Markus Up Close and Personal

I Made a Huge Mistake!

Right now, I’m 35,000 feet in the air on my way to Germany. And yesterday, I made a huge mistake: I decided to make some shrimp for dinner. And it turned out pretty good: This is the first time I used my “magic shrimp peeler and deveiner” that I bought a few weeks ago, and


Markus Up Close and Personal

I’m shipping up to Boston!

Right now, my daughter Vivian and I are visiting her brother Julius in Boston. And yesterday, we watch him racing on the Charles River. When it was his time for a break, they both watched the other sailors and discussed racing strategies. So cool! After watching several races, Vivian and I got hungry and decided


Markus Up Close and Personal

How to turn a bad situation into a good one.

Ok, I admit it: I’m a weirdo! Because I like rain. And no, I’m not THAT weird that I’m dancing in the rain: But here’s the deal: When I was living in Germany, I didn’t like rain – at all! Because in Germany, it’s that “never-ending” kind of rain. It’s the kind of rain that


Markus Up Close and Personal

The Midnight Scooper

I love eating ice cream – especially hot fudge sundaes – but I don’t like scooping it. When you take the ice cream out of the freezer, it’s always so hard, and when I’m using an ice cream scooper it always feels like the ice cream is jumping out of the box, over my shoulder