40 years, that's a lot of beers (22/365b)

no violin lesson for theodore today, since his violin is toast. i got the morning off and just hung out with mary, which was very nice.

conflict resolution
and
tantrum mitigation

between a illogical tantrum (are there any other kinds?) and the trio concert i was going to there were 20 minutes, *in which i made a cake* ... sometimes i can be super fast.

Instead of quintet rehearsal, we 4 went to watch Sophia play the Tchaikovsky piano trio. They played wonderfully.

they didn't stop moving, and i didn't have many opportunities to take pictures because i was busy listening

and because there was no lindy hop class tonight, and because mary's leaving tomorrow, we celebrated mary and henry's joint  birthday a few weeks early. a new birthday canvas was started. 

it was getting dark!

mary's age + henry's age = 40
thus the 4 on the cake. a tealight stands for 0.
singing: "we wish you a long long life!"

we just have to finish the canvas tomorrow before 10am when mary has to leave to get the train.

we won't stay up too late tonight, right?

not even if there are shostakovich trios to sight read? mary playing the ciellolin (the violin being held like a cello)

klanglicht (21/365b)

big lights festival all over the city called klanglicht for the last few days.
mary and i took a long walk at the end of the day......

some photographic highlights:

hotel down our street with an inflatable spaceman leaning over the roof and a car zooming past

jakominiplatz, the train station,
not really part of klanglicht, and after the festival was completely over, but i thought it belonged to the set

the masses looking at the changing colors on the schlossberg steps

supposedly when we stepped on these it affected the music that was playing
but neither mary or i noticed any changes
also you couldn't feel you were stepping on them
they should have been bouncier
but that didn't stop anyone from trying to bounce on them and make music

garden afternoon (20/365b)

just friends and pizza and laying the the sun and drawing until it starts to rain. we tried to draw pictures for my little story about the sad chair. it will get done one day.

translating into english

felix has been making more and more intricate flower arrangements.
carefully thought through.
we are trying to convince him to leave the strawberry flowers though.

various excitement levels about cake and cream

broken (1894-2018) (19/365b)

last time

Theodore had a little mini audition today... I invited Mary and all the kids, but it turns out only the jury was allowed in the room and we just hung around outside. While getting ready to play we noticed a large crack under the soundpost of the violin. In car insurance terms it is the equivalent of totalling a car. To fix it, we would have to take the back off, patch the crack, and then recarve the back, resulting in a final product that has significantly less value than the fix that was just done. This all would be for a small instrument that kids outgrow very quickly. 

I know all this because I took it to a violin maker, who was very nice, and had just opened his doors, and he took a long time to explain everything to me. I was very sad to have to say it was over. It had a good life, that started in 1894, and was played by me and all subsequent siblings, cousin Jena and now, lastly, Theodore. 

Brian came home tonight. We stayed up till 1 waiting for him and chatting, although we weren't intending to.

long walks in the rain (18/365b)

practicing by night

I've been getting a lot of help around here from my sisters, but also I'm very lucky to have kids who wake themselves up and get themselves dressed, and pack their own lunch, and get their things together for school. I was up with them, just comfortably hanging out, drinking my morning hot water, while they did their thing. I had kindergarten driving day today. up and down twice.

I thought of going to yoga today, but there was too much stuff. I took Henry and Theodore to get new slippers for school (they don't wear shoes indoors at school), and also to the library to get the movie Around the World in 80 Days, in the hour time between chorus and midsummer night's dream rehearsal. It was pouring down rain, and the buses were all late, but we three spent that hour happily. Unfortunately I didn't get to hang out with Manuela, because I have been extremely negligent about all forms of all communications with everyone. Mary and Centa went out to improv evening tonight, and I got some quiet time and practicing.

you don't know my body (17/365b)

rieding concerto

Theodore has spent the last few days very tantrumy, irritable, hungry, angry (hungry+angry = hangry, one of mary and my favorite words) ... his appetite has been abysmal, which is extremely unusual. Mary walked him and Henry to school this morning. She came back, to tell me 

"You don't know why Theodore's not been eating"

"Oh no, did he throw up on his way to school or something?"

"No, no, no, he's not sick, he just is trying to get all his energy from the sun."

