BMK-Journal

The Peanut

2008-11-12T09:31:00.001-05:00

Topsfield Fair

2008-10-05T19:05:00.004-05:00

Ah, Fall the best time of the year, especially in NE. Beautiful weather, not to hot or cold, trees are beautiful with color, apples, pumpkins and lots of Fairs! The Topsfield Fair is one of the biggest agricultural fairs. Crafts, Flowers, Giant pumpkins, cows, pigs, birds, farm animals, bunnies Oh MY!

And fair food, upon fair food...Kettle corn, strawberry shortcake, funnel cake, chocolate dipped bananas, Turkey legs, fries, Carmel apples...you name it it's there for you to feast on. Oh and then there are rides for you to get sick on and games for you to win crappy prizes at.

Alev had the smart idea of going for breakfast before we went to the fair though, so I didn't gorge myself on fried food thankfully. Weight Watchers would be proud.

We had another weather day and enjoyed looking at all the exhibits. Petting the bunnies was my favorite part of the day though!

Apple Picking

2008-09-21T18:37:00.002-05:00

Hurray Apple Picking!

I love apple picking, we usually go to NH, but since mom is down in VA, thought we would try someplace new this year. Cider Hill Farm, big, beautiful, lots of yummy treats in the barn, but totally popular and BUSY! But, Baha, Alev, Sujen and I still had a great time.

Weather was beautiful and the apples were dripping of the tree. I usually only get Mac & Cortland, but this year I got adventures with the new place and all and got all kinds of apples. I would pick one, sample and put some in my bag if I liked it. I don't even know names of all the different apples I picked this year.

We also got some yummy apple cider, apple cider donuts, and a pumpkin. I could have spent alot more time in the barn looking at all the goodies, but it was very crowded.

Now to make apple pie, apple crisp, apple sauce.....

Camp for Dad's Birthday

2008-08-17T22:27:00.003-05:00

Baha, Erica, The Boys and I are all going to be at Camp this year to help celebrate dad's birthday Aug 16th. I think this is the first year or at least the first year in a very long time that we are all together to celebrate dad's birthday. I left work at 3pm with a goal to be on the road by 4pm so we are at Camp for 9pm. Mother Nature was against this plan for some reason.
This was one of the worst trips home and definitely the longest. The distance that normally takes us 45mins, took 2 hours! It wasn't just the rain, which from above you can see makes seeing difficult and it gets worse when it is dark out. But there appeared to have been 2-3 accidents as well. Making for VERY slow going.

Mother Nature did provide entertainment though. As you can see from these photos once the rain stopped at one point the sky gave us some spectacular views.

So we finally made it to camp at 11pm, 2 hours late! We actually encountered dad on the road to camp, he was headed down to the house to see if we had left any messages. Being 2 hours late they were concerned about our were abouts. We did call around 6pm and left message on cellphones and answering machines, but I also knew they wouldn't get the messages as there is no service at camp and camp has no phone. But at least there was evidence we tried!

Everyone waited up for us though, and it was a beautiful night by the camp fire. We chatted till 1pm before hitting the hay.

Above is Dad and Uncle Larry's new addition to camp. The screen porch. It's great to sit out side in and eat, especially when the buggies are out too! Below is mom and dad's garden at camp. Lots of yummy tomatoes and cherry tomatoes which we got to sample. And the vine in front will soon have pumpkins on it!

Fishing! I really do enjoy fishing. Don't get to do it much, it's a rare treat.

Baha and I were excellent in feeding the fish! ;) We got lots of bits on our line, but we were just not good at hooking them and reeling them in! Buggers!

Austin caught the biggest fish of the day.

While Alan caught the most.

And Dad caught the biggest animal! A snapping turtle. He caught and reeled this bad boy all the way onto shore with a plastic, scooby-do kids fishing pole! Just goes to show, it's not always the equipment that makes the fisherman, but the skill!

Austin and Alan get rides on the cable car across the West Canada. This is a heavily used little contraption in hunting season. And for times like this when the river is high, it's the only way across.

Darn cute group photo! Erica and I sure are sisters (same smile, eyes, shape face).

Aaahhh!

There's a rainbow, look again...See it?

Happy Birthday Dad and Uncle Larry. Yes, they are twins!

Austin and Alan Potter, man they are growing up fast! And cute as buttons if I do say so myself. But they sure do keep you busy.

Dad and his two daughters.

It was just the most amazing night. The moon was full and it was clear and crisp.

I sure do love going to camp. Wish we could visit more. Peaceful, beautiful, excellent air quality, and our camp happens to be the ritz of camps, so not too shabby.

Reynolds Reunion 2008

2008-08-10T10:43:00.004-05:00

Photographed by Melissa Kavlakli
Daughter of Darlene (Reynolds) LaRose: Eldest Daughter of Francis Reynolds

If you would like a copy of the photos please send your address & $5 for cost of CD and postage to:
Melissa Kavlakli
11 Jefferson St #2
Cambridge, MA 02141

Hope you enjoy the photos!

Fun Filled Weekend of PYO!

2008-08-03T20:14:00.004-05:00

PYO (Pick your own) and that's exactly what we did, picked our own cherry tomatoes, beans (green & yellow), Blueberries and Raspberries!

We took our second trip out to Red Fire Farm this weekend and picked our own cherry tomatoes and beans. We were also going to pick flowers, but I forgot the scissors AND it started to lightning. We picked the tomatoes and beans in the rain, but when the first lightning flashed I made sure we got back to the car. I was hoping the rain would hold of till 3pm, but no such luck, but we didn't let it ruin our fun. We still got some picking in and we stocked up on organic veggies from the farm. No photos, I had the camera, but with the rain I didn't bring it out.

Sunday we went to Connors Farm in Danvers MA to pick blueberries and raspberries, pretty place

Blueberry picking is alot harder than you think. Especially if it's early in the season and not a TON of berries are ripe. You have to pick ripe ones, one at a time instead of grabbing handfuls at a time. It was getting hot and between the 2 of us we had only filled 1 quart, so we decided to give up and buy the rest from the farm stand. Cheating I know. We went over to the raspberry bushes and it is later in the season for them so they were pretty picked over and there were TONS of bees buzzing around so we ate what we found and bought some from the farm stand to take home.

I made blueberry scones when we got home....YUMMMY!

Nantasket Beach

2008-07-27T19:58:00.000-05:00

Saturday we went to Nantasket Beach with Nik, Anna & Sofia. We had never been to this beach before so didn't know what to expect, but we were pleasantly surprised! Nantasket Beach is awesome! It's only 45mins from the city, has lots of sand instead of rocks and it's a really lonnnggg beach so nice for walks and so people can spread out. It has the low tide feature so you can walk way in before it gets to deep and has good waves.

Baha and Sofia show off their bathing suits.

We had a fun time playing in the sand and waves with Sofia, Nik & Anna. Can't wait to go again!

Alexandria VA/ 4th of July in Washington DC

2008-07-07T17:13:00.002-05:00

Baha and I jumped a quick flight (seriously you barely get your drink and you are landing) to Baltimore MD where mom picked us up and took us to her new place in Alexandria VA. Alexandria is a very nice city. Every house is made of brick, lots of trees and HUGE condo communities.

