Update: 7/30/07

Mom and Dad came to visit for a long weekend. My brother Peter also drove up from Wilmington with his wife Katie and son Will so we could all hang out as a family.

Despite the overcast weather, we were doing all sorts of fun things inside and outside. This includes breaking out the old Sega Dreamcast I bought on Ebay two years ago... and me getting destroyed in Sega Marine Fishing. When did Peter get so good at video games?

When Peter asked to see the power washer, we took it out and blasted the grit and dirt out of the wheels on his car. This could be the new incentive for people to visit us. We will wash your car.

We also took this opportunity to soak my father when he came outside to ask what we were up to. This too, was captured in pixels. Man I love this camera!

From there our attention turned to the baby of the family, young Will. I am exceedingly partial to my nephew, I think he is the cutest baby in the world. He also has a fan in Oreo, our Boston Terrier. As my father pointed out in the picture below, this is the only time when the two of them will be of the same intelligence.

After Will taught Oreo to read, we took him outside to have some fun with the water hose (power washer disconnected, of course). Will held up the hose with all of his strength and then was surpised when the water made him cold.

By this time Peter was taking pictures with his Nikon D200 super camera and snapped some amazing pictures like the one below. I continue to be extremely impressed with his skill in the photography trade. Clicking on his photos will take you to his Flickr page.

All in all it was a productive weekend despite less than great weather. We stretched our legs, shared our minds and got some good rest. Plus it's always a treat to see my little buddy Will!

Today is the last day of our extended long weekend, and we had one more visit scheduled before my parents fly back to Connecticut. Amy Barber came by to visit with her three darling children: James, Sam and Molly.

Here is James after he plucked a fresh pepper out of my garden.

Its the first edible item to come out of my yard, and James seemed quiete happy with the specimen.

Update: 7/25/07

I'll steal a quote from Kurt Vonnegut whenever I can. This one comes from Cat's Cradle (1963) "Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God."

And so this dancing lesson comes to you from Baltimore, Maryland.

As a Connecticut native, returning to the Atlantic ocean always inspires feelings of home, particularly the salty smell. This week I had the opportunity to visit the eastern seaboard on the wings of business, and meet up with a group of vendors with whom I always enjoy spending time. After an all day summit we retired to Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The park was filled with excitement for Cal Ripken's inauguration into the Baseball Hall of Fame -- along with the scent of pulled pork and assorted barbeque. The latter was awesome.

So we celebrated with Cal and clapped to his career while balancing our hot dogs, peanuts and cracker jacks. The best part of the game was a certain beer salesman who had a gadget for tearing off the top of beer cans with an electronic blade attached to his hand. This guy was the Edward Scissorhands of beer pouring.

Naturally he stopped to pose for Artemenko.org:

And that's it. I'm home safe from a great trip with a new city under by belt. I won't lie. Every live baseball game I watch reminds me of my dad playing ball for Nothwestern in college. I guess this helps me associate baseball with the feeling of home, and that's never a bad thing.

Update: 7/22/07

Hi everyone, it's Laura. Greetings from the Artemenko homestead! Well, it’s been a while since my last post and a lot has changed. Most notably, I recently decided to resign from my job to take a break and possibly pursue other career avenues. I’m excited, but at the same time, I am sad to leave my co-workers and friends. My last day is Aug. 17th.

I only have a month to go, but we have a lot going on both at work and at home up until that time. The festivities actually began this weekend with a visit from some of my relatives from California. Debbie, my dad’s cousin, and her daughter, Michaela, were just wrapping up the ever-exciting college tour. Michaela is a rising senior this year, so she was checking out possible colleges to attend. After looking over all of the Ivys and a few other schools along the Eastern coast, the duo wrapped up their two-week jaunt at Davidson College right here in Charlotte. Andrew and I were lucky enough to spend the day with them and host them for the evening. It was a great time. Here is a picture of Debbie and Michaela being welcomed by the dogs.

The night before our visitors’ arrival, Andrew and I managed to go on a date at a local Italian restaurant. We have been trying to budget to prepare for my break, however, we thought we would treat ourselves for the evening. The food was great, as was the atmosphere. We wrapped up the meal with the restaurant’s homemade Tiramisu. It was great!

This weekend the weather has been perfect in Charlotte. Typically during the summer it’s too hot to step outside during daylight hours, but this weekend the temperature was in the 80s and just beautiful. Andrew and I spend this morning enjoying the “mild” climate, going on a walk and sprucing up the lawn. As we looked around, we noticed that our tomato and pepper plants are finally starting to produce something. Our garden has sort of been the laughing stock around the cul-de-sac, with neighbors giving us their leftover veggies, but it appears that in a few weeks, we will actually have something to show for our – I mean Andrew’s – efforts!

