AN-IKE-IN-MY-SIDE

Hello again. I wish we could be conversing under better circumstances, but things are what they are. IKE came through with an awesome force. Luckily, the only real damage to the house can be seen on the right dormer, some of the brown metal was ripped off (a very loud process). There is not much debris in the front yard because we have no trees on our lot, but the neighbors sure do.
The pool was a receptacle for junk and no I haven't cleaned it out yet. It is going to take some time. The picture is a tad bit deceiving, but there is thick debris on the bottom, trust me!



Looking out the front door to the neighbors you can see someone lost a tree and someone else got lucky that it just missed their house!


This picture is a typical sight in the neighborhood.


This is another lucky neighbor that escaped severe damage. The tree covered the entire road for most of the morning. The interesting part of this picture is that you can notice the tree does not have many roots and the roots that are present are small. I am sure there is a lesson in this somewhere...


Well, this fence was leaning to start with and as you can see it did not bode well for it during the storm. I am sure there is a lesson in this also...

Let's recap: IKE hit at Midnight on Sept 12 and we lost power at 2:30 AM. We regained power at 7:00 PM on Sept 14. We are now busying cleaning the debris from all the crevasses.

Later,
Brendan & Karla

Trip to Europe - Summer 2008

Hello! We went to Europe for two weeks and here are a few pictures from the trip. Considering that nearly 1000+ photos were taken, this is small sample of the wonderful trip!


One of my favorite places we visited was the Garden of Versailles. The gardens had a beautiful serenity about them and it felt like you could get lost in their tranquility!

The Newman bunch somewhere in the gardens.


At the gardens you could test-drive a segway, so we had 15 minutes of fun!


We also visited Germany during the second week. The picture below is Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for the Disney World castle in Florida. This picture was taken from a bridge that was about a ~20 minute walk from the castle.


We also visited Austria during the second week. In Vienna, we met up with the Alford's. It just so happened that the World Cup was in town, so we went to one of the fan zones to see what soccer is all about! Of course, it wouldn't be Europe if it didn't rain, and yes we still got wet!


We also stopped a couple nights to visit some more friends and we were welcomed with open arms once again!
All in all, a fabulous trip filled with great food and great fellowship.

Until next time,
The Furrow's

Karla's 2008 OT Class

The Walk (May 18, 2008)

Too bad they couldn't pronounce our last name! Hence, the big smile!

OT Graduation (May 18, 2008)

Karla posing with her two degrees! (Master of Occupational Therapy & Bachelor of Science in Health Care Sciences).

Karla and Brendan on the big day.


Karla and Amillio (son of classmate , Alma Martinez).

A Visit

Karla's cousin Donny and his wife Jenny came for a visit all the way from Oregon! Hope they will come back!
Some more of the clan.


The siblings.What an awesome go-kart! The suspension is just right and the speed even more right!

Trip to Denmark

Lorianne was our chauffeur to & from the airport. The only way to go to the airport!Danish humor? This was a statue in Tivoli, which is an amusement park. (What is Tivoli spelled backwards? :) Maybe that explains the expression on his face...
Water bumper boats at Tivoli. We had a hard time getting Bob & Gavin to return to the dock, and yes they got a few whistles from the man-in-charge to return.
Karla posing at the train station (she wasn't hard to miss with her abundance of color!)
Preston being Preston...
Our sleeping arrangements at the Alford's, largest bunk-bed I have ever seen!
Visiting the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.
Visiting the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. Took them 25 yrs to reconstruct the 5 viking ships you see below. They were found at the bottom of the local fjord.
Visiting the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.
Visiting the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. I thought about adding a caption to further narrate this picture, but this one is worth a thousand words on its own!
One of our grand dinners at Chef K's restaurant.
Just more happy faces!
All of us at the outdoor ice-skating spot. Bob and Gavin had a snowball fight, still not sure who won...
The queen was in town for bringing the New Year, so we had a chance to see the changing of the guard.
Danish special meeting group.
Visiting the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. Gavin posed with a few other "vikings," and that girl in the back is scary...
There was a sign that said, "Don't Touch," but do believe he had some help in disregarding that sign.... and no it wasn't Bob.. ;)
Standing at the Hellerup station, this is the train stop for the Alfords.
Workers (on the couch) visiting for coffee.
The famous mermaid statue. I am not sure where Ron is looking.
Karla didn't want to be left out.
What a helper!
A medieval clock, not sure how well it kept time, but it was ingenious!
Bob (the tour guide) took us to Sweden and we got to visit a fort.
Bob, Gavin and Ron on the inside of the fort.
Some history on the fort; it has been there a long time.
Hope you enjoyed our journey.

The pictures are a bit out of order, but it was going to be too much work to make it all sequential.