Guus Bosman

software executive and technologist

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dailylife

Flip-flops

Sun, 12/13/2009 - 10:41am

At home I like to walk around in flip-flops. This morning, in a concession to the weather, I put on a sweater and a jacket before going to the leasing office to pick up some coffee. It became clear that wearing flip-flops is not a great idea when the temperature is below freezing, and I made a beautiful slide on the sidewalk in front of our apartment. No damage done, but I did go back and change into shoes.

We had a fun dinner party with the Zanes yesterday; great company and outstanding food.

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dailylife

Road trip -- first snow

Sun, 12/06/2009 - 9:33am

We drove from Durham to Somerset yesterday, a trip that took us 8 hours and 45 minutes. We had packed most of our things on Friday. Saturday morning we packed the remaining items. We were on the road at 11.45 am, after a stop at the gas station and at Starbucks. We also stopped by the apartment office where Sinterklaas had sent us a very nice present (thank you!)

As soon was we entered Virginia we started seeing snow on the ground and quickly we were driving through a snow storm. Traffic was light though throughout the whole trip and it wasn't freezing yet.

We arrived just in time to do some grocery shopping (the store closes at 9.00 pm here). Comparing NC to NJ? To have to drive to a liquor store 10 minutes away to pick up a bottle of wine or a six pack of beer is silly in NJ, but the bread is definitely better in NJ.

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dailylife

Thanksgiving weekend

Sun, 11/29/2009 - 10:21pm

We had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Thursday we cooked a great Bulgarian-American dinner. We went for a long walk twice, and Saturday evening we went out with friends. Saturday morning I went for a long run for the first time in two months and that went very well, to my relief.

I left Durham this morning, and around noon I arrived at the Zanes. Spent a few nice hours there (showed off the new camera) and left for Brooklyn where I went to a Dutch event.

I cooked boerenkool tonight. The new apartment is nice and fully furnished but I discovered that making stamppot without a potato peeler and masher is a lot of work. Instead of rookworst I tried Italian sausage and it was delicious. There is a lot of Italian-American food in the grocery stores here; New Jersey/New York has a strong Italian community.

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dailylife

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu, 11/26/2009 - 10:50am

Today is Thanksgiving Day and today and tomorrow are days off. I like Thanksgiving, it's a relaxed celebration. Sasha and I are celebration it together this year.

Yesterday we went to the store to get our supplies (it was a madhouse with extra police on the parking lot etc). Since turkeys start at 8 pounds or so we'll have a whole chicken instead; that is so much fun to prepare. Mashed potatoes, corn and cranberry sauce will complete the meal.

My brother-in-law Gerben injured himself badly while playing korfbal last weekend; he's back from an operation in the hospital but it will be while before he's back on his feet. Send him a message if you can.

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driving

Lost in NJ

Mon, 11/16/2009 - 11:57pm

I had a fun dinner in Bernardsville tonight; it was great to see some folks again who I hadn't seen in a long time.

I got terribly lost on the way back home. When there was a traffic jam 3 exits before mine, I thought to be smart and to take a secondary road. It took me about an hour longer to get home... highway 28 (one way, then the other), finally highway 22 and then back on 287 where I took a wrong turn again. Made it home!

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dailylife

Dutch weekend

Sun, 11/15/2009 - 10:35pm

Cooking.I had a busy weekend, with a number of Dutch events -- it's http://www.5dutchdays.org in New York. A lot of fun. To top it off I visited two Dutch places in New Jersey, a store and a bakery. I bought some speculaas and Dutch cheese. Articles will appear on 'the other website' in the next couple of days.

To wrap up the weekend I cooked two dishes for the rest of the week: a big pan of soup and slavinken. Busy week ahead.

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travelling

Early morning at Raleigh/Durham airport

Tue, 11/10/2009 - 10:02pm

I traveled from Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina (RDU) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR) early this morning. It's the third or fourth time in the six weeks that I make this trip but I still enjoy the experience of traveling very much.

And today of course is my birthday! Thank you all very much for all the e-mails, Facebook & Twitter messages, calls and comments on my site! While I was traveling I checked Facebook every now and then and the messages kept coming in, a very nice feeling. Thank you.

I'm pretty sure that it's the first time that I flew on my birthday. It's exactly 5 years ago that I started work at my first job in the United States.

I'm in Somerset for two weeks. This time I'm not staying in a hotel but in a furnished apartment, not far from our office. It's so much nicer to stay in an apartment -- you can leave stuff behind and most importantly I can cook my own meals now. Much healthier (and often more delicious) than eating out.

I had to do some serious grocery shopping tonight. The apartment comes with pots, pans and other kitchen gear, but I needed to buy many "basic" things. Things you don't think of at home, such as pepper and salt, cooking oil and cleaning supplies. I'm all set now and cooked my first meal here (pasta with my favorite avocado salad).

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dailylife

31!

Mon, 11/09/2009 - 10:03pm

I'm turning 31 years old tomorrow! I received a couple of nice presents and I've opened some of them already, including Dutch beer + breadmix and a 500+ page book on Dutch-American relations (thank you!).

I'm traveling tomorrow morning to Somerset. I'll be spending more time there in the next few weeks and months and we even have a temporary apartment. It makes traveling a lot easier since I'll be able to go to CVS and buy some stuff and leave it in the apartment.

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foodanddrinks

Baking speculaas cookies

Sun, 11/08/2009 - 10:04am

Speculaas cookies.It's that time of year -- days are shorter, it's getting cold and thus time for some good old Dutch cookies.

We made speculaas this weekend for the first time and it worked out very nicely. I used the speculaas spices Ettie and Gerben gave us.

The reality with baking cookies is that it's great to have 1 or 2 cookies, but that two pounds of dough make more cookies than anyone could ever eat. So I'll bring them to my work tomorrow, as sort of a birthday cake.

(Here's a recipe in English).

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dailylife

At the dealership

Fri, 11/06/2009 - 6:18pm

Dealership.It was a long but good week at work. This afternoon I brought our car to the dealership for its 60,000 miles maintenance and for the state inspection.

I brought my laptop and a cup of coffee and had the time to read up on some documents.

When I came home I saw that a garage in front of apartment was damaged -- somebody must have hit it with a big truck.

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