Hello again! We hope you are all doing well! It's freezing over here - the weather has been nice up until about a week ago - it's been hanging around 32 degrees with the wind chill. It started snowing on us while we were walking around today - but it didn't last long and it didn't stick. We left the last update up for a while because we wanted everyone to have a chance to check it out - if you haven't read it, please do - it's our "Year in Review" and it pretty much sums up everything that's been going on since we moved here.

Since the last update, we've had a few things going on. We went back to the States for the last week in January - I had a company meeting in Atlanta. Speaking of work, I want to tell you a little bit about what I do (I promise to keep it brief). Highwinds Software (headquarters in Orlando, FL) develops and sells "newsgroup" software. Newsgroups are discussion groups on the Internet - people post "articles" which can be simple text messages or binaries (like MP3s, movies, pictures, software programs, etc). When you sign up for internet service (DSL, cable modem, dial-up), you usually also get access to these newsgroups (you just may not know it - let me know if you're interested and we can talk more about it). Millions of new articles are created everyday, so the computers, networks, disks, etc. get hit very hard. Our software is the best at handling all of this pounding.

In the past, Highwinds sold the software to companies running a news service, and supported them while they ran the software. Here's where I come in. ntl is a large cable/phone company in London. They bought our software, but didn't want to run it themselves - instead they outsourced it to us. So I'm the one over here running their news service (which uses the software that we created). We've recently launched a "hosting" service. We have machines running our software in several locations in the US and Europe. Companies can now pay for us to run (host) their news service for them (similar to what I do at ntl, but we don't actually handle the hardware here - we have outsourced that part to a hardware company).

I'm really enjoying this job - the people are great, I've got lots of responsibility, it's challenging, we're on the bleeding edge of technology, and I'm always learning. There's rarely a dull moment with this job - it's great. And on top of all of this, I can work from anywhere in the world - but I have to be in London for this project since we're in charge of the whole service - I have to be able to go fix the machines in the data centers when they have problems. The good news is that I don't have to go into the office everyday, so that long dreadful commute isn't that bad anymore. And when we go home to visit, we can stay longer since I can work from there instead of using up all of my vacation. Seriously, if you are interested in more details or want to talk about how to use newsgroups, let me know! OK, I'm through talking about work - that wasn't too bad was it?

It was great to see our family again while we were back - I didn't have time to do too much else since I was in Atlanta for my meetings - it was great to see all of you guys too! Steve, thanks for a great dinner! Thanks to my parents for all of their cooking too. My Mom and Dad have finally decided to come and visit us in London! I can't wait - it's going to be so much fun - and my aunt and uncle (Janet and David) may get to come with them. That's at the end of April. Jill had lots of fun relaxing in the US during this time - finally a time without such a full schedule. Once again, she enjoyed eating out and shopping with her mom. Here mom and Mike will be coming to visit at the end of March. Our nephew Landon is starting to put words together now (he'll be two in March - I'm sure Shae and Billy are excited about the upcoming terrible two's!). One night before bed, he gave me a kiss goodnight and felt my beard on his face. Then he started feeling it and saying "dirt", "dirt". It was pretty funny. He called us the other night too! We did get to go grab some dinner with Jacob, Christie, and Katie one night - it was great seeing you guys - Katie is getting so big - she stayed up late that night and was so good the whole time!

Our flight back - you ready for the next thing that went wrong with our overseas flights? There's always something - still never had a perfect problem-free overseas flight. This time, they call us the day before we leave to tell us that our flight has been canceled. It was canceled because of the bad weather coming into Atlanta. Our choices are to take an earlier flight or wait a couple more days for the weather to pass - we'd love to stay in the US for a couple of more days, but we have to get back for two reasons: 1) I have a meeting in London, and 2) our visas expire the day after we land (when we go through immigration, we have an official letter asking for a temporary extension while we're waiting on the official extension papers to come through). We're afraid if we land after it's already expired, they may deny the temp extension - if we land before, we at least have the next day to sort things out if necessary.

So we get on the earlier flight so we can get out of Atlanta before the bad weather comes in. So here we are on the runway (in Birmingham) about to take off - the engines shut down - and finally 15 minutes later, the announcement - "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking - I apologize for the delay, but we won't be taking off for a while - the airspace in Atlanta is too crowded, so we don't have a slot to land - we will not be going back to the gate - we'll get an update in 50 minutes. Again, sorry for the delay." 50 minutes"!! Are you kidding me? This means that we won't even make our connecting flight in Atlanta, so we don't even want to go because then we'll be stuck in Atlanta for a couple of days and we'd have to pay for a hotel and all that - we'd rather stay in Birmingham with our families anyway. Well, several other folks had this similar issue, so they finally decide to taxi back to the gate and let those get off of the plane.

