May 19

London   Getting ready to get our train to London. Had a wonderful time touring Warwick and Kennelworth Castles.  Shockingly, we had both castles almost to ourselves for an hour or two during our visits.  On Thursday we went to Shakespeare's Birthplace here in Stratford and then a tour of the Cotswolds.  It was raining the whole time on the tour of the Cotswolds and Randy had to get some warm clothes cause we weren't expecting winter weather (48 degrees F) in May.  We've been wearing our light jackets almost the entire time we are here.  That's it for now, we need to go catch our train.  Later, Azucena & Randy  (written by Azucena)

May 22

All this fun I'm having    England is doing some elections this week. I was at the Science Museum then there was a campaign going on down that road which in turn closed the front doors for security reasons. Not only shut the doors, but also the main hall. The weather is doing real great right now. After the first day, the weather has been great. Darn, she came in. Gotta go. Leaving for King Lear. Anyone want to take my place? Don't tell her I said this.   I'll get with you again soon.

May 23

Trip so far   Alright, this is done before I read each of your replies. I've found an internet cafe right next to the laundry place. The connection speed is fantastic. Inexpensive also.   Whilst in Warwick last week, Mr. Foster past us by. I tried to track him down, but he wouldn't stop. Kept driving that truck of his. Funny, he didn't look like Joe, but he put his name on the side of the truck.   King Lear was fairly good. The play was in a location that was "identical" to the one he use to perform his plays in. All wood. short benches, open air.  I mean location, in the Building, not exact site. The Building is similar to "Shakespear in Love" where you see a lot of his performance for Romeo and Juliet. It got pretty cool last night so the open air made it colder than needed.   The weather has been quite nice. According to the Excite web page, it shows that London is quite a bit warmer (about 10 degrees).   Tomorrow I'm going to try to see Madam Troussard's wax museum.   We leave Saturday morning for France (Lyon). We'll be there until about Thursday, then head to Paris with nothing to do but shop and tour.   I think Azucena has half day Friday so we'll tour together the rest of the time.   All in all, it has been a real pleasant trip. Everything has gone pretty good. Because of the Hoof and Mouth scare, most of the Steak restaurants here are pretty empty. We haven't had a chance to eat at one, but the wait should be real minimal. I've been meaning to try the Texas Rib House down the street from our Hotel, but haven't been able to get there for lunch or dinner. Maybe soon. Suppose to have good ribs and margaritas and fajitas, etc. People from Texas say leave it alone, but if I have one more of their sandwich....   Azucena's class went to Lloyd's of London yesterday. They had a great time. They had on display the actual recording of their insurance page for the Titanic. A lot of people took stock in that one for the reason of it being unsinkable. But I also imagine a lot of those people went broke because of it.   We've found a Burger King on almost every corner. Starbucks too. Mail ect. anyone? What about Domino's pizza. I have been to a few museums and each of them had several groups of school kids. Their assignments were to find certain items. Like a scavenger hunt.   I have to get going. It's after 4 and I heard during lunch that they will be getting out early.   Cheers, Chow, See Ya, bye.

May 25

Last call, I think   We shall be getting on the train to France around 7am tomorrow. From the rumors that Azucena has given me about checking email and doing clothes while there, I don't think I will be able to. I'll wait and see.   It's been pretty fun so far except when it hasn't been fun. That's mainly trying to drag my butt out of bed in the morning.   So far, I've seen the Tower of London (really a castle started by the Romans around 40 a.d.)  The London Dungeon, which is 1/2 dungeon, 1/2 Disney ride.  British History Museum. Mummies OH My. And dead people that have been preserved for centuries.  Science Museum. Cool. Saw a 3d movie. That ANTZ dance hall in 3d was pretty neat.  Natural History Museum. It showed me that we are doing it all wrong. Joe paid extra, but if he knows what I know, he could have saved himself a lot of money. Yes, the museum had a whole section on the sexes. Who they are and how they got to be. Really. The cutaway was very educational. Gave up on Madam Toussards and the Planetarium because of the crowd.  Went to the British Library. Magna Carta, Guttenburg, Printing press, 20,000 stamps (by collectors -- those that donated their sets to the library)  Millineum Eye (largest farris wheel in the world, and damn worth it too). We didn't take the Millineum Bridge. Too shaky. No spell check here, so tough.  Oh, laundry. Let's not forget that. BBQ ribs too, almost, but not quite. I'll keep in mind to return them the next time I get ribs with a knife stuck in them.  Warwick Castle and Kinleworth. Is there anything I haven't done? Geeze. Give me a day off. And yesterday around midnight, as she changed the setting from FINE picturs to Super Fine, she said YES to the FORMAT option. Does anyone know what FORMAT means? I rest my case. We went from about 200+ pictures to about 40 after today.  I stopped by Sherlock Holmes museum, but didn't go in. Bought some junk instead.  Kink Lear. To be or not to be. That's King Lear, right? Well, it's Shakespear, the same thing. Did I bring you anything back? Are you kidding? Ha, I laugh in your face. If you're lucky, you'll see the pictures she formatted. Uh, sorry about that. I might bring some Dr. Pepper back for Sharon. By the way, Glocuester is pronounced Gloster. So how is Locuester pronounced? Locuester, of course. Glocuester was a Duke or an Earl was in King Lear.   I think that's it for now. If you want to retaliate (respond, sorry), I may be here for a few minutes checking out other things to stall for time.

