forgetful prop master (119/365e)

went out to buy disco lights from willhaben for the video shoot this weekend to replace the ones that broke. when i talked to klaus he had also bought some. that means we will have PLENTY. i also bought some clothes from carla and humana for costuming purposes. 

mary arrived from slovenia with agnes. barbara picked her up from maribor. it was a long day of travelling for them, and they were pretty tired, but we were all so excited to see each other after such a long time. we started costuming mary, trying on clothes only to realize that tomorrow is a holiday and there will be no shopping. nina saved the day, by inviting us for an evening of drinks and lending us some perfectly disco-colored pants that fit terrifically. 

we are looking forward to an early morning of filming, so it might not have been so smart to stay up late. but while we were drinking i suddenly remembered i was in charge of another prop - a bell that was supposed to smash. mary pointed out that she thought the original ding - a - dong eurovision tape from 1975 used a big christmas ornament filled with glitter, so we spent lots of time trying to recreate one. we ended up making our own shiny glitter confetti out of wrapping paper and stuffing it into christmas ornaments, and then making little bell-skirts. it was more fun than it sounds.

a day of recovery from stupidity (118/365e)

I didn't really wake up this morning.... because I never actually slept, horrible hospital night. I shared the room with three ladies: a scream-y lady, a silent lady and a woman my age who just discovered she had glaucoma. Glaucoma lady called her husband at 7am to remind him to order take-out for dinner at 12:30. I was discharged completely normal. Hooray. Everything's fine, and I am exhausted. Celebrated a bit by walking home. Tired all day because of lack of sleep.

Edward and I took a light and lovely walk up the Schlossberg together. At home, Centa made up a new card game she called recycling rummy - where you separate the discard piles into black and red. It was early bedtime for everyone. I think I conked out around 8:30pm.

paying the stupid-tax. figuratively and literally (117/365e)

Brian and I had doctor's apt for our yearly checkup (that we haven't had in 5 years) in the the morning while Felix had online school for a few hours. Poor kid.

Corona test for Felix and then I went shopping at libro for more video prop stuff. Like tape. I finished making kind of a good-ish prop mirror. 

Then aunt Frieda's stuff arrived. We had to pay 400 euros!

Barbara dropped me and my gigantic cardboard aluminum foil mirrors off with Klaus at the domino and we tried to set everything up for this weekend. One set of lights broke and I took apart the thing and drove to griesplatz and bought a fuse and came back and installed it and it worked for another couple minutes. Then it stopped working again. After a few dis-assemblies and re-assemblies I got a bit sloppy and gave myself a powerful electric shock with 220v ac. It hurt. I felt bad. I kept feeling worse. The lights still didn't work, and I felt nauseous and anxious. On the way home I called a hotline and they told me to get myself an ekg to be sure. I got picked up and driven to the hospital where I felt guilty waiting with people who seemed to have actually serious problems. They told me everything would be fine, the ekg was normal, but they would keep me all night to double check. I was sure glad to have a book to read.

dreams of mirrors mirroring dreams (116/365e)

Niko and I went for a walk .. He showed me the shrine-columns for the old pilgrim way from the center of Graz to Kalvarienberg, 14 stops in all. In the old days, he says, you could essentially see from one to the next, and now there are so many buildings that have taken over fields that they are hidden away in backyards and inset into fences and such. Although it was beautiful and sunny, it was cold!  

Felix came home with the news that he is contact person 1, which means a 10 day quarantine for him, but only for him. The rest of us can act normal. 

I went with Henry to practice organ, and I called Pauli and convinced him to join us to try playing organ too. I think he thought it would be simpler, but adding pedals is difficult! He had fun though.

Today Henry wasn't particularly snuggly like yesterday, but Theodore was instead particularly affectionate. He helped me a bit making a prop for our next video. I need a very very large mirror. It's not working out at all. I tried aluminum foil, but it wasn't sticking flat enough, or staying put the way I needed. Went out and bought shiny silver wrapping paper and was pretty disappointed to find out it was actually clear see-though-plastic. It LOOKED silver. 

day flies by without daylight (115/365e)

I had my lesson with Elke while Brian slept in. Sometimes he really does need some extra sleep when he wakes up so early and let me sleep so often.

