BurrowCard 2009

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Greeting of the Winter Solstice and of course Happy New Year.  In Pasadena every year starts with the Rose Parade.  My friend Pete K has been making a digital holiday card for a few years and last year I was so impressed that I vowed to do one myself.  The idea is to eventually stop sending snail mail cards.  Let me know what you think via email to simonburrow@mac.com  There are links in the script so that if you are a maschist you can see even more detail of our year.

Nurit finished some beautiful quilts and attended several classes to increase her skill. This is one of her quilts.

I apologize for the order of the slides show.  I don’t know how to adjust.  So just go with the flow, turn up your right brain and accept that things don’t have to be in date order.

Simon installed two stone fountains with the Men of Stone bringing the installed number to seven. More fountain pictures. I also took a lot of digital photos in 2009 some of which turned out.  Here is a link to My Best Photos of 2009

Simon went diving in the Philippines with the Codger Divers.  This picture shows from left to right Simon, Brock, Michael, Gene and Howard.  The Philippines was a great place to dive and the resorts we visited, Atlantis in Puerto Galera and Dumagette were excellent.  More Photos

I took this picture of Nurit with our friends Randy and Gretchen and a fish sculpture during a trip to Santa Fe in May.  We also went there in January and again in December.  You can see the full stories here except for the December trip when we both had colds and didn’t take pictures.

We celebrated our thirty-third wedding anniversary in Santa Barbara but the pictures didn’t come out too well so I have posted one of my favorite pictures of the year.  It was a beautiful day.  We went to the Botanical Garden and had dinner at the Stonehouse in San Ysidero

In June we had a great road trip to Colorado.  In Denver we saw our old friend Scott Herrera and visited some art museums.  The highlight of the trip was Rocky Mountain National Park.  There are some more great photos here.

And another to Arizona in September to visit friends and attend Kathy Gerst’s wedding.

Lillian and Rebecca both started Graduate School in the Fall. We are now the official poster family for the Obama revolution; three generations and nobody is employed.

Lillian is at UNLV for an MBA and a Masters in Hospitality Management.

Rebecca is at The University of York, England for a Masters in Preservation Studies.

We went to two wonderful wine dinners at The Lodge at Torrey Pines where Lillian was working as an assistant manager at AR Valentien.

Simon worked hard to get the Mount Wilson Toll Road reopened.

After a six month course Nurit became a garden docent at the Huntington Library.

Simon had a family reunion in the UK with his brothers Tom and Matt and various cousins, nephews and significant others.

The other reunion was with Simon’s brother, Andrew, and his family in Ohio.

In 2009 we doubled the number of pets at home. Missy and Abby were joined by Rebecca’s cats Evelyn and Belle. The new dynamics are interesting. This picture is of Belle.

Nurit’s Mom and Dad both had health issues in 2009 so we spent a lot of time learning about antibiotic resistant staph infections (MRSA), Medicare and the Kaiser Health System. After three operations and several false alarms by the end of the year Nurit’s Dad, is stable and actively managing his life although he will never walk again. Special thanks to all of the caregivers.  I’ve written a lot about aging this year and you can see some of the aging posts here.

Nurit’s Mom has been a real trooper all year through the issues of Jacks health, the nursing homes and finally at home with the caregivers.

We had a great party for Nurit’s birthday. The theme for some reason was 60’s music.  There are lots more pictures here

Evelyn is clueless and Missy is attempting to educate her.

Abby is a survivor. The new kittens have changed the dynamic of the cat-house but she is holding her own.

We went to Las Vegas for thanksgiving and Lillian cooked a great feast for us.  We also went for a hike in the beautiful Red Rock Canyon.