Wow! What a year! I have written and trashed about three columns for Reflections and finally decided to do a wrap-up of dojo (and some personal) events and combine a newsy thing with some personal reflections.

Y2 what?

• January 2000 -- A cold month in many ways. Weather was wet and cool, although not bad for Indiana. Y2K came and went uneventfully. I was separated from my wife and the dojo was getting ready for Wood and Steel II, slated for early February.

• February -- Wood and Steel II came off fine! Lots of good sword and stick training, lots of good folks visiting. We had visitors from Texas, Colorado and all over Indiana. After W&S II, Monica Norman arrived in town from England and subsequently joined The Dojo.

• March -- Was, honestly, a bit of a blur. We trained, tried hard to remember what Peter had showed us at W&S II and shared several apres-keiko beers at Bennigans.

• April -- I spent a glorious week in the Ozark Mountain springtime, hiking, fishing and hanging out with Emily Dolan. Took a side trip to visit Sensei for a day while I was in the area, too. Didn't get to train, but talked a lot of budo.

• May-June -- Early summer in Indiana! Mostly fine weather. We trained outdoors a lot, had a few visitors, enjoyed the little extended family of the dojo a lot.

• July -- I went to Austin to visit Emily early this month and see her hometown. Got to train with her budo family at Round Rock Dojo; some judo, some aikido. Nice folks, very soft and very fun. Half the year was gone! A sign of times to come. Back at the dojo, Kris was ramping up for his move to Japan.

• August -- Another trip to Austin, later in the month, more training with Emily's judo and aikido teachers and some friends of hers from another place. Also got to spend one really HOT Sunday afternoon with two old friends, Craig Hocker and Polo Zapiain. Craig is a Ki Society teacher in Houston and Polo is with the Aikido Association of America and lives in Austin. Great training and great home-made, authentic fajitas later at Polo's place! Kris left for Japan at the end of the month and somewhere about that time, we welcomed Rob Hough into the fold.

• September -- Just whizzed past. Trained a lot, hung out with Tim and Leanne, Monica and Rob and wished Kris was still around. We went to Detroit this month to meet one of Peter Boylan's teachers, Kiyama Hiroshi. Delightful! Kiyama Sensei is wonderful! He's 75 and still ran us youngsters into the ground. I learned the Omori Ryu (shoden) iai of Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu from him personally and LOVED it! I even more or less remember 'em. We stayed with John Seavitt's folks in Detroit, hung out with Peter and Jody Holeton and a few other friends. Had a superior time! And also this month, Margo Ballou came through town en route from Iowa to Rhode Island, stayed a couple of days and trained with us.

  Also found out that what we do at The Dojo may have some ties to Sekiguchi Ryu. Kiyama Sensei has offered to introduce me to the Sekiguchi Ryu folks if I should ever get to Japan. Should say WHEN I get to Japan. With Kris there, an invitation to visit Kiyama Sensei AND an intro to the Sekiguchi Ryu folks, Emily and I have decided that we ARE going. It's just a question of time and money.

• October -- The Aikido List Seminar in Boulder, Colo., rocked! It was a bit smaller this year than the two previous, but we had great fun. Met and trained with Ikeda Hiroshi, dojo-cho of Boulder Aikikai, the host and location of the seminar. I taught some fun stuff and we generally had a wonderful time. Emily and I met a few days early and spent some time in Rocky Mountain National park, then hung out with Frank Gordon in Glenwood Springs for a couple of days after. I know where I want to live, now.

• November -- Thanksgiving came and went quietly, and training has been a bit fragmented this month, but when we could get together, we had good keiko. Started teaching some chuden-level swordwork to the kids and started talking a bit more about the relationships between weapons and unarmed techniques. Emily spent the week before Turkey Day here getting oriented and taking care of some business. It was great having her on the mat for a couple of classes! She's an enthusiastic throw-toy! Also had Julian Frost, a student of Chiba Sensei and a very nice fellow (despite his being English. Ahem ...) in class. Spent some good time with him both on and off the mat.

• December -- And another year winds down. Training was pretty irregular, but good when we could get folks together. The holidays came and went and suddenly ... it was New year's!

• January 2001 -- Lots happening this month. Emily has moved to Indy and we're getting ready to spin up Wood and Steel III. I left Jan. 4 for Austin and Emily and I drive back to Indy that weekend. We say 25-foot tall, glittering, waltzing frogs, among other less startling sights. We made a sidetrip through SW Missouri to see Sensei en route and had a wonderful visit. We also welcomed Martin Kelly into the Circle o'Pain. Martin, by the way, makes BEER! We've taken several photos of dojo shenanigans recently, Hope to have some new stuff posted soon. Stay tuned!