Michelle had me take this pic as we walked home tonight from The Prince Arthur - our neighborhood Pub.

That's right - after six weeks living and working in England we can say we have a neighborhood pub that we call our own.

We've gotten to know Windsor as "locals" while I have worked here. We have our grocery, our Larder, our cleaners, our Church and our pub. I have never lived 6 weeks that have evaporated as quickly as these have. What a wonderful time we have had. My mind and my camera are full of fantastic memories and the satisfaction of a job well done.

The bitter sweet part is - tomorrow we leave. We are already shadows here.

What I keep telling Michelle and the boys is though it is sad to leave - we get to leave together.

Don't get me wrong - We are all excited to get home and back to our life in San Antonio - it just feels - bitter sweet.

I wonder if this is what it will feel like when we go home after this life is finished - or - will we just be glad to be home.

Peace.

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[This is a post I published at work today...]

I have been over here in the UK launching Rackspace's SharePoint support for the past 6 weeks and today is my last day here in the office.  As a token of the team’s appreciation they bestowed upon me today a very nice engraved pewter cup:

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Working with the Rackers here in the UK has been an honor and a pleasure.  It was great to see some familiar faces (Taylor Rhodes) and some that I didn’t expect to see (Jeff Adams). It is with mixed emotions that I leave here today but I am very anxious to get back to my San Antonio Racker team (and my family, house, dogs, fish, grill…) and re-engage there. 

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The SharePoint product Rackspace is a new product now – a truly global product - and the team will have to go through an adjustment period as we all adjust to the new demands that places on us.  Suffice it to say – we will strive to ensure we maintain our high NPS, love for the product, love for the customers, and love of the Rack.

 

So tonight I will raise a cup (the very cup you see in this picture) filled with an English Bitter and toast the team (both US and UK) who made this trip a success…

Cheers ya’ll!

This pas weekend we were off to Oxford. The trip there was only 45 mins and roof 2 trains. Nice and easy. Unfortunately it was also in the rain! We walked into the center of Oxford in the rain but after about an hour it was mostly gone.

Very interesting old city but all around this oldest English speaking university in the world was all the same shops we have found in almost every other town we've visited here in the UK. And OH the crowds!

Very nice day though an we were all glad we went. Here are some pics from the adventure:

While this trip to the UK has been amazing and I've had some great experience in locations and with people - there are some things I'm really looking forward to when we get home in 3 weeks.  One of which is grilling!  If you know me or have followed me online - you know I'm more apt to post a picture of something on the grill than a member of the family.

While waiting for my students in class today to finsh some labs, I found a set of pictures I never posted from a grill session a few months back when I made the perfect fajita.  (Perfect in my book because I got to eat it!) So here are a few pics and how the session went.

It all starts with coals...real live - not propane induced fire!

You'll note I'm using a Weber chimney starter with good old Kingsford charcoal.  What you don't get the chance to see is that I "spike" the fire once it's put in the Weber kettle with some chunks of pecan wood that my buddy Tim gave me.  This creates a fantastic heat and flavor source.

Once that's all set I'm off to start heading a cast iron plate that will be used for cooking tortillas, heating the combine veggies and meat, as well as serving.  The foil packet contains green bell peppers and onions with some olive oil and seasonings of my choosing.  I'm not being coy - the seasoning is always a little different.  You can always expect some coarse ground sea salt and pepper to be in there.

Now we add the tenderized and marinated flank steak (my favorite cut for fajitas).  Then we close the lid to let the smoke flavor do it's work.  This is always a nice time to enjoy a beverage like the one lin the corner of the picture ;-)

Now it's time to start cooking the tortillas.  You can't find these everywhere - but in our local grocery store you can buy "uncooked torillas" - I like to buy these and cook them as I need them.  My lovely wife is the one in our family who discovered them.

I like to cook the fajita meat until it's just past 1/2 way done then get it off the heat.  Leaving it on the cutting board will allow it to cook about another 25%. 

When you are ready to serve - slice it up and place it and the veggies on the oiled hot cast-iron plat (any cast iron pan will do) and immediate take to the table.  Note: just before transfering the meat and veggies -  the the cast-iron as hot as you can - right to the point of the olive oil smoking.  When take that smoking, spitting, hot pile of deliciousness inside you won't need to call your guest to dinner.  You'll need a stick to fight them off so you can get some yourself.

And with that lengthy explanaition, I give you my "perfect fajita taco".  I only wish I could have one right now.

So the posts lately have been very few and far between driven mostly by the lack of my Macbook to view and edit the pictures.  While that's still an issue, I'm using my work laptop to atleast get a few pics from the camera up for all to see.  Here are some from the trip we took last weekend to Bath:

We were there for 2 days starting last Sunday.  This meant that we got to celebrate the Forth of July there in Bath.  It took 3 trains and about 1.5 hours to get there.  Making sure you hit your connections can be a little stressful (thankfuly there is an app for that) otherwise - I enjoy traveling by train.  We stayed at a delightful B&B about 4 miles outside of town (a short bus Ride away).  Mostly an uneventful visit there with the exception of Benjamin throwing up the first night - we pushed him too hard during the day and he didn't get enough water.  Should have known better.

Fast forward through a short week and we came to yesterday at Hampton Court.  That was an amazing place.  It is a shame Henry VIII was such a nut.

Again it was 3 train rides away - though still in the London area.  Still it took us about 1 hour 20 minutes to get there.  These trains had many other stops along the way while slows life down.

You can see we found a park along the way.  As you can imagine, I have tons more pictures that aren't getting posted here.  You can dread - I mean - look forward to the slide-shows when we get home.

