The Thursday that Was NOT a Weekend (237/365a)

Well our thanksgiving was on a Wednesday and we stayed up till 2, but that doesn't stop the rest of the world from continuing.
Too early I awoke, to find it snowing. and Cold.
I had a gig to be at at 10, so off I went, taxied there, to get the most out of my morning - even a shower! #veryproud (#andofcoursethankful!)

The gig was in the beautiful aula of the old campus of the technical university, and we listened to lectures, and played birdland, and some handel and had broetchen, discussed feminism with klaus and went home. it was still snowing.

i cancelled everything else i could possibly cancel. A few minutes before we had to leave Fritz showed up for an unexpected visit with a little girl who is living with her (refugee) family in Fritz's home. i showed her the attic, offered fritz some extra beers and then got us a ride (me in seatless back of an old vw bus) to theodore's very first production of Eine Nacht in Venedig. He was so nervous, and he was very stiff, but he did it, and I was very proud of him. The audience was terrible the entire night, no reaction to many of the jokes. Maybe just a dull Thursday night? I wanted to spend 7 euros to stand in the back, but a lady sold me an awesome front and center aisle seat for 10 euros because her friend was sick. Theodore was too tired to "prost" us (with apple juice) when we got home. Poor thing. I hope he is having fun with this show.......

as always the question: keep or get rid of old programs?

very thankful (236/365a)

it's hard to even say what we're thankful for. we are so damn lucky that we forget about the very thing that makes our lives possible and, of course, worth living. all the extras... well, they're just gravy.

the very beginning of the party. about half the people and about 60% of the food are not pictured

my camera ran out of battery blah blah blah, so i used theodore's. 

we partied till 2am, with piano playing and guitar playing and off key singing.

many wine bottles were properly recycled.

the kids stayed up really late and played pretty much independently.

and henry lost his first tooth! (the front top, the one that wasn't black)

Thanksgiving Prep (235/365a)

Almost didn't make it to my 8:30 quintet rehearsal - got there at 9:15 after a crazy amount of time spent at red lights in a taxi. We were pretty efficient though, and didn't laugh too much so we got a lot done anyway. Got home in time to open the door for Nina the second time she came by. She lent me her giant tart pan for my pumpkin pies. Last year we used Mary's - we had brought them back for her from the US and used them at Thanksgiving before we gave them to her. :)

cute!

Henry wanted pictures of himself for school. - when I went to get them their photo printer ui was very bad and annoying, but henry took it in stride and waited patiently.
Thomas and I practiced some Siegl, and I'm looking forward to the performance in a month...

And Centa chopped up her giant pumpkin

Before...

During...

After....

With the kids in bed we adults continued our cooking, cleaning, (and in Centa's case, carving) with wine and Jazz.

homey (234/365a)

It was a nice morning, I was awake relatively early and made soup for the kindergarten lunch, and Brian packed it all up to keep it warm and took the food and felix up the hill. The other kids in the fahrgemeinschaft were sick/staying home. At the end of kindergarten I thought it would be nice to hike as a family and since we had the extra time picked up Felix as a family and did the very short hike the rest of the way up the platte to stefaniewarte.

brian grabbed this picture me coming out of the woods into the sun. i didnt have my camera with me

While the kids were at choir I played around with felix, taught him some guitar, we painted, we cooked, and all that fun stuff. Kale and garlic omelette for dinner with bread nearly too fresh to cut.

We did a bath/practice switcheroo (one practices, the other bathes, and then they switch) with the older two, and Centa read them to sleep while we went off to our last Lindy Class of the season. Nice happy day.

COOKIES! and my first orchestra gig ... in Graz(233/365a)

one of these mornins, im gonna rise up singin...

mmm, the house sounded good today, everyone singing in the morning...

Mmmm, the kitchen smelled good today, like sugar and cinammon. Manuela came over to bake cookies. I didn't take any pictures of them, unfortunately, or of Manuela, although lots of moments were quite pretty. we made three kinds.

