once in a blue moon (304/365d)

felix had a butterfly rehearsal, and then we borrowed a car, picked him up as a family and took him to our friend ronja's picture perfect birthday picnic on the hill.

while the kids make bows and arrows and cook food over a fire, brian and i go mushroom hunting unprepared, coming back with legwarmers (we had no bag) filled with black trumpet mushrooms. the first i've ever found. we got back, grilled our own dinner, and sat around the campfire, as news came in that the next lockdown is starting this week. 

another fiery sunset

when we got home we still found a way to cut a jack-o-lantern (that brian had gotten for 2 euros, very strange)... everyone drew something they wanted to have cut, and then i raced them, pajama putting on vs. me carving the pumpkin. i won. centa helped with the scooping of the seeds and the slimy stuff. then we took the fresh-carved jack-o-lantern outside and sang the canon "have you seen the ghost of tom" in our garden beneath the full (blue) moon.

felt very late at night, but it wasn't that late... we thought it would be nice to have a movie night, and sean connory died, so we chose that moment to watch my first james bond film..... goldfinger is very strange (and pretty stupid haha), and very long so we were up very late, and it didn't just feel that way.

wenn bratsche dann irma (303/365d)

felix and henry went with brian to the farmer's market, because they were bribed by getting to pick out whatever they wanted to there. theodore practiced typing and wrote stories. and i took a bath and read murakami. 

quintet still didn't have enough photos so we roped edward into doing another session for us.

It was fun work, and then we rehearsed very half-heartedly, because we have a gig on Wednesday, which is likely not to take place because tomorrow we are supposed to get told about new restrictions. the rumor is, a new lockdown is coming. graz is currently a corona "red"-zone. 

stayed up waaaay too late because i felt like editing photos.

new album cover?

celebrate! (302/365d)

i got so much attention for my birthday this year, and the celebration started this morning  with story time with my kids and coffee. we were surprise joined by nina... when she left we left as well, for jakobsleiter, for just such a perfect weather day. 

Cat's cradle on Jacob's Ladder

we ran out of time for cake, since Felix had a Butterfly rehearsal that went till 10pm. so no cake, and brian had to put in his work hours, but the rest of us played a nice round of wizard and played around trying to make rubber address stamps out of a kit that opapa had in his desk. 

my official birthday (301/365d)

my official birthday, but we really didn't celebrate at all - we just had too much to do! Felix had the most, with two long butterfly rehearsals: 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening. poor thing! he had fun though!

i did errands like picking up cello and bicycles from being repaired (not at the same place) - Henry's cello sounds so much better with the new bridge. He tried it out and was very happy. 

the sunset on my way to buffaloes
officially captured by nina

At Buffaloes rehearsal I was not all the way concentrated, and was messing up silly things. But they were very gentle with me, except that they still can't figure out the difference between me just playing badly (which can happen) and me not knowing how the piece works and when everything happens (which also happens) because to them the result is the same. no matter how often i say "i *know* how it's supposed to be, i just messed up" they feel like they should explain how everything should work. 

Also Henry was annoyed about something food related, and threatened to turn on the child-safety-lock on the oven so that I wouldn't be able to use it. How ironic.

silhouettes (300/365d)

there was a multiple hour quintet rehearsal and photoshoot this evening... and when i got home i spent hours editing to end up with ....

...this

needs some work, but now i know how it works. 

afterwards we toasted to my birthday. yay.

dinner at Manfred's (299/365d)

Special national patriotic holiday, and what better way to celebrate than with breakfast croissants and Nina, which is the perfect preparatory food for an enormous Dinner at Manfred's.

After dinner, Brian ran home to get to work - it's not a holiday at his workplace in Boston. Centa (in fancy high heals), Edward (in his dress shoes) and the rest of us (in normal shoes) walked with Ingrid through the woods and over a muddy meadow to St.Peter to her home and then took the streetcar home

We played Mafia on the tram, and then at home again.

playing masked Mafia

Then I had a nice long talk with labeeby and uncle rick over centa's skype.

