Friends&Family

C’s (Or: Coffee, cheesecake and countryside)

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Niki

A few weeks ago Marco and I went back to the Cheesecake Company by the Grote Kerk. I’ve posted about this place many times – they even served the cheesecake at our wedding! It isn’t quite our two year anniversary yet but this time they did have the same flavor as our heart-shaped wedding cheesecake, white chocolate cappuccino… So of course we ended up choosing that one.

And on Saturday Marco, his mother and I had dinner over at De Gezelligheid (near Amersfoort) with the family. The food at De Gezelligheid was pretty good. We started off with “de spiegel” (the mirror) which was a sampling of all of their starter items served on a platter. My favorite item was the fried mushroom, of all things. For the main dish I had a hamburger with thick cut fries. Yum.

Of course we had to stop at the Starbucks at Centraal Station, so I decided to take a photo of the wall (doesn’t everyone want to take a photo of a wall?):

Love or hate Starbucks – I just like the cool font and presentation!

Here is a photo of the lake by Marco’s uncle, with a Buddha statue on the other side (in the shadows):

Quite peaceful.

Categories: Daily Dutch living, Food, Friends&Family | Tags: Cheesecake company, Restaurants, Starbucks | 1 Comment

Marco’s birthday (Or: Friday festivities and stormy Saturdays)

Posted on July 26, 2015 by Niki

Saturday was Marco’s birthday. Fijne verjaardag! We had a few parties to celebrate. The first was at Eten en zo (a buffet type restaurant) with Marco’s father and his wife. They made a really awesome birthday card for Marco. As Marco says: first she made awesome cards. Then she made awesome 3D cards. And now… Well now she made this:

It’s a box. Go on, open it. I dare you.

(When you open it the four sides fall outward.) Echt gaaf, zeg!

They also gave him this really cool “money plant” proving once and for all that money does grow on trees (het is bewijs dat geld wél aan bomen groeit). Two cucumbers as plants, with many 50 cent pieces stuck in them, and a few 10 euro bills fastened together like flower blooms.

Saturday Roger and Marco’s mom came over. Originally Marco wanted to barbecue but we heard on Friday that the coast areas were going to see some storm action (up to 55-70mph winds). We went to see Ant-Man with Roger in the afternoon and it was already pretty windy with a lot of rain at times. The only thing that kept my Wrigley Field hat on was that I put my ponytail through it. Okay, and it’s not my hat. I borrowed it from Marco. 😉

Around 6pm we got a call from Marco’s mom that her tram wasn’t running and that she was going to try the bus. Until then I hadn’t thought to check public transportation – though HTM only had general warnings placed across all lines versus any specific warnings. Fallen trams on the tracks or lines above were the main issues. But she eventually made it!

Dinner was pulled chicken (cooked for hours in the slow cooker), potato bits and bourbon glazed carrots. Birthday presents were mainly cooking related this year, with a barbecue tong, thermometer, and skewers unwrapped. Other presents included an Xbox game (Witcher), a few t-shirts and a tea timer (like an hourglass but with gel).

Luckily by the time things wrapped up the storm had died down. Now we can start scheming for Roger’s birthday in a month!

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: Birthdays, HTM, Weather | 2 Comments

Present from some friends (Or: Kinetic sand)

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Niki

Yesterday I went out to eat with some friends to celebrate getting my NT2 programma II diploma. My taalcoach (language coach – from SamenSpraak) arrived with some gifts. There were three of them. One book about Dutch language (puzzles to help you learn the language), one 2015 daily calendar from Onze Taal (“Our Language”) and a third wrapped gift that was weirdly heavy.

Weird but cool! I got kinetic sand. Check out this YouTube video.

Looks like ordinary sand in the photo, no? Not quite. The sand particles only stick to themselves, which mans that it moves in clumps rather than separately. It looks really cool. Marco has already started playing with it a bit. Here was his first attempt:

And check out this picture to see how it moves together:

Note the pictures above show only half of the sand we were given; it was easier to keep the amount smaller to test what it looks like.

And finally, an image from the official website:

Categories: Friends&Family | 5 Comments

Birthdays (Or: Flowers, balloons and key lime pie)

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Niki

Over the weekend we had a birthday party for Marco (slightly delayed since some of our friends were out of the country). Since it was his 40th I decided to be slightly evil and buy some themed balloons. “Keep calm — you’re only 40” balloons, to be precise.

