Marco&Niki

A surprise (Or: Soft pretzels made from scratch)

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Niki

One of the things that I miss from America is Super Pretzels, which you could pick up at the Shoprite grocery chain. They are frozen pretzels which you could microwave in about 60 seconds.

And of course there’s the addiction to the Madison Square Garden soft pretzels, with hot cheese to dip it in…yum.

Tonight Marco surprised me with this:

As a joke he made them into simple figure 8’s, rather than the more traditional pretzel shape. They taste awesome! We’re currently enjoying our spoils with a white beer, Korenwolf, with a dash of lemon juice for added flavor.

Go Friday!

Categories: Food, Marco&Niki | Tags: Baking | 3 Comments

Surprises (Or: Roses from Marco)

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Niki

After I wrote the last Valentine’s Day post, Marco came home and presented me with a bouquet of roses. Surprise!

I especially like the dark pink one on the bottom in the middle. It’s my favorite!

And soon we are off to Rodizio for dinner…

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: Flowers, Valentine's Day | 4 Comments

19th day (Or: Hot chocolate and birthdays)

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Niki

Last night Marco and I made hot chocolate. But not just ANY hot chocolate, nope! Friday night hot chocolate!

First off, you have the cup, an awesome little Christmas present. Inside the drink is hot chocolate (of course), Bailey’s liquor, a large marshmallow torn into small bits, and a peppermint candy cane for flavorful stirring. On the side you have a stroopwafel (sorry to make you drool, Mom). And then an awesome little ceramic spoon on the side.

Yummm.

Speaking of Mom, today is her birthday.

Happy birthday, Mom!

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: Birthdays | 1 Comment

Weight (Or: Red plates from Macy’s

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Niki

A few years ago, around the time when I first moved into this apartment, I decided I wanted to have some “real plates”, especially as Marco and Roger would be stopping by a lot. I had my eye set on some red plates at Macy’s, a department store. So the next time they were in town, we took a trip to the Palisades Center to get said plates.

We grabbed three of them (since there are only three of us!). But after we got them to the check-out counter, the sales woman said they were buy one get one free, and did I want a fourth one? Sure…

And the check out counter was actually in the children’s department, which wasn’t that far off from the area the plates were in, I believe. But they weren’t really set up for wrapping fragile items, something I hadn’t considered. So the sales woman had to disappear for a minute to get wrapping materials. By then a line started to form. But we survived.

The question, though, was how Marco survived. As we knew we wanted the plates, he had brought his backpack to carry them. But carrying all four plates on your back up a hill is torture. (Or so I have heard.)

The only downside to these plates are that they are heavy… which is not something you consider until you have to wash and dry them a lot. It hurts the wrists! The plates were also a bit on the large side – they fit in the microwave but were too large to rotate, and they fit on the dining table… barely.

Categories: Marco&Niki | 1 Comment

4 years (Or: Change I believe in)

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Niki

From Marco…

Change.
In November 2008 the world as we knew it changed. The unthinkable happened.

Since then, we’ve been on a crazy roller coaster filled with steps forward and steps back. We’ve slowly climbing up towards the top of the mountain, creating a better place, a better world. No, I’m not talking about politics, but I cannot help but bring up the timeline and make some comparisons.

In late October ’08 I visited Niki and saying goodbye was so hard to do. When I left it was still just as a friend but that changed when we got to talk a few days later. Basically we just said “let’s try this..see where we can go from here”. Or, to tie it in to the political storm at the time.There was change in the air and we said “Yes, we can!”

A lot has happened in those four years, even though it seems like we’ve only made small steps. Back in early ’09 we already talked about our future plans, knowing that if we wanted to make the long distance work it couldn’t be just a simple “boyfriend-girlfriend” thing. We thought ahead, talked about living together eventually and even about family plans (see if each of us wanted kids)
Then for a while there was a little status quo. We knew what we wanted, we didn’t actively work on getting there yet.

Moving to another country (in either way) is a big change and while we believed in it, we didn’t want to rush into anything. Then of course the past year the wheels have been set in motion.
Four years, it seems like such a long time..so much has changed around us in the world. But also for ourselves. Niki went from going to college to working at a college. We’ve gone through a lot together, visiting places, spending time, figuring out the future. Yet in a way it’s just like many say about the Obama presidency the past four years.. “How’s my life different than it was four years ago? How have things improved?”

Well..I say that life definitely has changed for both Niki and myself but in a way it’s all been small stuff. Setting the stage for the big one, the actual move to the Netherlands. And then we can move on with life, move….Forward!

