coffee and cameras (267/365a)

Cuntra la Cultra

i think i'll have another cup of coffee

christmas tree elf

oh the things that will never get done this year!

but regardless, i ran off this morning to get a coffee with manuela. we then went for a short walk to griesplatz where i had 2 more coffees. the first place was a pretty fancy place that i frequent when i drop my kids off at choir. the second was a more comfy grungy place with board games and smoke smell and cannabis posters. coffee is better the first place. atmosphere better the second.

despite all the coffees i was pretty mega tired. really i would have been happy sleeping all day, but mary's here, and agnes, and we had fun things to do. ingrid came over to sing christmas songs, and gave us a giant box of sheetmusic from around 1902 with mouseeaten edges and some catclaw marks.

when everyone else had gone to bed i tried for the last time to fix my lens. i kind of succeeded - i got all the parts back together in the right order (a triumph in itself) - but in my heavy handed way, it no longer turned happily, and never will. also the cable ribbon was finally completely severed (when david h. fixed it a few years ago it was very nearly severed, and we thought it would never work again, but it did.)

Mandolin! (266/365a)

My mandolin arrived today! I think I got an extra good deal on it, because it was on ebay a while, unbought price sinking, probably because there was a typo that listed its shipping at $22k instead of $22... it probably was on the bottom of everyone's search. anyways, I got it and it arrived yesterday while we were gone. this morning i ripped it open and haven't stopped playing it since.

Well, except for going to visit nina who's also sick now, and except for going on a very lovely walk with my little family.

Mary and I recorded her version of "the owl and the pussycat" with extra additions from the kids saying/screaming things like "maamaaaaaaaa, sssstoooohp" ... it turned out as well as could be expected. i finished knitting mary's hat. we watched amahl and the night visitors. i practiced more mandolin. i did a halfheadstand for 2 seconds. and then i did another somersault. i wonder if i will every learn.

listening to "the owl and the pussy cat"

Riegersburg! (265/365a)

[only 100days to go on this project!]

A visit to Nina's family in Riegersburg was on the menu today. I was up so ridiculously early completely naturally, no alarm clock, before all the kids, and baked bread. Rye to bring with me. Wheat to leave here. Theodore is still feverish and tired, so he opted to stay here. I was nervous how the rye would turn out, since sourdough is not yet a mastered skill. I sported my cool sunglasses that Rene picked out for me at yoga once. We borrowed a car from a carsharing website, which links people who need one with people who have a car that's sitting around that day. Cheap and easy.

leaving Graz

Burg from the road...

We arrived in the drizzle, and enjoyed quite the wonderful dinner. Phil was too sick to join us, sadly. The afternoon progressed quite nicely, with Henry and Felix thoroughly impressed by the christmas tree, and the "magic" magnets, and other niceties around the house. We went for a nice walk in the dusk, where we saw the silhouette of the burg in the fog, grey and yet still beautiful. The rain turned to snow. The lights from the streetlamps on the umbrellas was beautiful. When we were back, the rye cut beautifully. The Austrian coffee-wine-coffee-wine tradition is a tough act to keep up with. The only way is with bread and cheese to help absorb the drugs. We sang so many christmas songs. I did not play the guitar very well, but Kurt's guitar is so beautiful and nice to play, so it was hard to give it back.

Snow on the rooftops

At home Theodore was nearly in bed. I read him the end of his book, The Railway Children. The other kids had fallen asleep in the car. It was review day in yoga and i put it off till the last possible minute, and nearly fell asleep on the floor in the relaxation period at the end.

projects that push other projects aside (264/365a)

I have things I try to do every day no matter what, but when I have to these things have to make way. I blog, I yoga, I grog, I jog... I jest!

