You may be a Ravens fan if . . .

The Ravens recently cut starting cornerback Chris McAlister and signed someone named Foxworth. (They also lost Bart Scott to the Jets. Woohoo!) So-o-o, in the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy, complete this sentence: You may be a Ravens fan if . . .

Example: You may be a Ravens fan if you turn down a trip to London because you heard Big Ben was there;

The winning entry will receive his/her choice of a sixpack of Iron City or National Bohemian beer. No award until after Lent though as we assume you're all behaving. Good luck!

Out With a Bang

Now is the winter of our discontent. Baldwin didn't make the playoffs again. Rumors swirl about the possible dismissal of the head coach, assistant coach and the manager/ball boy. The good news is Tommy put twenty-one points on Norwin, along with six steals and four blocked shots. The head coach appologized for keeping Tommy in the game long enough to make it close. He has the knack for taking excellent ball players and shaping and molding them into timid, tentative underachievers. Not to be bitter.

Happy birthday, Peanut!

_


That's right, Marin hit the big, uh, 0-2 today. Par-tay at Eat N Park. Grandma turned out a fabulous banana cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. We're living the dream!

Go Stillers!

E has to work and I think I'm just hanging around the house for the big game. Might pop into the local 'cause I'm in the pool and the food ain't so bad. I've been in at least one Super Bowl pool every year for over 30 years. Have I ever won anything? No-o-o-o-o. If any of you guys are good at math - try to figure out if that violates any laws of probability.

The last few years are sort of deja vu all over again as it relates to you youngsters. When your dads and moms were your age, the Steelers were busy winning 4 Super Bowls in 6 years. It didn't make us any better or smarter (it was parenthood that made us this brilliant) but it was a lot of fun to watch. Kinda cool to see it happening again.

Tommy scores a score

Tommy got some ink in the PG by scoring 20 points in the Baldwin - Connellsville game, six in overtime.

From The Cottage

Here's the link to the story:


Scroll down to "Boys' fantastic finishes" If only he had paid closer attention when his uncles tried to teach him how to dunk.

Caption contest

Submit the best caption to this picture:



. . . and win a valuable prize!

Example:
Hey, nice hearing aid! What kind is it?
About 10:30

Ride Board

Is everybody OK for transportation to Gettysburg? We might have room for one more outbound, provided he or she is well mannered and, you know, self contained, but on the return, we may be heading down Baltimore way.

ANYWAY, need ride or have ride, use the ol' blogarooski here.

Cell phone blues

I lost one cell phone in Myrtle Beach (salt water really murders 'em) and its replacement was last seen in the tiny little clutches of one Marin Virginia Murphy, who has so far held up under questioning although I haven't tried waterboarding yet. Anyway, I now have cell phone #3 up and running, so would anybody who has my number please give me a call so I can reconstitute my directory? If I don't answer, leave me a message so I can match a name to the number. Thanks!

Let them eat bread......

Loaves and fishes: Pymatuning carp get feeding reprieve
Thursday, September 18, 2008
The Associated Press
LINESVILLE, Pa. -- State conservation officials are delaying a ban on an odd "family tradition" in northwestern Pennsylvania: feeding bread to the carp at Pymatuning State Park.

The ban was to begin Jan. 1 but will be delayed a year for further study.

More than 300,000 people come to the park's Linesville Spillway each year because carp throng so thickly for the bread that ducks can walk on the fish.

State officials had previously said they wanted to allow only fish food pellets because bread and other food harmed the fish.

The state now says the primary concern is helping the U.S. Department of Agriculture control the geese population. Bread draws the geese, too, and the USDA won't curb their population if people are feeding them.


Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
First published on September 18, 2008 at 10:27 am

Fantasy Draft

Whoa! The season started last night!!!! When is our draft? Is it an auto-draft or are we going to choose live? We have four teams in the league so far.

Liz

GO WITTMANIA!!!!!!!!!!!

Life's a beach

After a week of sun and surf in Myrtle Beach, it's great to be back in Munhall . . . NOT. We were lucky to find this fabulous place called the Verandas in North Myrtle that slept about 10 and had all the amenities. Our buddy Bridget and her daughter Allie joined us. Chris and I are newly minted MB Pelicans fans. (What would be the short form, "Pels"? "Cans"?) Weather was terrific. We caught the edge of Fay at the end, but it just made the boogie-boarding more exciting. Check out the pics:

Myrtle Beach

From the Gettysburg Times

Aimee A. Pack and John J. Murphy III
Published: Monday, August 18, 2008 8:05 AM EDT
Aimee Ann Pack and John James Murphy III announce their intention to marry.

Miss Pack, of Gettysburg, is a 1992 graduate of Radford University and is employed by Gettysburg Health Administrators Inc. She is the daughter of Ron and Lisa Pack and Dianne and Larry Brogan, all of Gettysburg.