.....after years, I finally got to play in an orchestra, thanks in large part to Nina who sings in the choir.
It was so fun! There are culturally funny things here, like that we wait to go on stage... I almost went on stage 20 minutes before we started, but then I noticed that the stage was empty so I just ... waited ... and I'm really glad I did. Many people were playing in winter coats --- it was cold!

Afterwards there was a little post-party at a restaurant, where wine and chatter was lively and fun. I ended up at home, just in time to take brian out for a walk and stop at j&a's for more chatter and to pick up the car... and a hammock for centa's sleeping experiment... she would like to know if she should exchange her bed for a hammock long-term.

Starting a New Deck (232/365a)

Theodore invented a new game, created a set of cards with a lot of effort, front and back. Nina came over for coffee and in sweetness took me theodore and henry on a bikeride to her office to borrow the laminating machine. The kids and I caught Brian and Felix at the Farmer's market buying so many vegetables :) We were already thinking about Thanksgiving, which we are celebrating on Wednesday next week, but our heads weren't clear enough to buy anything useful. Then Nina and her parents and I went to our last rehearsal before tomorrow's concert. I was warmer than yesterday, but I also forgot the big thermos of tea Brian had made for me. No matter, there was no break. 

I took Manfred out for a belated birthday drink, but still got home in time to practice with Henry and play some cards. It was fun, but the rules are not quite decided upon.

no fair, three against one!

Then a quick change and out to Michi's birthday party, also belated. Among other things we had wine and toasts and antipasti, and played a fortune telling game asking the fairies of the universe to tell us what we needed in our life. I need to let go. according to the fairies. The lady at the far end of the table took the card about "friendliness" which made her a bit annoyed.

surrounded by friends

Afterwards everyone went dancing, except me. I waited at a taxi stand in the rain, took the taxi (into which we fit 5 girls into 4 seats) with them to the awesome club, i looked/listened in... it was too loud, too much strobing, no people, so I went home. Lucky me got to walk back in the rain in my high heals to where I left my bike a mile away. Funny thing, when I got there I found I had forgotten I had an umbrella in my bag the whole time. 

Black Friday Thoughts - Costs per use (231/365a)

It’s black Friday, and that means, shopping, and saving money. Stuff you wanted to buy anyway is now 40%, 50%, 60% off of regular price, and you figure "better now than never".

It’s a fun game to play, what is the cheapest price for this item? Easy to compare two similar things:

Thing A cool functions. ugly colors. Fun. Price A

Thing B ergonomic. Awesome cool-factor. Fun. Price B.

Step 1. Decide what features you want

Step 2. Compare prices

Step 3. Buy the thing

Step 4. Bask in the glory of a good deal.

 …. Except my theory is that itemized comparisons are not a good deal – instead, you can try to compare price per use, which I will explain in a few examples. 

Shirt vs. Suit

A really cute shirt at T.J.Maxx that was only 15 dollars (original price, $49.99!). It gets worn once, doesn’t really fit nicely, gets forgotten in the back of the closet, eventually given away to Good Will.

Vs.

A $500 suit, worn once a week, for a few months, and it is already cheaper per use than that shirt.

Maintenance also plays a role. Maybe your suit needs dry cleaning. That’s $15 dollars, if you wear it just ONE more time, it’s still cheaper per use than the stupid shirt.

If you NEVER wear the shirt, it is mathematically infinitely expensive per use, and I mean that kind of practically too – you have to think about it, move it around, take care of it, hang it up if it falls down, it takes up space, in your closet, and, of course, in your brain.

If, on the other hand, you give me the shirt (thank you!) and I wear it 10 times, you are effectively paying $1.50 for each time I am wearing it, which seems very nice of you. That is, if you take me out for coffee (thank you again!) you are paying $3 for my coffee and $1.50 for my shirt.