But today I officially got everything in after the moment of midnight, which makes it officially unofficial, but technically I make the rules. So it counts. I took my photo after midnight. Blogged after midnight, and did yoga after midnight. I spent the day making things with Mary. We spent time walking to the craft store, not buying anything really, and then walking back and playing with hacksaws and doodling. I made a dinner which required chopping everything into very many very tiny pieces. I was exhausted at the end of it all, but I just didn't want to stop until everything was done. I started the dough for tomorrow's sourdough, and that means being up early to knead...

long exposure of together 1am yoga

Boxing Day (263/365a)

Lie la lie, lie la la la lie lie
Lie la lie, lie la la la la lie la la lie

We had a nice boxing day, I worked on some more projects, starting some drawing/writing stuff with Mary, some basement stuff, some cleaning, some email stuff, and some more knitting. Martin left for home. We made polenta with mushroom goulash (yay for vegan food where nobody misses anything), a preview of new year's eve's dinner.

Unfortunately Theodore is just plain sick, and has slept nearly all day. Even reading seems too much for him right now.

Christmas Day (262/365a)

The day started with the traditional Stollen. We were out of butter, so we used vegan butter, which Mary pointed out would maybe be offended at being paired with eggs and cow's milk. But it was fine. The Stollen  was good, for Stollen. The bread that you make with raisins and candied orange peel and chopped nuts that nobody *really* likes but everyone would miss if you didn't have it on christmas morning. right? 

Ingrid came over too, with some more presents for Martin and Mary and stayed to compliment our new coffee machine. ;) The floor of the living room was completely covered in wrapping paper and ribbons, because I like the feeling of chaos for a day or two at christmas time.

We listened to christmas music and sang along. Went for seperate walks. Agnes and Felix with M+M. Henry with Brian. Me with Theodore. We looked for birds. We found lots of different types, and it was very nice "bonding" time ......

Manuela came back from Klagenfurt and came to us for Christmas dinner - mushrooms and pasta and salad. The kids couldn't wait so we gave them a seperate table to eat at. They set it themselves, and put effort into it, but when food arrived they couldn't all sit still at once and just eat without fighting or arguing. We tried to make chocolate mousse for dessert but it took too long to chill and we settled for ingrid's cookies.

the adults... i didn't get the dress in red memo

Kids table with kids everywhere, and Manuela trying to voice of reason.

Christmas Eve (261/365a)

A really fun day that started a little more stressfully than it should/could have (stress comes from within of course....) All in all, the kids were happy and that's what counts. Centa was leaving for the US and she had the fortitude to be awake early enough to make a waffle breakfast for the kids. But seriously, she had to leave at 11:30 to get to the airport, and somehow made the time to cook with a Barnaby-the-Elf hat...

see you in March!

Mary and Martin came back just after the kids left with Brian so I could work magic. They decorated the tree and I made dinner (nutcrusted celeriac with blue potato salad... it included french mustard we got from dorian, and algerian olive oil which i finally opened up. it also included blood oranges that were *orange* inside (with i think is not right) and the cookies j+a brought over friday for dessert)

yummy

then the little bell rang to let us know the candles were all lit by magic...

with candles (we rolled the beeswax with the kids)

with kids

The tree is perfectly scraggly thanks to Brian choosing the perfect one with all the kids.

they carried it all the way home

Christmas EveEve (260/365a)

The day in which Brian and I swoop into town and do all our christmas shopping between 5:40 and 6pm, meeting up briefly at various points in the midde. I bke, he runs. Centa in the meantime walks the kids all over town the whole afternoon. Truly lovely, it was a gorgeous sunny day, warm and comfortable, and I was truly too irritable to make use of it. Let's not try to hid our emotions from ourselves, right?

I spent lots of time knitting to finish some things I had started, and some time wrapping gifts, but mostly i spent my alone time (pre shopping frenzy) reading more Kingkiller. Nice relaxation. :)

When everyone got home they were tired and hungry, so we ate and went to bed, except Theodore who had to go back to the eiskrippe and sing for singschule. They sang beautifully, the same program as they sang in the opera for the christmas concert. Some of those songs make me cry so easily. When he was between songs I ran briefly to see if they spar on hauptpl was still open, only to find that there is no more spar on hauptpl. Funny I hadn't noticed till then.

