Here’s part 3.

As you can see, more progress has been made. They’re just about finished with setting the cabinets and they’re finished taking up the old floor. They installed the new microwave and the hardware on the cabinets. They also started patching up the ceiling. They also measured our cabinets for the countertop template. We’ve only got a couple weeks to go.

Friday afternoon, Sheils and I drove to Buffalo in time to pick up my dad from the airport.  We spent the evening together (Friday fish fry as mentioned previously) and then went to pick up Seth at the airport late that night.  Everyone pretty much crashed after that, but we were all raring to go Saturday morning for a GIANT breakfast!!  The following pic is really to show you the massive amounts of food on our table, but you can also notice and appreciate that Seth went authentically Greek with some beef souvlaki and feta scrambled eggs!

 After breakfast, we headed across the border to Niagara Falls, Canada.  Since the Buffalo/NF area is only a couple hours from Corning, we have made the trip several times but Seth had never been.  (Linds, the last time was with you in March 1999!!)  So here we are in front of the falls, represented by all that mist!

A shot of the falls:

 The game didn’t start until 6 pm so we had some kicking around time in the afternoon.   Of course, we arrived at the game super early and managed to take a quick pic to show that Olivia the pig made the trip, too– check out her special BU outfit!!

It was wonderful to get to see Baylor in action– and even better to see them actually win.  It’s been a long time since we’ve been 3-1.  We’ll see how long the winning record lasts….

As most of you know, even though I was born in Texas to Texans, the 12 years my family spent in Corning, NY were a huge part of our lives.  It may seem like I’m on the payroll of the Corning Chamber of Commerce with this entry, but I assure you it is all genuine!!  I encourage everyone to plan a trip to the Finger Lakes area of NY, especially in the fall:  it’s a wonderful place!  (http://experiencecorningny.com/)

I arrived in Corning around noon on Thursday and made a beeline for a local coffeeshop where I knew Sheils would still be yakking with her friends after having met them earlier that morning.  Much of the time we had after that was spent roaming around Market Street, which is the historic (and super cute) downtown.  A glimpse of the shop-lined street:

 All the merchants were setting up for the Jazz and Harvest Festival which would be starting Friday evening (hayrides!  wine-tasting!  live jazz!) and many places entered a contest for decorating with pumpkins and scarecrows.  I thought the Y’s entry was quite creative as they formed their scarecrows in honor of the classic song:

 In the middle of Market Street is Centerway Square, with a clock tower and pavilion.  Back in the late 80s, they redid the square and there was a brick-building campaign.  My parents were generous enough to donate bricks in each of our names.  Of late, however, I could never find my brick and I was convinced they’d dug it up.  Thankfully– I found it this weekend!

 And finally, we always have to cruise the neighborhoods and marvel at how wonderful the Victorian architecture is– and how relatively inexpensive the houses are compared to the boxes around here in Maryland.  Here is the house where I grew up:  

Sniff, sniff!   We miss you, Corning!