stupid time change (353/365b)

i had soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and made terrible failed pudding (who knows why? once a year i have a failure with something that i make exactly the same way every time, and somehow, once just doesn't work at all for what i can figure out is no reason)

brian went swimming with the kids and to the asphalt playground while i had more quintet rehearsal, much better than the last two.

henry said "i don't like that i always forget the good dreams and remember the bad dreams"

Losing an hour

felix has been "saving up" practice cartoons, so he can watch a charlie chaplin movie ... he got 1am today, and was overjoyed.

we tried to play theodore's new sheep game that arrived from mary, but we couldn't quite get everyone rustled together until it was very late. they weren't asleep till after 10! 

i wasn't asleep till much later, because i (skype) talked to peter after that.

back to regularly scheduled hanger management (352/365b)

woke up so tired and cranky and sore and disoriented... awww. at least it was a mercifully short migraine.

felix wrote (dictated) a book called
"Felix makes a yummy yummy fruit salad"
then sewed it together by himself dressed as a king
this is such a fun age!

clothes project was not my favorite.
theodore and i cut out and painted a new top for his box of puzzles. i loved the paint blob that came out of the paint (because nao used the paint mixed it right in the tube so the tubes are no longer one color, kind of annoying but also, in this case, kind of cool)

we sang three part harmony with me at the piano - playing the bass and singing the second soprano part is not soooo easy but SOOOO fun

brian went to thrift store

miguel, a fellow lindy hopper from spain) is staying with us, but i was very antisocial, so much so that i cooked dinner and let brian and centa serve it outside without me while i got hangrier and hangrier...

quintet rehearsal in the afternoon, where the bus connections were horrible, i was late, and then  olena had to leave exactly at 6

kids made "car salads" henry nearly fell asleep eating his

idea from this billboard

kids start action

henry shows off his creation

that's what i call ...
...wait for it...
....counter production

brian fell asleep reading the kids to sleep

yuck sudden migraine attack (351/365b)

i was the springerin in kindergarten,  and the feedback after a day with irma was that every one was very ... "entspannt!" (relaxed) .... it WAS a beautiful day. we only had 10 kids, and we planted and played and i told stories and played my guitar.

felix and i collected baerlauch and chives on our way home.

then things went a bit downhill...
thomas orchestra - the room was stuffy and very warm
kug kinder konzert - the room was stuffy and very very warm

then i went to quintet rehearsal, and my low-grade headache drifted into migraine territory. the flashers from olena's car reflecting on the street signs made me dizzy and nauseous. by the time i got home, i was sick and pale, and brian asked me how much had i had to drink? answer: nothing at all. brian was a sweetheart and even turned off the router so it wouldn't buzz.

saying no more kindergarten with a heavy heart (351/365b)

a very difficult day for me. i decided to take felix out of kindergarten and teach him at home. maybe i can be encouraged differently. for now, he'll finish the week and then we'll talk. it is very tough for me since the kindergarten is at least partially also my project, and saying it's not working for me feels very failure-y.

meanwhile felix was very proud of his rechnenaufgaben that he got at kindergarten (for which the kindergarten apologized, worried that he will be bored in school) ....

opening a letter from grossmutter
showing tante centa his favorite math problems

we spent all the time we could possibly spend at jackie's house after dinner, i just went over and over my decision. we laughed and talked and cooked until dark, and left 10minutes after brian arrived with theodore and henry.

late in the evening i saw a mass sms from ubuk, asking if anybody had time to substitute for a kindergarten teacher tomorrow because nobody they had asked was available. i signed up. that may be awkward tomorrow.

saying goodbye to nao and bang (350/365b)

"papa plays guitar much better than you ... because he practices." -henry

walked to spar in the early morning with all the kids.... so fun and so wonderful.
baked all morning ... cake with theodore.. abenteuerspielplatz birthday party, only a month late. for that, i went to get theodore from school and walked 4 boys back to the playground, 2 on scooters, 2 on foot, all carrying backpacks. then i forced them all to do their homework FIRST before we had any pizza (all the parents thanked me later) ... one kid brought a bag of mcdonalds, because his mom was worried he wouldn't get any "proper food" ......

