Update on Dancing with the Stars...Heather Mills got booted off despite being able to do backflips inspite of having one artificial leg. It is very hard to pick a favorite now. I want to root for them all. Anyways, if you check the video section of my multiply webpage (kristinesync.multiply.com), I posted a video of the group dance the remaining stars did last Monday.

Okay, this is from noelmnh’s site…and I thought I would give it a go…

This is going to be one weird survey given the rules which are -->Put your ipod on shuffle. Press forward for each question. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if they don't make sense. You'll be surprised though.NO CHEATING.

*How am I feeling today?
(If you love someone) set them free – Sting. HUH.

*Will I get far in life?
Gayatri mantra – Deva Premal. Hmm…must meditate on that. Ohm.

*How do my friends see me?
Together – Atomic Kitten. I feel it in my heart that we’ll be…together. HUH.

*Where will I get married?
Pres des remparts des Seville – Carmen by Bizet. Apparently in a police barracks in Seville. Dammit.

*What is my best friend's theme song?
Celebration – Kylie Minogue

*What is the story of my life?
My favorite mistake – Sheryl Crow. How appropriate.

*What was high school like?
Bring Him Home – Les Miserables Broadway Cast. Ok, so does not make sense.

*What is the best thing about me?
Milonga del poeta – Il Postino Soundtrack. Lyrics of a poet. How…poetic.

*What was today like?
I’ll be good for you -- *NSYNC. HAH!

*What is in store for this weekend?
Ah! Per l’ultimo Volta – Turandot, by Puccini. The final turn. So not going there.

*What song describes my parents?God only knows – Beach Boys.
They are so different from each other, and yet, they still haven’t killed each other. God only knows…

*How is my life going?
Say you’ll be mine -- Amy Grant

*What song will they play at my funeral?
Don’t go breaking my heart – Anne Hathaway and Jesse McCartney. Wow. Cute and upbeat.

*How does the world see me?
I should be so lucky – Kylie Minogue. Again, cute and upbeat. Hee : )

*Do people secretly lust after me?
The hands that built America – U2??? I guess it was the theme song of Gangs of New York…maybe Leo di Caprio secretly lusts after me…

*How can I make myself happy?
Lothlorien – Lord of the Rings Soundtrack. Great. Now I have to go live with the elves…then again…

*What should I do with my life?
Caravan – Harry Connick Jr. I guess I must pack up and go (to Lothlorien, MWAHAHAHAHA!)

*Will I ever have children?
In un coupe – La Boheme by Puccini. Did he just say in a bowl? I gotta get rid of my foreign language titles…

*What will you name them?
Ce n’est rien – Les Miz concept album. Dammit. Nothing.

*Who will you marry?
French horns – Britten Young People’s Orchestra. Great. Explains previous entry.

*Do you have a gf/bf?
Road to ruin – The Libertines. I guess not.

I was never a true fan of avocado. My grandmother had a giant tree right beside the large bedroom of her house, and during the avocado season (I'm not even really sure that there was an avocado season, but that tree only bore fruit in certain months) it would be chock-full of huge green fruit. I guess it wasn't the Haas variety, which has a rough, purply skin. Our avocados were large, green and smooth to the touch.

My obsession with avocados began when a friend expressed a hatred for the fruit (yes, it is a fruit, because the tree flowers and bears seeds, duh). His mother was from California, and apparently loved having it in every other thing. He couldn't bear to touch anything that had touched an avocado. Somehow, I wanted to prove that he had the wrong attitude to avocados.

So I began to explore the potential of avocados. A Jamaican roommate once said that back in her country, they ate avocados like mashed potatoes, with meat or fish. A classmate from South Africa talked about avocado sandwiches, with the avocado mashed with lemon juice and spread on sandwich bread. In the US, California maki is made with avocado while back home it is made with mango -- I like the avocado version better. Of course, back home, we have avocado ICE CREAM...my American classmates positively cringe at the idea.

I am trying to find a picture of avocado ice cream, but no success. In the absence of an ice cream maker, my mother mixes avocado and condensed milk (I think,) and chills the mixture.

Mostly, I love avocado in anything that isn't sweet. Like this...

Or this...

Or this...

But today, I am going to share my favorite sandwich recipe. I must have culled it from a Martha Stewart recipe, since I believe in all things Martha. Or possibly a Food Network or Real Simple recipe. I have made a little bit of tweaking as well.

The recipe calls for a salmon filet, one avocado, juice of half a lemon, a tablespoon of butter, bread (I like garlic pita or pumpernickel the best), a bunch of arugula, dill or fresh oregano, salt and pepper to taste.

Poach the salmon till it is cooked through and flakes easily (you can add dill to make the salmon more flavorful). Make the avocado butter by mixing avocado, butter, dill OR oregano (dill has a more subtle flavor, but oregano gives a great kick), lemon juice, salt and pepper. Toast the bread. Assemble the sandwich by flaking the salmon and spreading it on a piece of bread. Top with arugula. Spread the avocado butter on another piece of bread, and place on top of the arugula. Be generous with all the ingredients...this is meant to be a hearty, overflowing, messy sandwich.