... Oh. well, that explained that. We fed him a lot of food today. He ate gigantic amounts of everything. He stood in front of the counter and ate out of the serving bowl. When that was gone, he asked "if there was any other food in the house." He wasn't so hangry any more. 

catching up (16/365b)

Playing catchup with a chairdrobe

I'm a little behind on everything. Thank goodness for all the support I have, even with Brian gone on his trip to London.

Today I took the kids to their first swim lesson. We got there plenty early, almost an hour early, so we even had time to do homework at the entrance to the pool. At some point I noticed no other kids had arrived yet, so I asked someone, and they let me know that I was in the wrong place. She was very annoyed to be asked where I should go though. With my phone nearly battery free, I tried on my computer (which I had with me so I could while away the swim lesson hour updating my blog, haha) and found an address in Liebenau, so off we went, helter skelter to get to Liebenau on the tram, back the way we came. Good thing we were talking on the tram. That pool you are talking about is near the center of town, you have to go back and out on a different tram. Twenty minutes later we were off the tram walking towards the correct place. With my last remaining battery, Brian text messaged me which direction we should be walking. Arrived, changed their clothes, they got in the pool, and right back out. Next week there is no swim lesson, but the week after, we will be there on time! :)

My heard hurt today Nearly migraine territory. I didn't look so good either... the lady at the second hand shop that we stopped at to get Henry's new shoes (his old ones were nearly falling off his feet) wanted to make me some coffee, because I looked like my head hurt. :( Going to bed quite early.

video shoot in the woods... among other things (15/365b)

professional promo shot :)

...among other things is right.... lessons and chorus and school stuff and lindy.

and we had exactly two hours to shoot our next video in the woods before it started to rain. and we did it, against all odds!

i was very tired at lindy, but i was glad to be there, and then it thunder and lightninged on my way home, and one of the very nice dancers in my class gave me a ride home in the opposite direction i had to go and we talked about african drumming on the way.

also felix had a tick *in his eye* (on his lower eyelashes) that i had to remove with tweezers somehow. good thing that mary was there to make up the story of susie the elephant to distract him. we all wanted warm weather, and spring flowers. i guess tick season has begun.

dandelion crowns (15/365b)

happiness

ah what a beautiful lazy sunday.

we had long beautiful slow day, laying in the sun and making dandelion chains.

we also headed to the big rare plants market that takes place annually. we bought some little teeny plants and planted them right away. it was oppressively hot in the afternoon but we survived in the shade. ...

... :) also Brian, in Vienna, ran in the Marathon there, in 4hours and 14minutes. Pretty wow!

ad aspera trans alois (14/365b)

waiting for the bus (felix with his cut from yesterday on his face, poor thing!)

after a lazy "clean-up" morning (not much clean-up) and after henry's cello lesson, we headed to alois and kathi's house for a grilling picnic. 

smoke curling under the lilacs in the sunset

very comfy grilling and picnic atmosphere, no pressure to talk or anything. fire wasn't hot enough to cook quickly so we were allowed to practice patience. Had to leave to pick up Theodore from the train station.

Theodore coming back!

Took him right to hotel lend and stared at the stars with Nina. I was so full from the picnic I couldn't even contemplate a glass of wine. (Kathi had made two perfect american desserts - apple pie and ny cheesecake) At first it was too bright, but as the stars came out it got more and more spectacular.

fortune cookie

in which we discover the origin of the term "basket case" (13/365b)

Brian and Theodore left on trips independently.

Felix stayed home from kindergarten and played with agnes and mary and me.

train tracks in the morning light

kids picked dandelions so mary could make dandelion wine.

making dandelion wine

Theodore has a chorus trip to Deutschlandsberg. so homework and dinner (palatschinken by Felix's request, although I don't really like standing there and flipping them for lots of people so I always say no, but this time Mary did the flipping and Felix made the batter himself)... Then stress to try to get Theodore to get ready on time, but we did, and walked to the train station and I said goodbye. Not tearfully but in my heart I was crying to see him leave.

homework time right after school

World's craziest commute then for me, train station, car pick up, home for instrument, bus to griesplatz, rehearse, bus home, change clothes, pick up paul and henrietta's baby, drive to waltendorf, play concert, drive to griesplatz, look for parking for 15minutes, get inside just in time to unpack my instrument and finish out the concert (i was only playing one piece, but it ended up at the end)

somehow in the middle, felix managed to whack his face into a board while swinging, and his face is all cut up and bruised and hurt on one side. i felt so sad to leave him, but he is in excellent hands, and there was no buffer time at all.