The frenzy at the spar at the train station was unbelievable. Everyone grabbing this across people, packed aisles, packed checkout lines.... We got our few things we wanted and headed out. I was happy to be out with just Theodore, walking along and talking. When we got home though he was very tired, and went off to sleep with the others.

Ingrid came by with some old clothes and some new news, and played the guitar and told us stories and shared some champagne with us.

brian snuck a photo of me knitting and ingrid playing from his "rise up singing" book.
she knows so many cool folk songs in english!

Impromptu pizza party (259/365a)

Mary left this morning, and Agnes was not thrilled about it, but she'll be back Christmas eve. A rehearsal, concert, rehearsal concert in koper and then she'll be here again. :)

Felix wanted to go to kindergarten again this morning, but not enough to actually get ready to go, so he stayed home. He and Agnes and I drew Dürer bunnies for a few hours.

Agnes, Albrecht, and Felix

Jackie and Andi stopped by and I ungracefully showed off my coffee machine, first covering the floor with water by accident, and then not paying attention to when it was ready to steam. They coundered ungracefullyness with graciousness. They brought cookies and told us they would be back in 2018. I complained that time was going by too fast, and they countered by saying time just is the way it is. they suggested that we travel together to iceland. when i asked if there would still be northern lights in may they said probably not, but that we would just have to travel again... let's see.

manuela and nina and kris all came by at exactly the same time. The kids were off at choir when they got here, but they soon came back. We sat on the floor and chatted, then moved the table into the big room and I made pizza. Only one more block of cheddar from London in the freezer...

re-presenting otto siegl to graz (258/365a)

music in the kitchen! (thank you Nina, or Kurt? :), for the photo!)

It was one of those overscheduled days that have to work out somehow, but it seems impossible when you look on the calendar. All kinds of music stuff. Too much, really.

Lesson, and singschule, and then Theodore and I played a recital, and then I taxied to Waltendorf to play Otto's music without so much as trying a note before we started because the time was too close. To play housemusic in a kitchen is the most delightful of luxuries, and that with a full crowd, every seat was taken, many favorite, familiar faces among it.

"when I was little I used to read 'cow jump jump moon' - isn't that silly?

Lydia brought this back from China a few years ago for Theodore.
Now it is too small for Felix, but he still likes to wear it.

heisshunger (257/365a)

Bread still not perfect, but getting better. Got to the abendteuerspielplatz as it was getting dark, and made up operas in the sandbox with the kids. Lots of music playing today, and then Cecilia and Mary off to the real opera to see Theodore. Manuela was also there, and Barbara was playing. I thought it would be fun to wait for Theodore and have a party so I brought wine glasses and wine, and my poor friends and sisters stood outside shivering in the cold waiting for Theodore, and made our own mini party. Barbara drove us home, which meant Theodore and I got home a little earlier than usual.

discussing the opera with yummy snacks

drum circles and polaroids (256/365a)

My kids were all at kindergarten and school this morning, and Mary caught up on sleep. Centa and I played and read with Agnes all morning, which was so fun. I made more christmas cookies, and we drew/wrote many pictures and stories, basically covering the kitchen table and floor with paper and paper scraps and pencils and markers.

In the evening I rehearsed with Thomas and Helga for Thursday's reading/concert about Otto Siegl. I think it will really work out! I waited until nearly midnight before I did yoga. I don't want to make a habit of midnight yoga, but it's better than the habit of no yoga ;)

polaroid posing with the same t-shirt

[We went through a bag of second-hand clothes and found two shirts, one blue one red, with the same design on them. The two youngest cousins took a liking to them, and Theodore immediately got out his instamatic and took too instaphotos of them. My heart! 

Henry also practiced very happily and very energetically with Mary.

And Mary organized a drum circle with flutes and whistles, including her personal klezmer arragement of Go Tell Aunt Rody - she really has a musical gift and a children gift and knows how to combine them too!]

agnes arrives! (255/365a)

Mary wrote she would either arrive at noon or at 6pm. She arrived at 4pm! Also good for us! :)

The cutest moment by far was Agnes showing us her viola-cello - an 18in viola that Mary fitted with a wooden endpin that Agnes plays like a cello.