25 hour day (298/365d)

i LOVE the "fall back" part of daylight savings time. I spend my 25th hour over and over again - refusing to set my watch until the next day. unfortunately this day was clouded by extreme back pain, so although theodore and brian went to the plabutsch for a hike, and edward and other kids at asphalt football playground to play tennis and soccer, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, i just stayed home. i did bake a cake - very slowly, because i was inspired. 

pauli for cake and wizard, gone because it got dark

After Pauli had gone home.

and then, to felix's great delight, we watched the great race - having apple pie during the epic pie fight scene. it was a bit late for bedtime, but it was worth it. 

bruno sent me a new composition - the first one that used the viola sound samples that i had sent him. his synthesizer, some soprano sounds and me.

barely home on saturday... (297/365d)

it was just a saturday, but theodore and i both had postponed lessons from last week, and i had rehearsal directly afterwards.

Henry reading Baum's Sky Island on the e-reader
anything that gets them to read, right? 

i had a most delightful "besprechung" with quintet, which went quite long. felix apparently had quite a tantrum because he suddenly realized there would be no viewing of the great race today.

klaus drove me and barbara back from rehearsal, and i had him drop me off right at jackie and andi's - getting out of the car my back suddenly "twinged" ... oh no! -  a where they cooked for me, and we didn't play games (because we talked instead)

sepia gold mine (296/365d)

happy birthday rainer!

yoga was cancelled this morning, stupid covid - yoga classes specifically are under bureaucratic attack. i just spelled bureaucratic correctly on the first try for the first time in my life. one can always learn.

edward found a goldmine of old photos somewhere - childhood photos of our grandparents and greatgrandparents that we hadn't even know existed. really nice to find and look through but it will be an awful lot of work to scan and organize.

surrounded by family history

really busy day for theodore, we barely saw him. 

the 4 grunegasse adults watched the final presidential debate tonight, which didn't leave us feeling very happy or hopeful at all.

wikipedia superpowers level up (295/365d)

another day of shortened alone time because i left early enough to pick up felix from school and take him out for soup, homework and piano lesson. brigitta came out of the piano lesson beaming - felix had listened so well, played so nicely, and was learning so fast! we went home with just enough time for felix to leave again to go to singschule. it's a bit crazy sometimes with scheduling. 

i went to the wikipedia editing evening at nina's work, and worked on a new entry for jean defrees kellogg. at the end i pressed publish, and it published instantly, which means i have the power to create new entries without them first being vetted. - that's cool!

nina and i went out afterwards, for greek tapas and we hung out there alone for a nice long time. brian joined us just in time to say goodnight to nina, and brian and i had a few evening minutes together and a walk home.

nina's photo through the window

More V-words (294/365d)

I hate cranky tired horrible morning, because it's hard not to let it set the stage for the rest of the day, and today it was just absolutely a perfect gorgeous day, and it's unfortunate that it had to start with whining, fighting pouting tantrums, also from me. also, i looked through a new book that we had gotten, the one by reif larson about t.s. spivet and found that it had quite a lot of hard swearing in it, that i think cheapens the whole enjoyment of the book. it would otherwise be perfect for kids my kids' age, because they would find the concept interesting with all the marginalia. too bad. they'll have to wait till they're a bit older, and by then it might not be as fascinating.

i took henry's cello across town to get fixed and got back in time to pick felix up from school and take him to his now-weekly corona test. quick and easy and painless. 

centa and edward walked the kids to judo, which bought me a few minutes of breathing room and by the time they were home and we were ready for the evening, and i was in a better mood. 

the look of kids interrupted when they are reading about the history of bicycles on archive.org

please be kind: rewind

we collaborated on writing entries for an encyclopedia of only words that start with V as a gift for Nina's brother (for reasons) It was fun and entertaining and a bit addictive, which meant we didn't go to sleep till well past 1am.

variously busy (293/365d)

Barely saw Edward or centa all day ... I guess everyone was variously busy.

