Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows...

Yesterday was my birthday. It was a wonderful day, although mostly like a normal Wednesday: I had class in the morning and evening, went to the gym, and visited 文大猊 after class. When I got to his apartment, he had the most elegant spread, including our favorite sandwich, funfetti cake with rainbow chip frosting, and Asian sesame eggplant (the first Asian eggplant of the season from my friend's garden).


The big surprise was the bouquet of blue cornflowers, mostly because I thought they were impossible to get. I guess 文大猊 has good guanxi because he found out that these flowers are available for special orders in local shops for only a few weeks every summer, and he had the foresight to order early enough for my birthday. It was beautiful and perfect!


We marveled at the intricacy of the blossoms, the brilliant color, and the wild curves of the stems and greens.

-吴碧芙

Home Improvement

Since the big, scary "digital switch," I've suffered from the extreme lack of channels. At best, I could watch skittery NBC and the "all Olympics all the time" channel. The wonders of the internet triumph again, as 文大猊 found a couple of plans for a homemade antenna. He fashioned a prototype for me, and another for himself, out of wire hangers, wood, wire, and odds and ends.


Another amazing improvement via the 文 Design Studio is a shelf for above the sink. If you compare this to the original photo, you will see that I can now maximize my 18 inches of counter space, with no precarious plates. If I cover the sink with the cutting board, there's some extra usable space.


In fact, this morning I lined up a toaster, coffee maker, and 3-cup food processor on the cutting board, with enough room for the plates and coffee cups on the counter. Plus, now there's room to keep my favorite things on the counter with a spice rack underneath.

-吴碧芙

The Cake Stands Alone

This 4th of July weekend, my parents and brother came to visit. We ate local, played board games, watched "Dorm Life" on Hulu (which you should also do), and had a nice dinner for my parents' anniversary. The city had a really nice fireworks display, which we could watch right outside their hotel.

I had another big celebration to prepare for, and my mom brought me cake pans along with the mold for a checkerboard cake. We decided to make strawberry and lemon cake with vanilla frosting. Filling the mold was a bit tricky and interesting. After filling it with alternating colors, the mold is removed before baking. I decided to make a two-layer cake, since no more layers would fit in my tiny oven.


In the end, I got two layers and 12 cupcakes. It was a delicious birthday cake, but as you can see, the checkerboard kind of blobbed out. (Click to enlarge.)


So delicious, in fact, that there is only one piece left...


Just kidding. We only ate 1/6 of the cake, or two of the twelve pieces. I put the rest, along with the cupcakes, in the freezer. Although, ten frozen pieces of cake are still ten pieces of cake.

-吴碧芙