There is a very nice section of town called Old Alexandria with lots of shops and restaurants off of King St. like Boston's Newbury St. We had a very nice dinner down by the harbor in Old Alexandria with mom & David one night, but we didn't really get much chance to do any exploring so it's on the list for next visit.

Staying at moms in Alexandria VA is very convenient to do alot of sight seeing in the DC area. DC is literally across the Potomac from Alexandria with the Pentagon in the middle. Our first full day in the area we went to Arlington Cemetery. It was only a short 10min drive from moms office.

JFK RIP

With respect and gratitude

The Metro is Awesome! You can actually plan trips based on the train schedule cause they keep one. They even have LCD screen in the stations to tell you the status of the trains arriving. The trains themselves are carpeted and no eating or drinking allowed. So it's CLEAN and QUIET. All the stations look like below, dome shaped with mood lighting.

Tuesday our first full day in DC, only a 20min Metro ride from King St station. Baha has never been to DC and the last time I was there was 8th grade so it was nice to revisit all the monuments.

The FDR Memorial was my favorite. I had never seen it before it is so relaxing with lots of water falls and quiet spots to sit and reflect. There are several amazing quotes from FDR on walls of stone, bummer more of folks up the road down come down and read them more often.

Jefferson Memorial...last memorial on the trek for the day, it's been 9 hours since we started, we are exhausted and ready to head back to VA.

Back to DC, this time to visit some of the MANY amazing museums, of course all the Smithsonian Museums, but there are many others too. One of the other museums we visited was the Spy Museum, totally cool!

Several of the museums aren't just square buildings with lots of cool stuff inside but, the buildings themselves are cool:

Hirshhorn Contemporary Art Museum

National Museum of the American Indian outside

National Museum of the American Indian inside

It took 3 trips to DC to see 5 museums, but we still didn't even make a dent in the list of museums in the area. There are still several I would like to see when I go back.

National Air & Space Museum

National Museum of Natural History

The last full day in the area was the 4th of July, what better place to celebrate the nations birthday other than it's capital (but I have to admit, I have seen better fireworks over the Charles Rive in Beantown!).

Thank mom for letting us come and invade your new place for a week! We enjoyed visiting with you, thanks for the yummy home cooked meals and Crepes for the Crepe King and the auction was a fun experience. Looking forward to my next visit!

Mel's 34th Birthday

2008-06-27T15:03:00.003-05:00

Another year gone and so another year older, but most folks say I don't look my age so I take comfort in that. I also have a Great Grandma celebrating her 93 B-day this year, so Good Genes Babe!
I had an Excellent Birthday! We did exactly what I wanted to do and the weather was Beautiful! Perfect first day of summer.

Baha and I purchased a CSA (community supported agriculture) meaning we bought a share in a local farm, ours is Red Fire Farm and every Friday from June - October they deliver our share of the produce to MIT for me to collect. As part of the CSA we also can go to the farm and pick in season items for free up to a certain amount.

Peas and Strawberries (MY FAVORITE) were in season so we rented a car and drove out to Granby MA to pick.

Red Fire Farm is a cute little farm and we really enjoyed picking 6 pints of snow and snap peas and 8 quarts of strawberries.

Shelling peas.Can't resist taste testing the treats! Eating as much as you can while picking is part of the fun!

Goats! Very friendly and very interested in the fruits of our labor. Ok Mr. Goat just a couple peas.
Then home again, home again jiggidy gig. It is any hour and half to the farm, but I think it's worth the drive at least a couple times during our share time so we make the most of our investment. It's nice to take a road trip now and then, especially since we don't own a car.

After a nice refreshing shower, Baha took me out to dinner for Italian food (My Favorite) and were else do you go for excellent Italian food other than, The North End.Thanks for another awesome Birthday Babe!

Red Sox vs Mariners

2008-06-08T17:37:00.005-05:00

The Doubleheader Exhibition Game Brazil vs Venezuela - Score:0-2

2008-06-06T23:59:00.000-05:00

The New England Revolution-FC Dallas Game Score: 2-1

2008-06-06T23:55:00.005-05:00

LaRose Brothers Graduate from College!

2008-05-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

On Sat May 17th 2008:
Greg & Andrew LaRose
Graduated from Lakes Region Community College
With Associate Degrees in Fire Science!

Here are some photos from the event and proud family.

Cheers Boys! Best wishes for the future!
We know you can do anything you put your minds to!

Baha's B-day

2008-05-01T23:32:00.003-05:00

Baha's 33rd B-day!
Another year older, another year wiser.

First we went to dinner at Helmand, an Afghan rest in East Cambridge. VERY Yummy! I had heard good things about them especially for vegetarians and man were folks right, good stuff.
So we stuffed ourselves there with a nice bottle of red wine from Australia and then went home for desert, of course from Athens.

Baha has received many birthday wishes via phone calls, emails and cards and all are greatly appreciated.

Best Wishes to Mom Dukes!

2008-04-21T14:48:00.014-05:00

Turning lemons into lemonade, mom after loosing her job of almost 16 years the week before x-mas, found a job in Alexandria VA! Only 3 months after loosing her job, mom found a new one in a better climate, in a very nice area just outside of DC, making more money. You Go Girl!Sometimes things happen for a reason, mom hadn't really been happy at her previous job for a long time, so this unexpected loosing of the job was just the push mom needed to get out there and start new. A new job, in a new town, in a new state, with a new car and new apt!

So the boys and I through mom a best wishes party.

Not a good-bye party because we are still going to see her!

Just 2 weeks on the new job and they already love her! She feel right into step, but of course!
And she found her new apt. Just down the street from her friend David, who was awesome enough to tell mom about this job opening and letter her stay with him till she got her own place, and only 10 mins to her office. No more long traffic filled commutes on 93. And in VA there will be no more scary winter weather drives or shoveling tons of snow, as well as better health weather.

Fortunately Alexandria is only and 8hr drive from Boston. Which is a ways, but doable. She will be missed, but now we have a new place to visit! And she is only minutes away from DC so there is lots to do.I think we all has a good time and mom is doing great!

Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat

2008-03-30T22:56:00.001-05:00

Final Score 88-62

Panoromic view of the TD Banknorth Garden - Boston's Premier Sports and Entertainment Arena

Kevin Garnett scored twice before Miami made a basket, and the Boston Celtics held the Heat to an NBA-record low 17 field goals, coasting to an 88-62 victory. Here are some highlights from the game.

The Celtics' top-ranked defense had its best game of the season, holding the Heat to 28.8 percent shooting (17 for 59). The visitors missed 17 of 21 3-point attempts and tallied 4 second-chance points. No Miami player scored more than 14 points or made more than four field goals.

Baha

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T00:10:00.000-05:00

Seasons' Greetings to all living things. We wish you the best in the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
and

Peace on Earth! ;)

BMK

Halloween 2007

2007-10-29T17:45:00.000-05:00

So Halloween is on a Weds this year, lame. So most festivities happened over the weekend. I still hope the little kiddies will come and take all this candy I bought. Lord knows Baha and I don't need it.

I went to Jim's Department Pumpkin carving party on Friday. It was fun. Didn't win any prizes this year, but free food and free beer! Not to mention hanging out with Jim, we always have a good laugh.

Sat night Baha and I went to Nik and Ana's to eat, and hang out. Watched the game, Go Sox!

