Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Hallo, Wien! (203/365b)

We went for an early walk at the kindergarten today, and got back home just in time henry's cello lesson. that elided right into my trio rehearsal. Marielise brought rum-balls, and my favorite moment was watching Barbara stuff 10 of them in her mouth at once on a dare. We practiced Mozart and Schubert, and then went right to halloween festivities.
a coffee on my knee:
life lesson LXVII: gotta learn to take the good with the bad.

looking with suspicion upon the book of virtues
breaking in his "new" shoes by wearing them in the house
Ronja thinks that halloween is "Hallo, Wien!" and i think that's very cute, although we didn't travel to vienna today. Instead we did something I had been planning since about 2014, watching Hansel and Gretel (the Herman Prey version) with all the kids on halloween. We invited Andi and his two kids, and Kris came too. Centa was working late.
We must have made 1000lbs of pop-corn, it was very ... pop-ular.
the opera was popular too. i was originally a little nervous that the kids would be cranky and restless, since the opera is nearly 2 hours long, and all "real" opera.

the kids dressed in capes and masks they had made themselves, and theodore went over to see ingrid with centa in the evening, bringing back ingrid's very delicious strietzl, traditionally given to one another on all souls day.

in austria, halloween is just not a thing, and we've been here a few years now, and centa a few years before us, and we've never had a single person ring the door bell. this year we had 3 or 4 rings - one at 8, one at 9, and 1 or 2 at 10:30. weird. maybe it will turn into a thing.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

visits (202/365b)

the museums were open today. we visited an exhibition of congolese art at the kunsthaus. it was mostly cool, some beautiful works. sometimes mixed without warning with horrifying images. on every floor was various media, sculpture, painting, photography and also video. the videos were loud, and looped. we never got away from the noise. theodore, henry and i couldn't stay longer than an hour because it was so annoyingly loud. we were most fascinated with an ancient looking wooden traditional carved sculpture of a man that was covered with glued on cellphone buttons.

Michi came over to wish me a happy birthday, i walked her across the street to her house. before i left i asked felix if he wanted to stay at home (brian was working inside) or come with me. he wanted to stay at home, so i left. 10 minutes later, i came back to find these two ladies standing outside our house. they told me they had called the police because a little boy had said hid mama had left him at home. i asked if they had asked the boy any questions, rang the doorbell, knocked on the door, or tried to figure out if someone other than his mama was home. they answered that no, he had stopped crying and gone inside so they called the police and were waiting. ok then. i double checked felix was fine. he was, of course, and went out to wait for the police. who took forever to get there, and then left immediately when they instantly determined nothing at all was wrong. gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Manuela looking at the pictures of the pop up scary halloween book than Nina found for us
Hanging over the chair is theodore's cape that he sewed.

Felix is tracing monster pictures
Manuela came by too, and we made plans to go climbing soon, and we read the kids to sleep and then hung out together for a long time. that was very nice, and it was relaxing after that stupid police thing.

Monday, October 29, 2018

full monday despite fall vacation (201/365b)


kindergarten is in session, but school isn't. it feels strange to have theodore and henry home, but not felix. regardless, music lessons happen anyways, and then we try to find a museum but everything is closed. we go to the stadtbibliothek (henry gets out a cd of the planets, so success from yesterday) then to the landesbibliothek, where we read books until choir time.

henry reads a book all on his own, like really reads it not just a sentence or two and looking at the pictures.

theodore reads a book about how to do magic tricks. one of them makes him cry because he "doesn't understand step 4"

happy birthday me [blog catchup] (200/365b)

my blog turns 565 and i turn 34 today.
delightfully, i got an extra hour today, which i spent dozens of times. by not setting my watch.
rainy day, started with felix adamantly NOT wanting to go to the concert we had been planning on going to for weeks. seeing the orchestra play the planets at the opera. henry somehow convinced him. we got stehplaetze, only 10euros for all of us. i never ceased to be amazed at being the only one standing in the back. although i wasn't impressed with the made-up information side of the concert.
i like where the text gives up and goes "mmm..."
and i like where it says those are "the 8 planets in our galaxy"
and the part about the "sun being so sad"
directly afterwards nina invited us for dinner at her house. an absolutely extensive smorgasboard of delightful dishes.