he wants orange cake, and he gets an orange cake!
oh marscapone frosting
and mandarins
and fresh organic oranges with juice and zest
and local hazelnuts
i was pretty happy with the result
and so was everyone else

theodore had to leave the party right at 6 and "go to work" at the opera. haha.

nao and bang and i had dinner at irmtraud's, where nao finally perfected her austrian version of pad thai for us, and bang told us some secrets of editing video. nao was very nervous about getting to the train on time, but there was no rush, we were there with plenty of time to spare.

non-hike on mountain (349/365b)

up the schoeckl with nao and bang, for which we borrowed nina's car, used seilbahn. up up up we went, walked around and had some spicy sausage ("this is spicy?" asked bang) and back down. brian left us at the top to run down and home. he slipped and bruised his knee quite badly on a rock near the top but that didn't stop him from going the next 15km.

brian photographs me sunbathing with his running shoes

at home, while i was cooking, theodore dropped a liter bottle of oil on the floor and half of it spilled out. that took about 3 hours to clean up. if anyone had asked me "do you think you could find 3 hours today to clean the floor?" i would have said no, but somehow i found that.

trio with henry because he begged me (just the two of us) while theodore doodled with ruler and compass and sent a letter back to my mother to thank her for the awesome present of the ruler and compass and book to go with it.

busy monday again (348/365b)

busy monday.. many lessons and practices and overlapping schedules.
elternabend for henry's class. lots of stupid parent comments. now there's a whatsapp group for us to practice music....

i swore i took a photo today, but i can't find it anywhere, and i don't remember of what, so we're gonna call that a loss.

new video shoot (347/365b)

we shot a new video today, complete with green screen, a princess dress (from centa's closet) and LED flower shoulder lights (for me) and glitter bowties and suspenders (for the others)

watching the last take

there were lots of long cuts, which meant the take had to be good (and approved) by 5 people each time, or we had to do the whole thing again. and it was playing plus choreography. lighting was an issue (as usual with green screen, but worse this time because everyone was in white and in reflective clothes) ... the white clothes caused a nearly emotional breakdown in the morning because olena didn't find the right shirt or shoes that she would have liked to wear, but we calmed eveyone down and started filming at around 11:30. an hour and a half after our presumed schedule. i un-fasted every one of my things ive given up: cheese, sugar and alcohol. start over tomorrow. i guess that's allowed every once in a while.

last day of pottery (346/365b)

early morning ready to go... we didn't leave quite at the time we wanted, theodore was still in bed reading at exactly the time i wanted to walk out the door. somehow he got dressed and out the door in under 8 minutes, which wasn't too bad. first things first, trimming our stuff from yesterday. then i got right to work on my big bowl. where i basically ruined a bag of clay one big lump at a time until i gave up 20 minutes before the end of class. i'll try again another day.

trimming a bowl

theodore had his own moment of frustration. he cried on his 3rd attempt making a plate when it got so muddy and stuck to the bottom. but he was successful on his fourth try!

nina gets direction, although she had the most natural talent of all of us

airdrying a very pretty pitcher
he will have to take a bath before he goes to his friend tobias' birthday party

theodore and my lumpy creations.. and no big bowl... haha... will have to gain some skillz first

i took henry to his orchestra rehearsal for the first time, that is my first time taking him, he's been going all semester with brian or nadja, but i haven't had a complementary free moment. i got to watch him play, and pick out a (much too big, he's by far the smallest/youngest) vest that he will wear tomorrow for the concert that i won't be at.

reading begets more reading (345/365b)

mcguffey eclectic primer in 2019

felix is is love with reading. maybe because we reward him with pennies when he reads or writes a page of something... the same reward doesn't seem to do much with henry's love of reading, but i guess we can't win everything.

with his book fund, felix bought his first book (actually 3 books) with his own money. they weighed them at the thrift store (sold by the kilogram!) and all together the sum came to exactly 1 euro. he slowly counted out 10 10cent coins and asked for a receipt.

