we're melting.... (114/365b)

nina said it wasn't so hot, but when we got home, the newly opened butter looked like this:

(completely melted)

i had a quintet rehearsal that started out with 4, then just 3, then there were only 2... hmmm... interesting. the quintet is melting too.

then i went to a mcdonalds to pick up my money from a gig two months ago where i had forgotten to pick up the envelope. it was so unbearably hot everywhere, and of course i missed all the connections. on the way i thought i'd save time later by stopping at the library, but it was closed because of summer hours. and the tram wasn't running because of construction.

got home and melted some more.

teary goodbye to the holls (113/365b)

at this point david and i were used to the judgmental looks of people who thought we were a couple with six little kids.

all morning packing. michi came by for a surprise hello, and we had some good coffee, but the english and german language wires got quite crossed. the kids were all in a bad mood, i think they were all a bit sad about the parting, so they were taking it out on each other. we made a mega fast meal to share with everyone, and then we walked in the sweltering heat to the hauptplatz for ice-cream (theodore's idea, because he had a gift certificate he wanted to use/share, but then he forgot it) .... the ice cream melted all over everyone. manisha slept on top of the suitcases, and we had to keep moving the suitcases to keep her out of the sun. then we trammed to the train station, and made faces through the window until they rolled away out of sight.

then to the hauptplatz again for some cool street theater. first a very terrific puppet theater we had already seen, but everyone wanted to see again. michi and marco were there too. then to das gramm for some peaches for dinner. then to a new-orleans pop up band with dancers. somehow, felix fell asleep in the front row of that racket, and we carried him all the way home. nobody in this house has been asleep before 10pm in days, and now felix was completely out.

nita heads to munich for a one day work trip (112/365b)

elephant's child

started production on the kid's puppet show the elephant's child in the basement. it was nita's last day, and we took a break in the middle to have dinner and say proper goodbye to her and also do some more chocolate tasting, but then we went right back to filming. david and i had quite a bad time of the editing though. i think there's some footage holes, and the kids weren't always very cooperative with their puppet handlings. we'll see if anything works out from that.

david and i tried to just hide away alone to edit, but it was not to be. lots of kids needed stuff. eventually they were all asleep at 11pm, and we had no computer energy left - we just listened to terry gross (never aired) interview with gene simmons of KISS, an interview worth listening to again and again and again because it's so funny. we laughed until our sides hurt.

kaiserschmarn for 11 (111/365b)

centa adds the essential dusting of powdered sugar

so so very hot here. i got out the kiddie inflatable pool for the first time. it was an ungift from mary's in-laws, and it's teeny tiny but it was at least a respite from the heat if one put one's little feet in. also, i don't know why i thought making kaiserschmarn in 99degree heat would be a good idea, but somehow, it was. fluffy sweet dinner outside for all, happy kids mean happy everyone else.

the adults traded dinner off in shifts... nina invited us, and i took the "first shift" with kids - watching chitty chitty bang bang and various other bedtime things.

when brian got back, i left, and got to learn how to play clock solitaire from kris, and have all the delicious dinner in speed form. david and nita and centa stayed for a little while longer, and the chatting was nice. brian came to pick me up and maybe to make doubly sure that our night was nice and long.

foot still has to stay up. 

lunar eclipse and austrian whiskeys (110/365b)

last day of kindergarten with felix's friends
ilvy graduating.
ronja same age as felix, going back next year
zorah starting next year, but shadowing this week

last day of kindergarten for felix this school year. they had a wonderful week, but i haven't really been around, since we have been preoccupied with guests and other kids.

in fact, instead of going to the last day parents meeting with crackers and champagne i went on a photo walk with david, and took him to my favorite cappucino place in graz. that was very nice.

tonight was the lunar eclipse - the funny thing is, as nina pointed out, we were 3 photographers with fancy cameras and not one of us even tried to take a photo. we were too out of it from all the whiskey :) - because today we also had a nice fancy austrian whiskey tasting. turns out nina DOES NOT like whiskey. also, we all agreed on the best one this time.