By the way, this does in no way include the labor, the transport, the social or the environmental costs, nor the time it took you to shop, chose, wash, dry or fold.

[I do not want to advocate for or against any one item, purchase, entertainment choices or deals. I am herewith not saying a $500 suit is a good idea at all! i'm just advocating a different perspective on costs.]

Book  vs. Film

$15 per watching in the kino… but you can go with many friends

$15 for the first reading, but free every time after that. ß this is another way to look at times per use.

Bigger Example:

You buy a bicycle to maybe get your commute cost down, and to give you some exercise. It’s an experiment, so you buy a cheaper model, the cheapest model that Walmart has, at only $199.99 … If you were to break a part, they really can’t be fixed, but first you try riding to work. A week or two you manage. Then it rains. You find the tires really don’t work if it’s icy. You sometimes have papers to keep dry. You put it in your basement. It doesn’t bother you, it was a cheap experiment, and besides, you justify to yourself, I’m already paying for my car, it’s not worth letting it just sit in my driveway. It cost you $20/day for the thing. Hm…  

Even Bigger:

Your future husband buys you a $3000 engagement ring to seal the deal. You swear to keep it on your finger forever, but you divorce after 7 years….the ring on your finger cost your husband $1.20 a day, every day, which is more than a billion people live on.

Use it use it use it! (And don't forget - some things deteriorate with repeated use, and some things deteriorate in storage - which means, you can't use it forever!)

It works with apartments, and cars, and with services. Some people’s hair costs $3 a day. Some people have shoes with infinite use costs, because they only store them and never wear them. There are sofas that you could calculate cost $1 a day, but because they are rarely used, they cost $10 a sitting.  Worth it? You decide.

reality :)

lots of people thinking hiking is "free" but first you have to get there. and if you buy $200 boots, and wear them twice a year for 10 years, it's about the same price as going to the movies... every time you go hiking. and going to the movies is one of those costs people often complain about as being "too much" for entertainment. According to Thoreau... 

"I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. "

[how was my day today? i'm writing this where the most expensive things i'm wearing are my underwear at $0.09/use ;) ... fun and full of little things. mom time. coffee time. found a little pile of cut hair, presumably felix's. walked up and down a million steps a few times. forgot to do laundry. nice rehearsal gig in the big basilica south of town, which was so cold i thought my toes would fall off. warmed up with gluehwein at nina's with her family - who are such warm people!]

yoga to art gallery (230/365a)

i spent the morning digging in the garden, thinking about (pretty late, but doable) fall planting. we'll see.... and the afternoon walking around town and going to lessons with Theodore and Henry. Theodore was soo tired after two 11pm nights in a row, and I almost cancelled his violin lesson, but Elke went super easy on him, gave him a quarter of an hour lesson, and I took the other "extra" 15 minutes for myself. Took the boys to a coffee shop and sat outside because it was such a nice day! They were pretty excited about sharing sandwiches ... cutting two sandwiches into three pieces each, so it would be fair, and "slicing" them with my cappuccino spoon. It was, in my opinion, a better way to spend the same money i would have spent on a ride at the christmas mini amusement setup and a thing of cotton candy, although they REAAAALLY wanted to go, so we went and watched the Ferris wheel and merry-go-round go a few times.

SO glad I went to Yoga today - it improved everything - mood, circulation, calm, strength ... :)

just got oddly jealous of some stranger, a blonde lady who laughed a lot during class, and my guy friend from yoga laughed with her and they went out together afterwards... why jealousy? don't know... why do we feel what we feel?

but i also met a stranger lady that made me laugh - at an art gallery featuring jewelry/art by another lady i met at lindy hop. so the universe comes out perfectly again for us.

beautiful farmer's market bouquet from brian:
Kale is not "a thing" here, but I still love it.