phil goes back in time for a bit

matching purples


home for cake
mama place setting and the cake brian made.
there was some kind of video-shooting for (what i thought was) a swing band at a bar nearby that i wanted to go to since i first heard about it. somehow the time to leave came so soon, and i just wanted to stay and hangout and have cake, but i also really wanted to daaaance! centa stayed home with the kids and nina went home. kris and i went together. it was a quite different event than i thought.
brian making his silliest face for the photo
manuela and d. came to chat with us, but the people doing the video kept asking us to come down, do some small thing and then dismissed us again. they were not a swing band, but a very heavy metal band, and i would really rather have just stayed up and chatted. we didn't get a lot of dancing in. the problem was also that i was mostly quite fascinated with the camera equipment, watching them do their thing, and i also really had energy to dance that seemed to always be when the cameras were somewhere else, and then i felt a little lame every time i saw a camera was pointing at me. of course, as just one of many extras none of us mattered at all. manuela sadly went home 5 minutes before we finished downstairs. 

i stole some victory gin in a wine glass and brought it upstairs where the three of us sat around and chatted and then danced to some real swing music that somehow made it onto the bar's playlist. 

twas nice. no stress today. and i got to do all the things i wanted to, even if they turned out quite differently. maybe i can take that as a lesson for my next lebensjahr.

Sunday, October 28, 2018

backstage behind the scenes [blog catchup] (199/365b)

backstage is cold and beautiful
up at 5:30am so i can get to the bakery, pick up the car, pack the bench, make hot thermoses of coffee and milk, and generally get everything ready for our next video shoot. the weather was threatening rain. we wanted foggy or cloudy but not rain, we can't play in any rain. irmtraud called at 6, it was raining where she was. she suggested bagging (can you tell i'm writing this in england? i even chameleon my writing) the whole endeavor. 
i agreed
then i disagreed
then i thought maybe we'd at least just go there
then i had second thoughts
then i called to say forget the makeup, let's meet there

so we did. and it was raining, but we sought alternatives. the sun broke out a little, it was getting later. we decided to just go for it. brian carried our bench up the hill looking for all the world like a gigantic yellow butterfly with red wings. i wanted to photograph that, but we were short on time, trying to beat the next rain, whenever that would come, and i was carrying way too many things.

we finished shooting with the very first drops of rain. eek, i had to wipe them off my viola! the others were already at the car, and klaus and i ran down the hill together, i was giggling like crazy, just because we had just barely gotten everything shot. i hope we have enough footage. we'll pick up the bench later. (if not it'll be the second bench i've "lost" in my life*)

home again for dinner, then i tried to film our first non-music video with the ladies of the quintet. i'm not sure we got anything good, but we'll see. it was quite awkward to talk in front of the camera, not just for me, but for all of us. dinner afterwards at a cozy little place called s'auerbrugger, which i called the sour burger. walked myself home, ringing in the new irma year at midnight alone. got home where brian was waiting for me.

*once upon a time, at mass academy, they put on a play that took place at a bus-stop. i wanted to be in it, but didn't get cast, specifically because i wasn't doing well enough in school, and the teachers thought the play would take too much of my time. (i would have failed out anyways, with or without the play, so i might as well have done it, but oh well) they needed a bench for the bus stop, so i volunteered my family's bench, and with effort dragged it up the big hill we lived at, across the street and to the stage. after the play, nobody knew where the bench belonged, so they left it, and somebody else supposedly brought it to the props closet, but the props people didn't know where it came from either, and when i went to the props closet to pick it up, it was not there - vanished into thin air. my parents didn't let me live that down very soon.

Friday, October 26, 2018

mom creations [blog catchup] (198/365b)

felix wanted to make a cutting board with a board he brought home from kindergarten. of course, this kind of thing ends up being the mom's job... i got out the electric sander, sanded the daylights out of it while he played soccer with henry, and then oiled it and put it in the oven to season it.

evening fun not too late, with nina, upstairs smelled bad because of new cutting board: actually it smelled just awful, the whole kitchen was filled with smoke from the hot oven.

but we went downstairs for some stories, some cards, some snacks, some nina time and some prosecco.

centa reading captivates all the kids

Thursday, October 25, 2018

random photo making [blog catchup] (197/365b)

 a photo of a praying mantis on my viola. not the coolest. could be cooler
wanted a "halloween" picture for ui's ig
i'm not sure this is the one.
got the results of my playing last week. i play the last movement of the legends by herzogenberg. it's the most boring of the three movements, the one i thought i played the worst, and the one i hadn't prepared before my jury playing. no idea why. oh well. at least i know now.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

to vienna [blog catchup] (196/365b)

gigantic audience
neon lights
the day was completely full of going to vienna with salonorchestra, which was something that hadn't even been on my radar a few days ago. i left the house before 12. stopped to deposit money in some bank accounts to pay for shoes on willhaben.

