Corn Maze

It's been awhile since we posted anything. But I promise that there will be some pictures from Diana and Mary's visit just as soon as we find time to load them.
On Friday, we went to an orchard. A real-life, little house on the prairie-esque orchard with hay rides, a petting zoo (that wasn't open--we looked at the sheep and goats from behind the electrical fence), a hay pyramid, and a corn maze. Yes, a corn maze. Here is a picture:



We took Mike Habib with us, so Mike and I raced Mary and Anastasia. There are actually two mazes--one for McCain, and one for Obama. Mike and I won on the Obama side, Mary and Stasia won on the McCain side. It was good times all around.

Overall we had a nice visit with Mary and Diana. They are good workers. They can pay their own way to come work in our house anytime...hehehe. They painted the basement so it's actually a functional room now instead of just a dungeon, and they helped add color to the living room by painting one wall a rich cranberry red (I was corrected on this; I originally called it "firetruck red" but was told that it is "cranberry").

Yesterday I drove Bishop THOMAS from Wilkes-Barre to the Antiochian Village, about 220 miles, and then I came back. All total it was a 9 hour trip, which was only a little more than half the time I spent in a day driving through Canada. So it wasn't bad.
Here are some memorable quotes from the 4 hours I spent with him:

On finding a place that has a good hamburger (we ended up eating at Hoss's. Very good)
Bishop Thomas: "If you want a good hamburger, go to a steak joint. God only knows what is in the food at burger joints."
Matthew: "Your Grace, I may forget what you said during your sermon this morning, but I don't think I'll ever forget this advice."
Bishop Thomas, laughing: "That's ok with me."

On the many lane closures and the abundance of road work:
Matthew: "There is so much construction in this state that the state tree must be a construction cone."
Bishop Thomas: "You're probably right. Good thing it's fall and the cones blend in with the rest of the colors on the trees."

Upon arriving at the Antiochian Village, I grabbed a luggage cart and we started to load his luggage from the car. The cart was full when we went inside, and we had to go from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor.
Bishop Thomas: "You can take the elevator with that thing."
Matthew: "Thanks. You're so considerate and kind."

The best line actually came when I picked him up from the hotel on Sunday morning before church. Anastasia and I had cleaned the car inside and out so that it would look as good as possible for him. But when he came out of the hotel and saw the car he saw the sun screen doohickies that we put on the back windows to keep the sun out of Luke's eyes. Those are fine, except they say "Baby Depot - Burlington Coat Factory" on them, and "Baby Depot" is in big letters (for those of you in Alaska, you'll see these on the Rogers's car).
Bishop Thomas: "Is this your car?"
Matthew: "Yes."
Bishop Thomas: "Baby Depot huh? You want people to see the Bishop get out of the Baby Depot car?"
Matthew: "Oops. Forgive me, we forgot to take those down."
Bishop Thomas: "Well take them down now please. I don't want to scandalize anybody or give them the wrong impression of me. That's the last rumor I need to start."

All in all it was a good day, a blessing to spend time with him. He also came up with this doozy of a line when he spoke at St. Tikhon's on Thursday:
Fr. Michael Dahulich, introducing Bishop Thomas: "He calls a spade a spade, and is a real breath of fresh air."
Bishop Thomas: "If I'm a breath of fresh air, then it must really stink around here."


Have a good day.
--Matthew