Hauswurz (229/365a)

hauswurz, "sempervivum"

i found this little one on a mountain and carried it home with me on a leaf. a while back. 

today i was a hauswurz myself, didn't feel like leaving for any reason, and decidedly didn't. i stayed indoors and practiced, mostly, and played. in the evening brian finally convinced me to go for a walk, and i did - it was cold, but the night was clear and the sky was full of stars. with stargazing practice, some of the constellations are turning into friends. and when theodore came back from his rehearsal at 11pm tonight he remarked that castor and pollux followed him home. we are never alone on a clear night. (it's hard to believe but those friends are up there too on a cloudy night.)

done with steffens! (228/365a)

i talked about it on Thursday, September 15, 2016
"In my 1930's unabridged edition of Lincoln Steffen's autobiography, where he deals with issues about wealth, power and political corruption in examples that are horrifyingly relevant today, I found tucked between the pages a new price-tag from a $985.00 piece of lingerie."

in our (Amanda's and my) one sentence blog from back then

still have the price-tag ... i used it as a bookmark

and that was found/written about a year after i had first started reading it....

the book is nearly 900 pages of dense, but riveting, material. I took long breaks, and reread many many chapters. I always found parts that were thrilling enough to read aloud to multiple people...

...and today, I finished! It feels like the end of an era.

Though I'm not really "done" with Steffens.... I think I have to keep rereading excerpts to keep my philosophical hold on reality

so close!

Also had the Foersters over for dinner, and made tents in the living room with all the furniture and sheets. And Helga came over while Brian was out at a computer meetup, to discuss the Otto Siegl book she'll read from at our joint event in December. Brian picked up Theodore at 10pm, and Theodore got to bed slightly before 11... interested to see how tomorrow morning works.

gig morning! (227/365a)

9:30(AM, stressed the conductor on the phone) rehearsal this morning. it was nice to play with an orchestra again :)

bumps

bumps

waited for the tram for about a half an hour before a replacement bus came, and chatted with a stranger in the meantime - which is relatively unusual in graz. decided to stop at the kug library, (where i found these trees), but gave up my book search because the computer system was confused.
found nina, both of us running out of time but eager for some coffee :)

tonight seemed like tantrum night, but brian and i left poor centa to deal with it all and went out dancing.

baa baa baa birdland (226/365a)

to finish our first (not-quite perfect, but still awesome for a first try) birdland video, we wanted to rerecord our singing because we sing while we play and it doesn't really come through in the recording. but recording singing is nerve wracking, because ... we ... aren't ... singers! but i think we managed, and i'm looking forward to seeing the final finished project.

barbara's selfie of us and klaus and irmtraud

At home again, jiggity jig, we had an inside-day with Brian, wrote letters and learned a Ceilidh (KAY-lee) Dance that Brian had remembered from his stay in london (very similar to contra) ... they have ceilidh dances once a year in vienna - coincidentally, last saturday, so i guess we won't go this year. ;)

nice warm evening because brian fixed one of the two heaters upstairs. - it just needed to be cleaned out a bit ;)

henry salted the salad a bit too much, so i read the story about the king who wanted to kill his daughter when she said he was as dear as salt. i do love me some salt and some grimm's fairytales.

practiced a little dvorak stabat mater in preparations for my !gig! i have tomorrow....

look ma, it's me! (225/365a)

I've been writing these introductions for a music publishing company for a year and a half now, and I finally got the final prints, (and some extra music as thanks!) ...... surprise package delivery while i was in the bath, but how exciting to open it up and see my name in print. - and also more than one typo (oops! :( )

beautiful beautiful paper, i love paper!

The kids let me sleep this morning, and I got up just in time to rush Theodore out the door for yet another rehearsal (only 12 hours after the last one finished!) We wrote and crafted and drew. The best part was Henry giving Felix homework - he drew an outline of what looked like a mouse, and had Felix add lots and lots of lines, to make it into a hedgehog. They wrote letters, the colored, they sharpened pencils. 

