Cyrano!! (82/365a)

Fancy a cup of tea?
We've had a tea-kettle since we got here, 2 years ago, on which the switch twitches off unless you're a witch. well, unless you hold it down. we have cleverly balanced cups on top of the switch for a while now, but today was my first time trying it with a full cup of water filled with wild-flowers. it worked too! the water boiled.

our life philosophy is of course that we don't buy our way to "convenience" ...... we suffer through the funny moments like when people come over, and we have to explain how the hot water heater works in our house. or how to use the knobs on the microwave that has two things to turn but only one knob. ..... or or or ... so many things like that.

tea time with mr. gogol

Brian surprised me this morning with a theater ticket!

earlier this year i saw a sign for Cyrano de Bergerac playing at the outdoor theater here. I wished I could go, but i would be gone for their entire run. too bad. well, funny story, i don't know what i read, but actually they were playing until the 3rd of july, so i could see it after all.

Well, there was one ticket left, and it was in the front row, right in the middle, which in this case was basically the best in the house. The performance was stunning, the interpretation pretty genius. I had the best light and vantage point for photos, but I didn't have the cojones. Luckily, Nina had gotten some at a previous performance that she had gone to with Cecilia.

it rained on stage!!

All kinds of surprises today: Nina had reserved a table for us at the place accross from the theater, overlooking the city at night..... so pretty!

the view from my vantage point

another view from my vantage point
"Now it is in the world and it will never leave again"

Stayed up way too late but it was worth it!!

Nina Day (81/365a)

at 9:30 Nina started her day of patience with irma's chaotic life.

random hook hammering when we should already be on our way

coffee and isabella frizzante with manfred on the lendplatz. where we also found cherries and apricots at "my" fruit farmer. (the best!)

theodore's been bringing home all the things he's built up for a year of school, since it's his last week.

we got to and from chorus without incident - we did find 5 cellists playing on the street and Henry begged for a CD and got one. They were playing game of thrones and shostakovich, among other things. They were quite fun to watch, and the streetcars were getting annoyed with the crowd that was building up dangerously close to the tracks.

Felix showing off to Nina: "take my picture, now show me"

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Ro entranced, watching us play for the first time.

Pizza in the rain, Henry holding the umbrella too close to everyone's faces, but no eyes were poked out. No plates, no cups, no utensils, just delicious food, and watermelon and occasional sky-drips. I learned about a new rain song, "Selbstmitleid"

Stayed up nearly until Brian returned, managed a bottle of schilcher and a box of cookies, plus the really awesome pilot episode of "Whites" with alan davies. 

Nostalgia on the couch included our blogs from teenage years, and old pictures from 2001.

<3<3<3<3<3

Sleep deprived (80/365a)

Theodore terrifically woke me up when he was already ready for school, and left the house 15 minutes before he usually does with us following him around and begging and cajoling him to move. i guess he doesn't need us!

I am massively sleep deprived, and ended up in my last lesson for the year super tired.

afterwards, coffee at oma's teekanne, a cute little cafe that is closed on mondays during the year, when my lessons normally are, so i've never been even though i always pass it and think it looks so cute.

coffee for 2

nina met me, and ended up back at my home for more coffee.

cut myself on the menu, and bled all over it (it was a cut that i had already had from a knife)

flew off to kindergarten to get the kids, thinking i would be back nice and early and fast, and ended up with so much crying and tantrums and bad dynamics that i ended up back at the foersters late and stressex

Running to get a tick vaccine

we said goodbye to the lovely people at the adventure playground (a place of children and fires and climbing gear and sharp knives).

Eventually, at bedtime, Manuela read the kids - and me! - to sleep. at 9pm all the kids were asleep and i woke up. Cecilia was packing for her trip to a conference, and Manuela and i found some chilled wine and chilled ourselves on the couch watching the packing madness.

waiting for the bus (79/365a)

G R A T I S

waiting for the bus - oh there it is!

Bad luck with the bus today.
Bad luck with many things today.
Raised my voice and fought with my kids about shouting and fighting...... [very meta, i know] Then felt very sad about that.

Met Sophia a young cellist who will be performing with us in the fall when I return.

Walked around town returning things without a receipt and buying other things. Here they just give you a receipt with a number handwritten on it, and you take this piece of paper (which you have because you admit you lost a piece of paper that looks remarkable the same) and that is officially your store credit.