at 1pm we were supposed to leave, and at 1:20 the bus arrived, quite late. we made it to the soundcheck late. then the staff showed us into a room with canapes. four tiny plates of little petit four sandwiches for 20 people in the orchestra. when they had been demolished another member of the staff came in and yelled at us for being in the wrong room and eating someone else's food. the orchestra played for 3 hours without a break, didn't have time for any food afterwards and the bus headed home, offering us drinks in the form of canned white spritzers, which i had once in my life and never again, so i got home exhausted and hungry at 1am, and went straight to sleep.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

happy birthday rainer! [blog catchup] (195/365b)

called rainer in thailand before the kids left for school to wish him a happy birthday. i figured out it was actually a pretty nice time of day to do skype calling to thailand. usually by the time the kids are home it's too late there.

i'm nervous about playing in front of a committee today, deciding the program for the upcoming concert of music by Herzogenberg. I'm only nervous because one of the people on the committee is also on the committee of my upcoming audition for an orchestra, and for some reason i am worried that what i do today will affect what happens then. i didn't really prepare that much for this because honestly, whatever they decide to put on the program i'll practice properly for then. but a few days ago i signed up for the other audition, and they also published a list of people on the jury for today, and now i'm nervous. i told all my fears to nina this morning with coffee. i'm still nervous and also a bit shaky. theodore and i went together to the conservatory, he has a mini-strings rehearsal and i was warming up for the jury people.

while i played my nose ran and ran and i really wanted to cough the whole time. but really? it was fine.
a close visual approximation to how i'm feeling right now.
blaaaaaaaaah

Monday, October 22, 2018

monday blues for everyone [blog catchup] (194/365b)

general monday overscheduled dumbness

barbara called last minute and asked if i could photograph the salonorchester rehearsal in the evening,
in the morning, after my lesson i went to pick up my violin from the guy. it was done, but then it wasn't really, the pegs, the whole reason i had gone there, were not fitted quite right and the problem i had had before was still there. he tried to fix it while i was there, he cursed mondays, and finally asked me to come back later in the day when he would have had a chance to look at the problem in a calmer light.

on my way there the second time  i took a two random ladies to geidorf who were lost on the grune gasse. they were driving around looking for a restaurant that was actually quite far away. first i went inside and got them a map, and after i tried to explain it and they didn't seem to get it (i also was in a hurry to go!) i just got in the car and directed them there. i took the bus from there, collected my violin which works now, yay!, and off to the rehearsal.

i barely saw anybody in my family today because it was just back and forth everywhere the whole time. :(

arriving towards the end of rehearsal to take a few pictures


Sunday, October 21, 2018

all the gigs at once.... [blog catchup] (193/365b)

since brian now sings in a choir he got to sing his first mass today. i couldn't stay home because i got to drive to "waidhofen on the ybbs" (i find the name of the river ybbs to look and sound quite funny) the kids stayed with j&a, and brian and i went off simultaneously to our gigs. how cute.
i have NOT learned to focus, walk and shoot with my new camera
at all!
 the town is really far away, and the gig is not going to make me a rich person, in fact, i will probably lose money technically, but the opportunity is so awesome! i get to solo in brandenburg 6, i get to play brandenburg 3, and the people who are putting on the concert are really all excellent musicians, and nice. the town is just one of those "you can't get there from here." either *through* vienna, or zigzag through the mountains. the trip is beautiful but nervewracking, since every curve seems way too fast (it was also freezing a bit, and there was a little snow, so slippage was problematic)

anyways, we rehearsed for hours, had dinner, and rehearsed more. then off i went home.
sometime, during the rehearsing, katja, the cellist that set me up with this whole thing, had told some peolpe on a facebook carpool group that i had 6 free seats available at 10erous a seat, so i got to take back a few people. it was funny to have the car full of strangers, and also funny that i was the driver when i really knew nothing about the way to get to or from graz. it was dark and cold and slippery but 3 hours later i was back. when we gave the car back we hung out a bit at jackies and andis, but we didnt stay too long. for some reason i was pretty tired. ;)