Guess which belongs to whom!

When Theodore got home, he was the crankiest ever (not surprising!) and he was upset all through dinner, but he cheered up when we headed out for some Fritz-therapy, and he got to build a bird-house. And while we were there - oh joy of joys! - Brian joined us (pointing out, correctly, that Theodore was missing quite a different rehearsal that had been on the calendar for months, but oh well, i just forgot, so I guess he's not going), quickly leaving us to bring Henry home for his cello lesson. Talked a while with Michi, while chasing Luisa, but we left when my toes started to feel numb. 

so cute! now to fill it with seeds and hang it somewhere we can see

At home I was greeted by Tesco brand tea and dark chocolate. Finally an early bedtime.

getting things gun ... i mean, done (224/365a)

and then i went to buy guns...
.....not

i mean, not at ALL

this is me very uncomfortable at the gun store.

Help! get me out of here!

i only wanted oil to fix my typewriter! 

"the ladies use it to oil their sewing machines." - says the store owner. <eye roll!> Ok, so I bought a jar of oil that says "Gun Oil" on it.

it was drizzly, rainy, gray, wet, cold, and all the rest, but Felix insisted on kindergarten, I had the morning free, and Nina donated all her energy to me. We cooked, we laughed, we talked. Felix came home, the kids came home. Theodore took himself to the opera.

Our movie we tried to stream wouldn't load, although the naked popups had no trouble loading, so we eventually gave up. Next time. I left a sleepy Nina on my couch with a sleepy Felix to pick up Theodore, and got home nearly at 10. I'll be so happy to see Brian again tomorrow!

table experiment (223/365a)

a little bit of reorganizing - moving our table into the kitchen, where it just very barely fits... we'll see how it goes. felix was home all day again today, still sick. i drove the other kids to kindergarten, and left felix sleeping in his bed. theodore left right after dinner (a glorious pumpkin risotto! - make it again!) for singschule and directly to the opera for rehearsal from which he got home at 9.

the rest of us just went for walks and took baths and stayed warm and comfy inside.

manuela came over and we read kids to sleep. centa picked up theodore. then we sat in the comfy kitchen, and centa presented the monologue (from a seminar she helped with on wednesday morning) about stopping climate change to help champagne production. we laughed. :)

the kids like it!

the grown-ups like it!

pause tag with earache (222/365a)

i had a meeting at 7:15 with henry's teacher [about hitting :( ], meanwhile the kids got themselves ready for school on their own. i totally entrusted them with their own breakfast and getting out the door on time dressed properly, and they did it! felix apparently wanted to chase them down the street in his underwear and centa stopped him. i came home a few minutes later.

i had planned on keeping felix home today anyways, but in addition to all the fun we had planned, he kept complaining about an earache. wednesdays are ususally pretty quiet, but because of Eine Nacht in Venedig we had to get theodore to and from that rehearsal again. the parents also there for pickup were also complaining about their early nights after long rehearsals. they were all dads - i was the only mom (out of 6 parents) ...

we all went to the playground, and fritz glued theodore's shoes, which meant theodore hung out in the office, and then i hung out in his office, and then the other kids, so we had a floor party and made little pin buttons out of an old calendar. felix and henry both chose images from the Budhanath Stupa in Kathmandu.

go fish!

backlit, but happy

Siegl Day (221/365a)

As Gramp says: You don't have to brush all your teeth. Only the ones you want to keep.

Good thing my kids get up in the morning and help themselves. I certainly am not much more use in the morning than a mossy log.

I only sometimes have to go in there and ask "what are you doing?" and "are you ready yet?" I heard them spend about 15 minutes goofing around not brushing their teeth, and when i went in to find out what was taking them so long, i found them suddenly being very vigorous with their teeth brushing. haha

Spent most of my day researching (to some extent, successfully) using magical online tools. I even got a librarian in Vienna to scan in a few pages and send them to me, saying we could "ausnahmsweise auf eine Gebühr verzichten." ..... I wrote back thank you very much, and would have sent a giant kiss if that had been appropriate.