picking plums outside the second floor window (109/365b)

looking down to henry and felix who are pretty high up.

our plum tree had TWO ripe plums! so henry and felix went to pick them. at least one of them was pretty high up, so the ladder was gotten and they climbed off the ladder into the tree and got them. then felix took charge of the rest of the gaggle and they made an epic fruit salad together. meanwhile nita took a nap, and david and i hid in the cool kitchen tasting 100%chocolate from yesterday and comparing. we were so tired from staying up so late last night after the court jester, trying chocolates and pairing popcorn and wine.

court jester (108/365b)

all day we spent outside, it was just so gorgeous! 

it didn't start out that way though. it was kind of humid and wetish from last night's rain, and brian had invited kurt and his family, and we were originally worried there would be no way to spend time outside. by the time i finished making dinner and a cake they were already leaving. 

somebody said we should grill and so we did. in between nina caught david and nita and me at the ice-cream shop trying to have a fancy ice-cream. (so i could make dinner not already starving, which is always good.) we stole her home, to our grill party. we stole kris too, who got dropped off from the hospital with a freshly operated foot.

playing chess in 2018

mit schlag

pants on fire!

best bokeh

four ladies playing snakes and ladders

crazy eights with the invalid

too bad there was no photo of what happened next. centa came over with two frenchmen who had been chosen months ago to play at karo's wedding with her. she on violin and they on guitars. we spent ever so long finding appropriate tabs for the pieces that were chosen that worked with violin. upon arrival today, centa discovered that they neither read tabs, nor had the printed out the second piece because they thought it was the same as the first. they had practiced chords to the first piece from a version on the internet which was in a completely different key. i wrote out chords on centa's violin part, and beat time until it started to rain and then sent them into the basement to play it through 15 times in a row. let's just say i had to show them what an a7 was. by the end it was sounding pretty good!

meanwhile nina and brian were long gone watching a movie on the murinsel in the rain. and we moved inside to watch a movie on our own, the court jester, which happens to be funny for all ages and backgrounds. even the littlest remained glued to her seat, occasionally cooing "baaaby"

week day picnic (107/365b)

we went on a picnic with the zorns, we left as soon as felix got back from kindergarten....

lots to prepare

mostly we let the kids do whatever they felt like and we lazed around the way we felt like. i had brought a whole backpacking backpack full of lazy games, and we didn't get through a quarter of them.  the holls went to look at the castle a little inside. the kids chased peacocks and collected feathers, especially felix. they found a baby peacock too.

trying not to steal any soul with my selfie

playing set, rosa's "favorite" game ;)

three kids recording on *cassette tapes* on the hood of a car #notthe80s

it was quite a magical day, we left the park happy and stood in the parking lot chatting, Alois dodging cameras, and kids playing with the cassette recorder that artur had brought with him. suddenly, some misunderstanding and bargain between kids soured the mood and we left abruptly. they all needed a bath and some hugs, so we got them home and administered the Rx.

just a little bit of hammer and fire (106/365b)

centa's friend karo is getting married this week, and she bought a few more than 40bottles of bubbles, and took the labels off. This left a sticky mess of glue so i got out some turpentine to get it off, and then set some things on fire for fun. Priya and Felix, in the meantime were hitting hazelnuts with hammers and then started roasting them in the little mini turpentine and tissue fire.

priya and felix

untangled (105/365b)

pretty cute - but which one is pretty and which one is cute?

untangling the twine...
to hang the bell for the treehouse doorbell. 

so relaxed. just hanging out reading stories and untangling twine. :)

most of my day was video editing with klaus, and biking there and back felt so nice. meanwhile they all went and got ice cream at the eisperle without me. we sent david and nita out for dinner alone in the evening and i guess they found me and manisha asleep when they got back and all the other kids playing indoor soccer in the same room.

crazy eights (104/365b)

lots of card games, since it seems the lowest common denominator of activities for all ages. like crazy eights.