I went to Barbara's place, where I found a book on a free-books-table by the elevator) to do quintet-social-media-planning, and afterwards we got coffee at Hasnerplatz, at Barista, which is an overpriced chain of coffee-shops that I really dislike. Niko passed by us and stopped by to say hello to us. As I walked myself home across the river, i read a short story from the book, tripping along happily in the sun. 

reading with a remote control
the audio book + the real book seems to really help the reading learning process along

While Brian was at chorus (perhaps the last chorus for a long time, we shall see what the government decides) I had phone chats with Manuela and Bruno and Papa.

"jede landung eine heilige handlung" -opapa

four hand four feet organ practice (292/365d)

My monday was pretty much free from everything. I met Henry to take him out for soup and then to organ. At home there is no way he would eat a single bite of soup, but we were out, and he devoured the entire bowl. Pauli met us at the cafe and ate with us, and bemoaned that he had to work and couldn't go to organ practice with us. Henry and I had a lovely time practicing and then we walked home together.

Henry seriously sweet, centa seriously practicing

Theodore and Edward working on digitizing the VHSs

I made more chestnut pudding, and Nina came over to see us and bring Edward one more VHS to digitize. We sat together and enjoyed the evening, including a viewing of a Lucy show episode about Lucy getting a librarian roommate that we found funny across the age range.

beginning of the huge library project (291/365d)

Today we started, for better or for worst, our enormous library project of cataloguing and inventorying all our books. 

a tiny subsection of a tiny subsection

a tiny subsection

So far we have scanned isbns, or entered data by hand for those without isbns for nearly 500 books. It's increadible, and we haven't even done a drop in the bucket. Henry absolutely loved the job. He didn't even want to go outside or go for a bike ride or anything else. We also sorted all their music. 

We needed a break though, so brian and i took our three kids up the schlossberg, at first to some complaining, but that disappeared the moment we were walking. It was a lovely time.

Jacky and her kids came by and I took that as a welcome break as well. To just sit outside and chat and watch the kids act shy until it is time to leave, as kids are.

Centa began her "effective immediately" catch canon project by sending out emails to lots of people to sing. we'll see when that gets done. I finished arranging the original jinglebells for quintet.

perfectly pudding not that kind of pudding (290/365d)

Felix had a Butterfly rehearsal, Henry had a lesson with Nadja and Theodore had boys day which was a pretty busy morning for us. I talked to Nadja about possibly changing to another teacher, which is of course heart-breaking but necessary for consistency. Since she started last year studying in Vienna lessons have been more sporadic and harder to keep track of, and if anybody needs consistency and routine it's Henry. 

Papa, Mary, Centa and I met over skye, and the mail came and we got our first delivery of books for Theodore - so he showed off what he got. Everyone was very adamant that Theodore is not old enough yet for Farenheit 451. Maybe maybe not.

Right to reading the new books!

We did youtube tutorials and learned to draw penrose triangles and then drew lots and lots of them. 

Nina sent me a recipe and I made their special family recipe of chestnut pudding in the form she lent to us. It came out absolutely perfectly.

Something out of a Humperdinck Opera

I had a sudden onset of a terrible headache so I just managed to make some pesto and noodles for dinner and after bedtime and an ibuprofen Centa and Brian and I watched Frank, which was an extremely weird movie that Pauli had recommended 3 weeks ago and now had run out of renewals.

corona composition (289/365d)

So much rain today ...... Felix went to the abenteuerspielplatz in the afternoon anyways while Theodore and Henry played a concert in Stattegg. They came home visibly content and exhausted, and then the discontent set in and there was fighting and annoyance. Edward left for the weekend to help Nina's family harvest grapes in Riegersburg. Meanwhile I spent my coveted hour and a half alone writing a graphic score. When Mary saw it, she sent me a link to a youtube video where something similar has already been done - in March. Too bad for me!