That’s all for now. Congrats to my sister Eileen on her new job, safe travels to my parents as they head down to Florida, and to everyone else, have a great week!

Here's a bonus picture of Oreo:

Update: 7/18/07

My brother B*ll found an excellent site this week called "Simpsonize Me." On the site www.simpsonizeme.com you can upload a photo of yourself and it will make a Simpsons character out of you. This is what I ended up with:

Not very flattering, but Laura had a good time laughing at it. At the end of the process you can customize the picture a little bit. Laura insisted on adding in the extra large chin!

Here is your incredibly inspiring Friday Video!

Update: 7/15/07

Avast Ye! Behold my pirate booty:

My brother Peter was kind enough to mail me his old DSLR camera. It's a Nikon D70, and so far I've had a lot of fun snapping photos around my house and backyard.

I'm still working on the basics. It feels a lot more like a scientific instrument than my older point and shoot camera -- a Canon Powershot SD300 (which I love).

You can track my progress by visiting my Flickr page, or just come back to Artemenko.org and look at the "Flickr Pics" section in the right pane, which pulls the last 4 pics I've uploaded to Flickr. Thanks to Veerle's Blog for the tutorial in setting that up.

And thanks to Pete for hooking me up with an expensive camera for free! I owe you one.

Update: 7/07/07

Flickr is in! After spending the weekend with my photographer/brother Peter, I realized that Flickr is definitely the way to go. I hereby lift the ban against Web 2.0 temporarily. This means I went against my better judgement and created yet another online profile.

My rationale for Flickr is to share the photos that I take that are somewhere between hack photography and non-blog worthy (i.e. not worth writing a whole post about a picture just so I can post it, which I do a lot).

Plus the storage is free! Why delete a photo when you can save it on Flickr?

Here's a link to my Flickr page. You can see my brother is already lightyears ahead of me, with a nicer camera to boot!

Update: 7/07/07

Happy 4th of July! Yesterday was full of good exercise and sunlight, starting just the way I prefer: beginning with coffee and ending with beer.

After getting up and chatting on the porch with coffee we walked counter-clockwise about 1 mile around the lake to see what the rest of the family was up to. We ended up having our group photo, despite a thunderstorm. Unfortunately I don't have that picture. We were all wearing matching blue shirts and that's all you need to know.

Pretty soon the weather cleared up and I decided to take a kayak around the lake. My arms could use more exercise than the occassional computer mouse gesture, it was refreshing.

During an afternoon at Elkhart Lake, people pretty much do what they want: keep to themselves or huddle around in mixed family groups to share recent life events. Here is my cousin Mark with our Grandfather Bill Younger:

Here's my mom messing around with a closet full of stuff:

And here's Laura with a funny hat:

Is this going nowhere or what? It's vacation, I'm allowed to digress. By sunset we were off to O'Malley's pizza for dinner. Some people decided to keep their blue shirts on from the family photo. Others did not.

After dinner we all hung out at the cottage and watched a slideshow of old pictures from growing up. It was fun to have everyone in the same room laughing at all the embarassing pictures of my youth. None of them will be posted here.

I think it's worth noting that my wife Laura has really become a part of our family. Can you find her in the picture above? Let's zoom in and see if we can see where she is.

Per usual, she's right in the middle of things! That's about all we have going on out here. Tonight we fly home to our two fur-covered children Oreo and Holly. Hopefully they haven't chewed/dug any holes in the carpet or furniture.

See you all back at the ranch!

Update: 7/02/07

Now we're in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin.

The day of travelling after the wedding was brutal, but it's already a distant memory -- time to take in some cool midwestern air!

We're staying at the Osthoff Resort, (that's where the elk head is from) while the rest of the family is staying at our cottage across the lake. The Osthoff is a relatively new construction on the lake, and a very cozy place to stay for a few nights. Here's a view from the balcony of our suite:

The last time we were at the lake was the beginning of April 2006, and it was just me Laura and Oreo. Now the whole gang is here: my parents, grandparents, uncle and everyone's spouses.

Dad couldn't wait to find the nearest airport and start flying around. I've made it clear I don't go up in 4 seat planes, but several family members were more than happy to jump in and start buzzing around the hotel.

There they go!

Here's a pic I snapped tonight with my brother's camera before the sun went down in front of the family cottage on the other side of the lake. The camera a D200 made by Nikon.

Oh, and since everyone in my family has switched over to Macs, they all have this hilarious program called Photobooth, have you heard of it? It works with the built-in camera on the laptop and manipulates your face as you stare at it. Of course, we had to convince my dad to come over so we could warp his face:

Trust me, it's a lot funnier watching people get distorted in real time. That's all for now, we have the infamous group photo tomorrow at 11am, I'll be sure to share.