Then it was bath time... there is no quick bath time with four kids.

Then it was Story time. All 4 kids wanted a value tale - a grand total of an hour and a half of poor centa reading. But we had wine afterwards and stayed up late talking about the good old days. Properly nostalgic.

listening carefully

sore throats (254/365a)

the house is full of sad sore throats. that didn't stop us from learning a canon about the solstice that was in our advent calendar. it did however, curb our appetite and contribute to grumpiness.
in spite of that we cleaned up to the sounds of beethoven's 9th, and sang along whenever we felt the urge.

a little bit of yoga every day anyways.

i would have liked a hot water bottle at the leechkirche but I didnt have a step ladder with me (253/365a)

Pros and cons.

Pro:Theodore and Henry snuck down early in the morning to play violin and cello together spontaneously, just for fun.
Con:Tantrums about who "owns" the trains. and what kinds of tracks "thomas" (the train engine) "likes"

Pro: Advent calendar said to make cookies so we did ;) And they were perfect.
Con:Brian's sore throat left him pretty much voiceless.

And I was so lucky to have a last minute gig (they called me on Monday) so I headed out for that.
First I went to the wrong church, because of google. I had been to the Leechkirche before, but not for a year. In the same area, google finds the leechkirche in a slightly different place - one where there also is a church, and where mysterious organ music was playing (that i never found the source of) ..... I was glad I had left so early, since I still arrived early after wandering around.
I was warm, and slightly perspired from biking though, which gave me a false sense of security when everyone was complaining about the cold. I was toasty... Until we started playing. Then it felt like my fingers would fall off. They started to tingle. My left hand fingers were completely numb. I nearly dropped my bow. I will wear more clothes tomorrow (I was wearing two pairs of pants already today!)

Felix also explained what the warning symbols of the step ladder mean:

From bottom to top:
X Not allowed to fix the door
X Not allowed to put it on the stairs
X Not allowed to... not sure... throw away
X Not allowed to put it outside in the yard
You are allowed to put a hot water bottle on it.

I was glad to be home, and drank a glass of wine and had one of the yummy cookies to warm me up. I played through Theodore's student concerto. The piano part is easy but I stumbled along though it. Then we improvised some christmas songs. He can really play in any key by ear. It's quite cool. How about you start on e? no that's too high. how about g? ... g-flat?

As I was updating my blog, I wanted beer. .. or tea... or maybe fizzy water... no maybe...
...how about homemade kombucha, offered brian... yes, please! it checks all the boxes.

urgent haircut productions (252/365a)

started my flyer again from scratch this morning. when nina came for coffee i finally sent it off (thankful for her helpful edits) .... then i breathed free and could finally think about my own stuff and make normal conversation ;)

it's happened before, but now it was a lot more.... felix decided to cut his hair. he wants it "as short as russell" ... we don't have a method for shaving, but that is no deterrent. he did it himself.

going

going

gone

i wanted to meet manuela after theodore and my make-up lessons, but our lessons ran late, and she had to go back to work because some samples came in that needed immediate oversight. instead of concerts and galleries and restaurants we settled for some snacks and wine. brian has a sorethoat and fell asleep on the floor by the fire, so we read to the kids. stayed up late talking. which was super nice.

some things don't work that way... (251/365a)

slept late. slept well. picked kids up from kindergarten. made my first 100%rye sourdough, and it was ok(!) (but not fluffy). soup for dinner - we're all feeling a little under the weather. in spite of that, brian and i made room for two quick dances at the mariahilferplatz, romantic evening, a little sparkly, under the ferris wheel in the gazebo all lit up, and lots of dancers. i walked there in snowboots, and danced in my socks. my feet got cold, but i was happy.

i promised to make a flyer for a concert i'm not in (pro bono) .....and so naturally wanted to do a good job, and got the equivalent of writer's block. up against the deadline i made a truly awful flyer, so bad that i ended up scrapping it entirely. then i thought maybe i could make a festive picture with champagne, but didn't feel like drinking. so i tried beer. somehow... i had the equivalent of writer's block with photography too. this is the best i came up with. also truly awful. there are days where you just have to cut your losses, scrap it, and wait until tomorrow.