Mary finished making the music/video for the prime-number pachelbel piece. it was really cool to listen to. 

Henry was really snuggly

I spent most of the day/afternoon/early evening doing lighting with Klaus in the basement of the church for our next video. he's been there for 3 days rerunning cables to lights that were installed there that "didn't work" aka weren't properly plugged in. it was easy to lose track of time since there is no outside light and no working clock.

Centa and Edward crept up the stairs and hung out with us on our kitchen floor in the evening and we had a little chatting party.

touch typing plus think method (114/365e)

Brian sang at church with his choir and I made rhubarb cake with the kids and we played a pitch game on the floor by the stove. 

Clean up frenzy for a while. taking out the trash I ran into Ingrid from next door and we stood in the doorway talkin for a while, and Centa found us, at which point Ingrid invited her (and me) over for coffee. We did crossword puzzles and had ice cream.

Rushed directly back home to where Barbara and I met up at wrote some possible scripts for quintet shorts, and then we rushed to a meeting to discuss those scripts. Barbara was very entertained by how fast I can think and type at the same time. 

in which everyone stops by at once (113/365e)

kids at rettennachklamm all day with the abenteuerspielplatz so Brian and I went for hike of our own. We left a bit later, because first we dropped off the kids (they left at 8:30 to catch a 9am bus five minutes away which meant waiting at the bus stop for a while) ... went to the farmers market alone together, then Nina came over and had coffee in the garden, then I gave Gabriel a piano lesson and finally we could leave to go to Schloss st martin. We combed the ground for morels but found none. We hiked to the top of whatever the official name of that kogel is, and then biked back timing our return exactly with the kids. 

Just at that moment, everyone stopped by... Pauli with a hangover. Nina stopped by for Felix-made croissants, which were finally done, Jacky brought us a bottle of wine. 

We watched 7 brides for 7 brothers that evening, but after that much excitement, we only made it part of the way through. i opened ducks, newburyport, and there, right where i had left off reading was a 2.5 page description of 7 brides for 7 brothers. that book is incredible.

good mood/bad mood (112/365e)

i picked up my fixed bike, on a beautiful day, which would have improved my mood quite a bit, but i was also busy finishing paperwork for the dhl/customs bureaucracy with edward, so much garbage for nothing, took so much time to do all the writing and scanning and screenshots. plus it didn't make my mood any better.

license to bike (111/365e)

Biking back and forth all day like the world's most useless chauffeur. Won't be so bad much longer. Henry had his bicycle license test today and he passed with flying colors. Now we just have to wait until his 10th birthday and he's on his own in traffic. (i try not to think too hard about that)

Stayed up super stupid late doing Frieda inventory... I have to send screen shots of comparable items to every single item listed on the customs form. They went through everything and told me what was in the box. If I send a screenshot of something that costs too much I have to pay customs. If it is not similar enough they dispute it. I am annoyed. One of the delights is that a used candle somehow accidentally ended up in the shipment. It's not even a nice candle, just a random one that got grabbed by mistake. How do you assess the value (and then have to pay 25%import fee) of something that is completely valueless that you can't even BUY online if you want to, and then if you do it's some specific "antique" priceless thing. in terms of the candle, i almost sent a screenshot of a brandnew amazon candle of the middle finger, that was 26 dollars, but everyone agreed that, although hilarious, the joke was not worth $6.50 in customs taxes, plus an annoyed customs officer. Everyone helped, Brian, Mary, Edward, Centa, everyone was sending screenshots of things they found. There are over 100 things in the stupid box.

alone time configurations (110/365e)

centa was gone all day, taking care of a new baby of a friend of hers.

pauli came by for a short time, until i had to take felix this his lesson with brigitta. i also got some brigitta opportunity - we played through the first movement of the siegl viola sonata while edward took care of the kids for a while. she's not completely convinced by the piece yet, but i think she'll get there. i hope so!