henry trying to help david cheat at felix's newest card game

david's poker face (all 8's in crazy eights)

theodore returns! hoorary boohoo. (103/365b)

some days are a blur of happy and sad emotions. everyone was still a bit jet lagged and tired. we water-colored outside, played with our computers inside, and experimented with the coffee machines (3 double shots fit into a normal coffee cup) and we went to pick up theodore, and he was so excited to see priya again but priya and henry didn't welcome him home well (there was a sign on the attic that said "no children allowed" which theodore took to mean specifically him) and he felt ignored, and was "too tired" to put away his things but not too tired to scream and run around for an hour and half.

the electrician came by and fixed some lights for us. while that was chaotic enough with guest trying to wake up in the neighboring room, brian took henry and priya for a nice long walk. the lights came out looking good a few hours later.

oops, i deleted all photos from today by accident.
user error.
so from david's cell phone

home from ferienlager

Theodore did help with our blind wine tasting (all shiraz), by covering the bottles in brown paper. One was labeled "A" and one "B" the other two were labeled: "Very good wine. Take me home" and "Theodore's best wine ever. Often chosen for the best wine in wine tasting" We don't know why, we had never tried any of these, and we were of course completely influenced by these lables ;) 

.... Our wine tasting determined that Centa DOES NOT like shiraz. and there was only one bottle that we all agreed was good, taking 1st or 2nd place for everyone, except Centa, who DOES NOT like shiraz, haha.

which one's which?

getting over jet-lag will take a few days i think .... (102/365b)

david and centa switched glasses for a few seconds
they probably can't see the photographer right now.

spent all day lazing around. i downloaded darktable on david's suggestion and played around with that. it was fun. we hung around and chatted and various kids napped at various times. food times were a bit randomized.

about ziana, a quote that made me choke up a bit: "it's been clear from birth what kind of energy she has. for all the nature vs. nurture debate, there was no way to nurture the vim and vigor out of her, and i have learned to cherish it."

the san franciscans arrive! (101/365b)

Henry and I headed off "early early" this morning to get to the museum right at 10am. and when we were in the museum at the exhibition of portraits we found *Herbert von Karajan's lederhosen* .... for real. funny looking at them through the glass.

Henry had full attention for an hour and a half and then just as we got to some Kokoshka he decided it was time to go home. So we save the Kokoshka for another day.

it was mega clean up time at home while we awaited david and nita and kids' arrival. meanwhile the ice-lettuce was looking so pretty on the windowsill as i took a coffee break alone...

ice-lettuce flowering

the leaves look like they're covered with droplets

and then they arrived! we didn't stay up too late, except the youngest, manisha who played with me in the hallway putting her shoes on and taking them off and trying to leave with her backpack until 2am.

quit your bellyaching (100/365b)

did feel a little bellyachey today, but that makes sense, since that's what staying up late can do to you. i had promised henry that i would take him to the museum, but changed my mind at the last minute and we went hiking instead, specifically mushroom hunting. we found tons and tons of mushrooms, none edible, except for the one steinpilz i found. i was a little confused about it. they are supposedly typically short and squat with wide caps but this one was thin and long and had a tiny cap. it was 100% bolete so i wasn't *that* worried. when i looked it up, i found out that apparently fungi can suffer from viruses and that many steinpilze in this area and in italy suffer from a virus that makes their fruiting bodies long and skinny and have abnormally small caps. who knew? it was so yummy! felix made pizza, which took a long time since he was just starting when we got home. then we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned in anticipation of our very terrific visitors we are having tomorrow! hooray!

39 steps x3 (99/365b)

it was so nice to get to spend the entire morning just with henry. it hasn't happened in so long. we had breakfast together. we biked to the library. and we found the modern art museum closed

reading his own library book!

i had no other plans for the evening, and nina was over, and we talked about our project to watch the 2 movies made from the book the 39steps, now that kris had finished the book. centa hadn't finished it yet, or even started it. after the kid's bedtime, centa read the last 60 pages in 40 minutes. very impressive. then we stayed up till 2am watching the two movies. well, "stayed up" meaning all of us had various methods with our falling asleepness. centa offered uninterrupted running commentary. kris offered us his eye-rest method. brian offered popcorn. (although we're all out of nutritional yeast, boo hoo!)