beer in a champagne glass

theodore and i have a gig together (250/365a)

jackie and i decided to spend the morning at home with the kids and had quasikindergarten at home. even ilvy came along. we decided to try my hand at baking with my new sourdough starter, but after i texted andrea to find out how she makes hers, and finding out she leaves it overnight, we made rolls instead. and then dinner. so yummy, lots of veggies chopped teeny tiny and stewed until we couldn't wait any more. and fresh mushrooms from the mushroom farmer. oooooh. i could have stayed and eaten all day, but theodore and i had a gig to get to ;)

chefs in the making

we played for the annual st.odilien festival for the school of the blind. theodore and i with thomas' youth ensemble. pretty fun. their little reception afterwards was water, wine and.... ....dry bread. hm. it was good bread though. thomas and i ran through the siegl together, and theodore lay on the floor.

i was supposed to pick up some music for a weekend gig, but when i got to the place we were supposed to pick it up there was nothing there because he had forgotten to leave it. onwards towards home, on this very strange public transportation trip which included two buses which literally didn't go where they said they were going, didn't announce the stops, and eventually we ended up right back where we started, taking a tram #7 ... so crowded we couldn't move. when we got off at our stop two more (empty) #7 came barreling along behind ... theodore loved telling that story when we finally got home an hour later.

brian and i did our yoga and some lindy practice but i headed to bed fairly early, being still fairly tired from our late night yesterday.

still finding time for yoga (249/365a)

There is an old Zen adage, “You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes every day — unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour.”

(a million poorly referenced citations on the internet.... all a bit different... but we heard this too at some point, and we apply it to lots of things in our life)

we're trying to finish the 28-day yoga book in 28 days... started many times but have never managed... will we be successful? we don't have a book though. there's something sad about practicing with a computer.... but so be it.

yoga on the computer

as for today... we welcome our newest bacterial addition to our family: a sourdough starter. 

we got it from the mother of henry's school friend finn. she makes the most amazing homemade bread i have ever eaten ever barring none - and it doesn't have a trace of wheat in it. wow. let's see if mr. starter works for us too.

it was nice to be over there for the afternoon. very relaxing, since finn's grandfather had all five boys outside playing the whole time. 

finally an early night for the kids, which meant we could stay up late ... we brought half a bottle of wine to j&a's house - expressly so that we would not stay too long. we only stayed for double the amount of time we set out to stay ;)

a long monday (248/365a)

It was a monday morning with all the cranky morning accouterments. .... and then off to make a thousand phone calls - i have a new gig - two in fact! - and to keep them i had to change around some other things. it was a heavily scheduled day. i was extremely inconscient during my lesson. theodore had his lesson shortly after mine. i sent him home by bus and i biked with his backpacked ... "racing home" - i was sure i would beat him by several minutes, but i got stopped by a policeman who pointed out i was biking the wrong way on a one-way street and i would have to walk my bike. he didn't fine me though! i made it home at the exact same time as theodore.

then i had "rehearsal" with quintet - just to get footage of us decorating the tree and drinking champagne. i really didn't want to leave but i had to pick up some musicans and take them to the mass in unterlamm, where we played for hours and hours and hours and hours ... it seemed. the cellist said it was the last time she would ever do a gig for a church: they're not fun and it's too cold and stressful and you never know how long it will take.

let's have a go at monday morning

it's gonna be a fun video :)

A night at the opera (247/365a)

When your kid is on stage at the opera and you're not allowed to take pictures, this is all you get:

theodore is the first and smallest

we all went to see the opera today. it was the main event of the day. Nina and Kris came too. It was a long time standing, but the audience today was much better than last time. they laughed at jokes and clapped for arias. afterwards we toasted to theodore and this time he wasn't too tired to have a glass of apple juice. he played his card game with kris, and kris matched theodore very well at making up new rules on the spot.

leaving bikes all over the city (246/365a)

abandoned for only a short time

Very tired for unknown reasons... well, i guess 4 missed hours of sleep are 4 good reasons.