started croissant dough with felix ... he won himself a youtube tutorial of his choosing by doing chores this week, and he chose making croissants. a 2 day process. it was pretty fun to work with him. 

garbage in garbage out (109/365e)

a whole day of stupid stuff. spent nearly all morning on the phone/email with the customs agent, on the run-around talking to all kinds of different people. the last customs agent i talked to said it would probably be smartest to just have the box destroyed because it would be cheapest and easiest. "you can buy a lot of new underpants with the money you're gonna spend to save these ones."

i recorded mary's prime-tuplet version of pachelbel's canon, and i must have recorded it over 50 times, inaccurately each time. i sat in front of the heater the entire day with my violin until my legs fell asleep and my shoulders and back ached and still i didn't play perfectly in time *with myself* which is a bit of a ego come-down.

i barely saw anything of my kids who were at school, did homework, played cards with edward in the garden, and went to the asp. 

brian found the movie monkey business (not the marx brothers movie) for me, and we watched it with centa and edward. 

relatively relaxing monday. (108/365e)

My first Monday lesson since finishing my exam. Officially the start of the "repertoire year" which means i brought lots of new music to look into. We made a plan and worked hard on 4 and a half measures of bach. I almost threw a mini tantrum out of frustration.

I took Felix to the glass place to get a replacement glass door for the one that broke when *somebody* pushed *somebody* into it and it broke

I had a delightfully long talk with mama, which usually doesn't work because neither of us like talking online, and usually some microphone or technical thing doesn't work, but today we were lucky and we talked about bread and inheritance and such things. As soon as everyone finished practicing, Papa set off firecrackers on the wine porch for us to watch. Entertainment.

I took off for a walk with nina in the evening, leaving edward in charge of bedtime. a walk turned into a glass of wine, which turned into snacks, which turned into 11:30. brian picked me up on his run and we walked home together, where centa and edward were still up, recording some video for mary's project that she wants to use as a tribute to doug weeks for his retirement after 40 years at wpi.

 

terrible way to start the day (107/365e)

Super bad headache in the morning... i kept waking up all night, in fact, each time i woke up a read a few more pages of "lucky jim" and finished reading the book in the morning. My head hurt so much i just went back to bed and watched "lucky jim" at half-volume and minimum screen brightness. just as i was starting te feel a bit better there were tantrums and fights about who was allowed to make and flip palatschinken. that resolved, everyone was happier. i felt better, and got ready to leave. sometimes the day flies by so fast.

i did a quick photo shoot for a student singing group for andrea and then went right on to a planning meeting for quintet at night … planning our next video with mary and some other plans are in progress. our meeting was not that productive, but it was still necessary, and better than nothing.

edward has RETURNED (106/365e)

Brian and I went for a long walk this morning just to be together while we did some errands, and mostly struck out on those but we had fun anyways. The kids stayed home to read. 

Brian cooked... Spinach sauce on pasta with garden herbs and we ate outside.

Then I saw a message that Edward had actually gotten to the airport in Amsterdam so we started a cleanup mission to get ready for his arrival.

I had the luxury of some alone time and updated my blog a little. i am so behind on posts, and even more behind on editing and posting photos. maybe one day i'll catch up.

I've suggested new music for music4viola enough times that they asked if i wanted to be allowed to post as a member/administrator. why not? what else do I have to do?

We all drove to pick up Edward at the train station in Jacky's car. So excited to see him. We had fun inspecting suitcases, trying out new scarves and doilies some old useless keys and other random things. 

a real live gig (105/365e)

Still no Edward - poor guy, he's been sleeping on the floor in an empty house for 2 weeks now. 

Went for a short walk with Brigitta and then to interspar for 300euros worth of groceries, mostly pantry staples. (because we had a ridiculous coupon) Interspar was overwhelming and didn't have much of a better selection. then we biked home with all that stuff on our back. 

When we returned, all our kids were quietly doing homework on their own. I was amazed. Everyone helped put things away, and everyone did their chores before going to asp. 

