Kersen

This right here is one of my absolute favorite things about California: fantastic local produce.

About a fifteen-minute walk from my apartment is a store called Monterey Market. Their parking lot is about half as large as it should be, as are their aisles. But my goodness, do they have some nice produce! An entire aisle of mushrooms, perhaps ten different tomato varieties, maybe six or eight types of eggplants.

I try to shop there during off hours. When the crowds are thinner, I sometimes have room for my little shopping scheme. My strategy is to find one instance of the first item on my shopping list. I walk over to that instance, then I look around until I find a preferable instance (usually I mean cheaper, but other legibly labeled possibilities include local, pesticide-free, organic, and heirloom). Then I go stand at the preferable instance and repeat, until I'm reasonably certain I've spotted all the options for that item, and I can fill my basket with some yumminess and move on to the second list item. Sure, it might take a while, but I really don't mind very much. This method works best in their large, tented area outside; once you're inside the darker, cramped store, it's tricky to find all the instances of one fruit or vegetable.

These cherries called to me today. They were actually calling to a lot of people; I had to quickly snap this photo before anybody impaled me with a cart. It was a popular display, is what I'm saying. But after rifling through them for a few seconds, I fell in love with their glossiness and the myriad reflections of the sky light. (This beautiful heap was in the tent, hence the sky light.)

As always, click on the photo to enlarge.

Verhuizen

Well, howdy.

You probably know that I've moved to sunny, sunny California. If not, surprise!

It's obviously been a very long time since I've posted on this blog. But now that I'm getting settled in California, I'm realizing that I still like taking photos and writing about them, am still far from most of my family, and still like cheese, so really, I should be blogging here some more, no?

Today's title is best translated as "moving house," which is a modest description of something I've done several times now. This last time was much easier than, shall we say, other moves described on this blog. Shall I stick with the Dutch posting titles for a while longer? I think so.

As for today's photo, what do you think it is? Post your guess in the comments. Whoever guesses closest will receive, let's say, five greeting cards, hand-made by Gouda Girl. Happy guessing!

Euro Cup

I may have had a break- through.

Some of you know that I don't really get soccer. Going to games is fun, but watching on TV is rather dull. People run around, the ball hardly ever goes in, this is not great entertainment.

Last night, I finally got angry at someone for blocking my view of soccer on TV.

I was at the Amstel Stroom, the closest bar to our apartment (I love it when Casey's coworkers decide to go there). The projection TV was showing the first round of the Euro Cup: Netherlands vs. Italy.

For those of you not into soccer tournaments, here's a little about how they work. Teams get put into groups, and the groups play each other. The winning teams from each group moves on to the next round, and the losing teams do not. For this round of this tournament, the groups are four teams, and the best two move on. Makes sense?

OK. The Dutch team is in a group with Italy (who won the World Cup two years ago), France (who finished second in the World Cup two years ago), and Romania (who is fine but not favored). There are several good Dutch players now, but being put in this group weakened their odds of going all the way by quite a bit.

Yesterday (Monday) were two games of interest: earlier in the evening was Romania vs. France, for which France was favored. That game ended at a 0-0 tie. (See, this is why I can't get into soccer. Two hours of running around and sweating in summer heat, and not a single goal.) Anyway, the uneventful game had a surprising outcome, which is actually good for Holland's chances of moving on. (It's not likely that they can do better than Italy AND France, so if Romania helps keep one of them down...) I didn't watch the game, but Casey said that the Romanian players were doing a lot of diving (faking injuries to get the ref to call penalties on the other team). Sucks for France, since they seem to have cleaned up a bit since their diving performances in the World Cup. Anyway.

The second game was the aforementioned Nederland vs. Italia. I'm not sure what I expected... I guess for Italy to do a lot of diving (like in the World Cup) and for the final score to be something like 1-0 Italy.

I'll spare you my amateur game recap. Suffice to say that the Dutch team won, 3-0. There were many shots on goal from both sides, so it was an exciting match, but in the end, the Dutch team seemed to have far more energy than the Italian one, and they dominated much of the game. The average age of the players has a lot to do with that, I think.