Out of the blue, while Brian was out for his long run, Henry said: "I know who the biggest money wasters are... The cool boys with their electric skateboards looking at their phones."


And Felix said: "are you the boss? <yes> then you are lazy because bosses don't do any work"

Hmm... wonder what priming we are doing for those kinds of comments.

Theodore sang christmas songs with his choir today at the opera. He wanted his hair cut first, so I did that. We all went to watch. He did a good job. Afterwards I went to get Brian's bike that I had left in the city center yesterday. Then I went to get my bike that I had left at Nina's ... umm... days

snowy slovenia... (245/365a)

today is a national holiday (Of course! it's manuela's birthday! ;) ), and we spent the first half of it doing festive things like going on the ferris wheel with tante centa and i got some alone time trying to fix my 35mm lens and failing... then off i went to the christmas market with the quintet to do some video shooting and gluehwein drinking. eventally brian joined us and off we all drove to slovenia for dinner.

in graz it was pouring.
in slovenia it was snowing, so pretty and soft.

why dinner in slovenia? because of the guy.

the chef is amazing. he's in charge of the food, in charge of you. a very eccentric chef, where you have no menu, he just decides what you're going to eat and when and how. it was truly a dinner worth remembering. it was 10 courses spread over 5 hours. each one gorgeous, with wonderful wine.

an appetizer

one of our two desserts

when we got to the gin and tonic course we noticed that it was no longer soft fluffy snow but just real regular snow storm.

that's what i call depth of field

We called in Barbara's new year outside in the cold wet snow, with shots (from a pellegrino bottle, haha, who knows *what* we were drinking) with the chef playing harmonica and telling us when "it was going to burn"

brrrrr

off we went, 60kmh on the highway to get home at 3am. hope the kids let us sleep in tomorrow morning!

in the blue glow of the laptop (244/365a)

lit only by a laptop

Oh my the difference a little free program can make. Having given up my daily use of the internet I went through the typical addict's withdrawal symptoms, and I know at any time I could get sucked in again. But now that the first few weeks are through I find I am less inspired to wearily pull out my computer a single time for all the same reasons I used to use to voraciously pull it out several times a day. there's a big distinction. i've gone days and weeks without a computer in the woods, in time of travel, in times of extreme business. i don't have internet on my phone. i don't reach for it when it's not available. i don't need it and i know that. the newness lies in it being available and being able to choose not to use it. Read instead. Practice. do jumping jacks. I did those things before anyways, but my go-to time-waster was one that is extremely bad for physical, mental and emotional health. now my go-to time-waster is at worst talking to real people, fixing something, reading something dumber than usual, or just being by myself listening to music. 

it was fun today, spending the whole day with felix (i kept him home from kindergarten) ... cooking out of a cookbook (everyone helped, kids chopped veggies, got herbs from the garden, made salad) ... memorizing poems ... walking to the playground .... looking at stars. the best of the best. maybe we'll go on a hike tomorrow. :)

a non-recording session (243/365a)

More headache, and sickness this morning. I was glad I didn't *have* to go anywhere this morning, although I had promised to go out and meet a cat I would actually like (Nina's cat-sitting the world's nicest cat apparently, and I have to go be converted ;) ) ...... Instead I just flopped on the couch and we talked me into a nostalgic delirium before the kids came home from school.