Also returned library books. I hate libraries here. More on that another day.

Salonorchester board meeting tonight. Champagne was served and "amazing ideas" flowed.
At home I changed into old clothes to move 3 really very soaked logs out of the bathtub with Centa and now we are sharing a glass of sangria while typing on our computers..........

an indoor picnic (78/365a)

Brian made himself on his way early in the morning, first Vienna then London.

We walked him to the end of the street to catch his bus and said our goodbyes.

Solstice was the beginning of the week. The weeks before and since have been filled with crankiness: Kids and I are sleep deprived, the nights seem short, we go to bed late and and the sun wakes us up extra early. We spend the day outside, where the sun steals all our energy.

Today was no different sleep-wise. Too little sleep, a little cranky.

We found an old pair of opapa's glasses with some tools in the basement.

Theodore likes to have his violin lessons in the basement. It's nice and cool there.

But today was going to a picnic with Manuela in the Park! And today I was gonig to play trios after the kids' music lessons....... Well, a big rain with thundershowers scared the music teachers away, and decided us against the park.

We decided to set up the picnic in the living room.

We couldn't wait till Manuela got here to start on the food, even though she wa bringing half of it.

still cranky even after 1000 cherries.

In the evening our dear cousin Ingrid Cz. came by and brought some old clothes for us sisters and showed us pictures of relatives 3 generations ago. some wine and chatting later....... it was sleep time, which is always a little bit more lonely without my special dear.

Boys Day with Fritz (77/365a)

I have no pictures of Boys Day that Theodore and Henry went on with Fritz. I know they went to visit a cave that nearly nobody in the world knows about, and brought back some fossilized bones. I know they came back with a balancing stick sculpture that can be taken apart and reassembled at will. I know they came back with blisters, smiles and extreme tiredness.

Meanwhile, Felix and I walked home together the slowest way possible, he on his bike, and stopped at everything we found interesting (a lot!)

We watched people unloading the produce at AKDAG (the turkish market around the corner) and I saw 5 boxes of amazing figs come off the truck. I decided to buy a whole box of them, but realized I didn't have enough cash with me, so went 2 houses down to an ATM, withdrew money, came back, and found they had exactly ONE BOX left. win for me. walking out of the store at least 5 people asked "where I found" the figs, or whether I would sell them some. Little do they know how many figs a family of 5 fig-eaters can eat!

a self-portrait in this situation is not as simple as it looks. (But i love how this turned out!)

we started the mushroom process - soaking the logs in the bathtub will take 3 days.

Felix took photos - not bad for a 4-year-old.... the camera is super heavy! He can barely hold it upright!

We gardened despite the heat.

Brian made yummy salad.

I bought some herbs and planted them.

When Fritz brought the boys back, he and I had coffee in the treehouse, and talked about Algeria.

It took so long to get the children to bed this evening that we missed out on getting to watch a movie together. Tomorrow Brian will head to Vienna, the next day to London, and when he returns Thursday morning, we will be in full US-trip planning mode. Maybe no more movies until mid-september.....

sommerfest and summer showers (76/365a)

In the morning I met up with a lovely lady, a self-published children's book author, singer, songwriter, painter, theater lady who needed (very minimal) help with musical notation. for a few hours we did that, and then i went off to grab theodore and a good water melon (the nice man at the market threw my water melon away and gave me a different, supposedly better, one)

It was blisteringly hot.

everyone waiting for the rain to stop

The clouds broke as we got to theodore's end-of-school summer party, and we were kindly asked to not leave, the storm would be over soon, so we hid under the eaves, and the rain beat down.

[meanwhile, brian was at kindergarten, searching for the correct size and type of wood logs to use for mushroom growing and he was completely soaked and scratched and covered in mud by the end of it, and just missed seeing theodore's class perform a song]

after lots of calorific but nutritionless food we took our empty watermelon bowl home.... later at the playground found that Fritz (a really cool guy who runs the place and lets people climb trees with climbing equipment and buys 50lb bag of grain etc etc) was working on saving a baby magpie injured in a fall out of its nest.

die elster die ist schwarz und weiss...

he also helped theodore finish the wheels on his locomotive, but because his mama (:-/) drilled the holes wrong it still doesn't quite move right. it's quite pretty though!

Theo no.1

Went for an amazing cool (phew!) walk with Nina, and talked about our adolescence. Wine was drunk on the return but I didn't stay up too late for the first time this week (and this on a friday night!)

a new game and and old game (75/365a)

a game of no, no, no all morning.

