smörgåsblogg
A visit to the locks in Trollhättan.
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*Click here for more pictures*
What is this?
Answer to last week: That is a yeast crown originally used in beer brewing in the 1750's. Apparently the yeast collects on it and can be hung up to dry between batches. Later these things were used as trivets.
Our Christmas flowers have finally died off. Here is her shadow on the livingroom wall.
Almost every time I go down to work in the garage, this cat shows up. She announces herself with a loud meow and proceeds to make a lap inside the garage, being sure to inpect every last corner and jump up on every gadget. She then goes on her way, or hangs around if I stop to pet her.
Friday & Saturday is when all the heavy drinking occurs and every weekend without fail, someone smashes one (or several) of our local bus stops. Yes, there are morons here too. Maybe it's time to bring back prohibition. I wonder how much of my bus fare (18 crowns, almost 3 bucks) goes into these unnecesary repairs?
There's an area near us called Angered. Ali thinks that is really funny.
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It got dark pretty quickly, but it is getting lighter pretty quickly as well. The 20 hours of daylight will be here in no time.
Our last grocery bill came out to exactly 2,000.00 kronor. Not just the roundest number, but also our most expensive grocery shopping expidition yet.
If anyone guesses what this is, I'll be very impressed:
Answer to last week: Yup, a old toaster. A slice of bread can go on either side:
Revision to the previous week's answer: It turns out those weren't horse snowshoes, but a similar idea. They were put on horses feet so they wouldn't sink into waterlogged ground when harvesting peat.
We visited a medieval fort today, and saw among other things, the world's first Leatherman.
*Click here for more pictures*
Happy Birthday, Father Hans...
...and Happy Anniversary, Debi and Ambi!
Ever since we got here, there has been one fruit fly zipping around and annoying me. The weird thing is it is always only one fly at a time, never more. If I kill it, another one shows up without fail. Once I went on a rampage and killed six of them over the course of the day, but another one always came. So now I don't bother, and I've still never seen more than one at a time. Very strange.
Today the fruit fly sat still on the window long enough for me to get this picture.
P.S. Please excuse the dust on the windowsill, but notice it is SUNNY for a change!!
What is this contraption?
Answer to last week: Well, these definitely attached to horse feet--you can clearly see the horseshoe marks on the wood in the picture below, so I'm guessing it was a snowshoe for a horse. Two of them are hanging on the wall of a second-hand store we often go to in our neighborhood.
Not us! But our red pepper is. When we cut off the top and pulled out the seeds, we found a mini pepper growing inside of it.
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Ali has warned me that stuff put in the back of the fridge could freeze. I didn't really believe her until she showed me the magic flying potato.
How did this one dude manage to be the only one in the city to get any snow?
What is this?
Answer to last week: you guys were on the right track. That is what happens when you pour hot bacon grease into a regular yogurt cup. It shrivels right up! Oops. I guess that's why my mom always used tin cans.
Today is Fettisdagen (fat Tuesday), and the Swedes mark the occasion by eating Semlor: buns filled with almond paste and whipped cream. Ebba invited us over so we could make them ourselves.
First, the dough is formed into little balls.
While that is going on, Leo has fun with the food processor, creating a delicious almond paste.
Hot buns, fresh out of the oven!
Each bun is filled with the almond paste, whipped cream, and topped with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
Yum! Tack så mycket, Ebba!
If you translate this road sign, except for just one word, it says:
REDUCED FART
for better air
and lower noise
Just to be clear, 'fart' actually means 'speed.' Do you think the guy making those signs or the guys putting them up have any idea how funny they are?
It's been raining so consistently that the local canals are starting to creep up onto land. This is a (normally dry) picnic area intended for residents of a nearby apartment building. The brick building across the canal is from 1930 and is where the antique trams are being restored and housed.
Last night was rainy/snowy and VERY windy, probably contributing to the reason why we had a veritable traffic jam in the quiet street in front of our house:
Good thing we have gummistövlar to keep our feet nice and dry.
