Family Mellmann

Last weekend I found myself home alone while Jörg took the kids camping on the Father & Kid camping trip with the Internationals. This weekend, Jörg has again gone camping, but this time he took only Patrick. They are going on a Tae Kwon Do camping weekend with other members of the Blue Wave association. They left late this afternoon and will come back Sunday. I'm sorry to say that Jörg didn't take the camera with him so pictures will likely not be forthcoming, but who wants to see a bunch of sweaty martial artists anyway. :) It's probably going to be a warm weekend, and with the rain that we just had it is sure to be humid. I'm sure that they will have a good time anyway. Katherine is in bed and the house is quiet. This is probably a good time to relax and catch up on little projects. Enjoy the new website.

It's ready. The website redesign is complete and ready for use. The old site is now gone (and with it all the out-dated photos) and the new site is loaded. We hope that you will find the new site easier to navigate, and my personal hope is that by simplifying the site like this I will have a better chance of keeping it updated. We'll see how that works out. In the meantime, you can check out the new site at HERE !

Here is a slide show of some of the pictures taken by my dive instructor in Tahiti. I have put this same slide show on the website, but for those who just watch the blog, I thought I should put it here also.

If you have been waiting for some new pictures, the wait is over. If you check out our beta site you should find three sets of pictures located in the drop-down box called "Latest Happenings". I may change the name of that drop-down box, but this is where you can find the latest pictures. I will list the most current items on top; the further down the list, the older the pictures. We're not quite ready to retire our old site yet, but this new site is up and running and is the place where I keep the current stuff. I still like this blog idea because you can "subscribe" to the blog, which will send you an e-mail whenever there is an update. I haven't figured out how to do that with the website yet. Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

This weekend was the International Father & Kid camping weekend. It's an old tradition from back when the International Playgroup was running and Infineon dads (a subset of the Playgroup) would get together for a camping weekend with the kids. We have missed a few over the years, but this year it worked out. Jörg took the kids, the canoe, the bikes, and the camper and went to Lake Carmi. They're still not home, so I thought I would take a minute and share an update on the new website. Oh...you didn't know that there was going to be a new website? That's okay. Until this weekend, I wasn't sure there was going to be one either. Jörg and I have been talking about updating the website. Not just with more pictures, but with a new look. He was really hoping that I would work out a new site that would take the effort out of making updates and get into something a little less maintenance-heavy. I thought we were just getting face-lift. I'm not certain yet ...

Photos, taken in July 2005, show Marge (Grandma) with Erika, Patrick, Diane (Mom), and Katherine.

Patrick has developed a real interest in fishing, but no one around here knows that much about it. I can put a can put a worm on a hook, and Jörg can put hooks and bobbers on the fishing pole, but no one knows what to do if Patrick actually CATCHES a fish. So, Jörg bit the hook (no bullets here) and joined a fishing clinic with Patrick, hosted by the local Parks and Recreation Department. Sure enough, Patrick caught a fish. He's up to six by now, but fortunately we are strictly catch-and-release in this house. He's going to have to catch much larger fish before I learn how to gut and clean them.

As I was walking by the front door one afternoon, the sight of a snake caught my attention. I took a closer look and realized it was eating a small toad. I figured Patrick would be eager to check it out so I called him. He could hardly contain his excitement.