Kemo walking the other kids to the kindergarten while i waited for Felix to decide to move

don't forget midmorning spontaneous coffee that just seemed so short!
 right after that i was on an important mission to get kids home from kindergarten and bring them to marie's house to make a kids' board game.

it is so hot we're fighting about water

sewing machine 

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Marie had said a year ago that she would help the kids make a game, and then we were gone for several weeks, and then she had a baby and then ...... well, wonderful every day liife happened and then she wrote a letter to the kids asking them to make the game with her. they wrote a letter back and everything was arranged. she had all the things ready and the kids got to play in the sprinkler for a while too while Klas took the entire laminator machine apart to get one card out that had gotten stuck.

all done! it's super cute!

Marie doesn't like having her picture taken, but her baby doesn't mind at all!

those eyes!

After that late for the kids, who don't want to sleep because it's too bright, too hot, too ..... ugg. Then a late night for us, where we cooled off on Jacky and Andi's patio drinking wine and talking about everything from imaginary hemorrhoids to assisted suicide to baby talk.

Chorus, Concert, exCerpts (74/365a)

SO HOT TODAY

First chorus, where Felix didn't feel like going so he went for coffee with me and Jacky,

post-chorus monkey games in the drizzle

then vorspielstunde, where Henry didn't feel like playing, so he just didn't

(theodore did though, very well)

Then "ART" excerpts in the Anglistic Institute library, which ended up with some parts of the cast, Nina, Cecilia, and me having "dinner" together.......

Dinner of Champions

Stories outside on locked up tables and chairs, in the cooled-off-thank-goodness night air.

Yoga and Pubbing (73/365a)

I don't believe in babying my kids. I don't typically like "music for kids" or "yoga for kids" because they tend towards dumbifying and condecension. so i bring theodore (sometimes henry or felix if they have had enough sleep) with me to "real" concerts, and "real" theater.sometimes it doesn't work out, but mostly it does.
like with yoga. i take theodore occasionally to my yoga class. an hour and a half of movement sandwiched between 10-minutes of deep meditation and he does pretty well.
today his feet were still covered in pine sap. he pretty much chased me as i was walking out the door saying " i want to go too!" grabbed his helmet and off we biked together.

a child in child's pose

at home we were met by Manuela, bearing gifts for the children, back from scotland.

she walked with me to meet Hannah at the pub, stopping long enough to buy snacks and see the sunset.

a 10-second "prost"

pub was down a very pretty little alley

Thirteen Years and a Mint Julep (72/365a)

google the song "Mint Julep" by the Clovers and you'll know what is played at every lindy hop beginner lesson here. it's also a popular drink in some parts of the world

Brian sourced the ingredients, mint from the garden

For our 13th wedding anniversary we ended up out late for a drink after taking a tram to liebenau to pick up my purse! hurray!

In the morning I had a lesson on Bartok, for which I had practiced extensively in Slovenia, probably much to the annoyance of all the neighbors. The work paid off - it was a very effective lesson.

I also defrosted the freezer. In Austria, the freezer is about big enough to fit two large bags of frozen peas. The fridge we have here is the size of a typical US dorm room fridge. During our US stay this summer we are planning on storing all our dry goods in the fridge. We have the next few weeks to really use up most of our stuff.

In the fridge we found frozen banana, so banana ice cream was made right away of course!

right before one of the bowls broke... :(

the kids stayed up late late late. we had so much fun they played nicely, we read and fixed things and cleaned things and practiced and everyone was in a good mood. felix just stayed up so so much later than everyone else, and we still had to take the tram to the final stop to find my purse.

so we left with 4 minutes to get to the bus, and watched the bus drive away in front of us, 2 minutes too early. we sprinted after it, just to barely watch it drive away at the next stop, so we kept jogging until we got to the tram, just on time! hooray. picked up bag right at 10, wandered on to a pizza place for wine and a great view of the city.

walked down the street holding hands with gelato, like a couple of teenagers talking about the next 13 years

ended up with jazz and a mint julep in the basement lindy hopping like pros (haha)

