faux vegan?

Lane and I want to try going vegan when we get back to Ithaca, partly because I always feel guilty about eating animals, and partly because it's just supposed to be healthier. Also, since we'll be in one of the major vegan/vegetarian capitals of the world, we kinda feel like, "Hey, if you can't go vegan here, you probably can't go vegan anywhere."

I've been feeling super ambitious. Like, buying these three cookbooks today on Amazon:

Also, I'm suddenly convinced that I'll cook all these exotic vegan Indian dishes (because Lane now likes Indian food, THANK GOODNESS), so I'm obsessing over buying spices and spice containers.

Then I realize I don't have any Indian cookbooks, vegan or no. Also, the thought of buying a spice grinder is pretty depressing.

Then I start spiraling because, hello? Dinosaur BBQ? and I know that we'll fail even before we've begun.

Also:
STEAK
PEKING DUCK
ZACHARY'S CHICKEN AND BACON PIZZA
MEEEEEAAAAAT

Maybe we'll just be faux vegan... like, only eat meat when we really really want it. But that's all the time... so...umm...

BEHOLD!

our shame.

girl scout cookies are evil.

One of my coworkers was taking girl scout cookie orders for her daughter, and I, being the selfless person I am (I mean, really truly selfless, willing to eat cookies selfless), ordered a few boxes for Lane and me. Okay, we ordered five boxes - I guess certain grinchy people might consider that more than a few. 3 boxes of Thin Mints(how cruel is it that the word 'thin' is in their name?), 1 box of Savannah Smiles lemon cookies, and one box of Dulce de Leche cookies. You would think this would be enough, yes? Sadly, no. We've already gone through two and a half boxes of cookies - we got them a week ago. Also, we've bought two more boxes of the Dulce de Leche cookies. We are awful human beings... but the girl scouts are the scum of the earth for doing this to us and all of America.

On a happier note, here's Jake. 

his near-permanent position. "rub my belly!! love me!!!  love me!!!"

We got to take care of him while his parents were away in Connecticut. He was a very, shall we say, special, pup. He was extremely affectionate so my life at home was filled with joy and puppy cuddles. Maybe too many puppy cuddles.. but is there such a thing?

He enjoyed sleeping in our bed - something which was adorable the first night, somewhat less welcome the second night, and a bit annoying the third night. He always made sure to sleep on my side of the bed (I think he knew not to invade Lane's personal sleeping space, a lesson I have yet to learn), but as much as I love having a pup in my bed, the leg cramping which accompanies scrunching up and staying still for that pup can result in quite the restless night. At one point I woke screaming with a charlie horse. That kinda freaked Lane out.

Poor Lane, people at school actually started to comment on how exhausted he looked - and this was only after two nights with Jake in our bed. On the last night, Lane insisted that Jake sleep out in the living room, but the combination of Jake crying outside of our door and me looking at Lane like he was a monster forced him to give in and let Jake sleep in the room, ONLY on the condition that he stayed on his cushion, and not on our bed. Of course, Jake would have none of that, and Lane finally had to really yell at him to stay off the bed. Down went Jake, going straight under the bed to hide from the 'bad man'. He stayed there for about half an hour, until we turned off the light, then back he jumped onto the bed, and we could not keep him off. So that was it. Jake won.

But then, can we really blame Jake? He was just used to sleeping in a bed... and he missed his parents! We were somewhat concerned because he did seem pretty depressed the first night they dropped him off, and then the next day he didn't eat anything ALL DAY. His food bowl hadn't been touched, but he kept following us around the kitchen like he was starving. We would point to his food bowl and tell him to eat. He would the sniff the bowl and walk away. Finally Lane came up with the idea to pretend the kibble pieces were treats and toss them one at a time to Jake. Jake liked this. For the next few days, Lane had to feed Jake this way. Poor Lane - Jake totally owned him.

lane: "treat! treat!"
jake: "feed me!"

jake: "i love treats!"
lane: "i think this dog might be slow"

We tried to understand Jake's behavior, and here are a few theories we came up with.

