Sunday Stroll Along the Canal

We recently discovered that there are quite a lot of houseboats on the canal nearby. Houseboats in Amsterdam are pretty common, but I didn't realize there were so many within spitting distance of our house down here!

Several were hidden and completely out of sight.

There were some with garden sheds too, which struck me as kinda funny. I wouldn't expect to have a garden if I was living on a boat, but some of these folks did!

The further down the canal we wandered, the more industrial the area became.

Eventually we found this giant scrapheap and decided to head back home.

Too bad the map we found was for the WRONG PART OF THE CITY!

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Be sure to visit Unknown Mami for more Sundays in My City.

Mysterious Map

A few weeks ago Martijn and I went wandering around a little bit and found this nifty map. We were a little confused though as it is a map from nowhere near where we were in the city! Still though, I loved the style of it.

Most of the streets are named after food.

The map legend shows single family homes, multiple family homes, stores, public & special buildings, gardens, bike paths, water and so on and so forth. It seems quite detailed! Too bad it didn't give any detail about where we actually were!

Five-Thirty O'clock Friday

This is Five-Thirty O'clock Friday! My friend Lori does Five O'clock Fridays on her blog where you take a photo at 5 o'clock on Friday each week. Even though I've asked her about 16 times to impliment some sort of SMS reminder service to text me at 5 on Friday, she hasn't done it. Therefore, we have Five-Thirty O'clock Friday this week! And just be glad I actually remembered at 5:30 and not 11:30 like I usually do.

It was actually pretty dark when I took this but I set the exposure time as long as it would go and it turned the sky this gorgeous purpley-blue color. I love it!

Peeling & Grating Fresh Ginger

Many gadgets make things far simpler than they might be otherwise, and I'm going to share with you a really nifty kitchen gadget that will peel your ginger like a charm!

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Kim, that's a regular teaspoon, not a gadget." You're right, but I will tell you it's the best way to peel ginger that I've found! If you use a knife you end up losing a layer of ginger with the skin. Trying to use a regular peeler in all the bumps and nooks and crannies isn't worth the bother. With the teaspoon, you can get into the little cracks without worrying about chopping off your fingers by accident, and it just peels off the outer layer of skin like a dream!

Scrape the ginger with the inside of a spoon like so:

When you've gotten your ginger peeled, then you can use a little ginger grater to grate it up. If you have a mega sharp knife and a lot more patience than me, you can mince the ginger that way too.

Or you can skip grating it all together and make some yummy crystallized ginger!

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This week G is for Ginger! Make sure to go check out the other participants by clicking on the picture below.

New Assistant

The monkey production line is back in business and it seems I have a new assistant.

The Newest Victim of European Hotel Beds

I mentioned my concerns about what sort of sleeping arrangements Martijn and I would have on our little weekend away. Mr Jummy discovered that those fears were not unfounded.

Everything always starts out fine. You're laying in bed watching the television...

But at some point, disaster ALWAYS strikes!

Why is it that hotels here don't think you should actually sleep in the same bed as someone without the fear of falling into a cavernous ditch in the bed!?

I suppose it is just one of life's great mysteries.

Nook Thief

We bought a nook this summer while we were in the US. I haven't used it a lot because someone keeps stealing it.

He claims he's trying to learn how to read, but Martijn installed Far Side cartoons as the screensaver, so I think we all know what he's REALLY doing!