Good Evening, All,

My wife and I'd recently spent the weekend with a kilted friend and his SO, and I'd always been intrigued about trying a kilt myself. So, we talked about it, and he let me try one of his tanks on. I was amazed at how free-flowing and how easy to move it was.

Easy movement is very important to me: I've studied hapkido and tae kwon do for about 4 years now, and have progressively grown to hate jeans, as I can't move in them nearly as well as I'm able to move in my hapkido uniform.

So, I'd finally found something that I could wear in public(?) that, while wearing, I could actually kick above chest height on an opponent. Yes, they might get flashed in the process, but they wouldn't notice for long.

The proof was in the pudding, however: could I wear it in public. The group of us talked, and I decided to wear it to the local natural history museum for the outing we had already planned for that day. It took a bit of getting used to, but I figured that, if I could wear it to a museum for a day, it was worth paying the money for a kilt of my own.

So, off to Mike at AmeriKilt. I bought a classic and a belt (and Mike was kind enough to notice a disparity between the belt and kilt I'd ordered: I just wanted the belt to be adjustable enough for me to lose some weight), and it arrived in no time at all. I liked it enough that I ordered a second classic after one weekend of wearing the first.

I've been very pleased by the AK classic so far, and, at some point, am going to have to go whole hog and get a tank of my own, as he's convinced me to take up piping as well. Robert and Chrystel's double-box project had me drooling at my keyboard, but I'm going to have to scrounge a tartan and and the cash, first. Which is probably just as well: from the reaction Chrystel's got, I bet she's up to her eyebrows in kilt orders.

So, I found XMTS via Google, and have been lurking for a couple of weeks, and finally joined today.

Good to meet you all!