I had a real gig in the evening. It was so nice. There was no audience, really, there were speeches and a guy to video it for a anniversary celebration for some verein. the people that were done speaking could have left if they wanted to but they stayed and were in awe of the music and just sat still and listened. occasionally we heard a whispered "man can they ever play" and "isn't it nice to have live music again?" They had real food. 5 course dinner, but we could not mingle or sit down. we stayed at our table and enjoyed our first real dinner "out" since last august.

Jacky helped me at night with an email for customs.... A big box is coming from aunt frieda's estate. the things are worth nothing and have already cost about 10 times their value to ship. Now I am afraid it will cost that much again to accept the shipment. 

no edward today :( (104/365e)

We were so disappointed. Edward did not arrive - he didn't even leave england. The rules changed and amsterdam required a different test just to transfer planes.

I was excessively thirsty all day and gave myself hypochondria by googling that.

I gave Gabriel a piano lesson and we read aloud together and built with kapla blocks. I had to leave quickly for my quintet rehearsal because we have a real live gig tomorrow. olena can't play so we had to practice with iva, as a replacement. we got done fast enough so that barbara and i could record our parts for our next project. the question was still who should play cello on this next project. then we thought how great it would be if we could capture mary from slovenia for the project, and i called and asked and she said yes! 

recovery day ii (103/365e)

i guess one day of recovery was not enough. i did more googling and music research. plus i played a lot of viola just for me. 

Briefly saw Brigitta when i was dropping off Felix for his lesson. We were a half hour too early by accident so we stopped by the the foresters for an extremely brief visit.

Got an sms confirming that Henry got a spot with the cool cello teacher! yay!

Edward is arriving tomorrow. He has taken care of all the Frieda stuff and is all done with legalities and is really ready to leave.

We tried to create a chore game and made up rules at night - we'll see if this motivates some houswork and teamwork.

recovery day (102/365e)

i needed a day of recovery from yesterday. i just researched music... did nearly nothing else. i paid for membership for a pretty sketchy Russian site full of random sheet music. 

I took kids to and from organ at their teacher Maria's house.... She owns a very cool organ! with digital stops and adjustable ... stuff. It was very cold and very rainy and it was a bit sleety/snowy. Yuck. I read  Das verlorene Herz to Felix, and then entered it as a new book on goodreads. 

Talked to Labeeby for a long time in the evening, and that was very nice. Unfortunately that means I also stayed up way too late

mit auszeichnung (101/365e)

i got a shoulder massage in the morning finished reading magellan, as cool as a cucumber. Then warming up and waaaaiting.... and a short warm up walk with Brigitta. Then my knees started shaking and then I played.... i kept reminding myself not to look at the audience, just kept my eyes closed. when Brigitta finally joined me on stage for the Clarke I knew we were home free. success. The told me I passed "with distinction" Elke brought me a flower and a tiny mini bottle of prosecco which we enjoyed on a bench in the park. A drunk homeless guy walked by with a beer in his hand and said "prost" to us ladies.

It was a rainy day - when the kids came back from singschule they were soaked to the bone.

brian gave official notice at his company at the exact same moment that nina came over for snack night so celebrate my high-school-diploma-in-music. everyone in the house helped prepare the snack night. 

brian and i walked nina home at night, the rain had stopped and brian jogged beside me, and we found a free umbrella in the street.

full fledged diva (100/365e)

Getting ready for tomorrow's exam, so I went all out just doing only things I really needed and wanted to do. 

A short delightful hike up Rettebachklamm in the morning with everyone. We borrowed a car to get there and back. Calm and relaxed. While we were hiking along the stream, Felix, Henry and Theodore were way up high on the ledge above us and another family came along.... There were 3 kids in a group there too... One said pointing way up high: "look, there are kids up there, why are they up there?" To which another one answered "maybe they have no parents"

Made dinner very fast and ate very voraciously when we got back. We were all hungry, and I staved off the hanger.

Henry went roller blading while brian ran, and together they picked up new new shoes for him from willhaben.