• For some reason, he was scared of the kitchen cabinets (he would always hide or shake when we were opening and closing them). Maybe he needed someone there to protect him from them while he ate.
• Since he was away from home, he thought he deserved special treatment, and thus deserved treats in place of regular food.
• He was really freaked out when the dogs across the street started barking at him (like seriously freaked out, trying to crawl and hide behind the bushes to get back inside the house as quickly as possible freaked out*), and might have been scared about the food potentially belonging to them.
• He was too full from eating the deer poop he found on his walks outside.

At any rate, it was fun to have Jake visit. If only we could take care of little white goat, too!

* this incident was actually pretty hilarious - especially since the dogs across the street are really neither big nor aggressive.

a not so brief hiatus

After over a month of no internet, at least 20 hours on the phone with Dell, and numerous headaches, my computer is finally working again! They never actually figured out what was wrong, but apparently continuously replacing parts until the computer is no longer broken, works.

In the meantime, what have Lane and I been up to?

Sibley Hall aka where Gar works. photo from wikipeda

Well, I started work at the beginning of November. I work as a program assistant for Cornell's Department of City and Regional Planning. Basically, I coordinate travel for guest speakers, plan events, update website information, and will soon be doing some grant-writing. It's only 30 hours a week, but the commute makes it feel a bit longer. As a result, I'm usually pretty tired by the time I get home.

Luckily, Lane has been home much more often lately. He has finished his first semester of the ILR program (just three more to go!), and is thrilled to have some relaxation time at home. I'm especially lucky, because - as it turns out - he's a pretty fantastic cook. He makes the most amazing lasagna, shredded beef tacos, steak, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, risotto, and ribs. Lane is basically the sweetest husband in the world. He wakes up every morning, packs my lunch, and preps my breakfast so that I can eat while he drive me to the bus I catch to go to work. At night, he is there at the bus stop waiting to pick me up. When I walk into the house, all the dishes are already washed, some little nagging chore has been done, and dinner is ready or almost ready. Here are a couple of examples of the deliciousness Lane prepares:

sun-dried tomato and asparagus risotto with chicken and basil

oven-baked ribs with potatoes and corn

We're starting to get a bit concerned about our waistlines, especially since we discovered Dinosaur BBQ. It's this amazing place in Syracuse that we went to at the beginning of November, and we haven't stopped dreaming about it since. Maybe, since we are both off this week, we'll head up again in the next few days - Lane's brother and sister-in-law got us a gift card to it for Christmas, and we are more than ready to use it. Here are some photos from our first Dinosaur BBQ experience:

Fried green tomatoes with cayenne buttermilk ranch dressing

the sweetheart platter: ribs with a sides of chili, fries, corn bread,
black beans and rice, and mashed potatoes

the porksket: a sandwich with pulled pork, brisket, pickled jalepeno peppers,
and coleslaw. featured on man v. food.

Lane, oh so happy in spite of the ghostly orb behind him.

Gar, ready to eat. What's new?

and, since this blog post is apparently all about food, how can we forget Thanksgiving? Obviously, this was our first Thanksgiving together, and it was lovely. One of Lane's classmates came over, and while the two of them worked on a project, I cooked turkey breast, honey glazed ham, green beans, carrots, dinner rolls, and clam chowder. Lane came in later and made his famous mashed potatoes, and Clara (Lane's friend) brought a delicious tart to finish it all off.

Clara and Lane with the spread. That giant bowl by Lane
is filled with mashed potatoes

carrots, green beans, turkey, ham, clam chowder, yum.

we love tart.

oh hey! guess what? We're also coming back to the Bay Area this summer! Lane being the smarty-pants he is, will be interning with Chevron. It was an extremely competitive internship, and we're thrilled, both for the opportunity, and for the location. Wanna see some random chevron swag?

it's a t-shirt! in the shape of a car! advanced.