Prelude for Corona Concerts
graphic score

The day ended with some online conversations. One with Bruno, who is working on a composition based on viola sound samples and soprano samples. And one with Papa, where we got a surprise addition to our chat from Mama!

back and forth and back and forth (288/365d)

One year after we first signed up, Brian wins the award for being the first for making an appointment and keeping it to join the state-sponsored car-sharing program. I should do it too, I know.

i picked up felix from school and took him out to a cafe for some soup. we did homework and had cake and coffee and went to a lesson with brigitta where he learned like magic. he had lots to chat about the whole way. 

He's growing up, but that bowl of soup is still disproportionately big

unfortunately, the whole day i was going back and forth a lot through the town, and it was raining, and there was a lot of waiting around in town for little bits of time.

nina came over in the evening to keep me company peeling 3 kg of chestnuts that ingrid cz had brought over last time, collected in the woods. collecting is so much work. peeling is so much work. and then in the end, it doesn't look like that much..... brian was late to his 9pm work meeting because he graciously took on the job of picking felix up from a madame butterfly rehearsal that ended up getting out quite a bit later than promised.

wie a trucker weihnocht mocht (287/365d)

centa was in salzburg all day - taking the train at 5am, returning at 8pm. perhaps her only day this semester, if lockdowns are truly beginning again. it was an early morning for us too. brian was having his weekly mastermind meeting (celebrating 2 years!) and the city water people rang the doorbell at 7:30 to replace our water meter.

I picked up Felix from school, and rushed him right to his opera-required corona test. He was so fun and chatty and pleasant the whole way. He's really growing up.

it was so cozy at home that I almost forgot to leave for my Buffaloes recording... but I made it (after needing to call Brian for directions, thank goodness for him, he helped me navigate those tiny little one-way Alleyways) ... Then I had to improvise at the studio.... to the tune of will the circle be unbroken, styrian lyrics related to a trucker celebrating christmas.

play anything.....

We celebrated finishing our first song with wine and beer and a toast to musicians who have been ruined by alcohol. 

Another very late Butterfly rehearsal, I waited to pick up Felix for over 20 minutes, and by the time we arrived home he was falling-into-bed tired.

late begets later (286/365d)

late morning, woke up quite late.... sometimes a bit of extra sleep doesn't hurt at all. take it if you can get it. very happy i still made time to play arvo pärt's spiegel im spiegel with pauli. we recorded a run through and we were very happy, despite the terrible recording quality. 

theodore had choir practice, and then brian had his choir practice. edward fixed a counter door, and found a piece that has been missing from our tripod since before we moved here. henry started reading the horse and his boy combined with the audio book. 

madame butterfly rehearsal tonight for felix, so he went to sleep latest of all. 

then i thought it would be a good idea to roast coffee while talking to bruno. things got really really smokey everywhere - i always forget *how* smokey. 

and when i was just about to go to sleep, i got an email from a relative of elisabeth friermood, sending me a photo for use on her brand new wikipedia page. i'm so excited that i made contact!

mother seeks time alone (285/365d)

Finished reading the Shipping News before my 11am Elke lesson. Played 5 measures of Bach. So happy I know her. She always knows where to dig to make my playing better. Dowsing rod.

Saw Nina on the way home. Stopped with her for coffee at Tribeka.

Looked for good books to buy for Theodore, who is pretty much out of reading material. Found lots, and ordered several titles online. Found some great vintage kids books online at archive.org for Henry and Felix too.

"Prince Ring" illustrated by Etienne Delessert
everyone has to be done with the page before we scroll father

Had a Buffaloes rehearsal - we only played one song. Will the circle be unbroken, with new styrian dialect text about christmas. we are preparing for recording on wednesday.

dispersed sunday dinner (284/365d)

Went to mass with Theodore, Brian sang, very nice... Walking home we noted that today was the Graz marathon - normally a day where traffic everywhere is stopped. Today we noticed no signs of the marathon. Only the elites ran, and probably were all done by the time we were walking back.

Henry and Edward made palatschinken together, which were ready when we got home. Brian ran over 10km to buy some new clothes for Theodore from Willhaben.

In the evening I took Edward to Ingrid çz house in the pouring rain. We had supper there with Pauli and Edward got new clothes handed down from Stefan. 