I edited the german wikipedia page with the world's worst german, but at least there's information there. and I started ocr-ing the several pages of "werksverzeichnis" so that i can put that online and searchable. 

I'm excited to finally make this teeeeny tiny project a reality for myself. It's a little start, but it's so fun!

I drew pictures/words for Felix on the bus today, he's starting to read a little. Henry is too, he's just taking his time on letting anyone know about it. ;)

Theodore is part of a much bigger project - the production of Eine Nacht in Venedig is taking up tons of time - he rehearsed till 9pm today, i walked to pick him up and he almost fell asleep on the streetcar. 

little love notes (220/365a)

:) <3 !

In the Odd Couple, Oscar says "You leave me little notes on my pillow. I have told you 158 times I cannot stand little notes on my pillow..." ..... noo! I LOVE little notes on my pillow.

I didn't find any on my pillow though, I found them everywhere throughout the day... i'm sure there are more of them too. In the jar of iron pills, in between the pages of my music ....

henry doing homework during theodore's lesson

During Theodore's violin lesson today Henry did homework and I went to pay. I made a very stupid mistake. I forgot that american's pay by check by giving people the check and that Austrian's pay by check by throwing it into what looks like a trash can at a bank. So I took the check thing to the guy to pay, and he spent about a half hour explaining that he didn't know what to do with it, and ended up printing a new bill out for me and telling me to fill it out again and give it to the bank. 

Also, a stray cat that until now has been very shy followed Felix around - including into the basement, and into the house. "Mama, I told the cat to go away, but now she is in the house..." I didn't like telling the cat to go away, but also the cat did not like me or listen to me, it only liked felix.

Also, somebody dropped a whole bag (open, freshly gotten from the farmer's market) of spinach near our house. Someone else hung it on a fence. We walked past it a few times, and then at some point, it was gone. Did the person who lost it find it? Did somebody else take it? Would I take and eat spinach off the street? So many questions.

Also, I walked around town with Felix, talking about all kinds of useless things, when he suddenly tugs hard on my arm and says impatiently, loudly, and angrily: "But Mama, where does God come from?"

AND, I went to the university library and got some books about Siegl and a free copy of Louis Armstrong's autobiography (with the pages coming out) ..... One of the books included an autobiographical sketch written when Otto was 29 years old - like anything has happened yet. Loved reading it though, it's short but it took a long time because it was in Fraktur which I can read, but only slowly - so I read it out loud, which made me feel really great.

At night was dance class. Learned some really useful things, got better! Then girls tea night with the centa and the nina. "Brav"

Riegersburg! i mean, Jennersdorf (219/365a)

I organized a quartet for some masses that Manfred's choir is doing. They are all taking place at various little towns about an hour outside of Graz, in the mountains, and since they are masses, they are mostly in the mornings, which means... early. Regardless, I couldn't sleep, so I was up at 3:30, with a 6:30 leaving time. Drove all the way to Riegersburg, called to ask about parking. Was told they were in front of the church. Didn't see them. "There's a volkschule and a construction fence" "yes, just past the dentist, i'm right there" "we don't see you." asked the priest going into the church. "no, nothing here. with ergo cantamus? they are in jennersdorf" ... oh, wrong little town, which also had a dentist, a church, a construction fence, a school and festivities around their center. oops. we still made it in time to rehearse etc.

happy birthday, manfred

lalalabruckner

I was so exhausted when I got home 7 hours later that I slept the entire afternoon, and had no trouble imagining sleep that night. Tonight, Brian headed out to London for the next week.

the lantern doth protest too much (218/365a)

