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.

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