Mr. Murphy, of East Berlin, is a 2006 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and a 2003 graduate of the University of Dayton’s School of Law. He is employed as an associate attorney at Apple Leaf Abstracting and Settlement Company and Patrono and Associates, LLC. He is the son of John and Diana Murphy, of Munhall, Pa.

The couple has not yet set a wedding date.

http://www.gettysburgtimes.com/articles/2008/08/18/news/weddings_engagements/doc48a9643aa06f7205724471.txt

Family Fantasy Football

I decided to go ahead and start up the fantasy football league, I hope we can generate enough interest for it. Everything is set up at Yahoo.com... here's a more direct link.... http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com/f1/431320

The league ID is 431320 and the password is "generation m" (for Marin, Michael & Megan the Murphy Young Bucks).

Any of you Gents and Ladies are welcome to join. I set up a live online draft for Saturday August 23rd at 7pm. But if that doesn't work for everybody it can easily be changed.

Let me know what you think either on here or email me: wjm220@psu.edu

I've got football fever already. Can hardly wait to see Notre Dame fail more miserably than last season at the college level, while Penn State sends JoePa out in style 8-) ....

.... I nearly just pressed "Publish Post" without mentioning the Steelers because I at first assumed we were all fans. But luckily I remembered that Chris roots for the enemy. First my stomach turned in disgust but then I remembered how awful the Ravens are and laughed it off....

Good Luck to all who join in on the family football fun

Kennywood Kids

We had a terrific time at Kennywood with Nonie and the twins, Tirhas and Addisu. Tirhas may need some help with her shooting skills, but nobody's better at riding an elephant with a squirmy toddler. Addisu and I rocked the Thunderbolt, Phantom's Revenge and Pitt Fall. Marin was pretty fired up about Kiddieland. Check out the pics:

Kennywood 2008

I can't match anybodies big new but I have an average Idea

I tried to post blogs on here numerous times but I forgot my username and password for a while. Anyway, Congrats Sara and Johnny on each of your respective big announcements! The Murphy Family expanding is exciting. Also, how cool is George Dubbya Liz and Chris? I bet if you went to give him a high five instead of the more formal (and outdated) hand shake he would have gone for it. He's so hip to our generation haha.

Anyway: My idea is that we get a little Murphy Family Fantasy football league together. Anybody who is interested just email me wjm220@psu.edu and I will set everything up. It will help if you already have a yahoo account. Winner gets first overall pick in Turkey Bowl 2008? Let me know if there is enough interest to get it started.

Oh yea, since this is the Cottage blog I may as well ask... Who was the last one up there and what kind of condition is it in? Every week I say I'm going to make the trip and every weekend something prevents me. I'll be glad to get a little work done while I'm up there if anybody has any suggestions.

The Wittmans Meet the President

Hi gang! Chris was asked to fill in on guitar with a band called Moodswings. The band was hired for a Bush family wedding in Kennebunkport, ME. It was a long bus-ride to and fro, but it was a once in a lifetime experience for sure. I got to tag along as the photographer and we both got to meet the President and his father. Here are the pictures!

The ever expanding Murphy Family

Well..I guess it's about time that I spill the beans, if you haven't heard already, I'm Pregnant, Surprise!!! I'm currently in my 10th week, so I figure, I'm really only 1/4th pregnant, right? The offical due date is 2/22/09, right in the heart of Tax Season, awe shucks, I'll miss a tax season! Anyways, I've been feeling great, no morning sickness, no pains in strange places, everything is going great!! We get to hear the heartbeat on Thursday...I'm super excited about that!!

And in other Murphy news...drumroll please...Johnny got engaged!!! Aimee will soon be an offical part of the Family!! Dates and details TBD...

So Uncle Mike, do you have any advice for Dad about having a grandchild and a wedding all in the same year???

Slideshow

Still experimenting with Picasa and photo sharing. This is a link to an album of photos taken at Tommy's basketball game last January. There are a few nice shots of Marin Virginia and Megan Rose. It should play as a slideshow if I did it right. Here goes:



Sorry about the blurry ones.

Photo posting

This is a test of whether we can place links to Picasa Web Albums into the body of a post. Here's Memorial Day 2008. CLICK ON THE PICTURE:

Memorial Day 2008

It should take you to the album so you can view all the pictures. You can also download them.

You have to place the link when you're using the "Edit Html" tab, not the "Compose" or it won't work, but whoa, I think it's going to work. Try it! CLICK THE PICTURE!

More Nuts & Bolts

Do any of you computer-savvy types have any familiarity with "Picasa"? I got to thinking about ways we could share digital pictures - and not just thumbnails but the full files. It looks like we could do it using something called "Picasa Albums." It's free and they give each account a gigabyte of space to upload pictures. I found out that the pictures I used here on the blog are stored in a Picasa album called "The Cottage." What I'd like you brainiacs to do is check out the software:

http://picasa.google.com/

and tell the rest of us the best way to make our pictures available to each other. OK, Nerds, let's get out those pocketliners and get busy!