first world problems (98/365b)

snuggles on the lawn

the last 5 minutes of the finale of the world cup

felix's new card game: go fish...
with 1 A, 2 2's, 3 3's ... and 10 10's...
completely different strategies

working on his poker face

from these pictures it's easy to see how wonderful our day was. we made a card game. we saw theodore off to a fun trip away for the week. we watched soccer. we cleaned up the house some more. we sang songs.

i organized some kids clothes so that we could give them to the family i met yesterday. henry and felix reminded me that i had promised to stay longer this time. so i did. the kids were off on their own, all 6 of them. the 3 kids there had a homemade cage with a sparrow or finch or chickadee in it. they played soccer indoors. they shouted. meanwhile, the parents and i sat and drank syrian coffee. it tasted delicious, but i had a hard time drinking it, because i was listening to them talk. they showed pictures of their neighborhood in aleppo, bombed out of recognition. they explained that her entire family was dead. they asked me what i thought of trump. //shudder

although the stories and images were horrible, i had a hard time ignoring the surreal side of the situation. the language barriers. the fact that they asked me what kind of music i listened to, and i told them the first thing that came to mind, scott joplin, so we sat talking about the state of syria, listening to ragtime piano music, with a guy whose shirt was spattered with red paint and stated in large print letters: "DON'T WORRY, IT'S NOT MY BLOOD." ... he told me he knew some nice "amreekans"... then he showed me videos of the lights of new york at night, and said amreeka was very beautiful. why didn't they let aleppo stay beautiful? 

ah, poor first world me, i was sad for the rest of the day. 

saturday freedom (97/365b)

i didn't even unpack my camera today. all i did was clean the house calmly with the kids - the kind of cleaning that makes things look worse before it looks better.

feri and brian went on a man-speed-hike.
i organized sacks of clothes to give away and put together bags of generic recycling.

went with the kids to put them in the bins and was interrupted on the way by a stranger who asked if it was clothes for kids. it wasn't, but he asked if he could have the clothes anyway and i said sure. he walked with me to his house, and rang the doorbell and told me i could go give them to his wife. so i did. he kept walking in the direction he had been going already. his wife is 8mo pregnant, and there are 3 little kids, who are my kids' age +/- but much smaller. very little german, but very grateful for the clothes, which i would guess they'll probably sell.

we grilled in the afternoon using the hibachi grill, so yummy, we'll do that again soon!

nice calm relaxing evening, reading stories as late as possible, and we got theodore ready for his weeklong trip with the abenteuerspielplatz.

your house is on FI-re (96/365b)

home again home again jiggity-jig
ladybug ladybug fly away home
mixing metaphors

we started the day with a celebratory "hike": we took the chair lift up, ate a gigantic amount of kaiserschmarrn, and then walked slowly down....

weissensee from above - from this perspective it becomes clear where the name comes from

the start of the alps

the long ride home, and a teary goodbye to sophia.

i met feri, a FIRE guy that is staying with us, visiting from vienna. brian had organized a meetup for financial independence, so after i got my time of sleeping in the attic after reading bedtime stories, i went down and joined the 4 guys, all strangers, sitting around the table talking about money. one of them one a pilot named patrick, who was fascinating to listen to because it sounded exactly like i was listening to myself talk. he had very similar philosophical and social observations to me.

and the work ends... (95/365b)

man did we have fun filming this morning, although it was way way way too cold for our bathing suits. at least we didn't have to go in the water. while we were down there we noticed people stopping to stare at us and our shenanigans, we waved at them and most of them walked on, except for one couple who stood there and stared at us, and stared at us, and watched us do take after take. and then when we went to adjust the camera i figured out why - they knew us! it was anselm, the guy who did a lot of the arrangements we play, who just happened to be on vacation here too, right now. we invited him to dinner....

us being super crazy on purpose

found on the way back

...and what a dinner that was! i quickly rerecorded some summer time things, i traded an afternoon run for a gin and tonic (that is, i skipped jogging because of the gin) and sophia cooked - no small feat - barbara no carbs, me no meat, sophia no cheese, klaus no many veggies. and then amazing conversation with all of us, including a terrific moment when we got out der dressierte mann to read aloud. again up way too late, and i am apparently a lightweight at 3000ft.

