There are those who call me....Tim? *kablam!*

This was the second time I had been to Ft. Collins, CO. The first was during one of my summer road trips back when I had a ten month contract at USD. I wasn't planning on going quite so far but it seemed like the thing to do. Since then, Tim has gotten married, bought a house, been to Boston to do his post-doc work and has started teaching and doing research at Colorado State (go Rams, I think?).

Tim is one of the pair of friends I hung out with most in college (the other being Kevin, whom I visited next). He's something of a genius (at least compared to me!) who did his PhD work in atmospheric physics. He and his wife, Ashley, have two very rambunctious dogs (Bacon and Letty, seen above) and three cats (whose names escape me...Sunshine and Giggles or something or other...ok, not Giggles).

I spent Saturday in Boulder training at Boulder Aikikai with Hiroshi Ikeda Sensei, a very well-respected 7th dan. They have three-hour seminars every Saturday and, lucky for me, it was all weapons take-aways this week. I don't think I could have handled three hours of full-on Aikido at 5,500 feet. They have a beautiful dojo – very impressive. Ikeda Sensei did a calligraphy drawing for me of the Japanese word, "Ganbatte," which means, "Go Fot It!" I'm going to post it inside my classroom and use it as a rally cry for my students.

I was tempted to stay. Tim and Ashley have a great house and she cooks a mean chocolate chip cookie. World Cup was on. Great Aikido not far away. Why did I leave again?