(Yes, I am very pleased with myself that I started with the slogan from 4 years ago and ending with the current one)

Categories: Marco&Niki, Moving | Tags: Expat, Moving | 4 Comments

Shoes (Or: Move over, rover)

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Niki

Written by Marco…

When I left Niki about a month ago, I took home a (new) pair of her shoes.
We had bought them the day before, and it was one of those “if you let me take them now, we don’t have to carry them in December.”

Yesterday, it amused me to put the shoes next to mine.
And chuckle at how small her shoes and feet are compared to the huge vessels that are my shoes… But why is this do news worthy? Well I’ve already told about how I’m making room at my place..

But this is the first time that I’ve actually was able to place an item in the apartment already 🙂 It’s the first of many items where I have to move over and make room for Niki’s belongings. Well to be honest I don’t believe it’ll be that bad 😉 I mean..how crazy can it be, right? (Famous last wo

Categories: Marco&Niki, Moving | Tags: Expat, Moving | 8 Comments

Laundry day (Or: Scribbled on scratch paper)

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Niki

While Marco was cleaning his living room table (which has storage compartments underneath) he found this old diagram that I scribbled:

It was a crude map of the local laundromat in New Brunswick, NJ. It was the first time Marco and Roger had visited the town and while they were there, they obviously needed to do laundry. I had long since grown accustomed to taking my laundry about a half mile down to the laundromat. But as I had to go to work and class while they were visiting, this proved to be their first experience with laundromats ever.

Please keep in mind the diagram quickly became tongue-in-cheek. I originally just wanted to draw a quick crude map, but I decided to add the notes in the margins as well (and some of the notes are deliberately “simple” as a joke).

Categories: Marco&Niki | 1 Comment

Birthdays (Or: Black markers and vanilla cakes)

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Niki

Fun fact: 6 years ago yesterday Marco and I met in person for the first time. Oct 19, 2006. We met at UberCon, a gaming convention in the northeast.

In Spring 2007, I went to my third ever UberCon. It was run by the owner of Avatar MUD, the game I have played since I was 14 (yeesh! more than half my life).

At this convention Marco gave me a tattoo, in permanent black marker:

Of course the “tattoo” washed out in about 4-5 days. Thankfully I had shirt sleeves that were long enough to cover it, as back then I worked in the children’s department of a library.

A discerning eye might realize that I was wearing a Colts football jersey at the time. That was because I lost a bet with a friend — I think the Bears lost to the Colts. So yeah, I had to wear the jersey the whole day!

The convention was held the same weekend as my birthday, so I also had a surprise birthday party with a vanilla cake:

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: Birthdays | 1 Comment

Squares (Or: A Chicago pizza pie)

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Niki

This past Christmas, Marco and Roger came with me to meet my parents in Chicago for the first time. The very first night we were there, we ordered pizza.

It’s a family sized pizza, since we wanted leftovers the next day (of which there were plenty!). And the pizza made Marco drool. He was reminiscing about it a week or two ago, specifically that the pizza was cut into squares not slices.. If you look closely, you can see the square cuts.

Of course, I had no idea that about 36 hours later (give or take a few) I would be engaged. The proposal happened while unwrapping gifts Christmas morning. I really had no idea. Even when someone at church accidentally almost gave it away at the Christmas Eve service… I was totally clueless and said “No…? We’re not getting engaged until later in 2012.” Oh how little I knew.

As Marco mentioned, there was a lot of scheming going on. He actually called my parents a month or so prior about the upcoming engagement, and my parents actually wrapped up the ring box in a stocking for the dog. They knew I’d help unwrap the dogs present. And then of course there was also the scheming being done for my mom’s Christmas gift – a new netbook. It was very hard to concentrate on her unwrapping her gift, since I was spending too much time staring at my new ring!

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: Chicago, Vacation | 3 Comments

Jackets (Or: Statue of Liberty in October)

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Niki

The air is getting cold here. (Well, we’ll ignore the fact that it is forecast to be pretty warm Sunday, comparatively.)

I didn’t wear a jacket today. (But I definitely pondered one.)

I didn’t want to put the heat on. (But I did.)

At some point during my videochat with Marco today, I was reminded of the October 2010 trip with Marco. He visited me while I was studying at Rutgers and we went to New York City a few times. Including my first time seeing the Statue of Liberty.

Of course, I forgot how much colder it is out on the water. Marco asked me if I wanted a jacket a few times, but I said no. And then we got up on the ferry…

and yep, I sheepishly asked if I could borrow his jean jacket (and he said yes!) So I spent most of the ferry ride wearing an oversized jacket. It was nice, if I do say so myself.

And here is a view of the New York skyline from the ferry. Good times.

Categories: Marco&Niki | Tags: New York City | Leave a comment