Before we get off of the plane, the stewardess tells us that they've booked us on later flight to London from Atlanta, so we'd be able to stay on and make that one (Jill and I are thinking that our luck will have us in Atlanta late that night and the later London flight would get canceled). So we're trying to decide if we should stay on or not - then the captain says that we'd be taking off in 15 minutes, so we stay on. Then he says that we won't be taking off then and he'll let us know something in 45 minutes - 10 minutes later, he says we'll be taking off in 45 minutes - this goes on for a few rounds so nobody knows what the heck is going on. We finally take off and make the flight to London that night. So we get there about 4 hours later than originally planned, so that makes the jetlag a little bit worse.

We watched the Super Bowl - second time we've watched it over here. It started at 11:30pm, so we were up pretty late. Unfortunately, we don't get all of the cool commercials that go with it so we had to check them out on the internet.

Tuesday, February 8th was "Pancake Day". Here's a brief history - In the UK, there is a much-loved tradition of making and eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, which falls between February 2 and March 9, depending on the date for Easter. Shrove Tuesday ('shrove' stems from old English word 'shrive', meaning 'confess all sins') is the day before Lent - which incidentally means both 'spring' and 'goodbye to meat'. According to Christian beliefs, Lent commemorates Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness, and observant Christians mark this period by fasting. So Shrove Tuesday was cleverly invented to use up the ingredients that were given up for Lent - milk, butter and, particularly, eggs - which may not be eaten again until Easter. We didn't eat any last year because we didn't realize it was Pancake Day until it was too late. This year, Jill made me some homemade chocolate chip pancakes - talk about delicious! This is my new favorite breakfast!

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful wife! It's been three years now since we tied the knot! We are blessed to have such a wonderful marriage - it gets better every single day! We celebrated by going out to dinner at Nobu - this is the same Japanese restaurant that we went to on our anniversary last year. This dinner was the best dinner we've had in London since we moved here. We had some sushi - and I actually liked it (spicy tuna roll), sake (Jill drank most of it), and the best cod in the world (seriously, you should try it - it's their signature dish).

About a week ago, we went out to dinner with Whitney (my long-time buddy Jonathan's sister-in-law) and her friend Jill. They are going to school in York, England, and they came down to London for the weekend. We met up for some Mexican food at Cafe Pacifico. We all had a good time - it was nice to finally meet you guys! Justin and Rachael took us to Kingston that weekend too. It's a cool place with lots of neat shopping and stuff. We had fun and were glad to finally get to go there. We met up with Grant and Kelly for dinner the other night too. They're moving back to NYC in June, so we're hoping to do a trip together before they go (maybe golf in Scotland).

Did everyone have a good Valentine's Day? I hid some clues for Jill around the flat - she had to figure out and find all of the clues to get to her present. Even though our flat is small, I made it tough enough for her - she was stumped on a couple of them. We ate dinner at a really nice Indian restaurant called Mint Leaf.

Congratulations to the Bensons! Yep, Bart and Kerrie are expecting their first baby in August. And congratulations to Shameem and Patrick as well - they just had their first daughter - Aaliya Yasmin Benjuya arrived on Valentine's Day at 3:35pm, and weighed in at 5 pounds and 14 ounces. We are excited for all of you and we wish you all the best!

We received our first care package since we moved over here. A HUGE thanks to Ashley, John, Reilly, and Kelsey for sending it over - it is AWESOME! They sent us some mac and cheese, microwave popcorn, the good peanut butter and jelly, several chicken helpers, dessert dish, etc. They also sent us two long lighters - you know, the kind that you can stick way down in a candle or something without burning your hand off? I forgot to say that I had one in my luggage that got confiscated on the way over - so it was a nice surprise to get one in the care package! We really appreciate you sending this over - you don't know how good it is to get this kind of stuff - you just can't find it over here. THANK YOU ALL!

A few things for Jill - we went and saw the play "Whose Life is it Anyway", and Jill got to meet Kim Cattrall (she plays Samantha in "Sex and the City"). We also saw the musical "Fame" - it was a great show - lots of dancing (the jazz stuff that Jill likes the most). We also spent Saturday at Battersea Park at the London Fashion Weekend - every woman's dream - and every man's nightmare! Nah, it wasn't that bad for me - I ate about five free ice cream samples and got a free drink at the bar. This event takes place over here once a year, and all of the big designers have all of their new stuff on sale to promote it. I'm not kidding - when we walked in and Jill saw all of the designer stuff all over the place, I've never seen her eyes light up this big (at least since our wedding). She absolutely loved this place!

After we posted the last update, we thought of a few more things to add to the "list of things said differently over here":
bloody - expressing annoyance as an intensifier - Did you see that bloody car almost hit me?
pissed - this doesn't mean "mad" - it actually means "drunk"
bugger - a word used during times of frustration - I hear this at the office a lot when things aren't working
knackered - extremely tired
When you tell someone to have a nice day, they reply with "and you"
The train announcements say "calling at" for the stops the train will make - "This train is calling at Richmond and London Waterloo"
They don't usually pronounce h's and t's - the words "bottle" and "hotel" sound pretty funny

Well, that about wraps it up for this time. Be sure to check out our updated pictures and read the last update - the "Year in Review". Now that you've got all of your Christmas bills paid off, it's a great time to start planning your trip to come over and visit! We love and miss you all! Take care and God bless!