Saturday, October 20, 2018

i want to know the numbers! [blog catchup] (192/365b)

i got behind on my blog, and have found it hard to keep up. i'm going to try to do it based on notes and pictures, but i'm just exhausted by this daily upkeep. i think i'll get back into the swing of it again though. so i'm spending my down-time while at tante frieda's playing catchup

today felix wanted to "learn the numbers" ... when i told him he did know all the numbers (counting well past 100, etc) he told me that no, he didn't "because of 12 and 21 and 43 and 34" ... he meant he doesn't know how to tell the difference when he reads it - no surprise, because german also says them backwards. so i gave him a big book (swing time) that i had just read and he read the page numbers in order, and copied them onto a big piece of paper. i asked if he thought all the numbers would fit on the page, and he said no, because there is no largest number. he does know stuff!
henry was so sweet and stayed with him until felix had written up to 30.
then felix suddenly decided "he knew the numbers"
i think he does!
yay for self-guided learning!

Friday, October 19, 2018

still no picture. coughing too much part ii (191/365b)

man, even worse today. i was so excited that i fell asleep at midnight and didn't have anywhere to be until 11am, but i barely made it out the door on time. i was just so tired, and my lungs felt like they would fall out of my chest. and my head felt like it would explode. and my eyes felt like they were about to pop out.

funeral time was fine. we found the right place, played, and notionally wanted to go get coffee afterwards but i was the lameo and just went home and went back to sleep.

worked hard on our quintet website all day. made one with wix, found out wix was too expensive for my tastes to get the stuff i wanted, and made a new one with google site. i had just finished when brian got home with the boys. two of them were already asleep. theodore said hi to tante lala whom i was just talking too over skype about some heavy stuff. we cut our conversation short. theodore brought me a little snack platter of cashews and dark chocolate to "help me think." (awww!) brian bought me a domain. and tomorrow, our website should be a*liiiive*

Thursday, October 18, 2018

still no picture. coughing too much (190/365b)

too lethargic and tired and sick to do anything but the necessary stuff. i took some magical pills and got ready for an early afternoon rehearsal that didn't end up happening anyways. then i tried recording myself playing a bit for my own edification, but it was comically bad.

all the menfolk left for maribor to do "72 stunden ohne kompromiss" ... first sleeping overnight in a tent at the playground, and second helping fritz build a really cool pizza oven at the playground.

i did ui rehearsal, brought my camera, didn't use it, recorded "smile", rehearsed trio music  for the funeral tomorrow (finding one arrangement completely unplayable. we had to find something else, but the family wants no "catholic" music like ave maria, and there was quite a limit on what music is even available for string trio at the last minute) till 11:30pm, came home exhausted, ate some ramen, collapsed into bed exhausted.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

still sick and more sick (189/365b)

still way sick. up last night at 3am, too exhausted to try any star pictures. slept more. hope brian's not getting sick. ugg. at least i got my blog updated and wrote out an accompaniment to henry's favorite cello song. and i did some practicing. and i signed up for an audition. and talked to peter. and i organized music for a funeral. that's not nothing. centa just reported that she held a chameleon and a gecko at a party. that's also pretty special.
but guess what?
hate this picture?
not impressed?
my camera can do 4minute exposures!!
also i can sit pretty damn still when i've practiced being sedentary for 3 days.

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

sick all day (188/365b)

i wish i had done something at all other than sleep but i didnt.
nina brought me soup.
brian went to renate's gallery opening that i had wanted to go to. while he was at chorus, we watched some of the magic flute and then i weakly asked the kids to put themselves to sleep.

Monday, October 15, 2018

monday blues (187/365b)

i can't believe how fast my body can go from fine to sick.

lessons and stuff in the morning, after meeting up with michi at tribeka. theodore and i went to cafe erde and he had enough time to eat some soup and then he had to run quickly to get to singschule. we have to think of a new idea for getting food between times.

as i was sitting alone eating spicy food i noticed a throat tickle, and by the time i got back home i was dead tired and i was asleep by 6pm.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

best laid plans ... (186/365b)

read a lot aloud today.
2 chapters of the hobbit in the morning at breakfast

3 chapters of the hobbit (50 pages!) in a row after theodore hurt himself a bit playing soccer. now i've finished reading the entire book.

in between we went to watch the marathon runners come in and stood outside for over an hour clapping and cheering. we missed the very first runner the first time through by a half a minute.

ratchet, duck whistle, regular whistle
marathon medals and clapping
we wanted to do many more things but we didn't, and that was ok. we had fun anyways.