I spent most of my afternoon doing a bit of practicing and some time wasting.

The evening was just a bit of beer and reading Magellan and another early bed time in the hopes I can sleep well and be cheery the next day.

early to bed early to rise (99/365e)

When I awoke at 6 Brian was already reading downstairs. I joined him with Magellan.... Now I only have 2 chapters left!

After our reading date we went to the farmers market. I saw some people I recognized but they didn't seem to recognize me. I was dressed sloppily and thus also didn't make any additional attempt to say hi

Theodore and I went for a walk to get knives sharpened and the store was already closed because it was Saturday. Our walk was nice anyways.

Brian made chinese-style scallion pancakes in the meanwhile and a great success they were too!

Brigitte and I played Clarke at her house one more time before Monday. Mostly we just talked and she gave me a bit of a pep talk.

Up the Schlossberg with everyone and ice cream in the way down. 3 more Hans brinker chapters and then Centa took over bedtime while we went and spent the evening with j&a.... Lovely. Home again by 10:40 for "early" bedtime

long walk is the best start to any day (98/365e)

Walk with Brigitta to waaaay far past augarten. we were a bit deep in discussions and didn't notice how far we had walked. i was in a rush to get back because i had an appointment to teach gabriel, and got back just in time.

with leftover tomato sauce i cracked some eggs into it and we had Shakshuka for dinner that everyone really liked!

Centa really wanted to do her fancy Friday, even though she didn't feel so well, so she prepared fancy snacks, and we all dressed up and had a little tea-party for "dinner".. Papa was pretty surprised when we were all dressed up for his zoom meeting to read Hans Brinker - He read 3 chapters to celebrate the arrival of the weekend.

I finished Little house in the big woods with felix as he went to sleep. He said he LOVES this book. On my own I finished the "history of the world in 10 1/2 chapters" which was ok, and i read more Magellan

Late at night I was inspired to practice, and it's useful to be able to play late at night and not apparently bother anyone. Starting to get nervous about my exam on Monday, but I know cramming won't do any good....

least favorite kind of dream (97/365e)

got everything ready in the morning, went to a rehearsal, got extremely insulted there, only to wake up and find that 'twas but a dream... in reality brian was in his mastermind, henry was still asleep it was 7:15 and felix was making henry's lunch and going out the door to school. oops!

needed two cups of coffee before brigitta picked me up before 9 for our clarke dress rehearsal

i picked up felix from his opera choir and he came back with tummy ache. as soon as he felt better off to asp, which coincided with michi and her kids coming over to borrow some books. her son wanted only 3 investigator books and she was trying to convince him to take something - anything - else. meh

theodore played awesome brahms hungarian dance and haydn concerto with me accompanying on piano, but his chores and practicing were waaay too late, and he complained that no-one told him what time it was.

papa read hans brinker for the first time in a long time, and it was soooo nice! and brian had some more interviews

reading time is never wasted time (96/365e)

Such a lazy day... Woke up very late. Did nothing really but read a lot, cook a lot and eat a little. Took Felix to his lesson with Brigitta (where I did more reading) and picked them up from *choir*.... First choir since the last lockdown. Very cold and very very windy... My gloves didn't keep me warm while biking. 

Early bedtime for me late for kids... 10pm after end of Marx brothers and I was exhausted.

Brian gave notice to his boss at his job and experienced a little bittersweet feelings. I think he's happy to be moving on and getting ready to finalize his decision about where to go next.

missing morals (95/365e)

First day of school again, although Theodore's group has today online. I gave Theodore a preliminary body book to read after his homework was done, so that he can have a head start on some upcoming life changes.

Pauli wanted to go for a walk, so I could show him where morels grow. I don't really know though, and i'm not sure if it's the wrong weather, the wrong time, the wrong spots or if i'm just not seeing them. anything is possible. We went up and down falkenweg, and he was rushed for time at the end but i had problems biking because my pedal seized up and i could not really use it properly.

We had a family meeting and then watched half of a Marx brothers movie, much to everyone's delight.

