Three-week anniversary

Yesterday marked our three-week anniversary. Liesbeth made a nice dinner, of chicken cordon bleu, with potatoes and salad. It was quite delicious. For dessert, we had a kind of yogurt they call kwark, with a fruit sauce. (The dictionary's translation of kwark is cream cheese, but it's not really what we think of cream cheese. It has the texture--that is, it's a quasi-liquid--but isn't as sweet as yogurt, hence the fruit sauce. Sometimes, we put a spoonful (or two) of jam into the kwark. Later last evening, Liesbeth's sister Suzanne, from Belgium, stopped by for a visit. Her husband is working in Germany this week, which provided her an opportunity to visit Holland without the guilt of having abandoned her husband. We had a nice time together; we especially enjoyed looking at the pictures of the wedding that Pamela Cupples from Scotland posted on her website (location unknown to me).

Mom and Dad sent a birthday package last week, and it arrived on Tuesday as Liesbeth was leaving for work. I intended to hide it and give Liesbeth the present on the 28th, but I forgot. So when she came home from work, there were the birthday bags on the table, and there was absolutely to bridling her curiosity. I was a bit embarrassed because I wanted to make a surprise of it, but that didn't work. We were very pleased with our presents. I got a large bag of Mom's homemade granola, and Liesbeth got a Willow figurine of man and wife. She really liked it, so much so that it was promptly positioned in the places of decorative honor, first on her china cupboard and then in the living room's front window, where it still stands. One can tell how highly a piece of, say, artwork ranks with her by where she places it. The living room and kitchen are the high regions of the scale, and my office is on the lower end. If it goes in the living room or kitchen, a person has hit a homerun. If it goes in my office, on the other hand, it's a sign she respects my style. It's a pretty useful compromise, because a lot of the things I like, I'm quite happy to have surround me in the office, whether perched above me on my desk or bookshelf, or looking up at me from my desk top.

Friday is market day in Waddinxveen. It's something like a miniature Square Fair, without the music and entertainment. I'm supposed to go down to the market this afternoon to buy apples, tomatoes, and waffles. (The waffles aren't the breakfast variety. They're about the diameter of a teacup with caramel syrup between the two circular waffle-like wafers. They are a great accompaniment to a cup of tea.) Shopping is becoming a good way to practice Dutch. I went out yesterday, to the City Hall to work on our documents, and then to the shops. I wanted some gloves, but I forgot the word. So I asked the clerk if they had clothes for cold hands, explaining that I didn't know the right word. Fortunately, the conversation stayed in Dutch (most everyone knows enough English that an emigre could get on pretty easily without learning Dutch. But I should be careful not to get too distracted, as the market closes in two hours.

I'm also on deck for dinner tonight, since it's a church night. We're having spaghetti, left over from when I cooked on Wednesday night. I'm just going to make some more meat sauce to go with it. She praised Wednesday's entree quite highly, but I know that food is usually better when someone else cooks it (just like the yard always looked best when Ashton mowed it!). She's going to have to get up earlier to fool me!

Now, I'd best be getting off to the market, as I have some waffles and tomatoes to buy!