May 29

Latest ventures in France   You'll have to bear with me since the french keyboard puts their keys in a different order and the numbers require the shift key.   Here is a translation of the keyboard just for fun. Skip if you want to. Iu, hqving q zonderful ti,e here in Frqnce: Ze hqve been to qn old ,useu, qnd the old pqrt of LYON:   I'm having a wonderful time here in France. We have been to a museum and the old part of LYON. The museum holds nothing remarkable, except the top floor is full of marionettes. Some of them fro, the 1700's:   I guess ze are on a peninsula; like Padre Islqnd. We have to cross a river to get to the old Lyon. There are 2 roman ampitheaters here. Beat up, but still used. We have to cross the other river to go to another part of Lyon.   By the way, Lyon is 1.5 million and the 2nd largest city in Frqnce: Oh; and everyone here has been great: So far, we've had no problems conversing (including me). As long as I greet zith BonJour, then they will help me  out. Only been on my own twice now, I hqven't had to talk much. Azucena has been doing all the conversing and they've stayed in the french language, so that tells you that the cram fest on the french language has paid off:   Monday; we went to a winery (we also tasted two different wines); then had a three hour lunch. Then another winery and did some more testing. They also had some strength contests for us.   Later; we had dinner at one of the primier restaurants here and spent another 3 hours. The dinners/lunches include an appetiser of some sort, then about 15 minutes later, they bring the main course (generally a meat and one other item). After about 1/2 hour, they bring the cheeses and more french bread. A plate to pass around zith about 5 different types of cheeses. I'll stick to my Wisconsin cheese thankyouverymuch. After the cheese, I'd guess 15 minutes, they bring the dessert (if you ordered the full 3 course meal). All told, eating like this is about a 2 hour or 3 hour adventure. Also, they won't bring the check until you ask for it. Someone also commented that unlike US where they try to get as many table turnovers in a night as they can, here they start one set around 7, then plan on another turnover around 10. That's why the dinners take so long:   Haven't done much shopping yet, picked up some wine. Tonight, there zill be one last party for the UT people and spouses. The entree? Wine.   This is getting tough on my hands; trying to find the keys. I'll let you go. We leave for Paris tomorrow and fly back on Monday.

May 31, part 1

So far in Paris   Stupid french keyboards.   Yesterdqy, we got to Paris and bumped into Azucena's dad who was waiting for us in the square outside our hotel. We are staying in a tourist hotel for Students:  The area is a Student area (forgot the name – sordouin [Editors note:  Sorbonne] or something like that)   Since I am taking a day off from seeing things, we went to the landmark, Eiffel Tower. Oh man. There are three sections. 1st is just a level to walk around (about 3 or 4 stories high), the next level has a restaurant called 95 Atmosphere (95 meters up). You can take the stairs to the first level or the lift. The lift from the first level or from the ground to the second level. A second lift from the second level to the top. Oh my. I'm not great with heights so at the second level, looking up, was interesting. We went to the top and looked around. Another restaraunt was up there and to take their full course was about 750 Francs (7.4 f to ea $, thus over $100 per person). About 10pm; the lights came on. About 10:15, different lights that just flashed about announcing the lights zere on. The second lights lasted about 5 or 10 minutes. (daylight here is from about 5:45 - 10 pm easily). we stuck around to see if any other lights around the city would come on, but after about 30minutes; ze called it a night. After crossing the Seine river, other lights came on; but it was about 10:45 by then.   By the way, like London, Paris was built on an island. The Seine comes down; splits in two, then meets up again.   Paris itself is a pretty old town, but in the late 1800's some architect came by, set up plans for the streets and promptly tore down any buildings in the way. Sad, yes, but looking at Paris from 200 meters up, you get a sense of architectural beauty in the zay it was laid out. Not in squares, but a lot of angles that meet up. And very organized. Like a planned community, zhich it sort of was.   I,ll close here and try again tomorrow or Friday.

