little white goat, standard brown goat, little white goat, standard brooown goat!

Back in the fall, before Lane started taking the bus to school, I would drive him to and from campus. I - being the excellent driver that I am, and yes, I AM ASIAN - would watch the road, and Lane would watch the scenery. About a couple weeks into classes, on our way back home, Lane told me that he had noticed a brown goat and a little white goat living in a small fenced-in area next to a house along the side of the road. Of course, I found all of this very exciting. After, all, as I've mentioned in the past, goats are perfect companions for puppies. I wasn't able to see the goats that day, but after keeping a lookout for them for a few days, I finally saw them! Ever since then, Lane and I have taken a keen interest in the two. We call them 'little white goat' and 'standard brown goat', and look out for them every time we pass by. If we're not together, we always make sure to text each other updates as we go past.

At first we thought they were the best of friends because we saw them cuddling one day. Then we were kind of worried that standard brown was bullying little white, because standard brown wouldn't let little white up on his ramp, and because we saw little white standing out in the cold, reduced to eating chicken feed (oh yeah, did we mention they live with chickens? yeah). We think maybe standard brown was concerned that little white was planning to stage a coup to become king of the coop (of course, little white would never do this, Lane and I believe he would have just waited for his time in the sun).

We felt bad for little white. Then we became even more concerned, because a third goat, we call him 'shaggy brown goat', was seen in the pen, and he seemed really aggressive towards both standard brown and little white. At this point it looked like little white was always out in the cold, even when it was dark, and even the chickens didn't hang out with him. It was EXTREMELY upsetting.

Thankfully, after a few weeks we no longer saw shaggy brown - we think he might have just been a visiting cousin of standard brown or something. At any rate, after that, standard brown started being nice to little white again, so Lane and I were happy again. I think maybe standard brown had gotten a taste of his own medicine from shaggy brown, and realized the error of his ways. Let's not over-analyze it, though.

Lane and I cannot even describe how much we love these goats. A couple weeks ago we finally got the courage to pull over to see them - we honked the horn and they came out and "maaaah"ed at us. We were so stinking thrilled. We stayed for what some people would say is way too long; I was scared that the owners would come out, find us, and shoot us for trespassing. Still, the lure of little white and standard brown are too great to resist - we stopped by again today and got these images and video. Enjoy!

little white in all his glory

standard brown rocking the goatee look

the dynamic duo, oh how we love them!

Lane couldn't resist - he got out of the car and went to pet them. According to him, their faces felt bristly, but they were friendly and enjoyed smelling him. I was jealous, but didn't want to get shot by their owners - even though it probably would have been worth it.

Here's another video - this time of them nuzzling. You can hear standard brown make a little "maaaaah" at the end.

In other très exciting news, Lane and I will be dogsitting this week! Our landlords are going out of town for a few days, and Lane and I volunteered to take care of their funny little dog, Jake. When I found out we would get to dogsit, I could not contain myself. It seriously took me forever to fall asleep that night, I was so excited. Pictures and videos to come!

.... ahhhh! okay! i can't resist! one last video of little white and standard brown - note the chicken running in the background at 00:19 - for some reason, just soooo hilarious.

I love them. I really, truly love them.

snow

Remember back in October when I was complaining about the first snowfall? Well, here's what the snow looked like then:

our front yard. what was going through my mind: "NOOOOOOO!"

And, as of last Saturday, here's what snow looks like now:

our backyard. what is going through my mind: "WHYYYYYY!?!?!?!?!" and
"what animals do those tracks belong to!?!?!"

I guess we started freaking out about the snow a little too early on. Lane tried to convince me that snow isn't too bad, and that it's good to play in.We started with shoveling the driveway, which thing was weirdly fun the first time, not so fun every time after that. We cleared our whole driveway! But then it snowed again, so that was kinda pointless. So THAT was why our neighbors didn't shovel their driveways.

After shoveling our driveway, we headed to the backyard to make snowmen. The snow was too powdery, so the snowballs wouldn't form. I tried breathing on it to make the ball stick better:

cold.

 It didn't work. So, in frustration, I tried eating the snow. That wasn't fun either.

yuck. dry and powdery.

 Lane decided to take pictures of my footprints.

skechers, yo.

 I decided we should make snow angels. Lane went first.

he's so cute!

 Then it was my turn. I was too scared to fall over on my own, so Lane ended up pushing me over against my will. It got the job done, though.

i have no idea why this picture won't rotate.

 My angel wasn't as good as Lane's angel.

grassy.

 His was quite impressive.

pretty. or should i say handsome?

Lane found animal tracks in the snow. There were a ton! We're not sure if they were deer, raccoons, rabbits, or squirrels. He decided to run where they ran.

lane likes to imitate animals by frolicking. i like lane.

It was odd because earlier we had found tracks that seriously looked like penguin prints. We were sad we didn't get pictures before the snow in the driveway melted. *sigh*

So there you go. Snow. Real, honest to goodness snow. Just in time for Chinese New Year. Ooh. Want to see what I made?

tong yun!

I felt advanced. And Lane liked everything but the Chinese sausage! I would categorize this as a win, both in cooking prowess, and in having a wonderful husband. Happy New Year!

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

wedding photo overload

Yay wedding photos! You can click on photos within the slideshow to get slightly larger images. If you want any higher-resolution images, let us know =) We're also planning on sending copies of the disc Marielle sent us to Lane's parents and my mom. We really loved working with our photographer, Marielle Hayes, and can't recommend her enough.

photos of us coming out of the Temple after our sealing ceremony, and our formal family photos:



photos of Lane and me at the Oakland Temple and the Greek Orthodox Cathedral:



photos of our Ring Ceremony at my mom's house in El Cerrito:



photos of our Family Luncheon:



photos of our California Reception:



photos by the talented Marielle Hayes

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.