Saturday, October 13, 2018

fiiigs! (185/365b)

Mary, Martin and Agnes left early this morning... headed towards Berlin. First we couldn't find Agnes' cedavita book. Then we found it... she had packed it in the suitcase the day before, when I had suggested she pack it in the suitcase so she didn't forget it or lose it. Then she forgot that, and told us she couldn't find it and we all spent some time looking for it. cute. then we couldn't find her shoes. we found them on the staircase under some things after they left. I remember sometimes when I didn't want to leave somewhere when I was a kid that I would sometimes hide my stuff so I "couldn't" go and I remember hiding other peoples' stuff if I didn't want them to go... Who can say what was at play here?

We all headed out to take them to the airport, but I felt the urge to be blissfully alone for an hour or two so I ran away and left them at the train station.

When everyone returned, it was such a gorgeous day that we just simply had to go out. And what better place to go early october than the Schlossberg to hunt for figs? That's what we did, and we tried to get back on time to pick up Theodore. unfortunately one of the people driving had her car break down on the mountain so he was going to come back with another group on a bus so it would be a while still.
we brought books for us to read to the kidsand for the kids to read to us
felix couldn't find his book.
he described it like this:
"the book i can read by myself:  1 one bear, 2 two clowns, 3 three trains, 4 four stars, 5 five clocks,
6 six ducks, 7 seven ice cream cones, 8 eight apples, 9 nine cars, 10 ten stars. where is it? i want to read it to you."

We were nearly back home when we saw a youngish guy (probably on some kind of drugs) collapse in the street in front of the fire department. Another guy tried to help him up but the collapsed man just said he didn't need help or a doctor or an ambulance. We asked the guy at the fire-department for a medic or for him to call someone. 10 minutes later the ambulance came, and another minute after that the police came, blue lights blaring. The police station is across the street. They could have crawled there faster.

All very happy to see Theodore again, and of course he was very tired from his trip and had so much to tell. After bedtime, Nina and Kris came over and Centa and Brian and I all first chatted and then I had the idea to watch the Crimson Pirate, because it was just so relevant to all our conversation that evening, and I really thought it would be fun, but it turned out to be kind of a bum choice. I'll have to work on that.

Friday, October 12, 2018

limerick night (184/365b)


we made the most beautiful colorful salad together. everyone helped. some stuff from the garden, mostly stuff from the farmer's market. lots and lots of different yummy things.

agnes: "it's a so pretty salad, but... but... i think it's probably good for me"

nina was here for lunch/dinner. we had sturm and ate outside, as it was just a gorgeous fall day. the kids get home early on friday. theodore had to pack for going on an overnight trip to the schoeckl. somehow i spiritually missed saying goodbye to him.  :(

anyways, mary and i had fun recording some duos (by my friend otto siegl---they're difficult!) and when martin got back from work we made a little mini party, first martin read all the limerick's in centa's favorite limerick book. it was just such a shame that centa wasn't there to share in the fun since she was having a late rehearsal.

edward lear: laughable limericks
we also tried george heinemann's (a professor that brian and i knew at wpi) puzzles from the brand-new (not yet released!) book.
this was just 1star hard but we did one of each level.
verdict: they are fun!



Thursday, October 11, 2018

weird bishop's party (183/365b)

dressed up for the tree house ladder
i had a bishop's party to go to... that is the bishop that wanted to thank us for coming. theodore and henry were at chorus, and i decided to take felix with me.
not without his violin!
so when we got there there were 4 people there, the bishop, irmtraud, barbara and me. food was some plain bread and juice and some prosecco that the bishop didn't share with us. and felix serenaded us with "chocolate ice-cream" rhythm on his violin from the playground. i guess i missed the highlights of the party, the thankyou speech and some other stuff. 

then i went off to the geigenbauer to get my violin pegs fixed. all very well and good, i just have to pick it up next week. he asked if he could this or that to the violin, and i just told him he could do anything. "anything?" he asked, "i wish i had shaved." ....... oh dear. :-[

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

babysitting in various constellations (182/365b)


Those colors!
Agnes needed some love and attention but when Mary and I started recording some silly kids music she just drew and wrote in her super cute cedavita book for a while

the kindergarten kids came home with felix and we got them all to eat and then hurried into downtown for the kids chorus. we also played some brandenburg 6, which was like brain-cartwheels for poor mary, reading alto clef instead of tenor clef. 

she and martin went out together to shindig with some mathematicians and when the kids were all asleep so were jackie and andi so we stayed home the evening.

