Black and white photos taken of Paris during various visits. Most during rain. All scanned from black and white negatives using a Minolta Dimage film scanner and Adobe Photoshop.

On Sunday, 2 April 2006, O'Fallon experienced the first tornado since we came here in 1989. One of the side effects of that tornado (an F2) was very high winds along its path. Those winds blew over a 110 foot tall oak tree in our back yard. Fortunately for our neighbors, their 100 foot tall oak caught it. Had that second tree not been there, our tree would have landed on and crushed their just replaced roof. We contacted a tree removal service that night. They came on Monday to check it and give us an estimate. You don't want to know how much it cost but the tree removal company owner said it was the most dangerous one he had ever attempted to take down is his 12 years of doing that work. The crew arrived Tuesday morning at 8:00am and didn't leave until 8:00pm that night. While we are still smarting from the expense (USAA would not cover it unless it hit a structure!!), I can appreciate the dangerous part of the job much more after watching them work.

We celebrated Sean and Paul's 30th birthday in Erlanger, KY on 2-3 Dec. Emily flew Sean in as a surprise since Paul had flown out to Seattle last year to surprise Sean. Paul and Emily were eating a "birthday dinner" at their favorite restaurant on the river in Covington when suddenly about 10 people came in (family and friends) to surprise Paul. The following night, there was a surprise party at Diana and Phil's house.