joined a paintballing excursion to Challenge Park near Joliet (www.cpxsports.com). We arrived to bitter cold and the promise of a snowstorm, everyone with itchy trigger fingers.

We decided to break up into teams, North versus South, for the first two games and kept the teams throughout the 4 game fields and 8 games. The fields ranged from a small field with numerous drainage pipes on their ends and sides that made for close, fast play to an expansive wooded field with a fort on a hill that had to be alternately defended and overtaken.

So, who won? The good guys! The snipers! (Plinkers provides some transferable skills, apparently, and Brian P.'s Lasik surgery must have been successful:) I think the Southsiders technically won, but everyone seemed to have a good time--welts, twisted ankles, battered bodies, frozen extremities and all.

This was a great bunch of guys to shoot and be shot by! Thanks to Brett Champan and Brian Pittman for coordinating this outing. I'll keep you posted about future paintballing opportunities and, hopefully, we can get some some guys to join us in playing with real guns.