The atmosphere in the pub was fun. Lots of orange, an assortment of noisemakers, and one guy had face paint to share and walked around at breaks decorating others with Dutch flags. Then a drunk Brian Dennehy-looking guy showed up to cheer far too loudly, to the whole bar's amusement. (I have to say, I was impressed with how positive even the old drunk guy's cheers were. "Come on Holland! Yeah, good, Kuyt! Good, van Nistelrooy! One more goal!" I can boo the Yankees with the best of them, but I still appreciated that the crazy loud drunk guy managed to stay positive most of the time instead of starting up anti-Italy chants or whatnot. The majority of his cheering would not have been out of place at a youth soccer game.)

Anyway, that's the story of the day I finally got into soccer. I'm SO watching the rest of the Euro Cup. Hup, Holland, hup!

Mooie Dag

I've had a nice day.

A few months ago I noticed that I'd misplaced (my only copy of) my Dutch tax ID number. Trying to avoid more Dutch bureaucracy at all costs, I searched increasingly obscure nooks in my apartment for the paper, until finally I had to give up and make another appointment to get the paper. After several confusing phone calls (government people are not allowed to speak English, I think for liability reasons), Casey learned from his department secretary that the tax numbers had been reorganized since I last went, and that now I had to go to my local registration office. The same office that, after a year and a half of indescribably awful bureaucratic experiences, was the one that made me cry within its walls. Today I couldn't put it off any longer, so I struck out after lunch, time-killing novel in hand.

Walking into these offices, you first must find a counter where you explain your errand and get an appropriate waiting number. The guy at this counter was uncharacteristically friendly today, smiling and waving at the baby carried by the couple in line in front of me. When it was my turn, I told him in rudimentary Dutch that I needed my tax ID, and he smiled, handed me a number, and said, "Perfect!" I looked at the number (J708) and back at him. He gave me a thumbs-up, and eventually I realized he was telling me that my Dutch was perfect. So I grinned and took a seat, happy (but cautious).

After a totally reasonable wait, my number was called. In the office, I explained again that I needed my tax number, and the guy nodded and said, "Ja, dat kan." This phrase has been the bane of my existence for some while. It means "that can be," and it's used in the most aggravating instances possible. E.g., "How much longer do I have to wait for the immigration decision? I was told three weeks and it's now been six months!" "Ja, dat kan" (dismissively). But what was this? "Dat kan" pronounced in a helpful tone?

So, I got my tax number and made it out of that office intact! On the way home I got a few errands done. I even inadvertently bargained the fish monger down by 10%!

In celebration of my really nice (albeit pedestrian) day, I'm posting a photo from Amsterdam. It's been a while! This one was taken a few weeks ago, from the middle of the Seven Bridges along Reguliersgracht. Mike (an old friend from college) was visiting, and we rented paddle boats. The three of us took turns pedaling, navigating, and steering, and despite my best efforts to slowly run us into various walls and Casey and Mike's efforts to play chicken with large tour boats, we managed to make it back to the dock in our allotted 1.5 hr. Highly recommended (and thanks to Rachel for encouraging me to try it)!

Microblogging

I fear I've been neglecting those of you not on Facebook. In the spirit of further reducing attention spans, I suppose I've been substituting a lot of my blogging with microblogging. My preferred medium is the Facebook status update; Casey's is Twitter. To catch you all up, I'm posting highlights from the past few weeks. Like with blogs, these should be read from the bottom up. Oh, and here's a photo from Krakow.


