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.

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!

yay photos!

our talented photographer, Marielle Hayes, has some of our wedding photos up on her blog

here's one:


more to come =)