I had to really motivate myself to move and leave to get to Centa's improv that she was doing at the departmental christmas party. i got to meet the cat! i wish i had taken a picture of her, she's a big ball of dark fluff, who responds to her name when called. nina and i walked together to the party, it was a long walk with my 7ton viola and my 8inch heels on miles of cobblestone sidewalks (that's what it felt like!) i left the party early to catch a bus to get there in time to record my percussion part with the quintett only to find they had finished recording as planned, but obviously we would have to wait till we were done editing before layering any sleighbell sounds on top. i could have thought of that too. none of us had considered that. instead we took 5 takes of taking cookies off a plate, and 0 takes of us eating them. the brand new silver tablecloth smelled like toxic chemicals and we had to throw it outside before we could have a single cookie.

setting up to grab cookies

we laughed so hard our abs hurt, and then drove home. i called brian to let me in just so i could grab this:

:)

st.nick's eve (242/365a)

st. nicks' eve. which is not to say that st nick is adam. "eve" means something different in this case.

nikolaus, komm geschwind! hier nur brave kinder sind!

everyone was dressed up as st.nick when i got home tonight. this is not traditional, but i kind of think it may become our personal tradition. three years in a row one of the kids was enamored of the fullsized red costume and wore it rolled up on the ankles and wrists. suddenly they wanted to clean their room and practice and have their pajamas on by 7pm. magically the advent wreath got lit and the stockings got full of peanuts and clementines. they even "heard" the sleigh as it left. :) they were so excited they stayed up till 9:30 sharing peanuts with each other and singing nikolaus songs

.....

the morning started differently. more headache. i drove up to kindergarten despite the pounding in my brain. and also did a little mini rehearsal with a violinist for a mass next weekend. standing next to a violin with your head about to fall off is no easy task. downstairs centa was running a rather loud improv rehearsal for tomorrow night's english departmental christmas party. i got a phone call from pauli reminding us that we were having dinner with him and his dad... pretty much right now. i took two ibuprofens while centa called a taxi. dinner was lovely. pauli is fun company. manfred was sleepy but they were both proud of the new kitchen in pauli's apartment. pauli is a great cook, everything was so yummy, and cured my headache for a while. glad i went, though i wasn't glad when i was leaving. that's all that counts, right?

the show must go on even if youre sick and tired on a monday (241/365a)

making more train cards

Dear oh dear! I was so tired today! I had held onto my headache from yesterday, unfortunately. I biked Theodore and Henry to school because I had promised, but I didn't get ready to go until they were downstairs getting their gloves and shoes on. I had a lesson at 10:40. I fell asleep on the floor in front of the fire in the middle of a chapter of Name of the Wind. Went to my lesson, carrying all Theodore's and my stuff with me somehow. The lesson was somehow fantasic. I owe it to lovely Elke giving me a compliment on "doing so much stuff, bewundernswert" ... did homework with Henry, who was mostly excited about the automatic coffee machine which he was convinced "made the paper cup" before it made the coffee.

at home i went back to sleep. three more hours of sleep. kids somehow left for choir on time on their own, and felix came to sleep with me. woke up in time to sing bedtime songs by candlelight.

awful picture, beautiful wreath

didn't go dancing tonight. i was a bit cranky and tantrum throwing myself, and not at all reasonable, nor could i decide what to wear. brian's suggestion of "pajamas" was rather unwelcome.

sugar fat salt (240/365a)

a bowl of late night ramen with an egg

the day was split into nutritive parts:

SUGAR

a 6am leaving time (extra padding room to get lost in which we used up taking the wrong exit on the highway) to arrive in Gaishorn in time for a giant breakfast of basically pure sugar - with coffee... so many kinds of pastries. we needed the calories. the church was unheated and very cold. we looked like we were on fire since we were all breathing white vapor. we played the bruckner mass with exceptionally cold fingers. manfred sang his solo, the Benedictus, especially nicely. It took us a long time to tune - it was so cold, the pegs didn't want to stay, and the organ was at 436....

FAT

Dropped off Nadja first to let Henry have a lesson. Got home in time to grab a snack for the road and hurry theodore and henry to get ready. chopped an apple, grabbed some nuts, and a (very dark) chocolate bar. The chocolate counts as the fat in this story. We got to the opera in time to watch the Marriage of Figaro which made me cry and laugh and I loved every second of the first time. Manfred stood in the back with us too. We four had the Stehplätze all to ourselves, which was quite wonderful. We had our snacks at intermission and I gave the boys the option to go home, but they didn't want to. We got seats in the front instead (where we actually saw less than before, but we didn't have to stand) and finished watching. Brian came to get them and I had about 1000 melodies stuck in my head. I found Barbara and Sophia and we went to catch the tram.