So... yes... exciting =D

we like october

apple fest 2011!

Lane and I woke up this morning to a cold DARK dreary day. At first we thought it was just too early to get up... but it was 7am, and pitch black outside. FOG. Lots of FOG. Can't see 20 feet in front of you fog. We resigned ourselves to staying inside all day, but then we realized it was Apple Fest.

What is Apple Fest, you ask? Ah, you poor ignorant non-upstate New Yorkers, it is just one of the most glorious Fall activities ever to grace the face of Ithaca Commons. This, however, is coming from the view of someone who has been stuck in the house or reading in the car day in and day out for the past month or so. Apple Fest has lots of apples (which, funnily, we got no actual pictures of)... and apple-related deliciousness... as well as just general deliciousness (these, thankfully, we did get pictures of)

apple related deliciousness:

we couldn't figure out if the sign on the left meant
"Apple Cider & Donuts"
OR the mindblowing option of actual
"Apple Cider Donuts".
THAT would be incredible.

general deliciousness... Lane and I were very happy about lunch

yum yum

yummy Italian sausages one with peppers, the other without, with DELICIOUS sauce.
*drool*

we didn't want to stay too late, but if we had, we would have tried to go see this:

  

Even though the fog had lifted, it was still pretty cold. We were able to nobly fight the chill off for a while with hot apple cider and funnel cake, but really there is only so much you can do. Look how cold people were!

That, my friends, is what we call bitter cold. It was pretty much drizzling the whole time.

We tried to convince a sheep goat thing to lend me its sweater...

me: "please pretty please?"
sheep goat thing: "no".

We noticed it eyeing the bag of baked goods in my hand... Lane and I backed away.
There's no way we would ever give these up:

yum.

So, like I said, pretty much one of the best Fall activities ever... Even if we count the applicious-baked-good-coveting-never-learned-how-to-share (only knows how to be sheared) sheep goat thing.

house sweet house

We've been living out here for about a month and a half now, so I guess it's time we post pictures of our house. Not the most entertaining thing, but I know there will be at least a few people who have been waiting to see pictures of our first home together. I was brushing my teeth last night, and realized that I was actually living with Lane. It was a weird experience. Anyway, moving on...

view from the road

our little vestibule

the living room from the vestibule

the living room from our bedroom hallway

the living room from the study

the study

the study... again

the bedroom

the bedroom from the hallway

the spare bedroom (lots of room for visitors, hint hint)

one of our bathrooms... not that interesting

our sunroom... sunshine in winter = good

our kitchen from the hallway

our kitchen from the laundry room hallway

yummy food we cook in the kitchen (zuppa toscana + bruschetta
with olive tapenade, goat cheese, and tomato + basil)

a blurry picture of our happy radio we listen to while we cook/eat/clean. yay!

So this is where we live... and I deep cleaned everything again today, after I suffered a bout of allergies. That's the thing about having more space than we actually need - there's so much more to clean!

sometimes...

Sometimes, I try to be a good wife.

Sometimes, it works:

labels so I can play chords for Lane as he jams on his guitar

Sometimes, it doesn't:

a pair of Lane's khakis. can you tell what's wrong?

I burned them with an iron.

Then, sometimes, it works again:

This was one of those times. It was Lane's birthday on Thursday, so I decided I would try to be an impressive wife, and bake him a cake.

After some debate, I only used 3 of the 4 layers.
Mostly because I ran out of frosting. Oh well.

Hmm... still missing something.

That helps, but still not quite ready...

Fork, yes, helpful but not necessary... what does it still need?

Ah, happy birthday boy. Perfect.

Yum.

It was a fun little birthday celebration for Lane. We went out to dinner at an Italian place in downtown T-burg, then headed home for cake. We had a fun little surprise as we drove home.

Do you see it?

She was absolutely adorable! She was just a little skunk, and she waddled along super slowly and in a somewhat disoriented fashion. Do skunks get drunk? Maybe she was looking for a beer bottle in the recycling bin?

sad.