A Quick Wedding and May Day

Eleftheria's cousin had a wedding/christening last weekend, so we dressed up and headed out for the occasion. the highlight, for me at least, artemis dancing with her grandmother.

the next day was a festival at the american farm school (not very american but very much a farm school), who hosted "may day". basically it was a big publicity geared open house, boy did it work. Artemis had a wonderful time on the playground and trying out the tractors.

you have some competition sarah. as soon as she can reach the pedals.

Keith and I are Different Busy

this will be my first weekend in my house since before Adam's visit.

"dad, seriously? directions?"

rooftop view of Bucharest. a wonderful mixture of early 20th century  eclecticism (yes that is a real movement in architecture, but it does sound like a cop-out for someone who has trouble making decisions), mid century communism, and modern design elements. 

Bucharest. as in every city in eastern Europe, the main downtown of Bucharest is being renovated. this is a new bookstore inside of an old building. the entire inside has been redone. 

Bucharest.

Bucharest.  it is definitely an old city. there is charm, but there is also a lot of grey and brown and rust.

Bucharest.  charm.

Bucharest. the kids. there are numerous city parks in the city; though it rained on our day out, we made the best of it. the green in the midst of city was very impressive. 

Bucharest. wiring insanity.

Bucharest. this is an old fire tower outside the city. super cool building.

Bucharest. very tight stairwell for servants in a big palace.

Bucharest. lion statures make everything more official.

Cambridge. they go punting. a lot.

Cambridge. queens college.

London. st. pauls cathedral

London. almost all the girls (the 4th is on my back at this point).

London. on the millennium bridge

London.  Dina and Brian. a quiet but fun evening.

London.  Artemis really wanted this boy to play with her. eventually he went and hid in the corner of the room under a table.



London.  tired. also. the best way to move Artemis through the airport without a stroller or carrier. 



Not Stealing Photos

 so, i do not want to steal any of adam's photos; i hardly took any the entire time he was here. but picasa does this great thing where it assumes that you neither have the time nor the know-how to edit your pics. for me both of these assumptions are true. these are the only pics of adams that i will post, i will let him post the rest, and add my stories in his comments.

so, picasa will stitch your pictures together into a panoramic shot. this is from our brief visit to meteora.

 our volley ball circle at easter in silata. nice stop motion

and finally a picture frame ready set of artemis in all of her cute glory

thank you adam for such a wonderful visit, it was so wonderful to get to spend so much time together. hopefully we will get to hang out again someday.

eis to επανιδείν

An Artemis Post

hopefully a self explanatory title for the following set of pictures. all were taken within the last month (+/-).

MUN vs. Mountaineering

so, this weekend i am at the MUN conference all weekend, a tiring and at times tedious experience. but the kids do enjoy it and it is a great opportunity to do some meaningful networking with some like-minded people. this is s shot of the us consul speaking.

the highlight of the weekend was artemis' visit. where she climbed all-over-the-place. here in a cpu container in the computer lab, and made whole committees collectively awe. 

last weekend i went true mountaineering for the first time in my life. i liken this to ceder point only nature instead of technology, and trees and rocks instead of people. so hiking up is like waiting in line, good conversations, but really, lets face it, in the way of the action. then there is a relatively short period of real action, which could be really awesome, or just 'meh', with a mild possibility of true death. then there is the hike down which, like the rush hour after leaving the amusement park, is ultimately in the way of dinner and rest.  perhaps that is a bit harsh the mountain was a beautiful, and like ice-climbing, it is a fine excuse to get out in the winter, but it is good to know that rock climbing is still better.

Jaimie Hyneman pulls off glacier glasses better than i do. i also suck at selfies, perhaps it is the self, but . . . .

it is pretty up there, but the top was cloudy so . . . no pics.

Some Music To Keep Track Of

i am always looking, so thought you all might be looking too. *there is another new post below with photos to look at while you listen to music.

 hozier's take me to church is awesome, the rest of the album just adds to it. also the barn of the farm sessions youtube channel is sick.

 
 my current fixation. i don't like everything, but she is super talented and her voice is amazin.

 
 if you press for captions where available on vevo, he is translated. absoluting incredible. this one is just amazing.

 
 this one plays on my love of irish folk music as well.

 
 keith posted these guys earlier, i thought that i would just elaborate.
 

Random Blog with Random Stories and Pictures

so, for the most part i work off of my camera, but i have found that if i forget it, i always want a pic of something. i take the pics on my phone but they never make it off. i finally took the time to take care of this issue, and here is the result; a random set of shots, mostly artemis, from the time she was about 5 months old until just a couple of weeks ago.

precarious sitting, it is incredible that she is walking.

she always did make the weirdest faces.

a beautiful sunset in the village

at koki's supermarket, she has so much hair now.

this is us kicking it at a friend beach house, artemis had a good summer at the beach.

this is from the trip when mom was here. i think that this is the biggest one i have ever seen in the wild.

i got so bad at taking sleeping pics.

the blue chair.

the only way to move around a super market.

the best melomakarona of thessaloniki. as determined by eleftheria and i after and exhaustive study done in order to find leanna and adam's christmas gift.

perhaps we'll have a dancer when she finds a tutu that fits.

artemis rocking a very cool hat.

this is at the mall, artemis is practicing to be ready for a visit to uncle keith's and aunt sarah's house.

she is not speaking yet, but she is now indicating pretty well. so big, so cute.

a fun retrospective, hope to talk with everyone soon. peace love and happiness.