Top Ten Things You Will Only Ever Do at the Cottage:

10. Play monopoly ten straight games in a row because it's been raining all week, you don't have a phone or a television, and you only remembered to pack this one game.
9. See ducks walking on fish.
8. Eat Spam that your Dad prepared.
7. Take a bar of soap into the lake.
6. Make a creative family video which purports that you've blown up the cottage.
5. Name a real live cow and pretend like you know which one it is and have been keeping track of it all summer.
4. Get dirty looks from the locals when you win at church bingo.
3. Swing like Tarzan from a vine that has broken loose from a giant tree in front of the house.
2. Sleep with bug spray on - even though you're indoors.
1. Worry about a bat flying into you while you sleep - even though you're indoors.

Reading Between the Lines

I guess either Billy or Tommy or both have visited the Crawford County area, based on this news report from the Meadville Tribune:

http://www.meadvilletribune.com/local/local_story_173225856.html

Hope you guys had a good time.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Bill!

It must be his kind, loving, thoughtful children who have kept him so youthful looking these, what, 75 years or so! Give or take.

Rock on, Uncle Bilious!

cooking at the cottage

Cooking at the cottage is more than a mouthful . . . Let me just say and WARN, NEVER EVER COOK IN THAT MICROWAVE. I think the warning should be broader . . . never ever cook in that cottage or at least until it has a make-over. I noticed Mike added the fishing guide to the blog so one idea for sanitation sake is to catch the fish, clean it outdoors and then grill outdoors as well. See a theme going on? Also, don't try to get the person you expect to cook the fish to clean the fish. For you novices, here's a handy guide to fish cleaning:

http://pie.cooksillustrated.com/images/document/howto/MA95_Cleaningfish.pdf

When it comes to catching them though, you're on your own!

Murphy on the move.....

I am changing jobs- so please update your address books to my home email:

nmurphy15@msn.com

The EDMC email address(s) will be terminated this afternoon.

Liz and Chris- I will probably be in Baltimore a lot in the next few months! We need to hang out!

WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG

For something completely different. Like a song parody of Malcolm in the Middle I like to call
MALKIN IN THE MIDDLE

Jarkko, Crosby... Geeno, and all the Pittsburgh Penguins,
We've got a hockey team now!
We've got a hockey team now!
We've got a hockey team now, and you're not so big!
We've got a hockey team now!
We've got a hockey team now!
We've got a hockey team now, and you're not so big!
Maybe next yearrrr

Memory Lane

It was the Summer of '58. With my trusty bamboo rod in hand and wearing my trusty jodhpurs and my trusty bus driver hat I had cast off from what would become known as "Elvis" beach (the king was then but a hunka-hunka hillbilly truckdriver) for the waters known to the indigenous Heckowi Indians as "Walleye City". I was out there drownin' a worm and groovin' to the sounds of the Kingston Trio when suddenly and without warning the great leviathan struck. He nearly capsized the boat, such was the force of his powerful gyrations. Ripping the stainless steel lid off of a can of Olde Frothingslosh (pull tabs, alas, had yet to be invented) I quaffed a gulp of courage and set out to engage the great beast in mortal combat.

Three days later, bloodied but unbowed, I succeeded in landing the monster, K-Oing him with a straight right cross to the dorsal fin. Although area children still sing songs commemorating the event, I choose to think it was merely a case of a simple, unassuming yet extraordinarily talented angler coming face to gills with a horrifying denizen of the deep.