It was cake-making day with Manuela, and only a few days ago she asked me what time we should meet, and i said it shouldn't be too exact. Well, Theodore ended up having a rehearsal at the opera which led to an uncharacteristically exact time: "Can we meet at the lendplatz at 10:05"...... uh huh.

it was suesse luisa time, and the sun even came out for half a second. so many vegetables were bought, and brought home and cooked and eaten. - including purple napa cabbage ... and a cake was made... Manuela brought gifts - it was like having another birthday. :)

We could open a shop to sell alarm clocks (we have so many)
- and henry is knowledgeable enough to give good recommendations

It was the actual St.Martin's day and I had heard there would be a gänsemarsch with lanterns to draw attention to the sadness of slaughtering geese for martiniganserl. I heard about it from a parent, so I assumed there would be mostly for kids. Instead I got to take part in my very first protest. I find protesting even for worthy causes to be a rather inefficient way of working. What could we accomplish with those millions and millions of manhours we spend on the enormous walks/marches/protests in Washington ... VS... what we actually accomplish. "woohoo, 3 of us were on tv for 20seconds!"

lanterns for everyone at dusk

I played my 2 lantern songs on the flute walking down the herrengasse and back, and took felix home early. theodore and henry were having fun so they stayed. :)

all the kids :)

laternenfest (217/365a)

In honor of St. Martin, a festival of lights. I was busy accompanying musically, so all the photos were made by brian. I woke up at 10:30, just barely enough time to have coffee (with Nina, yay!) before going directly to one last run through with the kids. drive them back, coffee at jackies, and then right back up for dusk. It was surely pretty.

Felix being careful with his lantern.

My public double debut as a flautist and guitarist

I made a truly awful soup today, using only good things. I tasted it and it was good, but somehow by the time we got up to the kindergarten is was the bitterest thing in the world. #epicmisofail. The rest of the buffet was yummy yummy and I stuffed myself.

The sky was clearing and I had a beautiful view of perseus and charioteer, thinking all the while "überm Sternenzelt muß ein lieber Vater wohnen." #beethovens9thstuckinmyhead

Through terrible planning, Andi took our kids home and put them to bed while Brian and I waited 25minutes for the bus. At least we had a nice time being alone together. :)

china rose (216/365a)

didn't feel like doing anything today. went back to bed for the whole morning. stayed home through the afternoon, and even skipped yoga.

concert in the evening with manuela - till eulenspiegel, schumann cello concerto, petrushka. what a program - i was exhausted just listening. manuela's friend iulia was playing, and she was of course exhausted from playing. we had dinner and drinks, and then headed to the bar where there were more drinks. the bartender liked us so much he made us his special, "china rose" .... with fortune cookies

italian prosecco, rosewater, rosepetals

pause tag (215/365a)

spent the entire day with felix and didn't regret it for a minute :)

he wants to do homework (i'm melting)

we are working on getting a family meal routine that involves everyone sitting at the table at the same time. Not as easy as i would have thought - especially since each one of us has such a variable schedule. felix and i cooked for everyone and waited till theodore and henry were done with their real homework, and set the table. it was very nice.

henry and i went down motivated to cleaning the dryer which takes 1000 years to dry. Brian and thoroughly cleaned all the lint and the surrounding areas a while ago, but I decided to pull apart the back. Carefully removing about 1000 screws we found a gigantic pileup of lint, including some that was directly on the heating element - fire hazard!! :) Let's see if our cleanup made any difference to the drying time...

bath time and practicing time were all fun and lovely.

stayed up working on brian's firehub website with him. <3

Cyclamen. ....photographed late at night by the light of the reading lamp.

Meanwhile.... (214/365a)

While this was happening:

kindergarten costume choices

Graz costume fortress

Theodore got his costume(s - three of them!) for his upcoming appearance in "One Night in Venice"

and Felix played "St.Martin" in the rehearsal for the laternfest at kindergarten - which might not be his role... they let the kids try lots of different roles, until the day before, when everyone gets a specific part. We sang, and I finally got to practice my guitar part ;) It was fun, but my fingers got cold. 

