Centa's EIGHTH Birthday Party! (60/365d)

Centa's birthday comes but once every four years, so it was time for a real Party! I was still sick, so I wasn't that helpful, but before we could get much party prep done anyways we had to say goodbye to Uncle Ludwig. He made palatschinken for a LOT of boys. Theodore and Henry were signed up for a boys day at asp, but because Edward is here, they didn't want to go, but I invited them all for palatschinken breakfast and Uncle Ludwig obliged. The "gaggle" of boys ate outside. Then Uncle Ludwig broke all the records and shot a little video with four little nibling stars. Then they played cards.

One way to play (with) cards....

Centa tried on her party hat and Agnes gave Edward her headband to wear.

Goodbye in the Garden

Then we all waved goodbye and sent him on his way in the taxi. Then I got to making guacamole.

Holy Guacamole!

Meanwhile, Centa carved herself a little fruit salad....

a coach for cinderella
in the background the platter of food that Ingrid brought over

Once all the guests were here, and the kids had warmed up to each other, they all got together to play a very cooperative game of...

chess.
two people play, the rest take turns trying to knock the pieces over
ok it wasn't that bad...

then present time......

whose birthday is this anyways?

then sleep time.....
.... i lay around with the kids for a while, then i got a call from edward, already back "home" in england, saying he was sending me a video of centa's 8th year... when i went down to show the party only mary and centa were left. we had a good time watching it though.

sloooow mooootiooooon (59/365d)

No yoga, the world seemed to be in very slow motion... everything was a bit swimmy and unbalanced. Edward and Theodore baked some cookies, and very late, Mary arrives by train with Agnes! We were happy to see them, Agnes immediately took over Uncle Ludwig, and we stayed up as late as we could.

marzipan cookies

who needs sleep? (58/365d)

Stayed in bed all day.  Even the thought of hanging out with Edward couldn't move me. Don't even know what happened during the day. I do know that Edward went to see Koenigskinder at night and that he was impressed with the production.

surprise visit! (57/365d)

from my vantage point on the floor by the heater

Stayed in bed all day today.

suddenly realized that henry must have gone to judo when there is no judo, so centa and theodore and felix went out to find him and pick him up from there, but by that time, henry already got home. i tried (lethargically) to call centa to come right back, but her phone was at home.

after nearly 24 hours in bed, I got a call from Edward saying he wanted to wish Theodore a happy birthday. Theodore was down in the bath. Centa got a call from Edward saying she should go look for theodore. She didn't. She thought he must already be asleep. He said he thought maybe she should check in the basement. She wouldn't. Upshot, he was standing outside the gate, waiting to be discovered.... Surprise visit! What a surprise for Theodore's birthday! And for Centa's upcoming birthday! (although unfortunately he'll be gone by the time the party starts)

I went for an hour to have a quick quintet discussion (as a quartet) and then back home, where i chatted with edward and centa for about 20 minutes before my spirit gave up and I had to go back to bed.

fasching/birthday party (56/365d)

They got themselves ready early early early this morning, lots of costuming. i did the make-up for Theodore, and Henry had *all* his school stuff hidden somewhere in his huge Harpo coat. I went back to bed. I tried to get everything ready for the party today, but ended up just going to the spar and buying grated cheese and tomato sauce so i could make some pizzas for them when they all arrived. i made pizzas for hours straight, and pretty much did nothing else. the party went off without a hitch, but there was no cake, because ...... well, sometimes you just can't be perfect.

When one of the dads came to pick up his kid, he discovered an escaped love-bird and decided to catch it in our apple tree. I was so low enegergy, but I went to the basement and brought up tools and watched him climb around in the dark until he caught him. We're going to put out a flyer so that the owner can claim him.

Nicholas' dad showing my kids the wellensitich

With the very last of my energy I reapplied Theodore's makeup and had them pose for a picture I remembered having seen once.

which one

is which?

I wasn't even far off!