2nd day of pottery, much better. stayed up very looking at pottery videos online to see how to throw a big bowl.

first pottery class! (344/365b)

took a publicity shot for andrea and her husband martin for the paper. i don't think they got it in on time. too bad. the shot was cute though, maybe they'll use it next time. i met manuela in town when i got done. i like that she has time in the day sometimes now. :) it's nice. i got to take her back to my place and nao had cooked for us. ultimate luxury! she loves kale and there is plenty of it in our garden. it doesn't grow as well in thailand, since kale tastes best after the first frost.

there was no pay-with-a-poem here today
or anywhere else in graz
but now it's tradition that i come here on world poetry day and have coffee

thai cuisine is so colorful

First pottery class of three was tonight. nina and i picked up theodore right from the opera, and then out to st.peter ceramics where andreas taught us (mostly) centering. other people made cool things, i didn't really, but it was really fun. theodore has quite a lot of patience with this stuff.

that MOON (343/365b)

perfectly organized wednesday

i got nao an interview with andrea before felix had choir. we met up with manu to interview him about lendwirbel (manu is the guy whom i once anonymously gave many many trial packets of massage oil), we hung out at the abenteuerspielplatz, i played (relatively badly, actually, i was surprised) in an all viola concert, and directly to swing dancing. kris decided to move to france, and we spent about 4 dances in a row talking over the decision.

last of sticky rice with mango when i get home - the kids had left me a tiny bowlful, for which i was very grateful - it was very yummy. we've gone through about 3kg of rice since nao got here and we show no signs of stopping or slowing down

that moon!

some kind of demonstration/dancing/i-don't-know at griesplatz on my way to concert

diagonale or, the failure of the introverted press (342/365b)

brian took the thai visitors to the farmers market and they shot more in the kiga... they think they are done with that portion of their video work! ubuk had his interview after kindergarten ....
first it hailed, then the sun came out, then it rained, so we had them on our front porch, me sitting on the steps... even those shots, under the most difficult circumstances (lack of light and space) turned out great - bang is such a pro!

nina got us press tickets to the diagonale (the big film festival) opening... Somehow we got four of them, so Manuela and I went with Nao and Bang. It was a swanky affair, and everyone knew everyone, except for us. The place was packed. The movie never came. We were there for hours and hours and had a glass of wine each. That was fine for us. We took some photos of people, but mostly we were four introverted people who didn't know who to talk to or what to ask.

packed!

we got back and manuela and bang and i stayed up late in the kitchen having bland (for bang) and spicy (for me) thai food, while nao crashed in bed exhausted.

pad thai (341/365b)

There's always enough to do on Monday. But today there was a day off from school and STILL lots of stuff to do, plus we had visitors. Henry even had 2 concerts with his jugendorchestra in two schools that didn't have off, for which he had to leave at 7:30 in the morning. That didn't stop us from having a magnificent dinner, thanks to Nao and some team work. 

I found the Asian market with Nao, and Theodore and Henry went to choir from there, which made me very nervous 10 minutes after they left, because it suddenly occurred to me they might have no idea how to get there from where we were. It turned out they had had no problems. I left Nao at a bus stop and took myself to my last Matthew Locke rehearsal, which should have been an hour but went way over. At home everyone except me was already congregated

chop chopping

phil wearing one of his new feathers bought at felix's store.

the new look is to wear diagonale bicycle saddle covers as hats.
not a trend yet?
don't forget, you saw it here first!

instavideo - just add awesome (340/365b)

so i was super nervous and cranky today because everything was hinging on working just right. our family just didn't really have TIME to do a video today, or really add any other things to the schedule roster. Neither did Barbara's family! Or really any of use! But when opportunity knocks you gotta answer the door!So we did.

Questions: English to German, Answers: German to English to Thai
Me translating for Klaus

Meanwhile ....

Jackie and Andi had our kids over for a sleep over (they saved the day)

Cecilia left for Salzburg.

And Brian sang in his first ever gigantic choral concert: The Saint John's Passion, to a crowded audience.

