not so super planning (12/365f)

we didn't plan on it, but there were a few doctors visits today, and that wasn't so fun and took up a lot of time.

but otherwise the day was quite nice but uneventful. 

nina brought over everything we might possibly need to use to fix a tiny missing stone from a necklace mary wears. it was a big bag full of beads, epoxy, resin and more, and she left it with us to craft with as we like since she's on her way to berlin for work. it's amazing - one mentions something once and she shows up with all possible solutions the next time.

centa and i went to inter-spar for tons of stupid groceries that i don't usually buy because we had one of those 20% off everything. but with my stupid back i didn't want to carry so much stuff, so centa did the bulk of the heavy lifting. 

there was a beautiful moment of theodore and agnes laying on the picnic blanket outside in the waning sun, playing cards together with tulips in the background. so lovely. 

i metal-laquered a stupid metal drying rack i found in the trash, and that was not so super fun, but i gave agnes' watch a treatment of the stuff - by dipping the band in the can, not by painting it on.

also agnes and i continued the origami phase from yesterday on a new level. i showed her how to make really crisp folds and such.

mary and centa and i made a little terrible improv band - mary on accordeon, centa on the cajones, and me on e-violin. lets just say it needs work. 

i was so happy to talk to brian before bed. 

a concert again! (11/365f)

 a remarkably short thursday even though i was up early - agnes woke me up bright and early to do origami RIGHT AWAY. we made tons of modular things, she even made some on her own. 

quintet was in the paper this morning advertising for tonights concert. 

at 3:00 i was so invested in getting theodore and henry to music theory on time at 3:30 and printing things and cooking lunch and everything that i completely forgot i had to leave with felix also to get him to choir at 3:30. so we were a bit late. he wanted me to wait for him so i went a bit shopping, for paintbrushes and for a nice black top and some fabric for juggling cloths because felix wants to learn juggling.

by the time we were back home it was essentially time for me to leave again. there was logistical stress in my mind about getting theodore and henry to be able to follow directions to get there on their own, and giving directions to mary and i'd never been to the place myself before. but in the end it all worked out. the concert was a big success, everyone loved it. felix didn't go because he didn't want to and I didn't want to force the issue. i threw back 2 ibuprofens before we played to give me mobility in my back. Hansjorg and Hildegard were there too, which was a super surprise. Hansjorg tried to talk to Agnes in english, and the best thing he could think of was "Are you happy?" which was quite funny.

win some lose some (10/365f)

surprise visit from agnes and mary made our day like 1000x brighter!

michi came over for a quick coffee/chat before brigitta picked me up with the bike and we practiced clarke and coates for playing in hungary next week. her son is not doing psychologically well at all, and she was sad and tired and worried, but as soon as we started to play her whole being changed. that's the healing power of music.

i picked up felix from school and we took the tram all the way to puntigam and back to go to the library there for a book about american baseball (there are seeminly 2 books in all of graz about the subject, and one of them is a dense terrible adult book about sports and sport politics in the usa) ... when we got back... MARY and AGNES were here! which was delightful.

i went AGAIN all the way to puntigam because henry, who went bouldering today instead of school, forgot his sports clothes there. it was rainy and cold and disgusting. that wasn't so delightful

Our evening was Nina time, and pizza / goat cheese tart / candied hazelnuts / champagne. Origami with Agnes. Mary was pretty beat from her trip so we didn't stay up too late.

under the wire (9/365f)

7 more minutes of today before tomorrow starts

i saw elke today for the first time in over a month what with sicknesses and holidays between ... it was nice. we worked on gordon jacob's variations for viola. she pointed out i should be more precise.

when felix came home he said he saw those kids again that bothered them yesterday. those stranger bully kids are stressing me out.

we saw the prima-la-musica award ceremony, my kids got their certificates. the new (communist) mayor of graz provided sandwiches for the end, so i guess my kids are real professional musicians now, since they got paid to play music with a sandwich. 

i left the kids home alone while i went to united intonations rehearsal. it was very low energy. olena is filling in for lana, and it's a bit... meh. it's fine. no idea when the kids went to bed. but all was quiet when i got back.