So what are your favorite avocado or favorite sandwich recipes?

I was in Soho yesterday for a little yarn shopping. A friend is getting married in July, and I thought that matching scarves would be a good gift, even if they are going to settle down in Singapore. I'm sure that they will be doing a lot of travelling, and I am hoping these little things will keep them warm.




As you can see, I was so excited to start the scarves. There is a little bit of mohair in there to make it all nice and fuzzy, and I am thinking I should do the same with the purple scarf.

I am too sleepy to elaborate, so I'm gonna just post it right now.

Nessun dorma (no one sleeps) is the piece of music that singlehandedly seduced me to the world of opera. I don't remember when I heard it first. But the swell of the music...ahhh! Turadot became the first opera CD I owned (although the first opera I listened to from beginning to end was La Traviata, and started my lifelong one way love affair with Placido Domingo...another story for another time), and I am the proud owner of 9 different versions of Nessun dorma (sadly, my student budget will not allow me to purchase more than one version of the full opera). Of course, I bought the version where Domingo sings Calaf, although I've had my eye on the version with Pavarotti, Sutherland and Caballe for months now, if it weren't so freaking expensive.

So last year, I broke down and finally spent 70 dollars to see the premiere of Turandot at the Met. I would have spent more, but no one wanted to sit with me in a box seat, so there. I waited three months, and I think I was not disappointed (although, I had a headache from earlier in the day that would not go away).

Call me a snob, I guess, but I have never bought a ticket for an opera that was not staged in the Metropolitan Opera House. I have officially designated it as one of my "happy places" in the city. When the starburst chandeliers start ascending to the ceiling to signal the beginning of a performance, I seem to forget that I have tests, papers, students, teachers, bills, and all the tedious minutiae of life.

The print above is by Rafal Olbinski, whose work I've seen prominently displayed in the Met Opera gift shop. Turandot is the daughter of the Emperor of China, who challenges her suitors to answer her three riddles (they are really ridiculous riddles too, I don't know why these suitors cannot muster half a brain among them to answer the riddles). Answer the riddles thrice, die only once, she says. If the riddles are unanswered, off with the suitor's head. Calaf, a prince who has lost his kingdom, has gone insane when he sees the beautiful Turandot (what explanation is there for him to abandon his poor, old and blind father?) and answers the challenge. He successfully answers the riddles, but now Turandot backs out on the deal. She would rather die than get married. Calaf tells her that if he can find out what his name by tomorrow, he will die. Turandot then proceeds to annoy the populo di Pechino by threatening them with dire suffering if the name of the prince is not found. Ergo, nessun dorma in Pechino.

Now Turandot's henchmen have found Calaf's father, Timur, and his slave girl Liu, who is secretly in love with Calaf. They torture Liu, who kills herself before she could reveal the name. As everyone on the stage leaves, Calaf goes and kisses Turandot (she gets a kiss for killing somebody??? WTH!) and SHE realizes that she's got a thing for him after all! So everyone is happy, except for the 12 suitors who died in the year of the tiger.

I tend to listen to the tenors very closely, much more so than the sopranos. Richard Margison was passable, his voice very similar to Domingo, but my benchmark for Calaf is the Italian tenor Franco Corelli. Now, I don't know as much about opera as I pretend I do, but something about Corelli's voice -- he has a voice that can be heard all the way in China if he performed in New York! It works well with the al'alba vincero attitude that Calaf should have.

Hei-Kyung Hong as Liu was the audience favorite, I believe. I have heard her sing as Violetta at Central Park, and she has a strong clear voice. This opera was the first time I heard Andrea Gruber sing, she didn't really move me (by the way, what's with all the white costumes? Chinese only wear white during funerals. I guess considering she has more than 20 dead suitors, maybe she can be excused.).

My favorite part, surprisingly, was the trio segment with the three courtiers, with the unfortunate names of Ping, Pong, and Pang (it goes to show how much Europeans knew about China at that time). They had great comedic timing (ah, the irony of preparing for both a wedding and a funeral), and looked like they enjoyed themselves.

I think I shall watch again. I hope they have a different cast, so that it is a different performance all together.

Wow. It's been such a hectic hectic last two weeks. I finally admitted defeat and told myself that I needed more time to write the paper that I need to write, and this is the last chance I will get...

Anyways, I haven't really done much on the knitting front, as I have been busy with research, and I hope to get more time into my Gryffindor scarf (yes, nycoz4, it is a Gryffindor scarf). And speaking of Gryffindor, Scholastic has just released the cover art of the seventh Harry Potter book...wait...let me just get on mugglenet.com and download it...

Aha! Here we go...

Everyone is free to speculate as to where they are, what they are doing, and who the hell are the people in the background. There must be some wandless magic going on, right? Coz why would Harry be facing Voldemort without a wand? Can't wait to pre-order my copy! Why haven't I pre-ordered yet? Coz I'm not sure where I am going to be in July, duh.

I think a Slytherin scarf should be next on my no. 7 circular needles after I complete the Gryffindor one, don't you think?

Dancing with the Stars is BAAAACK!