Happy to see Felix back after kindergarten and chorus 



Tuesday, October 9, 2018

new camera (181/365b)

mary adding a closure of the proper size to agnes' sporkal skirt

my new camera arrived, and so i took pictures of plants, the floor, the ceiling, people in bad lighting, horrible upnose selfies, and all kinds of other useless things to try things out. i can't say i didn't have fun. i kind of like it, although it's not much of an upgrade, unless you count a working sensor and no dead pixels. it's also water/dust proof, so i have an excuse to treat it badly.

brian was out late at choir practice, and martin and mary and i had a mini kitchen party.

Monday, October 8, 2018

every hour counts (180/365b)



Monday is always our busy day. It's also the last day Mama is here. She has stuff she wants to do, and although we know we can't do it all, (not ever!) we can try to cram as much stuff we can into our day.

It turned out a little silly, because Theodore forgot about his violin lesson, so he ended up finishing late, and then I took him for lunch, but he didn't actually have time to eat it, so I ended up actually eating lunch alone downtown, and when I left to go home, Mama and Mary had both just left for different things, so I got back and just played with Felix and Agnes. Not quite a good plan, but it was ok.

In the meantime I got a slideshow ready - Mama wanted to see Dachstein photos, printed some music for us to sing (a piece written by Kienzl with text by Rosegger - a really sad song) and a string quartet arrangement of When I'm 64, which my two kids, centa, mary and I sightread together off of a single score to various levels of success. All things that mama wished for.

preparing for four part harmony
Henry is learning to be a great singer!

Bedtime stories
incredible mary doesn't need anyone else to play 2 part harmony

chinchin

Finishing the chain for Mama's glasses
let's hope she doesn't lose them in the ocean again


Mama's main plan was to not sleep tonight. her flixbus leaves from the opera at 2am so we have until 1am to stay up and entertain ourselves. That didn't seem to be a problem. At quarter to 2 after a nice walk for us 4 ladies (except for a tripping and falling that did some surface damage to a leg) we ended up at the flixbus busstation. mama seemed in a hurry to get in and sit down and maybe even get a headstart on sleeping, but we waited till the flixbus left, singing goodnight irene and variations on doowadidooap... <3





Sunday, October 7, 2018

computer generated orchestra (179/365b)

everyone was very tired today, because yesterday, after we had our little birthday party i had the ridiculous wish to go see schloss eggenberg by candlelight, something they do once a year on the long night of museums. mama and i took theodore and henry, and we weren't the only ones who had that idea. we stood in line on a cold stone staircase for 2 hours to get our guided tour of the beautiful rooms that were lit "only" by hundreds of candles.

since we were out already we stayed out afterwards, looking at exhibitions around the castle, then going on to the schloss and schluessel museum which is right by our house. there was a museum shuttle, on which henry remarked "this is the best bus in the world, because it takes us exactly where we want to go."

anyways we had a full house of tired people today.

for me not so great, early morning rehearsal at the helmut liszt halle - brian ran there with me while i biked.

ingrid cz. visited and was happy to see agnes and mary as well as my mom again.

then i convinced mama and mary to come see my weird concert and told brian and centa to listen to it live on the radio with the kids. ingrid was still there when we were leaving, so she drove us, and right when we turned the last corner it suddenly started to pour like crazy.

the concert was as smashing of a success as it could be, with anti-waltz propaganda, weird video projections. mary pointed out that i spent nearly as much time eye-rolling as playing - i guess there's no way for me to lie with my face.

at the post concert discussion there was much idiotic conversation, about drones who chose the targets for the politicians. how that has anything to do with artificial intelligence writing music i don't know. most people found the music profoundly unappealing, and said so. except for one lady, who said she didn't know "anything" about music, but didn't find it "bad." when someone asked why the orchestra couldn't be robots or why we needed an orchestra at all, they just said that they were happy that this computer generated music had created such an emotion in people.

we took a taxi home, and found that brian had listened to the concert on the radio, well part of it. then there was an hour-long piece over-layed with text of nazi-ramblings that we didn't play that he listened to too, thinking maybe that was the computer generated piece.

stolen from the newspaper: his hogwarts conducting jacket

If that wasn't enough for one evening, the four of us ladies stayed up and read ART, the play by Reza again, with centa's artwork, because Mama had never read it, and because it was remarkably relevant to the discussion that they were supposed to have after the concert...