At 7pm I couldn't stay up anymore so I got in bed and Centa apparently put the childrens to sleep.

costume preparation (55/365d)

A fully scheduled Monday, and Brian is in Vienna, and I am indisputably actually sick. Oh well, life goes on, so all the lessons and events go on as planned. They are most excited about Fasching tomorrow and dressing as the Marx brothers. They are laying out their clothes with enthusiasm, and we spent quite a bit of time looking up photos of the brothers without makeup, with makeup, old, young, everything. I generally stayed on the floor next to the heater and tried not to fall asleep.

helping each other get ready for tomorrow

theodore's birthday celebration (54/365d)

at the hotel breakfast this morning i got to watch a (stranger) dude order a pint of beer at 7:30 and complain that it wasn't covered under the rules of the "free breakfast" ... then i started the cleanup from last night and irmtraud, klaus and i separated out the things we knew where they belonged before anyone else was awake.

started coughing in the car on the way back home. i wonder if i'm getting sick......

at home i made a cake for theodore and we celebrated him turning 10. brian will be in vienna for the next three days and we'll make another celebration for theodore on tuesday with his friends but today was just for the family.

buckwheat cake with apples and schlag
"hedwig's buchweizen torte" - chosen, i think, because of the name
but it was pretty good!
(i only used half the amount of cream... and everyone said it was a bit much cream)

wedding day (53/365d)

spent the morning taking pictures of the bride getting ready. barbara was so nervous and got herself a headache. after the wedding (standesamt) we had a champagne reception and then back to the hotel for dinner. we played my arrangement of that nicki piece "weil i no an engerl glaub" and the lead singer of the cover band (who specifically covers nicki as well as other german schlagers, and also plays this song) came over and listened to it slack jawed - "Na *DES* is musik!"

every mm of motion messes everything up

Klaus and I hung out in the corner for most of it, since we are guests and didn't really know the bride and groom, and I didn't know anyone to dance with. We just talked about our next crazy video idea, which includes using macro shots as backgrounds. i turned  my lens around to prove a point, but it was too dark to shoot macro videos, it was too dark really to take macro photos, but i liked this little one from the brides bouquet (that we were guarding so the bride couldn't be "stolen")

the band got louder and louder, and kept playing "just one more" song. i hate over-loud music. people mostly stopped dancing and were trying to shout to each other, but i gave up trying to talk until they were done playing.

arrive in linz (52/365d)

headed to linz for barbara's mom's wedding tomorrow. i don't really like car rides.

isabella joined me in the evening and we went for a walk, but the area of linz where we were was a bit industrial so we ended up just getting a glass of wine at a cafe which was waaay to corporate - we talked about how graz is so comfortable and cozy cafes are so easy to find there. we stayed up late in the hotel lobby, until someone poked his head out the window and told us (general us, not specifically us) to be quieter.

the flying man (51/365d)

We finally finished Theodore's DaVinci model flying machine that we have now had laying on the table in the kitchen downstairs for a few days... it looks great! it moves (but does not fly)....

the flying man

right when we were nearly done the eberles called to say they were starting breakdown of the set, so theodore and i went there together and took things apart. he was a useful little helper, holding things, throwing things away, carrying chairs from one room to another, generally following instructions. then we finished the model as soon as we got home again and enjoyed having the day off to do as we liked.

film noir part 2 (50/365d)

again all day video shoot again from 8am to 10pm.... stressed about keeping my battery going .... too much pizza. we went out to celebrate at the end of the night and new (very silly) ideas came fast. 

film noir shadow

vienna for the day (49/365d)

have to renew passports. .... brian planned the day so the rest of us just had to go. he had dinner packed and documents organized and appointments made. the computer system was down in the consulate.... it took us forever to find the consulate in the first place, because they refused to give us an address. after our passport appointment we got 3 american flags to walk around vienna with.