entertaining stress (94/365b)

well, we sure had fun this morning dressing up like we were joining a 20s bathing club, hats, etc. and facepainting ourselves so we can look real in black and white.
i was up super early despite the very late night, and went straight down to the beach with klaus to film my last piece (just me) of summertime. i wasn't thrilled with the results - something about a camera pointing at me and i forget all kinds of things. i think i'll do it again later.
not today though. we filmed for entertainer as long as possible, until the rain came, and then we went up to the restaurant and had some dinner. we are going for black and white silent film, and we make our lives difficult on purpose - one of our props is a 3square meter blow up flamingo. i really really hope we can get this done tomorrow, our last full day.

tonight was another football (soccer) match, which i didn't have to watch, i just edited more videos while everyone else had drinks. barbara was over the moon the croatia won, with an ueberzeugung i probably will never get.

at a fancy restaurant in my bathing suit (actually centa's bathing suit that she graciously lent me)
a beach cover-up
and barefoot.

building a dwarf city in the rain (93/365b)

look at those cute little dwarf musicians

only a few days ago we dressed up as dwarfs, and this morning we went for a hike to a little dwarf village and helped build some little houses out of pine cones for our dwarfs to play in. as soon as we were there it started to threaten rain, then it drizzled, and right as we packed up it started to pour.

irmtraud found some eierschwammerln in the woods, and we stayed indoors and cooked during the rain. we didn't get to do any more filming today, but klaus and i computerized and put together a rough draft of summertime and worked through the first ideas for our last video, staying up till almost 2am, in spite of headaches, just out of shared curiosity to see how it would turn out. :)

i did accidentally knock over the hard drive that had all our data on it, and the light went out and then the thing never worked again, but thankfully all the data was backed up somewhere else that we could access, and work went right on.

monday is crazy even on vacation (92/365b)

pretend  schlossberg in the background

... left so early in the morning, and went to pick up our real instruments first and then to the technical university to play for an awards ceremony. we ate quite well at the buffet, and i was overjoyed to get to see brian and the kids who came to visit me, (and they even brought me some things i had forgotten or hadn't thought to bring - including a replacement tripod) that was a terrific bonus to the long commute.

then the long drive back, but we stopped in klagenfurt to film in minimundus, which is a very funny little sightseeing place of all little amazing miniature models of stuff all around the globe. big things like the Eiffel tower, and little things like a maori prayer hut. They were very exact models, and quite fascinating to watch, but we were there to film, and we didn't have much time, and it was very hot and sunny. there weren't many tourists there on a lazy monday afternoon, but they had several parking spots for tour buses, and i bet it gets totally overrun sometimes.

then we went to der franzos, a restaurant a few blocks away that is more than a restaurant, it's directly into a dining experience. i knew about it because of manuela and suggested it, and we had a long night of wining and dining, and we basically laughed (mostly giggled) all the way back to the weissensee.

we arrived and went straight to bed, except me who stayed up to find constellations and watch shooting stars above and lightning across the lake. that was beautiful. i wished i had a hammock.

cigarette butts by the light of a basement window

summertime filming (91/365b)

little froggy on a cello ...awww...

spent the whole day on summertime filming, even though i only wanted to film in the early morning and the late evening, for the light. the rest of the day i was thinking about the score, and where and how to film. i was a little bit nervous to say the least, but i think all the things i needed worked out in the end. although the tripod i was using (and absolutely needed, taking hand held manually focused video with me in the frame) kept falling apart, plastic pieces breaking off, and things coming unscrewed...

i'm excited to see the result, but that will have to wait. we have a 5am wakeup and 6am leaving, because we have a gig tomorrow morning back in graz. it's fun to live the gigging/roadie lifestyle for a little change of pace.

off to the weissen see (90/365b)

weissensee means white lake (the color it has on the edges when viewed from above. it is in carinthia, a province of austria, in the foothills of the alps. we are renting a house quite near the lake with views of the mountains and woods all around. lots of bird chirping and wild flowers.