filing a police report (8/365f)

didn't want to even write about this because i didn't like the way it feels, but the small event just clouds over my day. in the end everyone is fine, and nothing bad happened. except we had to fill out a police report because felix was very brave and stood up for a friend of his being bullied by strangers (big kids) in the streets. unfortunately they crossed a line for me, and i had to take felix to the police station and have him tell him everything from beginning to end. the mean boys stole the scooter of felix's friend and felix chased them on his own scooter and braved threats, attacks and kicks to get the scooter back - and he did it! i'm proud of him, but also heart-broken that something like that can happen in broad daylight in crowded streets and nobody does anything at all. filling out the police report took a LONG time, like over half an hour, but it was very important to do i think.

the rest of the day was MUCH more delightful. like having coffee with nina for the morning hours, and walking her into the city. and practicing for the buffaloes and having rehearsal with the buffaloes, and walking through the city with felix. planting some plants. actually quite nice all together.

lilacs and forget-me-nots are around now. and for dinner i had the most wonderful salad with sweet-potato-wild-garlic pancakes and blue-cheese. wow.

sina introduces me to Schopenhauer and Heidegger (7/365f)

starting to feel good about writing every day again, didn't want to go to sleep before writing today either - second day in a row going to bed at 9pm... completely beat

i bought more plants at the Pflanzen-Raritätenmarkt, corn flowers, tomatoes, artichokes, a new rhubarb, some bleeding hearts and an easter lily. i dug places for them despite my aching back.

sometime around 4 centa asked if i wanted to go for a walk with her, and i didn't really feel like it, i didn't feel like moving at all, but i asked the fortune egg if i would go for a walk, and i said "UNSURE, ask later" 3 times in a row and then said "YES"... I got as far as keplerbruecke before I turned back because i was so achy. 

Sina needed someone to talk to so he came over, actually I met him at keplerbrueke, and walked him back with me. We sat in the garden and I listened to his problems. The kids got themselves back from the opera, their klagenfurt trip was a total success. I am happy about that. i was belly-aching (mostly about felix and how he would feel, especially in lieu of his tooth pulling the night he left)

dinner was an uninspired affair - bread and cheese and meh. the last of the easter-eggs did not smell good any more. 

fried for the day (6/365f)

I'm fried... Going to bed early (already brushed my teeth and heated rice bags)

After dropping kids off at opera to spend the weekend in Klagenfurt, I spent the whole morning in Eggersdorf with Brigitta, rehearsing a piece (4 miniatures by Paul Juon) with her and a clarinetist. I met the clarinetist for the first time, and it was just great to play together. He instantly loved me I think. We had coffee at a little tiny place in Eggersdorf center that was so very typical rural austria, it was adorable. 

There's a new bio shop on Lendplatz, and they were doing some sort of promotion, and Jacky was there for work handing out samples, so that's where I had lunch kind of. Had some wine and bread and vegan spreads made mostly with regional ingredients (except for coconut oil which I guess they don't grow here) 

Then I hung out for an hour or two at the botanical garden at the plant market, first looking for Fritz's stand with the abenteuerspielplataz, and then, once i'd found him, with fritz for kind of no reason... I'm all alone and don't know what to do with me time or freedom, and I guess I'm a bit lonely. Also its pretty cold and rainy and my back hurts (wwaaaaa)

talked to brian over video for about 30seconds, but the rural connection was so bad i gave up

new dentist in town (5/365f)

there's a new dentist in town... 

....me. 

i pulled a tooth for felix, and it didn't work with the door method so i used my own method, which i will not discuss because i am working on forgetting it. he got an extra dollar from the tooth fairy which was well deserved.

it was a disgusting rainy day, but there was a most delightful prayer-for-peace event at the stadpfarrkirche, which was completely full to the brim with people, many of which were singing. the singing was sooo very beautiful. proud of theodore who had a short text to read and he spoke so clearly. on the way there, i noticed quintet's next concert advertised on the infoscreen in the bus. i felt famous except of course nobody noticed me... and it was only on the screen for a second

i had a very short coffee with maria this morning, and then played georgischer tanz with henry at his school - i'm allowed into the building now (corona rules are loosening!)

my back hurts SO much, and i was doing lots of exercises to try to help it but yuck, i'm tired of these aches and pains - i swear it's from when i had the long cold/flu/whatever and was in bed so much. it puts such a damper on everything!

at night, mary asked if i felt an earthquake... no, not in graz. i checked usgs, nothing. we decided one of her neighbors must have a new terrible washing machine. a few minutes later, we checked usgs again - earthquake in bosnia. mary knew before the usgs or the news.

