Muffin's World

Maria was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington where she lived for almost 31 years before I kidnapped her through marriage and stole off to Germany with her. We met in 1987 when I was stationed as a soldier at Fort Lewis; after a few months with her I'd taken to calling her "Muffin", because I thought of her as being sweet and warm, just like a muffin…corny, but it stuck.

Maria had spent 12 years working as a manager in the County Medical Claims office, as well as a few weeks as a staff member on a Russian cruise liner making ports of call around the world. When I first met her, she was working as the administrative assistant to the Maitre' D for the banquet/catering department of the Seattle Marriott Hotel. After a year long engagement (with her in Seattle, and me having been reassigned overseas in Germany), I took leave to fly back and marry her; she then rejoined me in Germany about 6 months later.

About 6 months after her arrival, I deployed to the Gulf War, and she began working as a Field Station Representative for the American Red Cross in Garlstadt, Germany, which she continued after the war had ended and the troops had returned.

Maria has always had a passion for travel, and was able to indulge it fully during the 8 years she spent living and working in Germany. Besides the homes we made in Hagen, Baumholder, Wuerzburg and Schwetzingen, (Germany) she has toured many other cities, and visited in the countries of Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Lichtenstein and Luxembourg, among others.

To my benefit, she also indulges her passion for cooking on a regular basis. "Muffin's sandbox" is what we call the kitchen, and the saying in our family is that "good things come out of the sandbox when Muffin starts playing in there…". Our favourite café in Wuerzburg had a recipe for freshly made Crema de Pomadoro good enough to kill for; after tasting two bowls of it, she managed to recreate it from scratch, bringing one of several great memories of Europe back with her when we returned to America in 1998….

Maria is currently active in the local YWCA, a cooking club and a German/American friendship club in the area. Having trained herself to use computers on the job a few years ago, she began last year to seriously explore the use of handheld computers; her Nino 320 pocket PC is a constant companion now, and I doubt I could pry it out of her hands. She counts reading, chess, light photography and collectible crystal and ceramics among her other interests.