American Idol, American Shmidol! Somehow, I really can't stand watching ordinary people trying to hit the bigtime, but I am an absolute sucker for B, C, and D list celebrities hamming it up on a ballroom dancing floor. This season has been especially entertaining...at least for me it is : ) hee.

My sentimental favorite is Joey Fatone. I was a huge *NSYNC fan in the late 1990s, to the annoyance of my co-workers who had to listen to Bye Bye Bye a gazillion times before I finally packed up my MP3s and my Lance Bass screensaver (a few years later, my former co-worker, remembering my fondness for Mr. Bass, forwarded me a news article about Lance's coming out as a gay man, with an implicit "I told you so"). And I must say, if not for the fact that my files were corrupted when I arrived in the US, I had a really good collection of my boys' songs.

Anyways, Joey was the best dancer in *NSYNC (take that, Justin Timberflake!) so I figured he was a shoo-in in this competition. But there was someone who was floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee...

Laila Ali's mambo was just sizzling. Well maybe it's about time for another woman to win this competition ya know. She is the one to beat! The Greatest must be smiling, wherever he is....But...

When Apollo Anton Ohno came out dancing to "Let's Hear it for the Boy" I was "aaaawwwww shucks!" He's actually pretty good, and he and his partner seem to have a lot of fun. Well, the judges like him a lot, too.

But the others were great too! Ian Zering and Cher Burke were still very much in the running. Heather Mills did a backflip (remember, she has an artificial leg), and Billy Ray has moved up from being a bear lost in the swamp. I was disappointed that Paulina Porizkova was eliminated, she was so pretty to look at, and she danced better than that Ms. USA girl (such a ditz too!).

Anyways, next week, I AM VOTING! (By the way, all images from abc.com).

Spot is falling asleep, so we'll say good night here. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Inspired by an email sent by a wonderful and beautiful person (whose Starbucks name shall not be mentioned, haha), I am posting an answer to his questionnaire, and I am hoping to find visual aids that might help Spot's readers know more about Spot's girl. So here goes:

1. What time is it? 4:24 pm

2. Name: K

3. What are you most afraid of ? hell

4. What do you drive? flip flops

5. Have you ever seen a ghost? no. someone stuck an ice pick in my third eye years ago

6. Where were you born? Cebu, Philippines

7. Ever been to Alaska ? Anchorage airport as well, and I have the teddy bear to prove it! (ok, some manyak has the teddy bear)

8. Croutons or Bacon bits: putting a gun to my head? croutons, but prefer nuts

9. Favorite day of the week: Friday always has positive associations

10. Favorite restaurant: If I have to be pretentious...L'Atelier de Joel Roubouchon (been there only once, totally amazing)...but if I am being true to myself...Harbor City in the SM Mall in Cebu City (the ONLY dimsum restaurant in the world, as far as I'm concerned, East Manor in Queens, Pampa on the Upper West Side (bowing to the wisdom of Louie L.), that seafood place beside the beach in Iloilo, brunch at Bizu, Manila was always good (am a sucker for eggs florentine), Las Paellas de Alba, wherever I can get pata tim...I know there are more, but I don't remember...

11 . Favorite Flower: Hydrangeas (especially the really blue ones) and I agree with Jonner on the cattleyas...I particularly remember an apple green one with a purple center that my aunt gave me to wear on my high school graduation...Grandmere and Maman are also great collectors of orchids..The plate sized magnolias that grow in front of the National Gallery in Washington DC...masses of bougainvillas remind me of home, we had a huge tree full of white blossoms that used to climb on top of the gate to the driveway.

12. Favorite sport to watch: Go Leafs! Go Yankees! Ballroom dancing (yes, it's an Olympic sport!), figure skating. Lately Noel has had me watching American football.

13 . Favorite Drink: mango juice, when it's from Cebu

(have no idea where #14 is)

15 . Disney or Warner Brothers: WETA. go figure.

16 . Favorite fast food restaurant: does dimsum count as fastfood (since the food is served by carts)? Harbor City

17 . What color is your bedroom carpet? none. the better not to cover my hardwood floors

18 . How many times have you failed your driver's test? never taken it. never found the need to.

19 . Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail from: sadly, the New York Times

20 . What do you do most often when you are bored? knit. especially since i got that itsy bitsy knitters bag

21. Bed time? ideal is between midnight and 1 am

22 . Who will respond to this email the quickest? i reserve judgement

23 . Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond? i reserve judgement

24 . Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses: peyton manning...oh wait, he's not on my mailing list

25 . Favorite T.V. shows: LOST, CSI, brothers and sisters, house, grey's, ugly betty, masterpiece, iron chef (original version), and sadly, all my children (well gregory house watches general hospital!)

26 . Ford or Chevy? sorry, no american cars for me.

27 . What are you listening to right now? aolradio.com

28 . What is your favorite color? I think aqua or turquoise...the color of the waters off Boracay island on a stunning, sunny 85 degree day, and the colors of a tropical sunrise (sunsets are too cliche).

29 . How many tattoos do you have? on my boobs? let me count...none

30 . Do you have any pets? i heart pablodor, tigger, nicole, penelope and paski (and scubs, olive and toyang in heaven)

31 . How many people are you sending this e-mail to? i've forgotten how to count