May 31, part 2

I've a few minutes left   I'm on a different system today, so I canut change the keyboard to zork better.   Hope everything is going better. Iull try to check in later tonight if I can. We'll be heading out of tozn on friday qnd Saturdqy, so I don't knoz if I can check email. Also, it is a bit more expensive here. 50Francs for 1 hour (roughly $7, compared to $4 in London). Since TML will cover it; I should'nt zorry about it, right JOE?   As you can see, Iuve pretty much given up on searching for the right keys. I can hit the "a" ok, but the "m" still gets me, as does the z qnd w.   3 minutes left. I'll end it here to check for ,ore mail.   The only thing about Paris is the trash. Everyzhere. Even in their fountains, and they have a lot.   Randy qnd Awucena.

June 3

So far in Paris    We went to Le Man on Friday (This is the place of the famous Le Man's Grand Prix). I tried to connect there, but the Excite connection kept getting screwed up so I had to give it up. Anyway, in LeMan, we went to the race track and looked around. Visited the museum and looked at the history of cars and some sports cars. Very nice. They had a mother-in-law "killer" car (1889). This was a four wheeler with no windows and the front seat was the passenger seat. Imagine a person riding between the handlebars of a bike, but a bike with 4 wheels.  Saw lots of cars, buggies, three wheelers, etc. Pretty interesting place. There was some testing going on, but we were told is was the police who had come out and were practicing. The one in the 8  car was not coming out of the turns very well.  We then went to another city (Chartre) and stopped by a very nice curio shop. After shopping, we found a place to eat. The food was nice, but the conversation turned a little sour with Mr. Rockstead and the waitress. He didn't get what he ordered, and she complained it was his accent.  Anyway, after dinner, we headed back to the train station to head home to Paris. We found out the last train left about 20 minutes before we got there. When we initially arrived, we looked at the time schedules and figured we had until about 11:30pm to shop and visit. As it turned out, that was the time for last ARRIVAL. The last DEPARTURE was about 9:40pm. The next DEPARTURE we could take was around 4:30am. We finally elected to take a taxi (about 35 min) to the next town, then the train from there to Paris. Got in around 11:30-11:45pm. Ok, so we screwed up. 1st time so far.  Yesterday, we went to Chantilly. As in Chantilly lace. There was a nice "castle", for want of better words (A small chateau, or mansion). We took a tour and had a pretty good time. It wasn't a real castle, just a location protected by moats. Across from that is the Chantilly Horse Race Track. We went to the stalls and took a look around the museum there. I never saw the insides of a horse before, complete insides. I didn't feel like checking to see if those were real intestines dangling from the ceiling.  While at the stalls, there were a few shows that they put on. Demonstrating the different things the horses could be taught to do, like bow, prance, jog, which hoof to put forward, etc. While I was checking out the museum (which also included a description of all the different styles of horses to be used for different events: Basic Racing, Rodeo, Matadour, cart racing, cowboy, farming, etc.), I got seperated from the Azucena and her dad. After looking around and going through the museum for another 2 hours, I finally left thinking I'd wait at the train station for them.  Since the last train was about 11pm, I had some time. As it turns out, They went back to the mansion, then passed by the stables about 5 minutes after I left. They then beat me to the station by about 5 minutes. Azucena held my ticket going back, but that wouldn't have stopped them from leaving me behind. They were planning on catching the next train to Paris. So, this means I would have sat at the station for another 4 hours waiting for them while they were already in Paris. Did I get lucky. Friday dejavu all over again.  Today, we made our way to the Catacombs. This is a crypt that they used to discard the bones from graves. At least the way I understand it. When the graves got full, they'd take the coffins and remove the bones and store them here. There is other stuff, but I didn't get around to it. Anyway, as we got here, it was closed for renovation until July (thus I can't really tell you what is inside). So, we went to an area for Mr. Rockstead to drop off his laundry. We also went strolling through the market (sidewalk sellers). Lots of art, books, old stuff. Today, being Sunday, a lot of the stores are closed. The restaurants are open. And are there restaurants. Probably about 10 on each city block.  On our way back, we passed through the Luxemburg gardens. This is a 22 acre area that houses the Senate. It also has a merry-go-round, a play area for kids, a water fountain-pool to play with your boat, statues (the model for our Statue of Liberty), tennis courts, etc. Just one big Central Park.  That leads me to here and now. It is about 2pm (7am your time). We are taking some time off, getting ready for tomorrow's departure. We are going somewhere tonight that starts with an M. This is a show and a dinner.  The weather has changed. Yesterday it did some sprinking all day. And it got a little bit cooler. Probably in the lower 80's or upper 70's. Today it is in the mid 70's.  This should be the last one until I get back. Azucena started off a little slow with the video. Now she's on her 5th or 6th tape, but about 400 pictures. She thinks she may have saved some pictures to video before she wiped out the first set. Let's hope so.  My plane is a 10 hour adventure from Paris to Dallas, then a 3 hour layover. Her plane leaves about 3 hours after mine. We should both be arriving in Austin about 5 minutes apart from each other. It'll be after 7pm that we pick up our baggage. Then we both head to work on Tuesday.   Well, that's it. One thing about Paris, it's a beautiful place, but no one cares to "Keep Paris Beautiful". It seems they'd rather throw trash on the sidewalk next to the trashcan than make the attempt. Oh, I amost forgot. Sidewalks are made for driving. I mean that if there are not bars/barricades, you can drive there. Nothing like being at a sidewalk restaurant and seeing a car driving by. Sometimes, they have these posts that pop up at during certain times to keep cars out. Then after a certain hour, these posts will drop into the ground allowing cars to go through. In some areas, the parking lanes are marked on the sidewalk. The basic rule is "If there is no post, you can drive".   Ok, that's it again. I'm done here. I'll see you when I get back in town. We are thinking about taking Tuesday and Wednesday off to recover from this vacation. Just kidding Anita and Petrena. I'll be there Tuesday. I'll find out just how much Job security I really have.   Till later, Auvua (don't know how to spell it - owe-vwa)