We celebrated the end of the video shoot (it went so quickly, Bang is a total pro) in die Drei Goldene Kugeln, an absolutely terrible restaurant, but open, and quickly accessible. They went to sleep early, so I went and peaked in on the kids, and hung out on the Foersters couch. I wanted to pick up Brian from his concert, and after Lena got home and chatted a while, I realized that SHE had been to the concert, so I might as well hang out for a little while longer. Besides I didn't want to go to TWO  heavy austrian-cuisine restaurant in 3 hours. I met Brian 10 yards from home. Perfect timing!

an almost day of rest (339/365b)

There was lots of things I wanted to show Nao and Bang today, but they were just plain exhausted. With jet-lag and travel tiredness plus 2 full interview shoots yesterday they were ready for a so-called "zero day" ... it was a pity because the weather was delightful, the farmers market was buzzing, the clouds were pretty, but sleep is sleep and should not be tampered with. They did join us for a croissant breakfast and that was perfect. 

Before they were even awake though, we were all moving around. Henry had an all day rehearsal day in Leibnitz, and Theodore played for the competition at 8:30.

the awards were announced at 12:05 (exactly!) ... we went with a delegation...

waiting with baited breath

serious faces:
a first prize for our duo!

walking home munching on carrots
complaining about how many first prizes there are

brian had a choir rehearsal and i went to get henry from a drop-off location. i was going to take theodore and felix but they wanted to go with nao and bang to see the asian market.

teaching

glad to find him happy.

pretending to take a picture of the sunset so i can actually take a picture of these people
it didn't really work out, but what a piece of work
they were disparaging immigrants
joking about being nazis
complaining that the new times were so much worse
plus he was clearly 30 years younger!
and had a weird sailor cap that he sometimes put on
//shudder!

at home, i found nao exhausted from dealing with stubborn felix who wouldn't walk. Also, they didn't find the asian market, which seems to have moved recently. They were not happy with that. We said goodnight to them at about 7:30.

busiest day with jetlag (338/365b)

all the things had to happen today due to all the schedules colliding after being postponed a week.

kindergarten interviews /shooting (unfortunately i left my camera on the table when i left, but i have to say with the amount of pro-equipment they have with them it's pretty embarrassing to walk along side them with my little dslr)

they interviewed me and that worked out ok. they tried to interview felix and that didn't work so well he talked talked talked until the camera was on him. he's the only kid who speaks english so is him or nobody. they'll try again later.

we had a quick lunch and felix tried to sell them lots of things from his store. he was overjoyed that bang bought a bone (for his bride of two months) and that nao bought a stone for 5 euros that was "originally" 15 euros. to be fair, it was a fancy store-bought jade that he had found in a treasure hunt and didn't really want to part with. but the promise of a real bill won him over.

what to choose?

bang had to charge all the batteries and empty all the memory cards. then we went to my quintet and gave interviews. on they way  bang offered to shoot a music video for us. whaaat?! aaaah! excited!) everyone was very nervous speaking in front of the cameras .. the two visitors were dead beat by the time we got home. i stayed up admiring my makeup and taking angsty teenager mirror photos

looook into my sooooul

happy pi day (if you live in a place that writes your numbers like that) (337/365b)

Puk's birthday - i was so warm and snuggly in my bed as the boys all called her over skype to sing. in fact i snuggled in my warm bed until 20minutes before 9 when i suddenly remembered i had a lesson at 9 and rushed to get there. i made it on time, but my fingers were cold (both from biking in the sudden cold snap we've had, and in the sense of "not warmed up") .... but i did get to play through the entire clarke sonata! i'm so happy, but i have to practice more. that piece is so wonderful!

at home i watched a vonnegut lecture online while i finally drank my first cup of coffee.