And on Sunday Tonia came over and carved our pumpkin. She did an awesome job! As you can tell from the above photo, hers is much more creative. Tonia's is on the right.

And then to top of the weekend the Red Sox won the 2007 World Series! Hurray Sox!

Apple Picking & Boys first Apt!

2007-10-02T20:25:00.000-05:00

Mom and I took Baha and Tonia this year on our annual apple picking adventure. We always go to Pats Peak in Henniker, NH. Small little farm on the top of Pats Peak Mountain with a great view of the lake below. The weather and apples were beautiful. Now time to make yummy apple treats!

After apple picking Baha and I went to my brother's first apartment. It's a cute little place in the middle of the woods in Belmont NH. They have the left side of a duplex, with a little yard and everything. They are much closer to school, so that helps when you work construction all day and then take classes at night, the soon you can get home to relax the better. And they are very close to a major shopping area, the Tilton outlets. I didn't take photos of their place like a dope, but I did take a couple nice photos of the railroad tracks near their place.

2007 Family Reunion

2007-09-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

So as custom in most families, once a year the family tries to get as many family members as possible to come to a cook out. We always have ours in a park in Schenecady NY because it is close to grammy. We had good food, of the American cookout variety, nice chats to catch up and of course the usual family photos. It was windy and a bit cool, so next year we are going to shoot for earlier in the season.

Grammy with the Boys

Grammy with the Girls

Grammy with her surviving daughters

Grammy and her first granddaughter

Andrew and his new girlfriend Clair

Grammy with her niece Melanie

Me and my bros, aren't we cool

My boys, aren't they cute

Family future superstars

Look at these cheeks! So yummy!

Allen Family

Jackson Family

LaRose/Kavlakli Family

Jones Family

Till next year!

Day at Lake Winnipasaki NH

2007-09-06T18:53:00.000-05:00

My aunt Patricia and her husband and granddaughter came to visit my mom over Labor Day weekend. Her son Ren has been staying with my mom and he was happy to see them.So Baha and I drove up and Greg, Andy, Tonia, Ren, Aunt Patricia, Uncle Will and Shalea drove up to Lake Winnipasaki for a picnic and swim.
It was a bit windy and cool in the shade, but we did go for a dip! The water was warmer than the air. So it was get in the water and not have anything but your head out till you got out and got dressed. But despite the wind, Baha was eventually, after a whole bag of charcol and a bottle of lighter fluid, able to get a fire going for us to cook.

Tonia was being her photogenic self.

But my cousin, Ren's niece stole the show. She is so beautiful and already she is a little miss thing.

Canobie Lake Fun!

2007-08-06T18:30:00.000-05:00

So on Sat we took Tonia, my new little sister, to Canobie Lake Amusement Park. Andy, Greg and Baha came too and we all had alot of fun!

The weather was awesome and we hit the water park first, then on to the rides! Tonia road her first roller coaster, actually I think most of the rides were her first.

She was a real trooper and road everything! Even the Turkish Twist, which of course our own personal Turk had to ride.

She's still young so she can still handle all the rides. Me on the other hand have been to and ridden more amusement parks and rides this summer than I have in my whole life!

It's cool though, it's fun to get out into the nice weather and enjoy summer, do real summer activities before it's colder than a witches tit again! You sometimes surprise yourself and get a few good, non-snap shot, photos out of the day too. I thought these were pretty cool.

Of course we can't forget Baha's grand prize! I have to say, with little effort, he was able to win a giant Homer! Baha love Homer.

So with a Ferris Wheel ride to end the night, we headed home. I don't think we were on the highway before Tonia was asleep. Glad she had fun.

Roller Coaster Pilgrimage: Day 3 & 4

2007-07-29T20:36:00.000-05:00

Day 3: King's Island (just north of Cincinnati, OH)
After sleeping late and getting some much needed rest, we headed for brunch at the Waffle House. MMmmmmm...excellent diner food. The Chocolate Chip Waffles melted in my mouth and the "real" hash browns as they call them, guess they are fake everywhere else, were yummy!

Before jumping on any fancy roller coasters on a full stomach we decided to catch us a game of miniature golf! We had seen the place on our way in the night before and I think we all thought, haven't done that in a long time.

Back to the hotel for a nap and wait out the afternoon heat. 5pm we enter the park and for almost half the price! It's a big park, with several section all different in theme. We headed for the Nickelodeon section first. Scooby-Doo & The Haunted Castle ended up being a BIG waste of time, totally not scary and our laser guns didn't work well. Next the Fairly Odd Coaster, short, but a good way to get us introduced to coasters for the day. Stepping it up a notch we head for the Rugrats Runaway Reptar, your feet dangle from your seat as you whip around corners and hills; I liked this coaster, could have road it again, but unlike Fun Spot, lines are long and you have decide what you want to spend time on. So not wasting anymore time we head straight for The Beast. We are ready. It was awesome. Can't really describe it; it's fast, you go up giant hills to come racing down and make sharp turns and dash through dark tunnels. It's very cool. And I can only imagine how much more exciting it was for Baha and Jim when they went again at night and you can't see a thing!

So mission accomplished we jumped on a few familiar rides: swings, bumper cars (totally lame), scrambler & the monster (their name for the spider). Turns out I can't do loop coasters or spinning rides anymore, I am not feeling so good on the spider and after we get off I am only able to do one more coaster ride, The Racer.

This image of Jim on the Spider, really does express his and my feeling about this ride:

A trip to the top of their replica of the Eiffel Tower and we are done.

Day 4: Long as drive Cincinnati, OH to Boston, MA
Yup, it was a long as ride. 15hrs to be exact. Baha did the first tour of duty and then Jim and then me to pick up the last leg. Baha got the best of it, daylight and sun, Jim got daylight for most, but a TON of rain, I got all darkness and some crazy ass fog through the Berkshires, but we made it safe and sound, with some new stories to tell.

Roller Coaster Pilgrimage: Day 2

2007-07-29T20:01:00.002-05:00

Day 2: Buffalo, NY to Angola, Indiana
After a nice breakfast at Ambrosia's in Buffalo with Ethan, Jen and Phin we got some new ice for the cooler and hit the road. Baha took first shift taking us all the way to Fun Spot. Along the way we passed through Erie, PA, Cleveland, OH and Toleda, OH. I had never seen one of the Great Lakes before and we got to glimpse Lake Erie on your journey, Man what an amazing site! It's huge! If I didn't know it was a lake, I would think I was looking at the ocean.
Now Fun Spot is a tiny little park, but I imagine the most fun thing to do in that area of Indiana. And for our short visit, it was fun. I particularly enjoyed the Zoo, where they have a whole collection of Big Cats! Beautiful animals, that unfortunately, they took in or rescued from bad situations. Lions, Tiger (no bears), cougars, black leopards and a little deer family (poor deer, seemed like they were more like lunch with all the big cats surrounding them). First ride we went for was the reason we came all the way to Indiana in the first place!
The Afterburner:

As it turns out, we each only rode it once! Come to find out we aren't as young as we thought and can no longer handle loop coasters. As they say, sometimes you find out things the hard way, but at least we had fun doing it. A few turns on some other rides and back on the road.

Back on the road, Jim at the wheel we headed for Cincinnati, OH.
It was beautiful landscape, though seemingly endless.