June 4

Last chapter in this book    Since our last email on Sunday, we ventured to the Moulin Rouge that evening. For those that don't know Moulin Rouge, it is the original Can Can. They started here in the late 1800's. The meal was pretty darn good (not cheap either). The price did not include the show, which you needed reservations for (3 days in advance). By the way, the show was pretty good in itself. A lot of short dance skits and three entertainment skits (two guys juggling each other; a ventriloquist; a hand shadow perfomer). The dance skits were, shall I say, entertaining. Up to 30 women performing and at least 4 were barebreasted in each number (think Las Vegas revue's). Enjoyable night it was. And an enjoyable trip it was too. That ended our vacation.   On the flight back into Dallas, they asked if I was on any farms or ranches. I said no and off I went. I don't think grape farms count in this case. Azucena also had no problems on her trip through Houston.   Overall, the trip was a success. I had a great time. The weather was real nice (last email, I said it was in the 70's, actually it was in the 50's for the last two evenings) to us practically the whole time. I had access to laundry and the internet. Work survived without me, I think. I didn't have any trouble getting around in London or in France. What little I did try to converse in France, I got along fine. Azucena had a semester of French about 10 years ago and then the last two months cramming the language. She wasn't sure she would do any good, but no one changed her to english. She learned a lot and was able to hold a pretty good conversation.    As you can tell, I had a great time. Not everything is as cut and dried as it sounds. There were a lot of areas that we had to adapt to (Do as the Romans do, comes to mind). Food, restrooms (the french still use the squat style in a lot of places), subway, funky keyboards, etc. So as long as we adapted, we were going to have a great time. I'd do it again, although 3 weeks is a bit too long.   It's been a long day. Let's see, 10:26pm Texas is about 5am France. Yep, been a long day. I guess I'd better turn in and get some sleep so I can make it to work in the morning.   Thanks for your comments and I'll see you soon.   Randy & Azucena.   Chapter done, story over, book closed.