Adorable selfie

full saturday (283/365d)

Henry finished the last Harry Potter book early this morning, then came to me in bed and told me the ending in exact detail... Even though it was Saturday, I didn't want to overlook the time. I had a lesson with a Professor from Vienna in front of all the viola colleagues in Graz... He was holding a 2 day work shop about viola pedagogy and I was the model advanced student. (most embarrassing moment, being asked:what instrument do you think of when you think of arpeggios? My answer the Arpeggione! No... it should have been the Harp of course, Arpa) ... I played Reger (most delightful moment, being told: there's really not much to tell you, you play very beautifully)

L2R: elke, axel and irma

I had to leave right after my lesson and before before he played for everyone because I had to get Felix to his piano lesson to make up for not finishing his piano lesson with Brigitta last time. Felix did perfectly.

Brian cooked potato soup and it was warm enough to eat outside. Nadja came to give Henry and lesson and then took him and Theodore to orchestra in Stattegg. 

Walked up the Schlossberg with Felix, Centa, Edward and Brian - figs and ice cream and lions oh my

Felix at the top of the tree, at the top of the wall.

reaching down into the tree for figs

chosing a path less traveled

uncle ludwig telling of when he cast this statue

that's how we always cross the street

Bath night for all, and then they all came to steal crackers from the adult table (just like I used to love to do when I was little) ... Ingrid came to visit bearing lots of chestnuts, and vitamin juice and a bottle of wine.

mushrooms in the woods

waaay over-sharpened because of unfortunate blur
too cute to throw away

beauty is in the eye of the beholder (282/365d)

slept in quite late for us, but didn't feel very rested. picked up felix from school early to take him to yet another corona test. the test was at the theater (the schauspielhouse) and we were 10 minutes early, so he did his homework on the steps before we went in. the test took only a few seconds then we walked back to school through the schlossberg tunnel and picked up henry. we biked home, and as we biked past the construction site two streets away from home i noticed how crazy the sky looked. i biked back to the spot with my camera.

it somehow looked really nice to me

all day i wanted to bake cookies with edward and felix. finally i sent edward a text that said "cookies?!" and he said "i'll be up in 10 minutes" and i wrote back "haha i'll be done by then" and he said "challenge!" ... he was up in 6 minutes, and i was dropping the cookies onto the cookie sheet. I think I won. then the doorbell rang, and nina was there! i havne't seen her in so long and we immediately popped some bubbly (sparkly luna prosecco) to celebrate the reunion. 

we all finished watching the court jester and brian put the kids to bed as the rest of us stayed up and hung out a bit (but not too late!)

choice and state (281/365d)

maria stopped by and we had a cup of coffee and then went for a nice long walk. meanwhile brian went and gave blood, for the first time, since being denied for so many years in the united states. 

i picked up felix from school and brought him to a piano lesson, at which he threw a silent-tantrum which turned into an angry throw-y tantrum, all of which lasted for nearly two hours. he finally gave up and did his homework with me and then we went home. not exactly the best way to spend an absolutely perfect day.

edward was hard at work on digitizing more things. he found and sent me this oldie...

me and my opapa

Ended the day with the vice presidential debates, which evolved into our debates, with such highlights as "we still have the separation of choice and state" -centa 

awaking to the smell of fresh baked bread (280/365d)

Really full day... wich started with the smell of fresh baked bread. i made the dough last night. Brian baked rolls for lunch this morning and took them out during his mastermind meeting.

who said men can't multitask

nice long walk with brian on our own, ending with him dropping me off for coffee and croissant at schwalbennest with pauli, where we were completely alone and discussed everything from bob dylan to godwin's law.

edward took theodore on a walk to kalvarienberg, and felix got fitted for a wig at the opera (just in case, they aren't sure he'll need one)

two layers of saran wrap and a LOT of clear tape.

i walked all over creation for things theodore still needs for school. i still needed gloves (that fit perfectly) and ear-protection, and ended up far away at a home-improvement store. somehow i suddenly needed a broom.