Why in the world did James,
the famous author of Ulysses
Re-joyce
when Kurt was punched
in the Vonnegut?
-irma 2012

Nao and Bang arrived from Thailand... their trip is farm to bangkok - 8hrs, fly to paris via china 15 hours, bus to graz, 17 hours.... 3 days straight of travel! they were asleep by the time theodore and the rest got back from watching one more play-though of his piece (he performs it on saturday for the competition. i think his duo is good and ready now)

i picked up a tripod from klaus to use tomorrow, and then drove through the city to practice more Matthew Locke at Bettina's.... much better than last time. the worst part was the driving. i ended up on the wrong tram side of a divider instead of the car side. nothing happened though, and i found the place fine.

i got home and filled the bio-kuebel with rotting apples and pinecones. then took my photo of the day with the only subject i could think of, then got distracted fiddling with the sharpening tool.

phew, i'm beat. off to bed.

senior scientist (336/365b)

easy day, i did lots and lots of computer work, including editing some pictures for salon orchester from *january* ..... i want to be done with a lot of computer stuff before Puk's friend Nao visits on Thursday.

henry took this when he got back from school
computer work is not very attractive, or good for the spine

Brian took over kids and cooking etc. while i hid downstairs with my laptop.

Cecilia S...s is a Senior Scientist in Salzburg. If that title isn't alliterative i don't know what is! (Of course, German's "Wissenschaftler" is mistakenly not translated to researcher) We toasted to her success!

none for me, thank you, i am abstaining from alcohol,
but i fully support centa and brian celebrating with champagne!

busy times lie ahead (335/365b)

working

Barbara and i worked and worked this morning. Everything from writing up questions for our next interview to painting bow ties with glitter for our next video.

I bought some new flower pots and planted things with felix and henry while Theodore was out at his mini-strings and duo rehearsal.

Brian went out for his choir rehearsal, and I read bedtime stories until the doorbell rang at exactly 20:00.00 when jakob, a violist at the konservatorium arrived to practice some music for the upcoming viola concert - a showcase of rarely played music for that illustrious instrument. bettina and he and i are playing a piece by Matthew Locke.

new salon erfurt but everyone's going to keep using the old name for a while i think (334/365b)

i forgot i didn't have a lesson so i got to the kons in the morning and then practiced on my own, stayed with theodore while he did his homework.

waiting to go on

herr winkler, amandine and theodore
"duo AT"

theodore had a nice concert after a full monday - felix and i left right after theodore played. he wanted to stay to the end because the person in charge announced that there would be a "surprise" at the end of the concert. it was the first kons concert at the new salon erfurt which is no longer called the salon erfurt. i played at the last one under the old name in december. and theodore played at the first one of the new one. i think that's kind of cool.
the surprise turned out to be cool: a cool little piece for violin and piano by hans neuner in an early 20th century edition. i scanned it and put it online, and i think i'll transcribe it for viola.

playtime (333/365b)

beautiful morning walk on the schlossberg with nina - we even sat at the cafe on the top
i got back just in time for brian to get to choir rehearsal in the afternoon

centa left for her first salzburg stint.

we finally watched playtime - a weird movie experience! the kids were disappointed they couldn't stay up for the whole movie. kris joined us on his way back from paris. he was not disappointed that the movie was nearly over. nina determined that the movie was just plain out stressful to watch.

he brought me macarons!

they were so pretty but
i actually waited to take this picture till the next morning

coffee roasting (332/365b)

didn't have much planned for the morning...

...felix did though! he was having an acrobat show and charged adults 2euros. he was very happy when nina rang the doorbell. he gave centa a discount. he wasn't happy that he had to wait until brian and his brothers got back from the farmers market to start the show, but then he was happy he got to make tickets and even wanted me to give him a few cents for writing them (but i didnt) ....

i got the brilliant idea to open all the windows and roast some coffee. good thing i had nina to keep track of the beans.

hmm... is something burning?

nope! just roasting some coffee!

i made lunch and olena joined us on her way from teaching to quintet rehearsal... we were almost late. - after a song or two they sent me home sick. more fever.

anti-climax (331/365b)

it was theodore's teacher's last day before maternity leave. i walked him to school and got flowers. i wasn't the only parent to think of that: she had a mountain of flowers on her desk already. all the parents gathered together, outside the school and we headed up the many stone stairs to the classroom to hand over a joint present and shake her hand goodbye. i was sick so i just hid in the back of the room. it was very anticlimactic, since we didn't have a speech prepared and nobody really knew what to say other than "good luck" ...