Very colorful – not quite the rainbow I was going for, but it works. One of the guests also dropped off flowers…

Marco decided to show off his creative baking side by making key lime pie using Keebler graham cracker crust (recipe here).

And of course he added his own touch by freezing some of the raspberry syrup mix into Captain America shield molds. Yum. And crazy…

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: Birthdays, Flowers | Leave a comment

Videochats (Or: Electronic birthday cake)

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Niki

Yesterday I had a videochat with my parents to celebrate my birthday. Imagine my surprise when the videochat connected and I saw this cake:

German chocolate birthday cake!

That’s right. They bought a cake for me, even though I was in a different country! I then got treated to “Happy Birthday” from my parents, all the way across the ocean. 🙂

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: Birthdays, Desserts | Leave a comment

Waiting (Or: Inside Schiphol airport)

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Niki

Today we are going to pick up my parents, brother, and sister-in-law at Schiphol airport. It is only one day before the wedding!

Here are some pictures that Marco and I took back in July while waiting for our flight (so beyond the security area):

Where would you like to sit?

Can you see the cat?

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: Schiphol airport | 4 Comments

Riverside Receptions (Or: Wedding overlooking Fox River)

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Niki

On Saturday my brother got married in Geneva, IL at Riverside Receptions. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous, as it overlooks the Fox River. The bride and groom worked very hard to pull this off, and it definitely showed! The pictures that the photography company (Le Cape Weddings) took were very creative and absolutely stunning.

Here’s a view of the Fox River, from one of our cameras:

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: Chicago, Vacation | Leave a comment

Valentine’s Day (Or: Lollipops and music)

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Niki

So when I walked into the living room today (after Marco had already left for work) I spied something on the couch from across the room. It turned out to be an extra large Valentine’s Day card, complete with a bit of Dutch for me to translate.

Also next to the card was a single lollipop:

It’s actually a lollipop from Sumo, a restaurant in The Hague which we visited in late December. It is a running joke that I like the lollipops from that restaurant (which you receive on your way out) because one of them that I got was a four colored lollipop which I found amusing. Considering it has been a month and a half since we visited there, he has held on to it for a long time! He only brought it out long enough to tease me with.

And now it’s mine!

On a more serious romantic note, he also slyly told me last night that he made reservations for the two of us at Rodizio tomorrow night. Grilled pineapple – yum!

But first — tonight Marco, Roger and I are heading to the Boederij in Zoetemeer to see the band BRAD, which is the second band of one of the Pearl Jam members. Should be fun!

Categories: Friends&Family, Holidays | Tags: Valentine's Day | Leave a comment

Family tree (Or: Adding on another branch)

Posted on November 23, 2012 by Niki

My mom’s friend Dawn has a die cut maker. A while back she gave my mom the cuts below:

Dawn wants Mom to start a scrapbook with the family tree, as I personally am not into genealogy that much yet. So it’s up to Mom! For now.

Categories: Friends&Family | Leave a comment

Butterfly effect (Or: Appetite for Destruction)

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Niki

From Roger… (!!)

Let me paint a picture. 1987, just got out of the ‘brugklas’, and school was starting again.

I had a new class-mate. We did not really hang out much that year, since loads of my brugklas mates were still in the same class, including a friend I had had since kindergarten so I did not really need new friends.

We part ways the next year since I went to a different class. Then Appetite for Destruction happens.

Significant in many ways.

For one, it is arguably the best album in the history of rock, but also since I was one of the first ones that had the album in my ‘circles’.. (yeah right like i was ever part of any circles). I did not have a cd-player yet, so I purchased the album (that was the era when people paid for music, you young folk!) on cassette tape (uhm, look it up on Wikipedia, young folk!).

The other significant thing that the album made happen was sort of like a like a butterfly effect.

That one kid that I did not really hang out with when he was in my class all week long got wind of the fact that I had the GNR tape as we now like to call it. He asked me to borrow it and the rest is history.

Marco and I quickly became best friends. Together we have been through a lot. The butterfly effect I meant was that if that album did not happen to be in my possession we would not have started to hang out, would not have bonded over wrestling, hockey, music etc.. we might not have gone to the US to go to said wrestling and hockey and who knows, Marco might not have ended up meeting the lovely Niki.

So on this, the 25th anniversary of Marco and I meeting, his life is about to change again, this time really for the better, when his fiancé moves across an ocean, to a different continent to be with him.

And perhaps all because of one cassette tape.

02-10-2012

Roger

Categories: Friends&Family | Tags: Anniversaries, Music | 2 Comments