Hearts and Crafts

Valentine's rolled around again, and this year, I decided to make wrapping paper and other stuff out of magazine pages. I wrapped a little non-Valentine's gift in some really nice perfume ads. I wanted to make an origami bow, but decided to make a heart instead.


I'm not a big Valentine's person, with hideous bears holding heart-shaped pillows, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, red roses, and spoony couples. On one hand, if you are unattached, all of the Valentine's junk is there to rub it in your face. On the other hand, if you are attached, all of that stuff seems cliche, and the holiday seems completely made up and redundant if you already have a unique anniversary. Even with these strong anti-Valentine's convictions, it falls on a Saturday this year, so I'm going out. Of course, there are errands and homework to do first.

-吴碧芙

Bring on the Spice

Since moving, I haven't been impressed with the selection of Chinese food in SD. SD "spicy" is Asian "mild" at best. I just missed some things, especially Chinese hot pot. On Saturday, we checked out the secret Chinese store, where we found lots of goodies, including "real deal" chili oil, frozen lotus baozi, sachima, tofu skin balls, and spicy hot pot mix.

After a veggie stop at a regular grocery store, we were ready to cook. A little gas burner, enameled iron pot, water, spice mix, and veggies made this Chinese fondue. Between coughs and with our eyes watering, we commented on how wonderful it was...and how spicy. Compare to the Chinese Hot Pot in a previous entry.


The really BIG find was prickly ash or numbing pepper. At the secret Chinese store, I decided to ask the owner because we hadn't found it by just wondering around. She didn't speak Chinese, but she took me all over the store and showed me black and white peppercorns, frozen Thai peppers, and finally (what looked like) numbing pepper in a bag. I added some to the hot pot, and it was definitely the right thing. (click images for larger views)


-吴碧芙

The Cat Came Back

On Saturday, I took a Date to the fine arts center on campus, where there is a photography exhibit going on right now called "Dreams of a Fortune Teller." I didn't know what to expect, but it was really good. The artist collected antique fortune telling artifacts from all over the world, and arranged them in 400 different photos, each photo with a fortune written below it. (Actually, I don't know if all 400 photos were actually displayed, but there were a lot.) The viewer is supposed to only read the fortune under the photo that they are drawn to. We looked at all of the photos, and kept in mind which ones we were drawn to, and then we went back and read our fortunes. It was really unique and fun, but neither of us were impressed with our fortunes.