telling Katharina about the basket case

The reading was very nice, half the people there were there because of me. Gerda read really nice poetry. Centa told us that on her way here some idiot decided he would sit in her basket on the back of her trike and hardyharhar come along for the ride. the basket didn't survive very well, and everyone was glad that centa had pushed that "basket case" right out of her basket.

il trovatore (12/365b)

manfred was one of the anvil singers in il trovatore.

i had two back-to-back rehearsals at my house today. first with henriette, for gerda's poetry reading tomorrow, and second with bettina for tomorrow's !Viola! recital (all the violists at the konservatory playing only stuff for viola). During those two rehearsals, brian went and bought tickets for me and michi and mary, for il trovatore.

opera time was right after yoga, so i did my favorite graz maneuvuer... bike to yoga, change my clothes, bike to the opera and park at the front door. my fancy dress went right over my yoga leggings. yoga was taught by one of anne's students, so it was done extra fast (the beginner yoga teachers talk more quickly and don't always wait long enough during the "off" times) we sat in the 13th row with a fantastic view, and watched the very intense interpretation of a very strange opera. moral of the story, "don't throw the wrong baby into the fire"

we went out to the Brandhof afterwards, couldn't quite sit with Manfred's table. The three of us celebrated Michi's new job, and at the next table sat the stars of the opera. biked back with mary, the chain on the bike she was borrowing from us is dying click-ly.

kombucha (aka Mother at Home)

new ideas (11/365b)

making up new songs together

Had a special lesson with the new prof at the kug. there might be more learning in my future. for now, i was happy to hear his perspective.

fritz came over and stayed for lasagna (eating outside in the evening! finally really nice outside), and so did nina and kris (to whom we then explained kangaroo birth) we considered watching a movie, but by the time all the little ones had settled down for the night in spite of still being daylight at their bedtime, it was too late to start. 

we are working on reading throught the 39 steps for brian's long-term movie+remake project. we passed on the book to nina. 

little loti (10/365b)

Rehearsal in the morning, and guess who popped in all of a sudden to say hi? Mary and Agnes, from Slovenia! :) happy to see them get here, and they may stay till May. :)

We attempted group yoga with kids. It worked out ok. If nothing else it was super cute.

one second before this they were both in lotus.

Both before and after yoga it was just a relaxed day.

hailstorm (9/365b)

I planted little teenytiny plants yesterday, watched them thrive in the late morning sunshine.

It was Monday, so I had lots of stuff to do, conservatory, lessons, chorus, quintet rehearsal.
Quintet rehearsal was mostly just talking, we discussed our storyboards for the next videos, and planned our next year of playing. Then on the way home, Irmtraud dropped me off at the opera, and I started walking home. Less than a minute later it was pouring sheets of rain. 20 minutes later I was home, drenched to the bone, clothes clinging to my skin. 10 minutes after that it was hailing. Brian said he couldn't even find the little seedlings we had put in so carefully one by one.

I went out in the dark after lindy hop class, waded through the deep puddles with an umbrella and a flashlight to look for my little nearly developed morels. I found one, dashed into small pieces in the dirt. That's all that was left. All I can say is, poor farmers! Apparently three times the amount of rain that Graz usually gets for all of April came down today in about 2 hours.

At least I don't have to water that garden (what's left of it) tomorrow.

under Brian's umbrella <3

no picture at all (8/365b)

doing this photo challenge the second week in a row and already falling off the bandwagon (whatever a bandwagon is) ... charging my camera battery all day, then took it with me to a concert, but with no memory card. (how can i remember a memory card without a memory?)

so i will just steal from various websites

Judas

First I went to see the one-man-show "Judas" which is kind of like stealth theater, but also kind of not. It takes place in a church, and first you start by singing the hymn, and then this guy, Judas, stands up, addresses the audience, and launches into an hour long monologue about how the iniquity of mankind and how unfair it is that he gets so much blame. Three different people at three different times, came up to me sitting in the back, to tell me that this was inappropriate for children, but we stuck it out. I don't think that seeing things from wildly different angles is ever a bad thing.

Walked home and spent the afternoon carefully planting little seedlings outside in the warm sun, and nursing a headache. 

