the day the world went backwards(360/365b)

so many coffee shops today! early in the morning i took theodore and henry to their choir rehearsal.

went to get coffee and pizza with pauli. the restaurant was on the beginning of a very short one way street with a construction site at the end that neither of us had noticed. the result of that was that many people drove backwards down the street, since it was essentially also a dead end. these people clearly lived around there, they just left their homes and drove in reverse like it was normal. three times in a row, we sat there as cars drove backwards past us before i noted that it felt very strange. it kept happening. we joked we were in a stanley kubrick movie. we went walking through town and met up with theodore and henry and went to the folklore museum where more strange things happened. the glass bridge from one side of the museum to the other isn't even flat, it's a very slight incline. everything felt a little out of whack.

paging stanley kubrick

The folklore museum was very interesting but it gave me a bit of an unsettled feeling.

this church is accessible to the public once a year...

the choir loft is accessible through a door in the museum
does the organ work?
i believe not

at home again theodore and henry and brian left to go see a concert of the chichester psalms, and isabella came over to say hi (we were supposed to go to the opera together, but brian had previously made plans with theodore that i had overlooked so we skipped the opera and just had tea and chatting until brian got home) felix wanted her to read his new stories in his blank book. When he dictates he always corrects himself from "me and papa" and "we" to "felix and his papa" ... he wants the stories in the third person, but that doesn't exactly come naturally to him.

he was climbing the doorframe while she read
once he even made himself into a bridge that both isabella and i could fit under, one at a time
he almost fell on me

boys day and makey-makey (359/365b)

Began the day with a quite long tantrum. Brian and Felix had long left for watching Ingrid from next door's gymnastics tournament, and Henry suddenly decided he had wanted to go with them. Fritz eventually picked them up at 11am and took them to Burgenland for Boy's Day (I wasn't sure Henry would be able to handle that, but apparently the second he got into the car and they left Henry was his normal happy self again and there were no problems whatsoever. asked at the end of the day: did you have fun at boys day? he answered in the most chagrined tone, with the most chagrined face "yes...")

bananas and oranges control the game theodore and henry programmed

when everyone was home again we had a half hour of looking at the program that the big kids had made a few days ago with brian at the coding dojo. everyone had fun, but it was difficult to remember to come down afterwards and start getting ready for bed.

Nirvana TRIBUTE RAAAAAAH! (358/365b)

brian took the big kids to the "coding dojo"right down the street after school.  They programed in Scratch. They put two soccer players on a field with a referee, made the ref's card turn red and recorded themself shouting "goooooaaallll!" 

Felix and i stayed and played by ourselves, it was a very cold, rainy, windy, muddy, friday, but we learned a new piano song and cooked together and read a lot. 

evening was so much fun! michi's husband marko was playing as part of the slippery slope in a dive bar. all nirvana songs, as part of a tribute day, and it started at 10pm and was just as smokey and full as one can imagine. the strangest part? they promised a free shot to anyone who came in "Grunge" which they defined as an "open flannel shirt over a t-shirt" ... since the 90s there's been kind of an uptick in beards and john lennon glasses. in the end there was a huge group of really young (19-22) lumberjacks headbanging to nirvana. a bit of a funny looking thing.

straight out of the 90s i think, except for the photo style,
since there really were no selfies then
Not grunge enough?

QUICK! finish making the candles! (357/365b)

brian let me sleep in - i'm catching some kind of sore throat though

nina was over for breakfast, felix read with us, but didn't want to go outside

went with felix ALMOST to botanical gardens, then swith henry with felix... at school for his first communion henry had aktionsnachmittag and i had rememebered "4pm" and not "14:00" so, i had to rush to get there for him. there were three 1/2 hour things, a little lecture on church history, a room to write some invitations, and a room to make a candle. made a candle under stress, the way that centa described the same event from last year: all the mom's are working, not letting their kid do things "because it has to be *pretty*" and then they start running out of time and the panic sets in. henry and i stayed calm the whole time and had a good time, and we got done in time too. ;)

met up with brian and the other boys at jakominiplatz, had icecream, dropped theodore off at singschule and went home.

i went and bought a new bike from craigslist, exactly what i had always wanted when i originally was thinking of buying a bike 3 years ago. the people that sold it to me seemed to be hobby fleamarketeurs, and they were a couple that was super friendly to me and super mean to each other. i was minorly annoyed that the bike was missing some cool doodads that should have been on there that were in the picture online but i'm pretty sure they took them off to sell separately. i didn't care enough about any of them to complain, i just wanted the bike.

saw gorgeous clouds on the way home and kicked myself for not having a camera with me.


miguel's visit came to an end. we haven't really seen much of him at all, he was a very quiet house guest.

