THE HAM!!!

Let me present...the HAM!!!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, 17 pounds of delicious Smithfield ham that I got for Christmas! Took me forever to cook because I have no pot large enough to hold it, so I had to boil one end first, then the other! Then I put it in the oven encrusted with brown sugar and baked it till the sugar caramelized! Okay, one more look...

Thank you Roomie and her SLR for the HAM portraits!

50 More Things You Don't Really Need to Know about Me

1* Do you like cheese?
not all kinds, and there is such a thing as too much cheese...

2* Have you ever smoked heroin?
don’t you snort it?

3* Do you own a gun?
no

4* Your favorite song?
closer you get by dido

5* Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?
i’ve only gone for regular check-ups so there was nothing to worry about...dentists, however, are a completely different story...

6* What do you think of hotdogs?
taste better when they are RED (a la Tender Juicy)

7* Favorite Christmas song?
hmmm, that’s pretty hard to call...a toss-up between we three kings and what child is this

8* What do you prefer to drink in the morning.
coffee with milk

9* Can you do push ups?
MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

10* Favorite super-hero?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Doctor Who. Although, from the Justice League, it would be Wonder Woman.

11* What's your favorite piece of jewelry?
pearl earrings

12* Favorite hobby?
knitting, cooking, testing perfumes

13* Secret weapon to get the opposite sex?
if i had any weapons, then maybe i wouldn’t be in this rocking chair knitting a scarf for a stuffed dog...

14* Do you have A.D.D.?
i got this far in the survey, didn’t i?

15* What's one trait do you hate about yourself?
that i’m poor, hahaha!

16* Middle Name:
uy!

17* Three thoughts at this exact moment
a.) dissertation
b.) shit, dissertation
c.) shittety bricketty! dissertation!

18* Name 3 things you bought yesterday?
a.) cappucino
b.) carrot cake
c.) load for the laundry card

19* Name 3 drinks you regularly drink?
a.) water
b.) coffee
c.) orange juice

20* Current worry right now?
see #17

21* Current hate?
having heat when it’s warm and no heat when it’s cold

22* Favorite places?
my room, my bed, and I’m lying down

23* How did you bring in the New Year?
visited friends in virginia

24* Where would you like to go?
anywhere i can go shopping

25* Name three people who will complete this and return?
a) Spot
b) Spot
c) Spot

26* Do you own flip flops?
yes

27* What shirt are you wearing?
white Fordham shirt

28* Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?
i don’t think i’ve had the opportunity...but if it’s anything like satin dresses, probably not.

29* Can you whistle?
yes

30* Favorite color/s?
light aqua

31* Would you like to be a pirate?
only if i get sandwiched between johnny depp and orlando bloom (with a little chow yun fat on the side)

32* What songs do you sing in the shower room?
anything by the corrs

33* Favorite girl's name?
Shakespearean names: Viola, Olivia, Katharina, Beatrice, Imogen

34* Favorite boy's name?
As with 33: Auberon, Sebastian, Edmund (though he was a villain)

35* What's in your pocket right now?
no pockets now

36* Last thing that made you laugh?
noel’s entry on how leanne is his loudest friend

37* Best bed sheets as a child?
i remember we had matching sheets for 2 queen sized beds – one set was yellow and the other was green

38* Worst injury you've ever had?
tripped at the quad during my freshman year...my pride was really hurt

39* Do you love where you live?
sure. *don't be fooled by the rocks that i got, i'm still jenny from the block...*

40* How many computers do you have in your house?
3 laptops

41* Who is your loudest friend?
Spot!

42* How many dogs do you have?
Spot!

43* Does someone have a crush on you?
do pigs fly?

45* What is your favorite book?
Godfather, Pride and Prejudice

46* What is your favorite candy?
Peppermint Patties

47* Favorite Sports Teams?
Yankees, Maple Leafs, Lightning

48* What song do you want played at your funeral?
Don’t Stop Me Now or Another One Bites the Dust (mwahaha!) by Queen

49* What were you doing 12 AM last night?
Sleeping, like any normal person

50* What is the first thing you thought of when you woke up?
It’s kinda warm in here...

In the wee small hours of morning...