April 26
Casey just realized that next weekend is a six-day weekend. Ah, the Netherlands... 9:36AM
Jessica is welcoming summer with face moisturizer with SPF! 9:34am

April 23
Jessica is more skilled than you might think... at burning soup. 7:36pm

April 22
Jessica is loving all the sunshine. It made the weekend in Limburg even nicer! 11:15am

April 20
Jessica has a brand-new cousin! 10:04pm
Casey is enjoying the hills of Limburg. 3:15pm

April 17
Jessica needs more dang sleep. 6:44am

April 16
Jessica hopes that the canal cruise she's going on today passes her bedroom window, so she can check just how easy it was for those tourists in Dec. to see her naked. 10:10am
Jessica should not have had that last beer. Bah, 2am. 2:12am

April 14
Jessica loves pinking shears. Whee! 7:37pm

April 12
Jessica esta llena de la comida argentiniana. 10:32pm
Casey is in a sirloin-induced coma, thanks to a birthday dinner from my folks. 10:14PM
Casey is looking forward to a nice steak dinner! 12:46PM

April 11
Jessica is happy she has guys sliding down hills in couches on TV. 9:03pm

April 9
Jessica is licking limes. 3:30pm

April 8
Jessica is watching snow fall on the cherry tree in her courtyard. Actually it's more like sleet. And it's not "her" courtyard exactly. 3:27pm

April 6
Jessica just realized that with her upcoming move she will inherit, along with proximity to all the TJ's frozen raspberries she can eat, Governor Schwarzenegger. 11:09pm

April 5
Jessica urges YOU to vacation in Poland. 7:32pm

April 4
Jessica is back home in the land of vowels. 11:57pm
Casey is now safely home in Amsterdam. Relieved and exhausted after a great trip! 11:51PM
Casey is taking the train back to Warsaw. Hopefully this express train actually expresses. 8:45AM

April 3
Casey is out of the salt mine now (thanks for all the concern!). Now enjoying last full day in Krakow. 6:24PM

April 2
Casey is in a salt mine 130 m underground. 1:31PM

March 29
Jessica is going to Poland. Back in a week! 6:09am

March 28
Jessica is learning Polsku. 11:24am

March 27
Casey is getting psyched for a trip to Poland! 6:37PM
Jessica is truly bad at sewing. But she thinks her favorite shirt is almost wearable again. 12:55pm

March 26
Jessica is making cucumber sandwiches. 1:21pm
Jessica na na NA na na na, na NA na na naaaa... 12:04am

March 25
Jessica is just not that into her to-do list today. 1:40pm
Jessica is watching the snow fall. Again. 10:21am
Casey is enjoying March snow in Amsterdam: http://tinyurl.com/375jlo 9:24AM

March 23
Jessica 's little brother is coming to visit for her birthday! 7:39pm

March 21
Jessica totally forgot that paying for dry cleaning also means getting extra clothes hangers. SWEET. 7:52pm
Casey is starting the four-day easter weekend in his bathrobe... 9:51AM

March 18
Jessica cannot get the Super Mario Galaxy music out of her head. 10:57am

March 17
Jessica is reading her Poland guidebook! 11:31pm
Jessica is looking for a guidebook on Poland. 10:52am

March 16
Jessica is unimpressed with her brownie substitutions, but at least she still has a fudgy goo, so really it's not the end of the world. 2:06pm
Jessica is happy with her beans, and starting on the brownies. 1:08pm
Jessica is cooking beans, and trying to work up the energy to make brownies from scratch. 10:10am

March 7
Jessica is NOW BOOKING reservations at Hotel Law's Amsterdam location through November ‘08. New Berkeley-area location opening January ‘09! 12:56pm

March 6
Jessica is a jogging fiend! TWICE in one week! 8:59am

March 5
Jessica is looking forward to garbage pickup day. Boo, forgotten container of black beans. 1:21pm

March 4
Jessica wishes she were a better runner. 4:21pm

March 2
Jessica is all set with the waffles and the chocolate now. 10:54pm

February 29
Jessica is Belgium bound! 10:20am

February 28
Jessica is getting all nostalgic for Boston, between the Frank Black and the Legally Blonde. 10:01pm
Jessica was totally like 5 feet from Frank Black. 12:29am

February 26
Jessica loves German TV. Who knew that mimes were integral parts of church services? 4:15pm