4 day weekend

I think it would be absolutely splendid if the fourth of July fell on a Friday or Monday every year.

Unfortunately, the calendar is not so kind.

We spent a fabulous weekend at the lake, entertaining ourselves, munching on food, drinking beer and generally having a marvelous time. Other lake dwellers lit off fireworks to the benefit of the entire lake...it was even better to watch from afar as I was able to play with the settings on my camera and feel much more at ease watching fireworks from across the lake.

It was a our group tenth anniversary (give or take) this year and we put together a rough time capsule. As with many things we do, it's not quite finished, but I figure that we have the rest of the year to get it together. I have to say that I found it rather difficult to find things from the past to toss in there that I hadn't already parted with...however, on Joe's recommendation a couple of newspapers from the week were tossed in and have hopefully created a good base. Now we just have to decide when/if to open it.


Because it was such a long weekend and we were supplying the beverages for two parties we ended up with quite a lot of beer in our car...I estimate roughly 30 gallons, kegs and cases combined, that we brought for the two gatherings (not to mention the 4 cases we transported up here for others). I still can't believe we fit all of it plus a jockey box in the car.

The kids...fearless and daring, braved the cooler water and had some bumper boat fun...

About every other year we have good weather (and sunburns)...this year was chillier and overcast. Without the sunshine to tempt people we became a much smaller party on Saturday and had some low key fun, the highlight of which, included an old lake pastime of driving retired golf balls into the water. Scott came up with a couple of new tricks to an old game by grabbing one of the keg cup pens and creating an effigy on a golf ball. The rest of us followed suit and, I for one, derived more pleasure from the smacking sound of the club than ever before as I hit a ball bearing the title "factory farms." It was entertaining to watch the different style we each had...

Scott entertained us with a running shot...



Sunday brought Pat's retirement and a whole new group of people...that night, we entertained the lake with our own fireworks display.

Pat ordered in a show that took two hours to set-up (the display was set off remotely), lasted almost a quarter of an hour and that kicked total ass.