Speaking of which - we are officially past the 1/2 way mark with this trip.  When we got here, 6 weeks seemed like such a long time.  The reality is - time moves fast.  I think the lesson I'm learning is to stop waiting for the next train stop and enjoy the ride as much as possible.

Peace-

 

Today was a good day. Up early and over to the Windsor Central Train station to hop our first of 3 trains which took us out to Bath. The weather couldn't have been better. This town is ancient and beautiful. The pictures I'm attaching are from the iPhone. I took a ton using the Nikon but those haven't been processed yet.

To be specific about that - my macbook's screen is still not well. I may try to get to a Mac store at some point to see if they can help. In the meantime - I just keep taking pictures!

More tomorrow...

So I'm not sure how many updates will be coming mid-week as we really are rolling into a regular routine here.  Monday through Friday - I go to work and Michelle and the boys explore Windsor and get to know the area.  We are talking about a trip to Bath this weekend - if we can find lodging.  Apparently this is prime season for tourist activity all around here - but especially in Bath.  Here is a map to the area - it's apparently about a 1.5 hour train ride out there.

 

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 It started with us heading out around 10:15 to go to a local Church for some UK-Style worship.  We ended up at the Windsor Baptist Church – which was as one parishioner put it – the most non-Baptist, Baptist church there is.

Very nice people there with about 30-40 people in attendance.  The message was an introduction to the book of Mark.  The Pastor lead with a video from people who were around when Guernsey and Jersey (part of the Channel Islands) here in the UK were liberated from German occupation.  (Click here for an article on the subject).  His point was – that moment – the moment of liberation was a defining moment in the lives of those individuals.  Time was henceforth measured as pre or post liberation.  The parallel is that the history of the world is most clearly defined as before or after Jesus lived… and that is a great definition of the word “Gospel” – a clearly defined – life changing – moment of truth.

After lunch at home and some (more) laundry by Michelle we were off to Windsor Castle.  I took ALL my photography gear – but unfortunately no photography of any sort was allowed inside the castle.  After nearly getting kicked out of Stomp for using my camera – I thought I wouldn’t push it here and get kicked out of the country.  I hope you enjoy a subset of the gallery below:

Lastly we went for an English Tea!  Michelle loved it – Benjamin was excited for the adventure, Stephen wanted coffee, and I had fun with the camera (go figure).  This was a great thing to do and it’s obvious why the English would break for afternoon tea when it’s normally cold a miserable.  Our day was sunny and 81 deg.  Consequently we missed out of the enjoyment of the “warming qualities of hot tea”.  But let’s just say we all are in love with “clotted cream”.  It’s a nasty phrase– but basically is buttery whipped cream.  Awesome on anything! 

I leave you with one of the Queen’s roses. I took this while on the Castle grounds.  So much beauty and history in there.  

Oh, and we missed seeing the queen by 10 minutes … maybe next time.

This was a full day!  It all started with a quick trip into the shopping area of Windsor trying to get a mobile phone with a local number so it will be easier for Michelle and I to communicate during the day (providing she charges hers).  Turns out I have to get it at a store in a neighboring town.  Perhaps Monday....

After that we were on our way to the train station to go to London and there was a military parade honoring troops that had just returned from Afganastan.  It was a moving procession.  Michelle heard that William and Kate were here giving out medals as this was his troop.  We didn't get to see them though.

After the 1 hour train ride we arrived at Waterloo Station - where after a short was we found an great outdoor market.  We each found something different to eat and several things that we would NEVER eat (cow tonge and cheek come to mind).

Once lunch was done we were off to cross the Thames to comb our way through central London looking for the Ambasador Theater to see Stomp.  BTW: if you ever get a chance to see stomp - DO IT!  That was an amazing performance.

After that we were back to Waterloo Station and headed for home.  I'll leave you with one last pic from the house... more and more flowers show up around the house--home.

 

 

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For the past two nights I have been fortunate enough to be able to get a ride home with a co-worker who lives literally around the corner from our house on Hellena Road.  He leaves here around 5:30 each evening which has been perfect for me.  The first night was had an easy drive and were back in Windsor in no more than 20 minutes.  Last night the traffic on the Motor Park (highway) was thick so Andrew decided to take back roads through the small village of Datchet.

 

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This would normally have been a nice quick alternate route but we were delayed by a truck Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE literally parked in our lane.  It was a moving truck and when you are on a road with only 2 lanes and no sidewalk/curb - there really isn't anything that can be done. 

After dinner the evening was still so nice that we went for a walk on the Great Walk.  Michelle was cold but it was a really nice evening.  Here is a picture I took of Windsor Castle.  When I first arrived I couldn't believe that there was always a castle in my sky-line.  Now I am amazed that I am going to be used to having a castle in my skyline!

(If you would like a high resoltuion version of this - let me know!)

Michelle and the boys ventured farther from home using the "Windsor Car Service" which is a local taxi service which only serves the immediate area.  They went out to a local plant nursury to get some plants for a small planter box in our "back yard/patio" area.  Kudos to Michelle who continues to make our little 6-week rental our 6-week home.  Michelle will have to tell you more about the place but it was apparently huge with not only plants but a lunch shop, clothes, and more.  They enjoyed a 3 hour excursion there that included having lunch.

The afternoon for them was spent planting those flowers (pictures tomorrow) and more laundry (which hangs all over the house). 

Lastly I leave you with 2 pictures that indicate the correct gender on our Rackspace bathrooms... this made be laugh so I thought I'd share....