“How impressed I was, I remember well, impressed and over-awed by the magnificence of the breakfast offered to us. There was tea, in a great silver urn, and coffee too, and on the heater, piping hot, dishes of scrambled eggs, of bacon, and another of fish. There was a little clutch of boiled eggs as well, in their own special heater, and porridge, in a silver porringer. On another side-board was a ham, and a great piece of cold bacon. There were scones too, on the table, and toast, and various pots of jam, marmalade, and honey, while dessert dishes, piled high with fruit, stood at either end. It seemed strange to me that Maxim, who in Italy and France had eaten a croissant and fruit only, and drunk a cup of coffee, should sit down to this breakfast at home, enough for a dozen people, day after day probably, year after year seeing nothing ridiculous about it, nothing wasteful.” -- Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

Such were the breakfasts at Manderley. Now if only we could get rid of the psychotic housekeeper...

I am not a breakfast person. When I wake up in the morning, my body craves three things: more sleep, a bath, and a cup of coffee, in that order. When I was younger, I could go all day without eating until dinner (which, in my old life, was around 9 in the evening), but now, I can probably do it until 3 pm, provided that I had 3 cups of coffee in the preceding hours.

A lot of people are surprised when they find out that I don’t eat breakfast (“but it’s the most important meal of the day!”) but the thing is, I was always in a hurry and I always blamed breakfast as the reason why my sisters and I were late to school. My sisters had to eat breakfast, and it took them forever to finish eating. Seriously, 90-year old grandmothers and civil service employees ate faster than them. By the time I was a senior in high school, I was skipping lunch too, as there was too much school crap to finish over lunch break. But that was short-lived because I got crankier the less rice I had during a day. The only time I ate breakfast on a regular basis was when I was on an internship, and catching up with my boss entailed breaking several Olympic track and field records. Not to mention that the cafeteria was the best in the country.

I don’t have any problem with actual breakfast food. I love having fried rice, tocino, sausages, and eggs (fried, scrambled, boiled, poached, you name it!). I love orange juice (especially with a little champagne mixed in) and lots of coffee with milk. Congee, and pancakes and bacon, and butter and marmalade and toast. I love going to diners and ordering corn beef hash and home fries. I hate cereal though – I hate it with a passion.

The thing is, I really need to re-learn the breakfast thing. My classes start a little late in the morning, which means, I will be pretty much pre-occupied through lunch till late afternoon. Then I have to do laundry! Last Tuesday, I tried to get a little bit of lamb stew down my throat at around 10 am, and I was miserable trying to scarf down the entire lot. For once, I wanted to throw up lamb. Lamb! So does anyone have any suggestions about how I can try to integrate breakfast in my life? I’m pretty prepared, with a couple dozen eggs, marmalade, bread, and a bit of ham (okay, 17 pounds of ham). How do I make peace with breakfast?

A to Z, which I filched from Noel

A - Age: uhm, 27…
B - Band Listening to Right Now: Freddie Mercury and Queen! (nice duds guys)

C - Career: In my head -- vampire slayer; reality – PhD student

D - Drink or Smoke: Drink
E - Easiest Friends To Talk To: Sisters, cousins, current/former/semi roomies (just some of them, of course)
F - First Crush: Leif Garett, hahaha, try googling that!

G - Gummy Bears or Gummy Worms: gummy bears
H - Have a Boyfriend / Girlfriend: No, but I have a fire escape guy…
I - In love: only with my dissertation

J - Junk Food You Like: Planters cheese curls! (yes, I know the picture says cheese balls, dammit!)

K - Kids: Just remember I will probably be the last person you ask to babysit!
L - Longest Ride Ever: Noel, there’s no such thing as Manila to New York…HK to New York
M - Making love out of nothing at all: And I don’t know how you do it… Have to agree with Noel on Air Supply

N - Names For Your Future Kids: Harry Jasper Junior? (MWAHAHAHA!)

O - One Wish You Have Now: that I will be more disciplined and more organized
P - Phobias: Telephone – hate dialing unfamiliar numbers or talking to people I don’t really know.
Q - Favorite Quote: "In Te Domine speravi" and “Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus”
R - Reasons to Smile: The world didn’t end while I was sleeping…
S - Sleeping Time: 1 am, more or less
T - Time You Woke Up: 8:30 am if I am lucky
U - Unknown Fact About You: That I used to be called Angel
V - Vegetable You Hate: No matter how hard I try, I cannot like bitter melon.
W - Worst Habit: procrastination
X - X-rays You’ve Had: chest and teeth
Y - Yummy Foods: Most of my cooking, Roomie’s flan, Mommy’s mung bean soup, Grand Majestic, dimsum…
Z - Zodiac Sign: Capricorn, born in the year of the Fire Dragon

Whaaaaaaat!!! No Pictures???!!! (Part Deux)

He heard his father cry out—they had left the camera with his mother. “All this way, and no picture,” he’d said, shaking his head. He reached into his pocket and began to throw the striped stones into the water. “We will have to remember it, then.”

-- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

In a break with tradition (my tradition that is) I accepted an invitation to spend New Year’s with family friends in Virginia. Normally, I spend New Year's in Manhattan (as far away as possible from Times Square --damned tourist trap) and maybe see a good movie on new Year's Day (Roomie, I swear, I haven't seen Sweeney Todd or Atonement just yet, but you better hurry up and get here!).

There’s so much to see in Virginia and D.C.—most of the museums are free and there is a lot of history in the area. Even if I stayed for only three full days, I was in full tourist mode, except for the fact that I had left my camera behind (BEWWWWW!). I was excited to re-learn going around the city, exploring new museums and— what the heck—riding the Metro.

The first day of my visit, my host brought me to Mount Vernon, the residence of George Washington. I suppose he lived here during the days of his presidency, as the White House was not finished during his term. Good ole George lived in the lap of luxury, with about 8,000 acres to his name and a posh house overlooking the Potomac River, a gorgeous view that a lot of people would kill for. I hated that people were hurried through the house tour, as I would have liked to closely examine some of the furniture and knick knacks from the 18th century. But I really got a kick out of the laundry room. It was huge, with a large stove, irons that were actually made of iron and hanging rods. In those days, laundry was a difficult and dangerous job, since handling the hot irons was often an accident waiting to happen. And since there was no plumbing at that time, water had to be hauled from the river nearby.

Most of the surrounding area had been farmland or orchards, probably giving rise to the story about George Washington and the cherry tree. Here is something I picked up to remind me of my day at Mount Vernon. Pretty tasty, eh?

New Year’s day was pretty quiet, and I rested so that I would have more energy to hit the museums. The next day, I got a ride to the city and tried to feel my way around the Metro system in D.C. During my last visit, I walked around the city to get a better handle on directions and streets. It had been summer then, and I got really brown, too. However, it was positively arctic, and since I was nursing a cold, the Metro was the way to go. Besides, I love trains, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment to learn my way around a rail transit system.

Though not as large and extensive as the New York City subway, the Metrorail was cleaner, and the trains were pretty much on time (there are screens that tell you how many minutes before the train arrives on the platform). The station closest to where I was staying was called Dunn Loring, and it took about 45 minutes to Metro Center riding the orange train (you can follow my path on the map above, hahaha). It was relatively easy to get the hang of it, and I made note of the directions to Chinatown, where I would take the bus to go home to New York the next day. Chinatown in DC is just one stretch of H street (or is it 7th?) marked by this archway.

First on my stop was the National Portrait Gallery. I love portraits and one of my life's dreams is to pose for a four by seven foot painting before I die. A bit narcissistic, yes, and a bit difficult to display in my rather small apartment. While I was unable to view all of the paintings on display in the gallery, I had a lot of fun in the Civil War section. I was finally able to put faces to names like Jefferson Davis, Daniel Webster, William Sherman, Stonewall Jackson, and Pierre Beauregard. The portraits were arranged as if the display was telling a story. It inspired me to read up on the causes and the personages of the American Civil War (huge task, considering my only education on the Civil War was reading Gone With the Wind). Other points of interest included an exhibit on Katherine Hepburn and the Origins of America. Here is a sampler of portraits from the NPG.

Before I went back to NYC, I had to make a stopover at the National Gallery of Art, if only to refresh my memory of the paintings that were on display there. They have a large collection of impressionists and post-impressionists (which are the only paintings that interest me by the way--I have no patience for modern art) and while I was unable to take pictures of them this time, I have pictures here from my previous visit (BEWWWWWWW!). Love how you are allowed to bring an easel in to paint--this would have never happened at the Met.

As I was leaving D.C. on the Chinatown bus (hey! only $35 round trip!), I realized that I had forgotten to check the schedule of the National Opera at the Kennedy Center. My fave Placido Domingo is the director of the National Opera, and he has occasional performances, both as singer and conductor. Oh well, I hope to remember next time. And to remember to bring that freaking camera!