the rest of the day we spent at the technical museum, which was great fun. they got to show me around for the beginning, then i discovered a new room and got to show them around. by the end it was clear that theodore had a fever and that wasn't great.

at the end of the day

we went back to the train station and waited for our connection back to graz and a very unstable lady who was shouting and laughing at passersby came over to us and gave theodore a shoulder bag. he was too sick to acknowledge it much, and i wasn't sure whether it was better to accept or not. we ended up taking it with us, why not?

oblivion 1 (48/365d)

Video shoot all day..... 
makeup early in the morning, and then shooting till 10pm, aka when my battery ran out. we looked amazing ... it's going to be a great video. one more full day of shooting on wednesday. it's all planned out, and we take forever to get the shots that we have in our heads and i think it will be worth it.

silly me, focused on my forehead and not my eye.

everything takes longer than you think (47/365d)

early morning davinci model with theodore. it said it would take us only 2.5hrs (not including drying time) but we are only on step 3 after 3 hours.... it's fun though. i was getting ready to leave when henry came down sto play us mary had a little lamb on the accordion - two hands.

at the church across from the opera we made up a set  for our next video in the basement where the youth group meets. we put up curtains, tested lighting, and then went to a weird quintet rehearsal where we seemed incapable of playing rhythmically together. very uncharacteristic.

i left just barely in time to make it to a club (the moxx) to meet pauli (at *exactly* 7:30) to see his brother stefan sing a pop song solo. we left at the half-way point because manfred, having just had knee-replacement sugery last week, was tired of sitting.

some necessary one-on-one time (46/365d)

after so many late nights, we still couldn't sleep in this saturday at the beginning of vacation. the kids had an 8-hour youth orchestra workshop at the very edge of town. i took them there (nearly 2 hour round trip), and brian picked them up. i came back to find felix cutting his hair, and very pleased with the results. felix got pretty much 100% attention day doing stuff we don't normally do with him because it's not really that interesting the the older kids, like building with the wooden train set and playing balloon catch. maria brought gabrielle over and we played outside and drank coffee in the garden in the glorious sun.

scratchy turtleneck!

captured while playing

we finally spent our evening with the foersters, only a bit subdued, since they are a bit sick still and brian left "early" (10pm) to watch marco's grunge band play. he was home way earlier than i expected, right after i got home, because they happened to have played their part right when he got there - what luck!

valentines day (45/365d)

nina came over and we picked up felix and henry walking home from school on a gloriously sunny days, and let them proudly show us their all-a's report cards to start our february vacation. 

officially it's valentines day - nearly tradition to spend it at the foersters now, but they are sick. 

late night for the kids again - brian picked them up from konigskinder at 11pm, and centa and I round out the evening by chatting about the connection of everything from steinbeck to ali wong

mathematician's favorite snack?
pi-stachios.

introducing: bresgen (44/365d)

Henry makes mushroom pizza with papa. He wanted me to make it, but he didn't want to go get the mushrooms, not even with me. He eventually went with Brian after I left.

such a calm relaxing day until suddenly felix reminds me it’s time to leave for piano practice. afterwards, going home, he didn't want to take the bus home alone. I ride with him for a while and let him take the last 3 stops alone, and then headed back alone into town to join the women's wikipedia editing club for a few minutes. i had to leave early for a buffaloes rehearsal. A little surreal to be hooked up to my new mic plus I got to try playing with earplugs.

… Discover compositions by a guy named Cesar Bresgen - they are cool! - even some great operas for children and children's voices!

ladies night out (43/365d)

saw koenigskinder with nina and michi. Theodore and henry still practicing when michi picked me up. She noticed a run in my stocking, and we went to try to buy new ones, and were successful, but too late for me to change them, and anyways, it didn’t matter. the show was very nice to see in an actual seat.

got back so very late, no drinks, no chats, the kids and i were nearly as eager to get to sleep as michi.

can you bake a pie? neither can i. (42/365d)

Brian considered travelling to Vienna today, but I found him still home in the morning, because of logistics - he would essentially have had to travel for 6 hours to be in the office for 5.