then i needed a self-portrait
reading murakami' hard boiled wonderland and the end of the world
wearing a mask
carrying a broom
and a bag from the reijks' museum.
i am not sad with how this photo turned out

i forgot all about caroline's pickwick club, and we just caught the tail end it before we watched the beginning of the court jester after three days of everyone practicing without being reminded more than once. i call that a success.

everyone needs time, patience and love (279/365d)

Theodore explained this morning that he couldn't get a new locker key because he would have to pay 17euros. I could have sent him with the money but that seemed so unfair (and clear that the key was defective) that I called the school, who told me that the parent-union was in charge of lockers. So I emailed them. Surprisingly, they worked it out quickly for me in our favor. We did lots more random little bureaucratic garbage... and then Brian renewed his visa, while michi and i had a coffee morning... time past so quickly that the kids were home right away. quickly made pumpkin soup.

theodore had a pre-chorus tantrum (couldn't find his helmet! did he look for it? no he already looked for it! turns out it was on his bike which he had forgotten to ride back from school) and couldn't find his books and didn't finish his homework. Frustrating. I think he is not quite all the way adjusted to the new school. We need to practice patience and give him time!

Henry read harry potter (finally the last book!) pretty much the entire day while felix ran himself to the asp and came back at closing.

I had no energy for anything, and Brian was at choir. I made pancake batter for Edward and Centa's dinner, Centa fried them, and Edward held the phone. A lovely kitchen party upstairs and a skype call with papa.

screenshot with papa, edward and irma

collections (278/365d)

brian took felix to his second corona testing in the morning (negative again) while i picked up my rehaired bow. i bought some books waiting for the tram, and met up with pauli after my lesson with elke (where we practiced Reger). Pauli was in no mood for khalil gibran's madman (one of the books i bought). we had cheesecake and coffee and went to the library.

biked all kids to music stuff. henry got the role of joseph. i used my waiting hour to meet edward and we climbed the schlossberg and collected figs before collecting kids to take them home.

centa collected hazelnuts hazelnuts, but many of them were empty unfortunately.

buffaloes rehearsal was cancelled but i went anyways because my phone was off and i didn't get the message. an hour later i was home, where Felix was busy with Centa and Edward on another game of wizard.

This time Edward's winning
and Felix is not angry about that
progress!

sunny and calm (277/365d)

our little schoeckl hike made my leg muscles sore today... but that's a good thing.

Manuela's flight was pre-poned and I drove her in to the airport at 8am. We had enough time to minimally hang out on the outside terrace looking out over the tarmac for a while. We saw zero planes landing or taking off, and this was scarcely odd because there were no flights arriving or leaving. 

I was back in enough time to return the car and bike home, and go to mass to see all the kids sing. Edward came with us, so he could film the flying skull. We biked there, and Brian jogged, and Brian beat us with his pythagorean short-cut on the main street that bikes are not allowed on. 

They had to sing very far apart, corona-style, and the little kids really had trouble with that, so it sounded like an average choir (and not like andrea's typical product) but it was very nice. There was a couple there celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary - married on erntedank festival in 1950. Impressive.

Centa had friends over, and they were drinking tea in the backyard. We had dinner on our own upstairs, and Edward played hanabi with the kids and started on my willhaben project - taking pictures of things and putting them online. 

At the end of the day, Theodore suddenly pointed out he had not done his homework yet. Mutual feelings improved after we played a bit of music together, some real practicing and some improvisation.

and some table/mirror canon with Centa

wonderful hiking day! (276/365d)

Schoeckl is always wonderful. I'm glad Manuela is here to pull me up a mountain. This time she pulled Edward too, and we all had a fantastic time. 