Tired and not sure of a better option we settled on Motel 8, right down the road from King's Island. The hotel itself was fine, it was just a little bit pricer than we planned, but you can't beat the convenience.

Roller Coaster Pilgrimage: Day 1

2007-07-29T18:55:00.000-05:00

Jim Long, our partner in crime on this road trip, has already most fabulously described our journey in great detail (see A Tale of Two Coasters, Road Trip, & A Tale of Two Coasters Day One through Four), so I am going to give the crib note version.

This journey all began out of a semi-drunken conversation Baha, Jim and I had at by b-day celebration. I can't exactly recall how the conversation began but, I remember at the end we had this great road trip conceived. We would drive from Boston to Indiana to ride the Loop, via Buffalo with a side trip to Canada's Niagara Falls and then from Indiana to Cincinnati, OH to King's Island to ride The Beast! The Loops (really, Fun Spot's Afterburner) significance is that it is 1 of 4 left in the world of this particular type of coaster and most importantly is used to be at Riverside (now 6 Flags) where our friend Jim has many a memory. And we all know the value of nostalgia. As for The Beast, well that just happens to be the oldest wooden coaster in the World and I also think the longest at 4mins (possible +) long. Now doesn't that sound like a roller coaster pilgrimage worth taking!

Day 1: Friday July 19th Boston, MA to Buffalo, NY (with side trip to Canada)
With a cooler full of drinks and lots of treats for the road we were off. I took the first shift Boston to Syracuse, not to be a hero, there would be plenty of driving to go around, it was daylight and I could drive this part of the trip with my eyes closed, do to many trips to upstate NY to visit family, particularly my dad. Baha did Syracuse to Buffalo.

We arrived at Ethan, Jen and Phin's house at 4:30pm. Ethan is a very good friend of Jim's and he was gracious enough to let us crash at their beautiful, huge, awesome Victorian house for the night. Hurray, one less night in a hotel! And very good company with homeade beer and friendly cats. While they went to a family dinner; Jim, Baha and I went a mile drown the road and crossed the boarder into Canada via Peace Bridge. Few minutes later and we were at Niagara Falls. Jim and I have seen them, but they are beautiful and we wanted Baha to see them. Being that close how can you not!?!

As you can see we had beautiful weather that day and in fact every day of our trip. Perfect Simpson clouds galore.

4th of July 2007

2007-07-05T19:06:00.000-05:00

Another summer, another 4th of July! This 4th of July we sort of carried on a tradition. For the last few years, my brothers & Jim have joined Baha and I for the fireworks. This year the bros came down earlier with mom and Tonia (our new family addition) and we had 4th of July grub. The usual fair, hot dogs, hamburgers, potatoe salad, macaroni salad, chips, beers..and Andy delighted our taste buds with a fruit salsa with homeade tortilla chips....mmmm yummy!

Jim Almost bailed on us, but fortunately he changed his mind, missed the food, but made it for the fireworks. It wasn't the best weather for the fireworks, but it could have been worse.

Yes is was rainy and windy, but not pouring. We all had umbrellas and the fireworks still looked awesome!

This was Tonia's first year at the Boston Fireworks, best in the country! She was chilly, but new big bro Greg was a gentleman and shared his sweatshirt. Aaahhh.

Rain or shine, Baha has his tripod and is ready for some firework action! His is the umbrella in all my firework photos.

Southwick Zoo

2007-06-25T17:28:00.000-05:00

Sunday we went to Southwick Zoo with Nik, Ana and Sofia. It was a beautiful day to go to the zoo. Never heard of the Southwick Zoo before that day, but it's a pretty cool zoo. Lots of cool animals, rides for the kiddies and yummy fried food.

Sofia was a little scared at first, but she touched a giant Aldabra turtle! Sand in her shoes had some getting used to, but she had a great time. She was out like a lite when we got back in the car.

Mel's Birthday

2007-06-24T17:13:00.000-05:00

So another year and another year older. 33 to be exact. So far so good. They say the 40's are the new 30's so the 30's have to be the new 20's! right, just agree with me! ;)

Had an excellent birthday. Mother nature gave me a beautiful day, my family and friends remembered to send me best wishes and I got to eat cake! 2 to be exact. 1 was chocolate espresso and the other strawberry mouse. Both were yummy.

My bros, Molly and Jim came over the help Baha and I celebrate. We had fancy pizza and drank 3 bottles of wine and a bottle of champagne! Good times!

The birthday festivities lasted through the weekend! Friday I treated myself to a day off from work, Sat I went strawberry picking in the am and to a club downtown, Rumor at night. We had an excellent time at the club, I partied like a 26 yr old instead of a 33 year old and felt like it the next day, but it was worth it!

Kirsten & Graham's Wedding York, PA

2007-06-03T17:01:00.000-05:00

Kirsten Baumgartner & Graham Stetler, became Mr. & Mrs Stetler on Sat June 2nd 2007.Baha and I drove to York, PA to share in their special day.

This is a 7 hours drive with no traffic. Baha was awesome and did most of the driving. In fact he drove all the way down and most of the way back.

We rented a Mazda 3 from Zipcar for this road trip, thinking they pay for the gad and there is no mileage limit. At $72 a day for the car and gas prices they way they are, we thought excellent idea! Things that sounds to good to be true usually are, come to find out, there is a mileage limit, 125 miles a day and we went over the limit by more than 700 miles! Zipcar said ChaChing! WE said !@#@$%##$%$#%@#!@#! You know what they say, live and learn, this one was an expense lesson to learn. Sigh, now we know.

But other than that, the road trip and wedding were fun!Actually the wedding was beautiful. It took place in Graham's family home in York, in the back yard and the weather took pitty on them and didn't rain! I imagine Graham swinging on this swing as a little boy in this back yard and now he is getting married in it.

Eric and Gail also made the trip down to the wedding from NH.Here are some photos from the wedding. The ceremony wasn't too long or religious, though it was very steamy out and we were all swimming in our own sweat. The food was excellent, music good, people nice, cake awesome and their was an open bar, what else needs to be said.

Ah Yes, Kirsten was Beautiful!

I love that Graham's dad wore sandals with his suit. Why not, his son's wedding, his house, he can do what he wants!

Kirsten's mom and close family friend.

Now on the trip home, being daylight, I decided to take some photos from the car. This is some of the things you will see between New Cumberland, PA and Boston, MA:
Farms, what a surprise, scary old, empty, Bates type motels.

And towers, lots of them and all kinds.

These must be a couple of the cars from the car show that was in York, PA also that weekend and why Kirsten had to arrange for hotels for wedding guest in New Cumberland instead of York, because the hotels were already books for the car show. Worked out for the guest though, because they provided a charter bus for the guest to and from the wedding because they were far way, with and open bar this is very good. I know Baha was piss drunk! ;)

Cape Cod 05/07

2007-05-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

For Memorial Day this year Baha and I went to Cape Cod, Falmouth. The last time we were on the Cape was before we got married. Mom hooked us up with a place to stay through her time share, not a bad little place, right on the harbor and short drive to the beach where we could use other connected hotel facilities that were located right on the beach.

Falmouth is a cute town, Friday night, after 3 hours on the road to go 75 miles, we had an excellent dinner at Fire Fly's.