We made a baking with Grandpapa event, ostensibly to make a pumpkin pie, but I had so many apples I decided to make an apple pie. Mary and Agnes were also participating and they also made an apple pie since pumpkin is not so widely available in slovenia. for that matter grandpapa made 2 pumpkin pies, and only he is at trowbridge to enjoy them. even peter's not home, visiting bard before a trip to thailand.

"pies don't fall"

Henry had to leave the party early for singing, and an hour later Theodore went to a casting for some show at the schauspielhaus even though they were both at the official age limit, Henry a little below. Henry didn't get it, Theodore did. We're not sure yet if he even has time to do it though...

content without content (41/365d)

felt truly content and happy today, warm in the sun, with 100km winds. of course, because of monday there was a lot of travel and transport of kids back and forth from various things. but a little less than normal, because no organ since the college is on break for the month, and theodore and i went to homework at kunsthaus and bought a book with the giftcard he got for being in the next liberty production of kalif storch (the saleslady recognized me as pauli's cousin)

elke and i worked on reger early in the morning.

when i picked felix up from chorus, he and edda (a chorus mom of an older kid) and i played "ball" with a hat that felix had. what started as a 3minute distraction attempt turned into nearly a whole hour, so i picked up theodore and henry right away, since their chorus was then also done. win.

got postcards from thailand.

henry and i sang the ho ho ho song, a traditional song from japan in three parts. he thinks its the best.

i played the whole maple leaf rag all the way through. first page slow, second page slower, third page the slowest.

talked to papa, we plan to make a pie tomorrow
i'm tired!

one more recording session (40/365d)

everyone walked me to the bus station.

at the crosswalk
taking the kids to shoot some baskets

another recording, 10am till 1pm rehearsal on one piece and then 2-6pm we recorded. that could have been enough, but i got to see brian sing at mass at 6:15 with felix and theodore downstairs with me and henry up in the choir loft. then we walked as fast as we could so we could hear philipp jaroussky sing at the stefaniensaal. all schubert lieder, all unbelievably gorgeous. theodore and i stayed until the end, the others went home at half-time. it was truly, really truly, perfect, except that the graz audience remained passively unimpressed and we had to be satisfied with schubert's ave maria for an encore.

recording mozart is not for the faint of heart (39/365d)

11am (which doesn't sound early until you include us getting home at midnight) theodore and henry got to perform at their first organ recital. i was one proud mama. i know there's the barney-effect, but i really thought they played very well.

a quick stop on the way home at the thrift store to get henry a new jacket resulted in 3 new fancy styrian hats... which in turn prompted a lot of comments on the way through a very busy and crowded farmer's market. i had enough time to turn around and leave. recording (mozart) with quintet (we were extremely critical) until well into the evening, taking only a slight break for klaus to take a phone call from his sister to hear news of his mothers' death, and then toasting our success until well into the night.

new toys ... a track for the tripod, and some wheels for a tipod.
i get dizzy imagining using both at once

boop boop (38/365d)

nina came over today after forever of other things (fever, lyon, etc) ... it was a grand reunion with coffee and centa and brian and baguette and poetry and a croissant that i ate standing up while steaming milk. .....

in the evening we all went to see theodore's generalprobe at next liberty. on the way out we all got three guesses what centa had found at an antique store for henry.

a vintage cabrio horn for henry's harpo costume

theodore is on the right
(not my photo)

stayed out way late doing rehearsal for tomorrow's quintet recording. at 11o'clock i suddenly remembered that i had intended on picking up theodore and henry from their koenigskinder performance 20 minutes earlier. luckily brian filled the gap and i walked with them home from the bus stop duly embarrassed.

hello attila (37/365d)

the new viola friend attila came over today, and we hung out and i gave him lots of musical suggestions for possible upcoming concerts and talked about how other people don't know what they want from life.