Before we left, Felix picked us each an apple.

he has to be extra careful, the treehouse is becoming ever more shaky and unstable

We stopped to buy pastries at the turkish bakery right by the bus stop, and we missed the bus, which came a few minutes early. That was one fifteen minute "delay" and the next was a cat we found on the road.

a pheline foto shoot

we found many many mushrooms on the way, but mostly not ones to eat.

some very photogenic ones though

the clouds started to gather and it was incredibly windy at the top. in fact, yesterday, manuela and i had looked up the weather, and had seen it say "orange wind warning" and we had briefly questioned what that meant, and then decided to ignore it.

irma and edward on top of the world

18km, 1000m. not bad for a morning

we also found a festival of styrian music - including alpine horns and whip-rhythm music - and drinks and traditional crafts at the top of the mountain. we didn't stay though, because rain came, and the driving wind convinced us to start our descent quickly.

but this time, manuela didn't have to get out her umbrella. the sun kept coming out, and we had a great time walking back, although the rocks were slippery and there were some minor falls. 

Back in time to wish Agnes a happy birthday of the global-skype variety organized and set up by Centa. Of course Agnes had a party going on and didn't want to talk too long, but we did get a chance to sing tri-continent "we wish you a happy birthday" round.

entertainment this evening was delicious johanisbeer-frizzante (bought at the mountain festival) and a discussion about a rather horrible comment from an acquaintance: "saying trump got corona virus because he didn't wear a mask is like saying that women get raped because they wear slutty clothes"

is that a Zizzard or a Nizzard? (275/365d)

Borrowed Jacky's car to take Felix to his first corona test ... way outside the city to a testing center in a tent. It was efficient and fine. Results were in by the afternoon (negative, phew!) ... and dropped my bow off for a much needed rehair.

Since Felix did such a wonderful job, and didn't have any school, nor is he sick, Edward, Brian and I played Wizard - a card game we also borrowed from Jacky) with Felix. He was winning by hundreds of points, and we got to the last round right as Theodore was arriving home. He was waffling between bidding 5 or 6 and finally decided on 6. During the hand, it seemed like he might make only 5, and he started screaming and shouting and kicking that he ONLY bid 5, and why did Brian write down 6? Of course, regardless of what he bid, he was going to win the game no matter what, and really, hey it's just a game. We convinced him to play it out, and he actually made his bid. Then he calmly announced... "6 is ok"

Theodore announced upon the end of the game that his key had broken off in the locker at school. We sent him back to see if he could get a replacement so he could get books for homework, but he came back unsuccessful. I'm not convinced he actually spoke to anyone though. He's very shy.

Henry and Theodore went off to Stattegg after pizza day at the asp. 

Then we adults got our own round of wizard with no tantrums about bidding although we got much worse scores than Felix's from earlier. I warned everyone that they would have trouble telling Z (zauberer cards, take all tricks) from N (narr cards, take no tricks), and they all laughed at me, but then they all had problems telling the Ns from the Zs. 

end of the wizarding round

does anybody have an LSD charger? (274/365d)

Manuela arrived for the weekend today, but we didn't see much of her till late in the evening.

I really didn't want to leave to go anywhere or do anything, and I had nothing scheduled... but as life sometimes goes, suddenly I got two invitations simultaneously. A Sturm evening with the Foersters and Klaus' birthday. Of course we said yes to both. 

The sturm evening turned out to be a stealth goodbye party for Lena, their housemate who is leaving for 2 years to live in Uganda. She didn't want to say goodbye to anyone. So it was just us and the Foersters. We are very low on her list of friends of acquaintances, and I think that was just fine by her. While we were hanging out I got a call from the opera to say that Felix is so called "contact person 1" and has to go to get corona tested, and won't be at school till after monday (his second test) oh joy!

We left in a hurry to get the kids to bed and I left right away with Barbara after printing Klaus' present - a brand new arrangement (that we commissioned) of SOAD's chop suey. He seemed quite pleased - our first metal arrangement. We purposely didn't stay out too late. 

back at home, manuela was here, and centa demonstrated agnes' birthday present from the states (which shall be given to agnes when we next see her, it's still a secret, so anyone reading... shhh!!!)

How do you charge it?
"With an LSD cable! - I mean, a USB cable!"
Freudian mulch?