Sat we spent the day at the beach, covering ourselves with sunscreen everywhere but our legs and feet, DOH! Man did we paid for it! We collected sea shells, a ton! Baha got a little obsessed, you know him, all or nothing. We brought home a cooler full of shells, all shapes, sizes and colors. He did have the great idea to make wind chimes, that should be fun.

We played some frizbee and discovered we are equally as bad, but that made it fun. Then cooled off in the heated outside pool! The beach was just for walking on, the water is WAY to cold! Sat nights dinner left alot to be desired. But the homemade icecream we had for dessert made up for it.

Sunday because we were both suffering from 2nd degree burns on our legs and feet we had to stay out of the sun so we went for a ride to Woods Hole for lunch and around the coast.

Sun. nights dinner was amazing! The RooBar in Falmouth is excellent, we highly recommend it! 2 bottles of wine and 2 fillets later we went back to the hotel.

Monday we packed up, checked out and headed to Besty's Dinner for brunch. Nothing like dinner food to help a hangover!
We had an excellent time at the cape, it was nice to do something summery. It's been a long time since we went to the beach and it was worth the wait.

Kisten's Party

2007-05-06T16:17:00.000-05:00

Ding Dong Wedding Bells are Ringing!
Kirsten looks so pretty in her Tiara!

Kirsten and Graham's wedding is quickly approaching, Sat. June 2nd! So the girls got together to take Kirsten out for a night on the town.

5pm drinks at the bar at Ivy, table for dinner at Ivy 6pm, tickets to the show Respect (A Musical Journey of Women) for 8pm and then night caps at Rustic Kitchen.

Lynn, the Maid of Honor, did a great job arranging the night!

Amber came up from NYC to join us in celebrating this most excellent of ladies.

I am looking forward to the wedding so all of us can hang out again!

Talkin' Art

2007-05-03T22:00:00.000-05:00

Jim, MaryPat, Dragan, Baha and I got together Thurs night to talk art!

MaryPat has a show coming up soon, Jim is thinking about his photography style, Dragan is thinking about marketing and Baha and I are working on your website to draw in work.

Lots to talk about! We started at 5:30pm and cut ourselves off at 9pm as it was getting late. We all agreed we need to do this again more regularly and the next stop is Dragan's house within the next couple of weeks so we can review MaryPat's final images for the show and Baha and I (mostly Baha) have completely redesigned our website.

Baha will say it was an ambush for him regarding the critique on our website, and maybe it was a little as Jim and I had talked about it a few days before, but it was necessary and has resulted in an excellent redesign by Baha of our website.

It's hard to work in a bubble, you need to get feedback from folks who aren't so close to all the hard work. But we are growing and it's good to be flexible and be open to improving yourself always. It was a good exercise to go through again, ah the good ol' days when you got ripped apart daily. Aw, it wasn't that bad, couple bruises, but they are healing nicely. ;)

Thanks guys for your input! looking forward to the next crit!

Baha's Birthday!

2007-05-01T22:23:00.000-05:00

I started my day really slow; checked my e-mails, wrote some e-mails, made some phone calls, and received some gifts, calls and cards (much thanks to everyone!). Then by 12:00 pm I was out to deliver CDs and DVDs to Boston Public Library, then to the Chief to return his digital camera and spend sometime with him. After that I came back home, waited my brother to come and hang out with me. We played Fifa'07 on PlayStation till my sister called, told us to meet her in Chinatown. When we picked her up we decided to have lunch at the Garden of Eden in the Southend. I had a very nice burger and waited my salad to show but it was no where to be found... After awhile, I canceled it. I think there was a mix-up, because even though I canceled the order, it still showed up on our table very late. We finished our meal dude! Anyways no big deal, it happens...

When we were ready to leave my brother-in-law Ali came to meet with us, we decided to go to another place called Flour Bakery in Southend and had desert. I had a excellent time, hanging out with my family. This doesn't happen very often because of our schedules, but I cherish each time we do get to see each other.

After our tummies were really full my bro had to go back to work and my sister dropped me off at my grib. Came home and my beautiful wife was working on my b-day cake, as you can see it (the cake) in the pictures. All day long my hair was bothering me so I decided to leave her alone and get a hair cut. By the time I came back and took a shower, everything was ready to roll.

Just my gorgeous wife, my awesome kitties, and my excellent b-day cake, it could not be better. What more can a man ask?

Thanks babe! Everything is excellent! What would I do with out you? :) (we are only showing rated PG version of our kiss)

Time goes by really quickly, I can't believe I am 32 freakin' years old. I was just a young teenager when I first came to the US. 4 more years and I have spent half of my life in the United States. Can you believe that?

Anyways, after the cake around 9:30pm my bro showed up and we got ready for our real soccer match in Revere. The game starts at 11:00pm and we play till 12:30am. Usually I start as goalie and make my way to defence ;P Hey! I am not that good at playing soccer any more. I used to play every day back in the old country and I was pretty good at it. After I came to US, I never touched a soccer ball till my brother came to the US.

I must admit it is good to play again. My condition already approved but my feet coordination needs more improving. I even score goals every once in a while.

Unfortunately my brother decided to go back home for good in June so after he leaves I am not sure if I would keep my appearances at the game.

So, not bad for a birthday schedule ha? I could not imagine a better day then this. Simple pimple! Just the way I like it.

baha

John Adams Exhibition Photo Shoot

2007-05-01T08:34:00.000-05:00

Another successful project at Boston Public Library completed. My job was to go in and shoot top and front views of 21 cases of the John Adams Exhibition.

There were 7 different categories; clients, country, fame, fellowmen, fortune, god, and power. Each category has 3 different topics. The exhibition was pretty impressive, Beth did an outstanding job putting the exhibition together. Even though the 29th was the last day of the exhibition, people were still coming to see it. Before they took down the exhibit Beth wanted reference photos of these important cases.

When I went in the exhibit room people were still looking at this amazing part of history. So I had to work around the people. Beth was giving a private tour so I started to work on my first case. Then she came by and looked at my photos and decided to open each case covers to eliminate glare. It made a huge difference. She kicked out everybody in the room and helped me photograph the top view of each case. She opens the case and I shoot. It went pretty smoothly but I was blown away with the history behind each piece.

These types of jobs gives me great pleasure because I feel like I become part of the history. After the shoot I had to organize, rename each file, run some actions, and burn both CDs and DVDs. It took me awhile to do the post process by the time I left BPL it was 7:00 pm, Beth had already left and the offices were closed so I could not deliver the product. Today is my b-day so I am kinda taking it easy but I will deliver them by noon time. ;)

baha

Photography Cont' Ed

2007-04-29T12:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I attended a lecture at Griffin Museum of Photography by Mary Virginia Swanson. It was amazing! Very dense and chuck full of information for photographers looking to market their photography.

I think the biggest things I took away from the lecture are; I have alot of homework to do, need to get out there to Photo Fairs, look at more photography magazines to see what is out there and get our work seen at portfolio reviews.

There are a TON of opportunities and resources Baha and I are not taking advantage of. I plan to start researching the website and magazine (subscriptions and online) resources Virginia mentioned.