if you misspronounce it (which brian and i had fun doing), it can mean other things:
weisensee - the lake for the wise
weizensee - the wheat lake
waisensee - orphan lake

to get here, i first had to pack, which was none too easy. it's fine to pack for myself generally, but i had to pack for 3 different costume possibilities because we're making a video, and for a gig in graz that we will have to spend one day driving back for. plus lots of random props. brian helped me quite a bit in getting ready, but i left without breakfast or coffee.

we drove off together - we needed two cars, one was nearly entirely full with a double bass and 2 celli (one to practice on and one to stand in in the videos)

off we go, documented entirely by barbara.
my camera is somewhere under all the other luggage

arrival, dinner, tour of the area, and relaxing.... the only news is that i get to shoot the video for summertime all by myself. excited and nervous.

last day of school and more (89/365b)

absolutely the last day of school. one last elke lesson for me, and when i got home, theodore and henry were there beaming with pride with their all A's report cards.

spontaneous beard and hat donning

and also we made some beards and hats for our next video. originally we were just going to play dressed normally and make us smaller in post processing, but somebody said the word dwarf, and we all got to make hats. i made the beards out of craft stuff irmtraud had, and she made the hats, and barbara pinned them on. sophia was a blond dwarf, with a blond beard. we nearly cracked our ribs we were laughing so hard.

we got done recording everything much quicker than we thought we would, and so i went directly to the kindergarten party that i had "helped" plan before... it rained all day right up until the party started. we were wondering if anyone would come, whether we should cancel it, and whether it was a good idea at all, but it went off without a hitch, good food, and there was a real nice fire. no music though, which was sad, except somebody found some way of making salsa music at the very end.

henry and felix are stick-bread pros after last summer at stringer brook

sometimes it's better to do less (88/365b)

waffles and coffee

i made waffles for theodore and henry when they got home, with blueberries and cream. sounds terrific, but since i wasn't feeling so terrific i just had my coffee from the cup that felix made. i think it looks so nice, and it feels nice to hold too! (although brian thinks it's too hot) ... after more audio recordings with the quintet i got home early enough we watched a few songs from 1776 and went to bed (without going swing dancing, although i had been looking forwards to going) 

audio recordings till late (87/365b)

the winding down school year means more relaxed family time, but i am using this week up mostly with quintet doing audio recordings before next week when we're shooting videos. it will be sophia's last week before she goes back to berlin, so we can't do it any other time. i picked up the last of felix's pottery that we made months ago because i got a call from the potter that she found more stuff in a box somewhere with his name on it. i picked up things for other people at the kindergarten too, and went to pick all the uboot kids up. on the way back we passed a graveyard and one of them sighed and said sadly, "oh, all the poor dead people" and then the other kids all wanted to see the dead people. then we passed a little roadside shrine with a maria statue, and one of them said, "look, a jesus!" and another one said "no, that's the jesus woman. maybe his mother." and another said "yes, it's very dumb that he died. when he was alive he was helping people who couldn't see learn to see, but now that he's dead there's so many people in the world who can't see and hear."

no homework for the week? let's make up our own... <3

working hard

came back too late to watch our annual 1776 in honor of american independence day.

picnic and football (soccer) (86/365b)

took a very brave theodore to the dentist this morning, he had his tooth filled, no Novocaine, and no crying. he has to go back next week, poor thing. it's so unfair, he eats nearly no sweets, and brushes his teeth quite often. such is life. i took him home, and then went for a long walk alone, and then grabbed nina for a walk/chat/coffee before she had to hurry to work.

not so still life

irmtraud had us all over for a visit in the afternoon. lots of fancy foods, all delicious. the foods that i made mostly didn't work the way i wanted, so i didn't bring them. the kids played by the pool, but mostly just watched the afternoon world cup football match in awe in the living room. i went to pick up my fixed viola, viola bow, case and everything else and pay the bill. barbara and my families went home early and we watched the football match in the evening.

making gin and tonics

 

columbia vs. england, 2018