Theodore and Henry also joined me for an evening of (a little kitchy) music and a reading (in German) of MLK's I Have a Dream speech and Chaplin's speech from the end of the great dictator. It was a very short concert. Henry fell asleep during the encore, but woke up for a piece of bread at the reception. Straight to sleep for every one of us.

sunny saturday (7/365b)

at home there were farmers market outings, walks, nadja lesson, saturday clean-up day with centa, and other things that happened without me today.

rehearsal (just for us playing schoenberg) got changed from 11 to 12, we still waited to practice our part, but we really just played through it again at 12:40 and at 1 we were already all done. Barbara and I went out to lunch and service took forever. Then Quintet rehearsal, which started in the sun by popular demand.

instagram selfie, my camera no battery

we recorded tuttifrutti, and we practiced and talked and tried on clothes and laughed.

in the evening i was back in town for the schoenberg concert which was more waiting.

so it goes (6/365b)

yoga and prep this morning, and a lovely walk with brian to my audition, which ended unsuccessfully. ah me oh my the life of a musician.

my family and friends did cheer me up though, nina walked me back by way of das gramm coffee (we both got done at the same time)  and she carried my squeaky viola all the way. family had dinner ready, they wanted to sit on top of me, and as soon as theodore and henry knew the audition was over, they were ready to start all the new projects with me (they had been told we would wait on things till after this) i picked up my music from irmtraud for tonight's gig, and manuela and i went out for dinner at Veggiezz, where i tried to eat all the protein.

gig was strange. concert is two pieces, one is 70 min and the other 10. i am only playing in the second one. it is A Survivor from Warsaw, and is technically difficult when done well, but extremely easy when played badly. I waited until nearly 10oclock before they started to play, then we played through it once (not very well) and the conductor said he was tired and we all went home.

guts

studying schoenberg and waiting

as Nina pointed out, it's Friday the 13th. I'm not superstitious, but I was dropping things and missing buses and doing dumb things all day. i even have a bruise on my ribcage from when my viola case fell on me in the wind. i'm also sore and tired and sad, but this too shall pass.

spektral! (5/365b)

Haven't been to spektral in a long time. The place where everything is free and open, and where my favorite yoga teacher of all time is. She was on a teaching break, being busy learning, and when Brian checked the schedule this week, he noticed she was back!

I took Michi there, and I hope she liked it, although she had to move her bike in the middle of class (somebody came and complained that there was a bike leaning against the outside wall)

I found some brandnew sidewalk chalk still packaged sidewalk chalk in their "free store" and i picked up theodore just in time from his opera rehearsal. we walked home together in the rain.

showing me the view

he showed me the best place to look at the uhrturm, between some buildings, and while i liked the view quite well, i was still very much taken by the forsythias from the standard viewpoint.

cliche tourism view

one more frasier episode and laying out my clothes before bed. tomorrow comes soon with all the adrenaline. currently still very chill. :)

homework in the sun (4/365b)

thomas orchestra concert again, in a different old-folks home. nina was over more awake this morning, and i picked up theodore from school, nina walked back with henry. henry was cute, he waited till the last possible minute to decide whether he would stay with me and go to the concert or go home.

theodore writing

one in a field of many

intricacies inside

it was a fine day and concert, but it was very very hot inside (older people like it that way i guess) ... i felt like i couldn't get enough to drink or eat afterwards.

tonight was a good night for staying up a little later than usual, baking a chocolate pie, drinking the bottle of prosecco we didn't make it through last night, and getting some nina centa brian chatting in (after the requisite yoga and practicing).

spring has sprung(3/365b)

spring has sprung
the grass is riz
i wonder where
the birdies iz

i've been waiting for these for 2 years. last year they were frost bitten at the last minute. the plum tree outside our living room is nearly bloom (they will be open in a day or two) and it's right outside the window that i'm practicing by. ah! i'm so lucky!

breakfast with barbara this morning, so yummy (if i do say so myself), made extra so because of the fabulous flavorful herbs that are also back after the winter. we made up descriptions for all of our quintet members so that we can do weeks of "who's who" on social media. these things take up so much time! at least we had fun, and had good conversation the whole time too.

theodore and henry went on boys day with bikes with Fritz, and they got dropped off right at home. felix and brian and the foersters went to visit the place where the kindergarten is moving to. i had the house to myself and practiced more and more, until everyone was home again, and i gave some baths, and then discovered *Nina* home again after her America trip. hooray. not too much celebrating though, because my mini rehearsal with Bettina playing the Bridge Lament, and jet lag combined to conquer even the most determined stay-up-later.