It's kind of overwhelming the amount of information and resources there are, but we need to start. I feel good about some of the things we are doing, Baha is on the right track with our website and ideas for self promotion (the CD-ROM he did for Carolyn Evans is exactly the kind of thing we need to create for ourselves!).

I can't wait till we get our new printer (need to order still, but will be soon)! Then we can start printing portfolios, promotional items (CDs, postcards...), get shows up, get out portfolios seen, sell images, get work to print other folks images to pay for all our personal work. We have alot of work to do, but it is exciting. If I had a choice of work this is the kind I prefer to do.

We should have purchased the printer a long time ago (wont go there. ;) ), but things are in the right place now, so it will be an easier expense to swallow. We have even decided to forgo a trip to spend money on equipment for BMK Creative. It's a bummer, but we can't afford both and if we are serious about getting this business going we have to make some tough decissions. We both agree it's the right thing to do, though I had a harder time excepting it (growing pains). The travel bug has been biting me hard.

Final Migration!!! ?

2007-04-27T09:41:00.000-05:00

Yes, we have successfully moved our web pages from .mac account to our server "Missy". We will keep the .mac account since it's paid till next year, also I can use it for testing. We are also expanding our services and galleries. We are going to add Digital Studio, Limited Edition, BMK FTP and BMK Printing. I will keep working on our site, and soon these add ons will be online so stay tuned.

baha

Happy Birthday Andy

2007-04-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

My youngest bro turns 19!

Man I am getting old. But enough about me, today is about Andrew.

Mom, Baha,

Eric (Cheeks), Molly

and I; all

took Andy out to Polcaries for dinner.

Eric got so excited he pee'd his pants! ;)

Boston Public Library ICDL Project is done!

2007-04-23T12:11:00.000-05:00

My first solo project with Boston Public Library has come to an end. I delivered over 5000 pages for BPL Jordan Collection tracts selected for submission to the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL). After they cataloque these books, it will be uploaded to ICDL website for public and researchers to view (http://www.icdlbooks.org/). I really enjoyed working with BPL, such a relaxed atmosphere, made me feel welcome. Thus, project went smoothly.

Now, I am looking forward to my second project with BPL's John Adams Library to photograph John Adam's Exhibition. Show is ending on Sunday 29th and on Monday I go in all day to do the shoot.

I can't wait!

baha

Going to Red Sox Game w/ Chief

2007-04-11T23:27:00.000-05:00

This was a historical game between the Boston Red Sox and the Seatle Mariners. It was a big game for so many reasons for me. This was my first game with the man I admire and call Chief. Games out come was not important, it was being at the ball park with good company and amazing feeling of being in Fenway Park. Get your beers and hotdogs and you are good to go.

Chief took me around the park and showed me what's new. My first time in Fenway Park we were playing against Colorado Rockies. Since then Park changed alot. They are doing a great job Chief said, 10 years ago this place was a dump, now I enjoy more and more coming here to watch a good baseball game. We were by the 3rd base and real close to the players.

When Daisuke Matsuzaka took the mound at his new home ballpark, he immediately faced an old adversary from his homeland. The Boston Red Sox's prized offseason acquisition from Japan made his Fenway Park debut tonight against the Seattle Mariners, the first batter he faced Ichiro Suzuki. Fist pitch! STRIKE! Second pitch! STRIKE! Whole stadium was on their feet chanting, flashing photos. It was unbelievable!

Then it was a full count, we were all on our feet waiting for him to strike out... Then...

Yes, he STRIKED him out! Crowd goes crazy, my heart beating fast, I was so sure that we were going to win the game and go into the history books. Dice-K was impressive but maybe he was nervous, may be it was the cold weather that he is not used to but this was supposed to the coming out party for Daisuke Matsuzaka, not Felix Hernandez.

Japanese media packed the press box for Matsuzaka's home debut, Boston's mayor presented the Red Sox with a street sign in Japanese and ads in the ballpark welcomed the new star to Fenway in his native tongue. Once the game started, though, Hernandez proved to be every bit his match.

Hernandez held Boston hitless for seven innings and finished with a one-hitter to lead the Seattle Mariners to a 3-0 victory over the Red Sox. Matsuzaka's arrival on the Fenway mound has been globally hyped since the Red Sox paid $103 million to acquire his rights and sign him. The anticipation only grew when he allowed one run and struck out 10 in seven innings in his first major league outing. It was history in the making non the less. Hanging out with Chief even made it better. Chief kept telling me we might witness a rare No-hitter but THE SINGLE BY BOSTON RIGHT FIELDER J.D. DREW IN THE EIGHTH INNING ENDED SEATTLE'S FELIX HERNANDEZ' NO-HITTER.

For me it was a great game in many levels, not winning that night did not make my spirit go down. I would have loved to see Big Papi, J. Varitek (on his b-day!), and M. Ramirez to hit but that's OK. They smoked them the night before, so there.

baha

The Faces of Baha

2007-04-02T18:51:00.000-05:00

Ok folks, what do you think? Since Baha quit BPI he has been growing a new look.

The image to the left is the original and the image to the right is the new face since Sat March 31st. I am still getting used to it and want to see what others think. Should he grow back the beard or keep just the moustach and soul patch?

For me, all I can think of when I see him now is this Turkish actor who plays in a Turkish Soap Opera. I like the actor and he is good looking so it's not a bad comparison, Baha just seems more Turkish with this look. Again not a bad thing, just another observation.

The facial hair from the beginning made him look older, but the newer look seems to make him look even older, more serious and sophisticated. Does the newer look make him look too much older and serious?

I do like the facial hair, just not sure of which version. Or maybe he needs to take it a step farther and shave the moustach and just sport a soul patch?

Thoughts!!!???!!

5 AM in the Morning!

2007-03-30T05:58:00.000-05:00

I started coughing at 5am and didn't want to wake up Melissa so, I just got up. Fortunately nature rewarded me with a beautiful sun rise. This is the view from the back of the house. Absolutely beautiful and inspiring.

baha

My 1st visit to Walden Pond

2007-03-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

Workin hard on the Evans website and the phone rings. Keith is asking if I want to go to Walden Pond with him. I've never been and could use the break and fresh air so SURE!

It was cold but, you could smell spring in the air, raining on and off. The pond was deserted except for a couple people jogging and us.

I didn't realize you could come here for the beach, looking forward to coming again when the weather is warm with Melissa.

baha

The LaRose Brothers to the Rescue

2007-03-25T16:24:00.000-05:00

My 2 big, little bros got there full Fire Fighter Academy uniforms, aren't they cute!

Mom and I can remember when we would take them to friends fire stations and they would put on the hat and boots. All you could see was there cute little faces smiling through because the boots and hat were as big as them.
Now look at them! Ready for a Fire Fighter calendar. Seriously mom and I are very proud of them. They are almost through their first year of Fire Science School, both are getting good grades and signed up to fight fires out west this summer as needed.
And there you have it, Greg and Andy are all growd up. Well, sort of, at least the uniforms fit them now. ;)

Keep up the good work LaRose brothers! Mom and I know you will both shine as bright as Stars!

2007 Boston Flower Show

2007-03-19T20:26:00.000-05:00

Mom and I went to the Boston Flower show yesterday and it was so beautiful. I was nice to see all the beautiful flowers and plants and remember that even though it snowed, Spring is on its way!

