Life in Ohio: Part 1

dad's impressively painted sunflower lid

artemis and her uncle

painting with Zhora

down the slide at the zoo

circle window at the zoo

admiring the flamingos

Artemis admiring the fish

Artemis headed to help grandma in the garden

diggin in the dirt

off to help Adam to put on his new bike tires

an evening at the local rocks closed out a great day

look at that foot work. nice spot uncle

The Travel Blog

 travelling again. we headed off to the states, and after a stop in Munich and an extended stay in Chicago, we finally arrived in ohio.

 she was super psyched by carrying her own bag.

 classic airport ride.

 a new ride

 we found the perfect place for her to rest.

eleftheria had the perfect idea to buy small toys, and we took them out little by little. 

a downloaded video or two also helps

finally arrived with family, green grass, and a smile

Less Blah

Happy Giorgia?!

artemis and her friend maria chillin in their ride

eleftheria, artemis, kristina and maria riding a small train around in circles

as promised

also promised

Georgia came for a visit and to play

hammocks are both cool and dangerous

looking longingly into the woods

cute

 obligatory bird chasing

the lighting was not great, but it was an important occasion. the meeting of the artemises. . .artemi . . .

the now traditional new york style brunch in athens. niko is a huge fan.

the metro is the best part of athens. oh and our friends, and georgia, okay. but really the metro is awesome.

Holy Crap We Finished Something

this project actually started a number of weeks ago, nearly a month, when we finally found wood (we had to special order it) and eleftheria started the process of applying 1 coat of primer, 3 coats of what we thought was the correct type of paint, and finally a final coat of what turned out to be the correct type of paint.

that is where the project stalled. i was working and doing my masters, eleftheria was working and then taking care of artemis in the evenings, and the last thing that i wanted to do with any down-time was work some more, i just wanted to sleep, eat or veg. i am so envious of how adam and keith seem to have endless energy; their schedules make the day look so long and productive.

anyways, within two days of finishing my masters it is finished below chronicles the final product, and as soon as it stops raining, we'll pick up some more sand, and i'll get some shots of artemis playing.

 the wood came "plained", but we still found the need to do our own work

 artemis helped all the way through the process

 tricks

i don't know where my pics of eleftheria painting are, but let it stand that she painted for days, work that i could never do.

had to clear the land, artemis surveyed for me.

 is it level

this stuff never really worked for mom and dad, but, we'll see.

we bought some sand, but not nearly enough, still it is a start, we'll head to the beach this weekend

working at night of course.

 found a little friend

 we found the design online and made a few of our own mods, worked well don't you think?

the colors look a bit like a british world war II spitfire, but whatever, looks pretty

it was a great project, next up is her little house, and picnic table for the yard. should be fun.

so, to cap off this nice structured little post, i thought that i would throw my two cents into the ring around of the current greek crisis, more for my memory than any real need or want to communicate knowledge.

first of all it must be said that things are not good, not catastrophic, but not good. the biggest impact on us so far is that we cannot transfer money out of the country, which many already have done. i don't worry about losing money, rather i have a credit card and loans to pay, thus getting money to the states is critical, to be honest the damage has already been done to the poor and lower middle class, it can of course get worse, but no money is no money, and the government's social systems are already bunk so. . . the wealthy are simply inconvenienced by not being able to access all of their money, and the hardest hit are of course the small businesses that cannot buy the supplies that they need to do their work.

the school seems to be withstanding okay. if greece stays in the euro, it is likely that nothing will really change. if it drops out, the window for foreign investment (other countries buying every bit of greek industry and land that exists) opens up and we stand to gain a good deal of international clientele, or it could just be a big poop storm, and well, you know what poop storms do.

in a nut-shell the eu is arguing economics, flexing its muscles, and prostrating as they try to hold on to the strings of the shared currency. greece is arguing social politics, flying by the seat of their pants without a plan, and being politically irresponsible. the media is, as usual, fanning the flames of ignorance, muddling the facts, and scaring the general population. russia and the u.s. are looking at geo-political gains, turkey offered to pay the first debt installment as a gesture of good will (1.8 billion), and an english guy set up a kick-starter to raise money. while all of this goes on, everything devolves.

finally 4, at least in my opinion, facts:

1. greece will stay in the euro
2. the new economic program will be far more difficult than the one that the greek government just let expire.
3. there will be a new greek government
4. the new program will not work any better than the others, because the problems in greece are not economic in nature, and that is all the eu can control, and greece seems to be unwilling or unable to make the necessary changes.  

we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out, maybe i don't know anything.