so happy i got to do day seven of yoga with brian. and day two (i don't learn) of charade before bed. at least there were no loose ends!

charade (2/365b)

a still from our teaser

got to see the final cut of our video early this morning, and it was so fun. wanted to watch just a teensy little bit of the orginal 1963 movie, and could not look away, watched almost half of it.

we had violin/viola lessons this morning, the theodore and i. i was glad i had cooked soup late last night, because when we got home, i was ravenous. jackie dropped by for some dinner in the garden when she dropped off felix. then everyone went off, leaving me alone to practice more. :)

we had lindy hop tonight. theodore came with us right after his  midsummer nights dream rehearsal, and didn't fall asleep watching our class. he had a very full day today, but he was in a good mood all the way home and all the way to sleep.

then we watched more of the charade movie.... it's a little creepy to watch right before bed though.

new day new challenge (1/365b)

365a started off as a photo challenge, and ended up at the de facto family journal made ever so strangely public, where i share with honesty the more interesting (in my opinion) moments of the day. so now i start off on 365b, let's see where we end up with that...

so yesterday we baked an ostrich egg.

the first thing i did this morning was frost and decorate it, and after that i had no more creative energy for a photo.

pine nuts and egg shell

The poem in the background reads:
This EGG is real - it's not a joke,
It's full of egg-white and egg-yolk,
BE CAREFUL - 'cause it's not hard-boiled
It is fresh and quite un-spoiled!
So please don't drop it - it might break
That would be a BIG mistake!
A big egg-puddle on the floor,
Dripping, dripping, out the door!
Instead, please keep it safe and cool,
Until you find the perfect tool,
To safely get its liquid treasure,
And get the greatest egg-y pleasure
 - E. Bunny (centa)

That's all there is for stories about the ostrich egg, except that we will be eating it for days, the thing is massive, four dense layers with an inches of cream between.

Other than that I had a day of leisure. Brian took the kids on a hike up Jakob's Leiter, and I practiced practiced practiced.

In the evening I took Theodore and Henry to see Candide. I spent nearly the entire second half on the floor in the back holding Henry while he didn't quite sleep, and I couldn't see much, but the music, oh  my! Thanks, Lenny. I pajama-raced the kids, I made soup for tomorrow, they got on their pajamas and brushed their teeth. They beat me, but not by much!

one-egg cake (365/365a) CHALLENGE COMPLETE!

Uber-stressed out about cleaning our house this morning, but things calmed down at noon, and we had pizza and salad for dinner with Michi and Marko and family. They stayed to watch Centa open the ostrich easter egg. everyone took a little saw at it, but centa did the most of the work, and the most of the cake.

pre-begin

middle

more middle

more middle

our biggest bowls, one for the egg white, one for the egg yolk

still middle, needs frosting
but we are waiting till tomorrow
thanks for the picture, centa

A glorious evening, we played through the whole mozart quartet movement, and i did yoga with the kids, who laughed through the whole thing. then practicing and skyping, and maybe we will celebrate.

celebrate what? that was a year! i kept it up against all odds (technically i did not actually perfectly take a photo every day, but everyone is telling me to keep going so maybe i will)
celebrate how? with centa, and labeeby over skype, and two glasses of leftover wine from dinner, one red, one champagne, which Brian lovingly got out of bed to cuvee. <3

back and forth friday (364/365a)

it was so nice to get lots and lots of sleep today. i practiced in the morning, got a lesson from elke, turned in some paperwork for theodore at the konservatory, picked up my bike (which had been at henrietta's for an entire week!) and went home again for dinner. then went out again.

met up with gerda (a writer) who wants to do a reading where i play music, and we talked in her beautiful garden and enjoyed the sunshine.

winter flowers and spring flowers together

she lives right across the way from Manfred, so I stopped by there too. we also sat in the sun, but he had a rehearsal to get to, and i was antsy to get moving.

The cat is using the lemon like a pillow, and pawing at the flyer with my picture on it
cats think they own everything.

at the foersters for the evening. everyone else was done eating, but the grill was still a little hot, so brian grilled me some zucchini and some tofu... first zucchini of 2018. boy am i ready for summer veggies! on our way out the door, the kids and i were pointing out stars, and i think we seriously impressed some of the adults sitting around still drinking beer.

on the outside looking in
theodore reading to zorah while henry zips back and forth
sometimes my camera shakes, and i like the results in spite of it.