Saturday, October 6, 2018

mary arrives and various people have various rehearsals (178/365b)

I got to play more music written by artificial intelligence. had to leave pretty early for and spent 6 hours in rehearsal with a short break for lunch, during which i wandered around the neighborhood with my camera. we didn't rehearse the "real" pieces nearly at all. just this random garbage stuff. too bad.
found in st.peter
when i got back mary and agnes had arrived, mama had made apple strudel, and centa was getting ready to go to HER rehearsal. We just simply HAD to have agnes' belated birthday RIGHT away, so we put a candle in a piece of strudel, sang, and presented presents. 

card from agnes in the past:
on the back are instructions for how to make a rainbow skirt
aka "SPORKAL SKIRT"
lengthwise half gold fabric half silver
exactly the skirt Mama had sewn with careful instruction from Centa
Agnes was very pleased
although she had no recollection of the drawing she had made.
Agnes is letting two crocodile puppets help celebrate


waiting for strudel




Friday, October 5, 2018

in which i am the turnip gone to the kitchen (177/365b)


all dressed up for the opera
fridays are so nice, everyone's home early and everything is so relaxed.
we went to manfred's for dinner (very delicious wine and vegetarian food) today after school, a little earlier today so that he and the other cool adults could go to the barber of seville. the tickets were extra cheap as they sometimes are for special sales/promotions. i sent brian, centa, mama, manfred and ingrid. i think they all had a good time.

as for me i had such a relaxed evening at home with my boys, i pretty much wouldn't have traded it for the world.

Thursday, October 4, 2018

lotte short visit (176/365b)

at 8:30 this morning I got a phone call. Can you come to rehearsal at 9? concert is on sunday. No, I can't be there in half an hour, but i can be there tonight where is it? orf studios in st. peter only an hour away by public transportation? no problem! 

so excited to get to see Lotte today! mama's great friend and my godmother from belgium.
Felix took over Lotte's sister Heidi
We prepared all day for the visit, making gorgeous perfect strudel, pressing fresh grape juice and things like that. We weren't sure exactly when she would arrive, and we knew she wouldn't have much time. 
The remains of the apple strudel
sad thing was i had to leave right away for the rehearsal. i only got to be there for about 40 minutes. but oh well, i got to play with recreation, the big orchestra in graz that i've wanted to play with forever. sadly it was AI generated music that took a strauss waltz as input, and exported thousands of different things none of them waltzlike. non-waltz=naltz? anyway, i got out, missed the bus by a quarter of a second and then walked to the next nearest stop and was so tired by the time i got home.

mama out-energied me - she got home past midnight from going out with lotte and other friends.

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

my mama gets to see me in my music paradise (175/365b)

mama, centa and i spent all morning walking around town running very important errands, like buying fabric for a skirt, other stuff for crafty projects, tickets to the opera for friday, and other weird things. it was fun to just wander around, but at some point i get a call from brian asking where i was and i found out it was an hour later than i thought and i was supposed to be leaving to get felix. so brian went to go get felix. i felt bad, but also glad that i have such a patient guy to save me when i mess up. awww....
mama took this picture for me :)
we all have our calendars/phones etc. out
in my case i just send brian a text and he answers yes or no whether i can do it or not
i took mama to a ui rehearsal tonight, and it was very nice although at the end we realized we had done nothing but sightread new music the whole time and had never played anything we knew. too bad. at home i made her watch all our videos.

henry's class had an elternabend, and after that i met mama and took the bus to the rehearsal. when we got back late this evening i found out that theodore's class had also had an elternabend that i had missed. not so super mom after all.


Tuesday, October 2, 2018

rettenbachklamm (174/365b)

i regret taking no photos today.

hiking seems to be good for me. i didn't want anything to eat, or any coffee (although I had one anyways - i live in fear of withdrawal headache) and all i wanted to do was hike.

as soon as felix got home from kindergarten i took him and mama for a hike. it was just up rettenbach, a nice leisurely stroll but mama and i were both so sore. mama in her legs and her feet. she has terrible blisters. me in my arms - i can barely lift them over my head. we found some yummy mushrooms and the leisurely stroll got longer and longer because we kept getting distracted off the path. i finally asked brian to come get us with the car and tried to get to yoga on my own.