then i met up with michi... and i was still very sick and sneezy and coughy... we sat outside, and it was colder than expected

felix wanted to walk home from kindergarten, which is nearly km. and then he and brian really did it! since brian got back so much later than normal left henry at the bus stop to go to his orchestra with nadja, and then fled to my concert.

frauenorchester concert was a pretty messy performance but the audience (it wasn't empty, but it wasn't full either) was very appreciative. paul paid for the musicians out of his own pocket. the after party was a little anticlimactic, with most of the musicians already being long gone and h. being very possessive of the many bottles of wine that had gotten donated. my head hurt so much, from congestion so i went easy on the wine.

the musicians around the tiny table in the corner

how will anyone know about the concert? (330/365b)

i was sick - definitely had a fever and a cough. who cares, went to rehearsal anyways. took photos for kleine zeitung and was mad afterwards.

rehearsal at 9:30am instead of 10am. organizer and conductor late. everyone else at the orchestra was cranky. i noticed there was no notice in the local papers about this concert that everyone's putting effor into. no notice in the online calendar, except a placeholder describing the concert as "fastenzeit" and listed for the wrong time. i brought that up with the organizer and she explained it was the paper's fault. i offered to take a photo for her to have in the paper tomorrow. she said she didn't think that would work.

woman power

i sent her the photo anyways despite everything, and she told me it wasn't what she wanted, she would like another one of the whole orchestra. .... hey, i also play in the orchestra, and not everyone came to the rehearsal, so no i don't have a photo of everyone. it's not my style, but i think i will stay annoyed forever.

new non-renewal (329/365b)

so much to think about today. lots of back and forth with kids and trams and pickups and driving and singing and music lessons and everything. a little bit blah blah blah. in the midst of it, after a meeting brian lets me know that his longtime association with the company he's contracting for is coming to a rather abrupt end. i take longer to process this information than he does. nina comes over for a quick afternoon chat, and kris takes me out swing dancing.

economist read-aloud at midnight

fasching dienstag(328/365b)

we had for dressups...
Felix as rumpelstilzchen
Henry as Phileas Fogg
and Theodore as the "mathema-tiger" (german pun on mathematician and tiger)

on their way to school

practicing at 7:30am

then a frauenorchester probe where we worried the ghost of mozart and dvorak. (and then no trams ran after rehearsal because of fasching, so that was very nice)

i was just doing nothing at the abenteuerspielplatz this afternoon, while my costumed kids played ball. then i saw fritz doing some work, and jumped in to help him. i shoveled a crazy amount of dirt  and climbed things and all. i'm still sick and now my back hurts, but sometimes you just gotta move!

sick again meh (327/365b)

henry sick
first i was kind of glad of an excuse and cancelled my lesson, but then i realized that was unnecessary and stupid and immediately uncancelled.

i guess i didn't need to cancel because henry is sick: because *i* am sick!

i got home and went right to sleep. slept 4 hours in the afternoon, woke up in time to make faschings costume with theodore

it was a very very very windy evening, i couldn't bike straight. i also was too late to buy safety pins - the normal spar doesn't carry them. it was ok, we found plenty of safety pins somewhere, and i just sewed the rest of the things until late in the night.

also plenty of glitter!

on waaay too little sleep ... (326/365b)

for some reason i was wide awake and up at 3am... eventually everyone started stirring upstairs. i was reading with felix at 8:30am - since after all, we are trying monetary rewards for felix and every penny counts to him. i had to get to the frauenorchester rehearsal, and the bus schedule was super bad, and it took me forever to get across town, and then i got there late, but i wasn't the only one. olena drove me straight from there to the quintet rehearsal where we made 3 new recordings (three!) and then celebrated with a glass of champagne. i think i'm getting a headache.

some morning moments:

felix copying a book for 5cents a page

theodore and henry went to fly kites while felix was at a birthday party
there will be a rematch: there was nearly no wind
one kite is a present from alex, caroline r-w's son
one kite is a prize from the library for theodore reading some amount of books

henry drawing "irma"