Now, i don't want to bore you with my troubles
but from now on i'll be thinking double
i'm through with flirting and drinking whiskey
i got six extra children from a-getting frisky
A mint julep, a mint julep
a mint julep, a mint julep
one mint julep was the cause of it all

a marathon of mess ups(71/365a)

the adriatic

started the morning looking everywhere for my (literally) beeping cellphone.
brian was messaging me from his run - it was a run he had left at 5am for, to get to the border of croatia and back. it ended up being nearly twice the distance he had originally bargained for. a full marathon in fact! he had noticed my cell phone lying on the floor by the bed and helpfully moved it to the cell phone pocket of our backpack. i looked in the big stupid pockets of the backpack and under the bed/couch, but couldn't find that stupid electronic piece of technology.

off to the beach we go without brian. i write him a note, which i leave in the apartment to which he has no key. i write the time on top of the note, because i hate when people leave notes without the time on them. of course, i would also hate if people leave notes for me and then lock them in a 4th story apartment to which i have no key.

i can't actually use the key to mary's apartment because it's foolsafe - fools like me can't figure out how to turn a key. mary has to go back to lock the note in.

mary has no phone either.

on the bus we decide to go a little further to martin's work so we can call brian and let him know where we are.
we do so, and in the create several little screaming monster tantrums for various reasons.

end up at the beach one peach short, several knives short (the kids want a different knife for each peach, because sharing is hard) and 3 euros and 60 cents between us (including the extra euro 50 because i didn't need to pay for my bus because i am so darn cute.

phew. brian ends up finding us.

mary and i enjoyed a long chat and a coffee by ourselves on the adriatic sea

we end up playing a little longer than going home and sending m&m off for a date night while we pack up. under mary's careful tutelage i make a "fidget clapper" for theodore. the world's first by that name. one of the world's first of any kind, since it's mary's invention.

we spend longer than we want to packing and saying good bye.

right past all the construction traffic from construction that is SO not being done right now, i realize i left my purse (including ID and money and wallet) in slovenia. when i call, i wake up martin, who confirms yes, the purse was under the table, just where i left it.

then we saw a burning tractor trailer. hm. all in all, a fun day where nothing happened. all the little things balance out in the end. i'll have to figure out how to get my purse and wallet back!

i may be deciding  that the right tool for a job is a hand saw which i will use in the kitchen

brian may be tired from his run

no traffic jams for this

A day in the salt air (70/365a)

Headed to the beach first thing in the morning which means we got there in time for a prime hammock-hanging spot. Mary's birthday hammock soon made friends with some trees

how many engineers does it take?

And while brian and mary went off swimming with all 4 kids i nearly fell asleep in the hammock. martin sensed the dangers of early sleep and suggested a cup of kava (java, coffee, kaffee)

I said only in a real cup. The first cafe wouldn't give him one but the second one did.

so happy with my bela kava (large cappuccino, small by american standards)

Felix ate so many peaches that mary went with him to get some more. he ate all of those, so brian went to get more. we ate more than that besides. our dinner was raw vegan and delicious. nuts fruit more fruit and cucumbers and peppers. perfect beach food actually. hydrating refreshing and yummy.

we were invited to mary's in-laws for afternoon coffee and cake. i chose a special spot in the shade to lay down in.

88 year old grandmother showed up in her house dress.

dunja says: you should wear real clothes, don't you know we have company?

mary points out, look at my sister laying on the ground in the driveway. who are you trying to impress?

everyone laughs. except me. because i don't understand slovenian.

in malja

games and fun in the evening. henry makes a tripod for a dollhouse kettle. we play gobblet and quoridor and drink wine and eat about 10,000 pounds of garlic bread, stay up LATE till 11pm and go to sleep.

building a tripod for a goulash pot

concentrating on quoridor

learning the rules

a good move in the game against uncle martin

teaming up

Awaking in Koper (69/365a)

One of the few things I remember about traveling when I was very young is that the trips were always so SHORT! You get in the car, play a game or two, fall asleep, and then you are there!

As an adult, I finally understand the carrying up the stairs part, and being exhausted the next day when your kids are full of energy part.

In any event, Agnes and her cousins had a wonderful reunion while we adults were allowed to sleep in till 8:30!

We had a day of crafts and playground and painting and practicing. We didn't go to the beach although we thought about it a lot.

Mary makes doll houses cool!

Henry plays with a slinky while I practice Bartok

Theodore builds a canoe

In the evening I end up at a rehearsal for a concert with the Slovenian Obalni Komorni Orkester, playing Tchaikovsky. It was fun to play along at the back of a section and not understand a word that the conductor was saying. :)