Spent way too much time in the afternoon and most of my evening at a meeting about possibly starting a feminist orchestra.... let's see what happens with that........

a rainy cold yuckday, i mean monday (213/365a)

"I'm Siiiingin in the Rain!"

Mostly a day where things didn't really work out right at all. I awoke in the guest room after the kids were at school. I had moved down there to stave off what seemed like the beginnings of a migraine, but thankfully I stopped it in its tracks. I was still a little woozy though, and played around with the idea of cancelling various plans for today, deciding on nothing. Elke was quite surprised at my lack of energy, but she always finds a way to get some intense teaching in.

I went to practice guitar at the kindergarten for their laternenfest this week, but showed up too late to practice. I took a too-tight turn down a steep slope (1000point turn), and I thought for a bit that the only way out was to roll the car down the hill sideways and be stuck in the woods forever. (it wasn't that bad, but the kids in the car came up with a different story) 

Felix and I sang all the way home.
He and I also wrote a whole book about his Zaubercar - he dictated I wrote. It was super cute. We read it about a thousand times already.

Brian went to lindy class, but I had choir rehearsal where the quartet that I finally finished organizing played together for the first time. Then I made dinner for Felix's kindergarten tomorrow, and Centa and I chatted over tea, suddenly remembering "the Bells are Ringing" which I started to watch with Brian - he saw to the end, but my consciousness gave up in the middle.

The hostess with the mostest (212/365a)

When somebody you know offers to host your friends they haven't met yet for dinner.... 

you waste no time getting there!

I made a cake while Brian and Russell went for a run. 

It's dinner time in the bright sunny apartment.

so yummy, all special foods

We adults need naps after we eat, but the kids need to run around, so we watched them from the balcony.

not pictured, dessert and wine ;)

The conversation ranged from Longfellow to mushroom hunting. Russell started reading The Birds of Killingworth but it turned out to be too long. (i said it was short, blah blah, not as long as some of Longfellow's really long ones)

What are we looking at?

Then there's the question of who gets to have the last of the whipped cream....

Felix is in charge of that.

When it got too cold (even after getting tucked into two blankets) we went inside, where we split into several variations of floor and couch parties. There was the drinks crowd and the naps crowd. The upside-down sitting crowd and the drawing crowd. The snuggle crowd and the massage crowd.

Centa joined us when she got done taking care of Hubert next door

Happy couch party

Happy floor party

Eventually it was time for Russell to depart. ........ 

In the Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell says: "Come dear, we've already missed five, if not six, trains. To miss any more might expose us to comment on the platform." 

........ He didn't catch the 5:30 train, or the 6:30 train, or the 7:30 train.... but eventually he and I walked to the station together and I said goodbye as awkwardly as only I can....

We love having visitors, and we love it when friends meet friends. Thank you, Russell, for coming out to see us!

Shopping, Talking, Walking, Magic (211/365a)

Farmer's market and pajama cello lessons for the morning. And random stuff for dinner, and a nap. It was a dark and foggy morning that turned into a gorgeous sunny afternoon.

Took Russell around the city to as many cites as we could power walk to. There were plenty of stairs. and lots of second hand pot smoke.

At the hauptplatz two guys were playing funky music on two sousaphones, and we danced together in spite of our difference of opinion on numbers of steps (lindy vs. west coast) and russell's rubber soles. had a strong coffee at 6pm, chased by some sturm. Lots of lively conversation the whole time, which continued after dinner - Brian cooked and everything was ready when we got home.

Only I wasn't ready - i had to take my camera BACK the way we had just come and capture the moon rising over the uhrturm as kitschy as can be.

Centa was home from her bike class, and Nina came for a quick glass, leaving soon after. The rest of us stayed up till 1 talking about how to save the world.

"Full-faced above the valley stood the moon"