(grossmutter was babysitting for the night - brian was busy too - to his first ever choir reherasal. him deciding this evening that he was a tenor and starting to learn bach's st.john's passion is akin to my first klettersteig being the dachstein. let's hope he makes it and doesn't lose any fingers to frostbite or attach his caribeeners wrong)

anna is teaching at the technical university now and i really wanted to join. i got there a minute or two late and then spent a long time wandering around the building looking for the correct classroom. the numbers on the room seem to have no bearing on anything. so i missed

oh well. maybe my arms were too sore for yoga anyways.

on the great wonderful plus side i was only a street away from manuela's place and we met up and went to the exhibit at the photo club near by. it was full of older guys who wanted to show off their cool photos that they make on their trips and their fancy gear. we were frequently referred to as "die zwei junge damen" (the two young ladies) and weren't asked about our photos. maybe we will go back some tuesday evening and wow them with some hiking pictures.

Monday, October 1, 2018

gifelbesiegung (173/365b)



next stop: the styrian anthem
The tune for the styrian national anthem starts with the words, "From the top of the Dachstein ... to the wherever wherever i forgot the words" ... The first few notes are the ones that the bus in Graz uses to announce the next stop. The Dachstein is however the highest mountain in Styria, and to the top of this great magnificent crag on the south side of a glacier we intrepid explorers wanted to arrive.
Ingrid and I hadn't slept very well. Up all night and it was dry. I looked at the stars at 3am. I finally got to sleep at 6am. Breakfast at 7. I was very worried about headache from a)sleep deprivation b)altitude sickness c)dehydration d)stress or e)all of the above. I was pleasantly surprised and rewarded with a headache free day.

We met Rene ready right at 7:45 on the dot, he brought us from the beautiful sunny morning up the cable car to the top of the glacier dotted with clouds and sun. gorgeous light. he helped us put on our crampons so we didn't slip around so much. we wanted to stop everywhere and take pictures but he warned us the weather wouldn't wait around for us.

"he who wants to look has to stand still" (and we were being asked to remain in motion)

first glacier steps... no more stopping for pictures

we'll need crampons. rene will tie them for me.

we're going to that mountain in the cloud

The walk along the path through the glacier was easy. Off the path the crevasses look white and where we step is dark... for now. We do not stray from the path. the scenery is just gorgeous, and the idea of bad weather seems ridiculous. We are worried we will be too warm. We have a lot of climbing ahead of us.

crevasses

gorgous sky still
That little crag going straight up is the first part of our climb. I have to put my camera away so i can climb the cable. We cross, go across a little tiny bridge and start our klettersteig or via ferrata - the cable that takes us up and over to the top.
across the glacier

On the way up some drizzling rain started. We were told if it continues for very long we would have to go down without getting to the summit. I was ahead the entire time and got to the top a good 20minutes before and got a chance to take a deep breath and sit there and watch the rain change to snow. Right when they were ready to accept the rain and head down they called up to see where I was. At the peak! That gave them the motivation to finish, and finish we did. "Berg heil" was said at the top. At no point did we find the wherewithall to unpack even a granola bar or a handful of nuts or the schnapps i had packed or the bread or the cheese. I had a sip of water and no more. Crampons were put back on and climbing down started right away. We didn't have time for more than a quick snapshot of us. Poor Ingrid had to wring out her gloves they were so wet. I had so much extra stuff with me, but nothing that was helpful to her. Mittens weren't ok to climb with and other than her fingers she wasn't cold.

Rene took some pictures of us climbing:

Frosty haired.

Ingrid and mama
Me


we made it!
climbing down
(that little white square is one of a few different plaques commemorating a place where so and so fell to his death)
The climb down was a bit nerve-wracking. The cable was covered in ice, the wind was blowing from changeable directions. My hands would freeze to the cable if i waited very long, and the others were a bit slower than I would have liked. Some places you couldn't see where you were going next. The conditions were far from complete white out but the way was steep and sometimes your next place to lock into was over a ledge and you just had to trust your feet without looking to carefully. One place I sat down and whispered to myself "i'm scared." then I went on. the last 10 meter drop Rene let me down with a rope, and I was very grateful for that.
New weather at the bottom
We had all forgotten (or not noticed) how FAR we had walked to get to the climbing part. The glacier path was all white, snow and wind was everywhere. Our muscles were tired and our fingers were cold. It took us another hour to get back, trudging along the path marked only by poles on the side. 

Back at the hut I wasn't hungry at all. I had access to all the food imaginable as well as all the food I had brought and didn't eat a bite. I was glad to just relax on the bench and write postcards and chat with my mama. We were a little bit alpine high. It was nice. We missed the only bus home because I misremembered when it was leaving. So I ordered a taxi, we took that to the flixbus, took the flixbus to graz, and although we had every intention of walking the km back were very happy and grateful to have brian offer to pick us up in the uboot.