Lush green plants and colorful flowers danced in my head, till POP! My frickin cats will eat them. So instead of a house full of plants I have 1 room full of plants, because that rooms door can be shut.

A well, such as life, things will work out someday.
I did bring home a huge, lovely bouquet of tulips. Spring! Damn it! Spring! Such a tease those 50-60 degree days last week. You remember they happened right before the NorEaster. New England, got a love it!

This guy was so cool! Totally made from seashells. He was part of a huge ship wreck exhibit. The last time mom and I went to the flower show was 2 years ago with Kirsten. I was surprised then and again this time at how amazing some of the exhibits are and what you can do with all kinds of plant life.

I forget what this entry was about, but it's pretty different, interesting use of a vaccum hose.

And this one, not sure what it is, but it was cool, the upper set of leaves moved back and forth.

Some of these entries, really are pieces of art.

Don't Believe the Hype! (migration continues...)

2007-03-19T07:42:00.000-05:00

As of yesterday we have moved our website to another host; GlowHost.com. This time we get:

2500 MB / 2.5 GB DISK SPACE
50000 MB / 50 GB TRANSFER
HOST 5 DOMAINS
UNLIMITED POP EMAIL
FREE DOMAIN - YES
UNLIMITED MySQL DATABASES

and we were getting:

200 GB of Hosting Space
Host 6 Domains on 1 Account!
2000 GB of Transfer
5000 POP Email Accounts
SSL, FTP, Stats
CGI, Ruby, Perl, PHP, MySQL
Front Page Extensions
Free Domain Forever

Yeah very nice but if you log on to our site, it took forever to load the page. I kept calling and telling them about the problem. Bunch of times they said they will send a tech guy to look at their server. Did not make any difference!

First of all when I made these calls, it transfers me to some guy in India. The phone connection was horrible, I could not even hear what he was saying. Second, they were not able to make my site go any faster. Third, the FTP sites that I was suppose to be able to use was not usable or accessible online. Before all this; (thinking I can set up FTP sites) I made changes on our front page about BMK_FTP site. Well, it did not work. Jim got me to thinking about my own FTP server so I will follow up on that and soon I will get our own FTP site up for our clients.

Anyways, don't believe everything you read on the internet, the reviews for Dot5 Hosting were exellent. They are number 3 or 4 on top 10 hosting sites. Well, I am here to tell you, it's BS. You might get huge space but you lack on through put and that's NOT acceptable. Jim had us going in the right direction before but we got side tracked because of the reviews and bang for my buck. Wrong!

One day it took Mel about 45 sec. to load our front page from M.I.T. I made the phone call right away and tech. guy told me there is NO problem from their end and told me everything is FINE! I said: FINE? You call 45 sec. to load my front page fine? mmmm...

Well, we gave them the benefit of the doubt, we waited for them to fix the problems we were having but went no where. So, yesterday with Jim's guidance we have decided to move to GlowHost and so far so good. Yeah, I get a fraction of the space I was getting with Dot5 but my through put is lightning fast (the way it should be). I will take that any day! ;)

baha

Belize and Guatemala are Ready to View!

2007-03-12T15:41:00.000-05:00

Ok Peeps! I did it, I finished Belize and Guatelmala so we are now allllll up to date with foreign travels! How exciting!

Now we will begin the enormous effort of going through and posting our numerious visits to USA destinations. This will be a long project so check back periodically for new postings.

Baha has begun a new process of notifying you by email with links enbedded when we have new stuff to check out, so that will keep you up to date too.

I hope all the awesome folks we met in Belize find out website and take a look at the photos. Many people asked to see them and we were able to give our business card to most of them. Fortunately I did say for them to give us a few months to get them up so we are pretty much on schedule.

Once USA is up we will begin work on Family photos within the Archive.

Always something to do!!

Excited that the weather is getting warmer and the days are longer so we should be getting out more and shooting again.

Cheers,
mel

Sofia's 1st visit to the Aquarium!

2007-03-11T19:51:00.000-05:00

Boston Aquarium, smaller than I remembered, but still great to see someone experience it for the 1st time, especially a little kiddlet. We went with Sofia, Nik and Anna, Sofia is Nik and Anna's little girl, so cute at 20 months.

Note the Penguins at the top were giving a bit more of an education than we bargained for, get a room this isn't Animal Planet! ;)

The Penguins were definitely a hit. But some were looking kind of sad with no hair. The animal caretaker assured us it was normal, something about shedding and then getting them back, but it was like looking at a plucked chicken.

And then there is the piece de resistance. The giant fish bowl in the center. Swimming round and round, wooo look at that!

There goes a shark, a stingray, and a turtle! So cool. The world through a child’s eyes always looks so much more wonderful.

After the Aquarium we went for a bit to eat, Quincy Market a la cart. Aaaah the memories.

Changing Web Hosts

2007-03-07T14:44:00.000-05:00

We have been using Register.com for both our web hosting and domain name for over 3 yrs. The more and more I researched information on web hosting, the more my deal sounded horrible. Jim suggested taking a look at his web host, which is Glow Host. Mel and I went over the pros and cons for switching over to this company.

Then we decided to do more searching to find a better deal, a quick google search and bam, we found 10 best hosts and went with what we thought was best for our needs and here they are:

• Be able to host more then one domain name
• Be able to have bmkceative e-mail accounts
• Be able to have password protected ftp sites
• Be able to check most search engines for keyword search with one click
• Be able to have big space for storage and great bandwidth
And so on and so on...

So finally we came to a decision and went with Dot5 Hosting and singed up for 2-year agreement for $4.99 a month, Register.com was $14.99 a month and did not even come close to what Dot5 is offering. We made the switch, and less then 24 hrs. later we are completely migrated over to Dot5. Jim opened my eyes to better web hosting services, and now we are saving pretty good amount of money on this move, thanks Jim! I would not be able to make this change without Mel; she played a big roll on this migration, so thank you too babe. ;) Chia!

bahadir

Greg's First Tatoo

2007-02-26T15:53:00.000-05:00

The Outline. We all chipped in on the final design. He knew he wanted his last name, but needed help on font and what else to add for style. We all decided the hot chick from the truck mud flaps was perfect for our little womanizer! ;P

Let the pain begin!

I really like this Tattoo shop, Skin Art on Cambridge ST. in Cambridge. Clean, Friendly.....It only took 30mins for the inking and the artist has 10 years of experience. Greg has now joined the rest of the family, as we all have body art and love it!

Mancho, Mancho Man!

Merhaba...Finally!

2007-02-20T12:22:00.000-05:00

Finally, I have images from our 2005 trip to Turkey on the website Gallery Journey!

From over 1300 images down to 96. I do still have a few roles of film to scan that somehow got over looked and I do think there is a few images from these roles I will add online, but the largest part is done.

It's very exciting to think we just have to get Belize/Guatemala up and we will be up to date on our foreign travels.

Then stay tuned to see where we go next! We hear Egypt calling our names......

We do have alot of work to do to get our travels within the USA up to date. We have been to several places including Vegas & the Grand Canyon, so stay tuned for that as well and that will probable be (hopefully if all goes well) up before our next foreign travels.

I am very excited for our good friend Jim Long, he is on a train ride across America and back! Making several stops along the way in different cities and keeping us up to date on his travels via local wifi, check out his blog: http://inflightshutdown.blogspot.com/
Click on the link to the right: Flickr Map of photos and watch him cross the country.