Attended a zoom meeting about Kerouac's creative process (from umass lowell) with Brian. We tried to get through the readings in the hour before the meeting (as true typical style)... i loved the idea of kerouac's scroll books.

alas the holidays are ending (94/365e)

Brian took Henry to Nadja's. Felix and Theodore gave me space and quiet to work, and I really tried to do stuff but couldn't stay focused. When Henry came home he needed a lot of help with a school presentation. We spent at least 2 hours drawing sharks, and another few hours looking up facts about sharks in various books on archive.org. I know a LOT about sharks now. 

Ingrid cz came by, out on a bike-ride. She was upset by vaccines and mask wearing, and we shared easter bread and tea. It was really nice to have drop-in company with no pressure and no preparation.

I was in the mood for a terrible movie, and brian found me a really truly terrible one... "Coming to America" ... i wish i had stayed up late and read magellan instead.

shaky start but then ok (93/365e)

Honestly, I only want to remember the good parts, not the cranky horrible tantrum bits which essentially ruined most of the morning.

The good parts were very good. Nice walk to kalvarienberg and everyone helped with table setting.... Twice. We had to move inside after 10 minutes of breakfast because it was too too cold to eat outside.

Egg hunt was fun and actually challenging. There were still quite a few eggs left to find in the evening.

I played in the Dom which was my first gig in a very long time. We had no conductor and we had a replacement organist and the rehearsal was disorganized, and the pieces badly chosen, but it was still very nice to play in public.

More evening tantrums but we sorted everything back out before bed time.

wonderful preparations (92/365e)

We had simply wonderful Easter preparations. Brian and I went to the farmers market all alone together. 

We all biked to Vogelschutzgebiet with Centa (but only found two more morels) and had our mini cookie-breakfast in the sun before seriously starting egg coloring and crazy easter bread. Easter egg coloring was fun and colorful, but we were a bit distracted because we found out on a big zoom call that Labeeby and vitalyi are getting married! super exciting!

We made our Easter fire and tried to sing. the miserere didn't work (not surprising since we hadn't practiced) but managed a passable dona nobis pacem. 

Late bedtime for everyone, even later for me... baking and egg hiding from 10pm till 1am. 

uggg I'm tired

Good Friday (91/365e)

Woke up a bit groggy but went for a two and a half hour walk with Brigitta and felt much better. Unfortunately that meant I missed Nina dropping by, t drop off some absolutely gorgeous onion-dyed easter eggs.

Kids went to asp and I went to pick up my repaired bicycle and then over to Pauli to play my recital program for him. Riding back I happened upon Felix coming back from the spar on his own. He and I met centa at the front door and all three of us went to akdag nominally for some Za'atar (because I had missed is so much yesterday). 

Henry was flipping palatschinken when we got back. He had taken the initiative to cook for himself and his brothers. 

We read the Passion, in illustrations by Thöny

Cents and I discovered what a Crotalusis... Wooden clappers in church for use when bells are not allowed, like between thursday and saturday before easter...Apparently there is an absolutely gigantic one in malta that they use instead of church bells

Also got news that our quintet project was rejected for steirischer herbst. waaah

cajoling and begging and pleading (90/365e)

I had to beg and plead and cajole, but I got everyone to go to Hilmteich in the morning. A little bit of woods for me, a little bit of roller-skating around the pond for Henry, a little bit of reading Laura Ingalls Wilder in a hammock in the sun for Felix. Brian had to leave early to get to another interview. He ran all the way home in 12 minutes, or something crazy like that.

I read a lot more Magellan but that book is so very slow. Michi was singing at church (oh delight, chorus, although in incredible minimal form, only 4 female singers in this case, is starting up again a little bit at a time) and at the last minute i begged and cajoled and plead that everyone should come along with me to the last supper service. They did and I was so happy to bring a bit of normalcy to this otherwise unprepared easter-holiday.

We had our last supper bread and wine prepared and Michi joined us for that and ended up staying till 1am(!) when Brian and Centa had already long gone to bed.