kind of zeroish day (4/365f)

went for a long slow walk along the mur today to look for morels but didn't find them. slow because of the hunt for mushrooms and because my back is quite achey today. 

i took a photo of our apple tree in full blossom/bloom for mama on the way out the door. it really is quite pretty this year, and only now have the very first petals started falling.

i hung around online with agnes, who was drawing faces using paint. henry also is drawing faces all the time since the day before yesterday. mary and martin are celebrating their 10 year anniversary, which just is so hard to believe. 

lay in bed by 9:30, chilling with some stand-up comedy and a beer. these early mornings are killing me ;)

fifth/first prize in styria (3/365f)

good thing the kids heard the alarm clocks.... i was up only a little before 7, but since i was already up i used that time to go for a delightful walk down the mur and look for morels. i also took time to call some people, like kris and brigitta and have some conversations along the way. i'm not sure such multi-tasking is really "good" for the psyche, but it felt right today.

today theodore had math olympiade. results? he was first of all 2nd (6th by american system) graders in styria. 5th of all middle-school kids altogether (including all kids from classes 1-4 / "grades" 5-8) ... we are very proud of him. 

henry taught me how to draw faces, at least the classical frontal ratios for eyes, nose, mouth and ears. it was fun to sit on the floor with him and watch him sketch faces. 

felix went swimming with the foersters and came back super happy and exhausted. that's good. 

i had composition class, for which i wrote a kyrie. the kids were alone at home, since centa is out with friends and i think they spent most of their time on yo-yos, talking to grandpapa, and rubiks cubes. now theodore and henry are both bellyaching about tests tomorrow in german and biology respectively. i am not sad if they learn a bit the hard way that maybe they should look at some of this stuff before 9pm the night before. 

a not-so-rude awakening (2/365f)

 alarm clocks beeped and rang at 6:30 in the morning. since brian isnt here and i don't hear them, i just gently awoke to felix telling henry that it was nearly 7 and he should get up.

kids safely off to school with left-over easter bread in their lunchboxes. great. now i have time to clean up a bit, and get ready to pick up my new second-hand beginner amp from willhaben. it was POURING rain, and i nearly cancelled the pick-up because i was lazy, but i DIDN'T. for 20 euros i have a silly little plug-and-play marshall that i can plug my e-violin into. (the cable i bought a few weeks ago in a panic on the way to rehearsal cost 28euros...)

henry had to go to the orthodontist. by the time we were home again i was soaked to the bone and had to change all my clothes, but henry refused to change. 

i took them all to choir and again we got home soaked and had to change our clothes and again they refused, but i forced them that time. while they were in choir, i went to hofer, where i saw michi's husband marko. we chatted in the aisle a bit, and after a few minutes we had caused quite a traffic jam. nobody could get passed us in either direction. oops.

all three kids have been practicing new yo-yo tricks. felix read sky island with grandpapa. theodore was tired and crabby and as slow as molasses on his homework but perked right up when he got to try the e-violin out in front of uncle ludwig. we had a cool little band, theo fiddling, henry on cajones and i on guitar. and when henry was sent down to practice, oh horrors, instead of playing what he *should* be playing, he "snuck" his bach suites book downstairs and played the entire first suite all the way through by himself. I was amazed.

jacky came over after bedtime and we had a little beer and chill evening and laughed about stories like the hofer story. it was way more fun than getting frustrated about my quintet website on my newly minted github account because brian is far away. it's nice to hear what he has to say, they've had a good first day of bike-riding on the katy trail.

easter monday (1/365f)

It's been more nearly a year since I wrote or published anything here. Mostly there has been a large problem with this particular technological platform

anyways, happy easter (monday)!

Brian left this morning for a trip in the USA, and has safely arrived in Chicago. That left the rest of us at home and getting ready for school tomorrow after a week away. How better prepare for school than practice yo-yo-ing. And tennis. 

The kids helped me find the very last of the easter eggs. That was good because they would have been impossible to find otherwise. 

Pauli came over to watch Rosencranz and Guildernstern are Dead, which is something he's wanted to do for about a month. Well, we did it. He told me it was difficult. It was difficult for me too - we watched it dubbed in german (eww). Later, while we were playing tennis, Ingrid Cz. came over and brought us some Easter cookies and some handy-me-downs and stayed for a cup of tea.(we biked home double quick to catch her and make her stay for tea)