henry got home from school and was moderately impressed with the guest, who was missing a large piece of his right index finger due to an accident with a motorcycle chain during a routine repair.

brigitta noticed right away that felix is finally back to being his old usual self - beaming and self-confident and happy to learn new piano tricks. he's practicing playing "chico" piano for his fasching costume as well.

theodore came home late and exhausted from his penultimate kalif storch rehearsal. tomorrow we get to see the pre-performance, aka dress rehearsal.

reading poetry (36/365d)

signed up felix for judo today - first he wanted to go and the last week he's been saying no, no, no, i don't want to, and then i bribed him to TRY and after 10 minutes of watching from the side-lines he joined in and loved it - now all three can attend the same judo class.
afterwards took the kids all for chestnuts in the street (the original bribe)
and dropped theodore off at kalif storch. gave theodore a cell-phone so that he could call when he got done.

literatur h aus graz

i took the kids home and left immediately to go to see alfred kolleritsch read from his new book. somebody else did the reading, he is turning 90 this year. to the question "will there be another volume of poetry to celebrate your birthday?" he answered "More poems? No." I asked for his autograph for my mama, but he got so discouraged by trying to write her name that he gave up entirely on signing his own. theodore didn't call, but he was home by the time i finished the reading, so i went home too.

not a date (35/365d)

brian and i had planned on going up the plabutsch this morning but we didn't. it was a bit sad that it didn't work out, but we did pick up felix from school and he was grinning and so happy to see us. it was a pretty empty schedule day for everyone except theodore, but he's been astonishingly relaxed and easy-going. this week is the fullest because the kalif-storch premiere is on saturday.

i finished reading mozarts tintenfass, a book i got out of the library sometime in october and it's so long overdue it cannot be renewed and now the fine is more than just buying the book. i can give it back now, and brian ordered us a used copy for having at home. it's quite adorable. i had to add it to goodreads in order to rate it. it is relatively unknown, undeservedly so.

a case of the mondays (34/365d)

again a gorgeous day that i had trouble enjoying because my head hurts and i'm a bit dizzy and congested. being sick is getting quite tedious. 

i picked felix up from school starting work on a reger suite with elke. we didn't walk straight home, but stopped at the lendplatz to sit in the sun and do homework. he did the homework, i bought myself a cappuccino and enjoyed watching him work.

i accompanied him to chorus and decided against reading (because of my head) and just waited for theodore. i tried to find him a place to eat some soup since he's been out all day and will be out till 9pm still, but one place was closed, one was out of soup and one was too loud. out of time i bought him a sad looking take-out soup and gave it to him in a paper bag to take with him so i could get back to pick up henry and felix. 

a nut cake by a nut case (33/365d)

we got home near midnight from koenigskinder last night, and then all three of the kids were singing in a mass this morning. henry and theodore got a special applause for their on-time presence this morning at 9am. we had post-mass krapfen in the sun, and walked home along more-natural path by the mur, although henry complained that he didn't want to walk that way because of his shoes. i finally made a cake for brian's birthday, but my head was so achey it took a long time. we had a very quiet celebration *outside* - the weather is just so warm! then i took an ibuprofen or two and accompanied henry to his lesson at nadja's house where i simultaneously practiced fuchs duos with thomas.

koenigskinder (32/365d)

theodore and henry had quite a busy day, make-up organ lesson, and kalif-storch practice. henry and felix tried to make popcorn by themselves. it was quite entertaining to see more unpopped than popped kernels, and MAN was it salty! 

i finally saw koenigskinder, and was so proud to watch my two big kids present themselves quite well on stage. it was also quite a good opera, and very relevant in terms of world-view. i am still sick though. i stood in the back. at halftime i wanted to sit down, but for the first time i got "caught" and was told i had to stay in the back. attendance was pretty low, so i found that quite a bit unfair. then i thought maybe i was being too millennial-ly entitled.