SALT

The tram said it would come in another 35minutes! So we called taxis. Both of us called, and neither of got through. We waited and called again. No taxi. We called Irmtraud, no answer. We called Klaus - he was on his way. Surprised to find all three of us there waiting for him, I think. Rehearsal for our soon to be recording stuff. Headachey. I was tired by the end. At home, I got myself all the salt I could find, and basically just tired but happy.

friends who deliver (239/365a)

once upon a time it was advent wreath making time. there were branches to be found. there were strings to be found. beeswax candles to be rolled. decorations to be added. ribbons to be tied. once upon a time, i didn't find the time. i made cookies with the kids. we sang songs. we played music. he had rehearsals. and dinner.

henry had the most fun making cookies. they were yummy too!

i took a bath.

least favorite sound in the bath: "ding dong" ........
.....
..........it was jackie.
she brought us an advent wreath - we could keep it, or we could regift it, as we wanted. she guessed we already had one. she was wrong about that.

it was just absolutely gorgeous, exactly what i would have wanted to make myself but i wouldn't have come close. fresh green branches, and homemade candles of different lengths.

we went to theodore and henry's advent-wreath blessing service that they were singing with the choir. felix saw the lights in town for the first time and SKIPPED FOR JOY that it was almost christmas...

felix: when it's christmas, i am going to fight with nikolaus.
me: why are you going to fight?
felix: because i'm going to be dressed up like nikolaus and he is going to tell me that he is nikolaus and i will say i'm nikolaus.

we took the advent tram, which is a very decorated tram that doesn't stop at most stops and they give you chocolate and play jazzy christmas songs. there were some drunkish teenagers on there, but we attracted more attention by dancing in the aisles. the kids, and us stayed up LAAAATE tonight.

remember remember the first of december (238/365a)

remember remember the first of december... because i forgot today....
i remembered last week because i saw a do-it-yourself wall advent calendar at spektral and brought it back with me. but frantically i wrote up a single verse of "twas the night before christmas" and let felix open it, and then i spent the next 2 hours after they were asleep writing other things (the rest of the poem, songs, recipes) for them to find in the next 23 days. ....

complete with some random unused velcro.... what should i put there?

theodore and i had a looong rehearsal with thomas' orchestra. during half-time break (only 20 minutes before the official end of rehearsal) we switched locations to the chapel we are supposed to play in next week and couldn't find the lights.... on the way there we were late because theodore reminded me had had broken a string. usually we buy those on amazon, but amazon prime isn't that good yet....

and i picked them up early from school to take them to a kids-concert at the kug. henry had gone to enough concerts of the series last year that he earned a prize... and last year they ran out of prizes. this year, brian asked them to give henry one retroactively, and they said "sure!" and took our name and number but we got nothing more from them. now i waited around until the lady was free, and told her we would wait until henry got his silly swag water bottle. it's totally silly, i know, but ... i really feel that henry is justified being disappointed - it's not like he goes to the concerts for the prize, but if you promise a five year old (last year) something, and they keep track and get stamped etc. you should reward them appropriately blah blah blah. 

i got my siegl flyers printed, but forgot to bring them to the rehearsal with thomas, which was really stupid. 

....also made some really cool paper airplanes and had tea - not coffee - with nina.

the airplanes was a long time coming, because i had been promising for a week to show them something i had found somewhere about the world-record-breaking paper airplane the "suzanne" and finally did so, although we didn't get it to really fly THAT far....

the tea -not coffee... came about because i really really wanted coffee, but thought it was a bad idea. and when i asked "tea or coffee" nina told me "anything you want" ... so i started making coffee while explaining it was a bad idea. she reminded me that she would have coffee later in the afternoon anyways, so maybe she should have tea.... so we did that instead. probably a good idea, since it is 10:30 and i am tired, and maybe will actually go to sleep now.