This is so cool, I love being able to share in his adventure. I hope the next time Baha and I travel we can find a way to do the same thing!

Fun with Photos! Yippie!

Cheers,
Mel

Good Times... Good Times

2007-02-17T14:48:00.000-05:00

You are looking at the old and the new crew of Boston Photo Imaging. My bro Greg Bouyacasha was also with us and would have been in the photos, but had to jet early to care for his sick wife. It's times like these you feel the impact of friendship and respect for one to another. Hanging out with good people, eating, drinking and having a great conversation is what life is all about. Work friends or not; they can make a huge impact in your life and change the way you think. These are the people you appreciate and cherish for the rest of your life.
They see the ups and downs you go through in life and they are there to support you and lift your spirits. So we gathered last night in Jacob Wirth to lift my spirits and wish me good luck starting my journey to find a better job.

bahadir

ps: I also thank my beautiful wife for taking these pictures.

It's Freakin' Nasty Out!

2007-02-15T10:10:00.000-05:00

This is what it looks like from our window. It's nasty, frozen slush, windy, cold out there, terrorizing the city. My wife called 4 or 5 different cab companies but the wait was 45 min.+, so poor girl had to walk all the way to work. I hope she did fine. We don't have a car and I can't really give her a ride on my scooter, sorry babe! :( But she is a tough chick, I know she will push through.

I am so glad I am not out there today. It's my first day at home, kinda weird but cool. I think I will enjoy looking for my future today; from the house... First I will visualize it in my head, see it just the way I want it to be and start to make it happen. I believe it will happen pretty soon. Yes, positive thinking, mmmmkey!

baha

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye...

2007-02-15T09:25:00.000-05:00

Valentines day was my last day in Boston Photo Imaging. It was an emotional day for me, but I am exited about what's to come. It was hard to let go, the most difficult part was saying goodbye to my good friends, I have spent over 5 1/2 years there.

We been through thick and thin together, but it's time for me to split and let the young ones get a little taste of the action.;) It's time for me to start my new adventure and begin tasting new fruits of the future. This will be a new experience for me and I am ready!
Special shout out to my best buddies Keith, Greg and Chief! Yuz guyz are da men, no doubt!

baha

Removing Watermarks

2007-02-11T12:54:00.000-05:00

After work on friday, I spent the rest of my day removing the BMK watermark from our photographs in Gallery Journey, and Portraits. I was informed by Chief and the rest of our friends and family, that the watermark was distracting from our photos. OK! It's done now and I like it better too. ;)
Thank you for the tip, and keep it coming I say.

baha

ps: Thank you Keith for your lovely e-mail with your chimp friend. I got the message!

Please tell me!

2007-02-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

So I just went to the ladies room at work and saw that I had mascara smudged under my eyes! I looked like I had a black eye.

Walking to work my eyes tear from the cold so, my makeup must have run, no biggy, but NO ONE TOLD ME!

It was 11am before I noticed and I must have spoken to more than a dozen people between 9-11am and not one person felt they needed to mention I looked like a prize champion! Nice.

So to all you who read this, please, PLEASE if I have smudged makeup, a bogger, tp on my shoe or whatever. TELL ME! I will thank you for it and will do the same for you.

F'in COLD!

2007-02-05T10:17:00.000-05:00

It's very sad, but I broke down and took a cab to work today. I just wasn't up for freezen my nukies off today. Haven't decided on how to get home yet, but will probable tough it out and walk. 10 degrees is one thing, but when you add wind chill on top you are talking negatives and that just is not fun when you have a 1.25mile walk to work. Long johns only help so much.

So we made head way on Turkey 05 images. Got Baha's over 1100 images down to just over 100, but still have to get it down to 99, that's all the website will allow. Plus it makes for a more solid body of work, makes sure you cut it down to only the real winners.

Had an excellent weekend with a long over due visit with Kirsten and Graham on Friday night, lots of web accomplishments on Sat. & then an always enjoyable visit with my bros & Jim on Sun.

Anyways, everyone try and keep warm and avoid going out side as much as possible. I read that Phil the Groundhog didn't see his shadow, so spring should come early this year...Global Warming and El Nino, might be of some help with that, but Thanks Phil!

Shout Out!

2007-02-04T12:28:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday wishes to Aylin! Hope it's a wonderful day for a special lady.
baha & mel

And the Progress Continues!

2007-02-04T12:13:00.000-05:00

So another day, another accomplishment.

Not only did I write a description of each day in Belize in your Travel Journal blog, Baha got our own .mac account and transfered all the pages and now we have completely finished Inhouse Design, text included.

Next up Turkey 05. Baha has over 1100 images to edit and I have over 1300! Let the party begin.

Jim and my bro Andy are coming over today so we will see how far we get.

Seems I messed up and either didn't scan or misplaced the cds of my 6 rolls of film I shot in Turkey, not that I need more images to edit, but hey maybe the prize winner is in that bunch. So, now I also need to do some scanning, but at least it's only 6 rolls. Very douchey of me.

Anywho, need to get to work so..

Cheers for now.
Mel

Migration

2007-02-03T21:06:00.000-05:00

Till today I was testing our website on a .mac account my sister has. Since I enjoyed everything I created so far, we decided to have our own .mac account and keep adding more sites to Apple. I transferred everything to our new account and fixed all links. It's up now!

Thank you very much for letting us test our website on your space. :)

bahadir

As Jim would say "Web a Poppin"

2007-02-03T12:28:00.000-05:00

So finally and I mean finally, we are making some serious progress on the BMK website, it only took 2-3 years, but hey who's counting.

Anyways, within the last 2 weeks we (mostly Baha) have put up several countries (England, Italy, Holland, Japan, Turkey, Canada) in your Gallery Journey portfolios; created two Blogs, BMK Journal (where you are now) and BMK Travel Journal Blog (see links 2 bmk); completed Portrait photography; completed In-House Design and added several pages to Archive.

Man it's amazing what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it and work together. We are both totally giggling with excitement. Woo who!

Our current plan is to post a trip a night, but we are up to the Mega Trip, Turkey 05, were we photographed out brains out and have a ridiculous amount of images to edit through so that might push our deadline out a couple days, but we will still be working. My ultimate goal is to be up to date by the end of February. For USA we will be linking to a separate page that shows the map of the USA and then you will select a state and then a city trip within the state so that might take some time setting all that up too, but I think we will get there.

The Archive is going to have several more pages one of which will be Family & Friends photos where family and friends can download images they choose to their computer and then get prints made.

Being colder than a witches tit outside really helps with wanting to stay inside and do work. Not to mention the computer room is the warmest room in the apt. See everything is saying doooo wooorrrkk... Netflix is even pilling up. The craziness of it all....

So blogging, new thing for me. Jim really shed the light on it for us and made it seem a fun way to communicate (see Inflight Shutdown blog) with everyone, keep folks up to date. But, I have to admit I am a bit frightened of the commitment of having to write daily so, I am going to say up front I'm not committing to that. But I am committed to writing as often as I can, so make sure and check back for my next 2¢.

Cheers yo! Word!
Mel

Test Blog

2007-02-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

Test 1,2,1,2