so many things i could have taken pictures of, but i kept my shutter closed.

i received this in the mail from an unknown admirerer
a book that had no return address, bill, receipt, postmark
nor was my address handwritten
it arrived from somewhere in england.
it is fascinating
but who sent it?

up way too early for me and way too late for everyone else (356/365b)

wednesdays are the day that brian has a 5:30 skype meeting so i "take care of" things in the morning, except really theodore and henry get up and get themselves ready while i say things like "i'm getting up in 5 minutes" and "please turn off the bathroom lights, it's getting in my eyes."

brian and felix went out to do stuff alone, i wrote stuff about reznicek.

we went to bury the mouse at kindergarten, after kindergarten got out, and we barely got back in time to get him to chorus. For his 40 minutes of chorus i walked downtown to buy some supplies at the asian market so i could make pad-siuw for dinner.
Maria and i hung out at the abenteuerspielplatz, and when we got back from walking back together, Nina and Kris were ready for hanging out time, and Centa arrived home. They sang songs, I was cranky, Brian and Kris went dancing, stories were read, and there was some hang-out time, although i never got out of my funk.

such a gorgeous sound
i LOVE harmony

listening (355/365b)

a dialogue between Henry and Felix:
Felix took Henry into the other room to show him the rocks he had gathered at the playground. He took a small bowl with him and after unstuffing pockets, came back to the kitchen to get a larger bowl. Then, in a very matter-of-fact voice he says: "I don't think these rocks can walk or talk."  Henry in disbelief "these rocks? did you think they could talk?" to which felix explains "well, a girl at the playground told me that she had a lucky rock that could talk, and that maybe one of these was a lucky rock for me that could talk to me." after a few seconds of silence his voice drops and felix confides in a whisper "i know they don't talk because i tried. i said 'hello, rock, hello rock, can you hear me? can you talk' and none of them answered. and i don't think they can walk because they are all still in my pocket."

a monologue in the waiting room with background story:
a man and a woman couple, she is nearly 5feet10, and he perhaps barely 5feet tall. she seems much younger (at least 10 or 15 years) than he. i have seen them for years walking around our neighborhood and to and from the farmers market, always together, the cutest couple ever i think, she so patient and loving, he so calm and quiet. on our way into the doctors office to have theodore's foot looked at, we can't find right way to open the door, and she walks in behind us with a smile, uses the right door opener button and lets us in. she impatiently takes his insurance card out of his wallet which is in his jacket pocket, and gets a bunch of papers for prescriptions. they don't have an appointment but for 30 minutes she stands in the waiting room while he sits looking on and listening explaining that this is "another 80 euros down the drain" "i guess we're lucky, in america nothing is paid for" "the current youth doesn't know how to save, they just throw 3 euros at a cup of coffee, but they don't go out, they have coffee at home" "our children have their own problems. if they could save it would be better, but they throw around money and so they have to work more. no time for us - they could call though, they don't even though they are always on their phones" "of course, we can't really go out much these days, look at him, completely unable to do anything. doesn't stay home alone, always goes with me, can't walk far, how can i go out for coffee?" "91 years old, and i have to play nurse at home. do you know how much i have to rub creams and ointments?" "he doesn't leave me alone, he's like a tick: you can't get rid of him" "just look at him! completely demented, i have to answer the same questions over and over." .... it's funny how after all these years of fantasizing about what a nice sweet couple they are i finally have a more complete picture of who they are from a few minutes of listening.

eta: found a photo of the two of them

another day of no kindergarten. went over the plans for next week with jacky and andi, let's see how the chips fall. i wanted to go bury felix's mouse in kindergarten after they are let out but we couldn't get ourselves together in time. instead we played at the playground with maria and gabrielle. theodore and i went to the doctor and he missed his ensemble in the waiting room.

the morning i spent with felix was quite relaxed and wonderful, dedicated to gardening and smashing things.

mother and son bonding
(i'm uisng the cup he made himself for drinking too)

smashing is so fun

busy buzzing

april fools day (354/365b)

wanted to take theodore to the doctor today, at 8am, and to school later, but that wasn't an option, because it was important that he could play a trick on his teacher in honor of april fools day.

just an absolutely gorgeous day today

spring has sprung
the grass is riz
i wonder where
the birdies iz

felix stayed home from kindergarten and i slept in nice and late. we did reading together, and then i went to my lesson with elke... worked on my reznicek introduction while i waited for theodore to do his homework and go to his lesson with elke. he was so very cranky, but things got better when brian got there with henry to watch the afternoon recital of mr. winkler's students.

i got home with felix to meet up with one of felix's friends... we were locked out so i put felix up through a window and had him unlock the door. :/ entertaining the friends mom was socially difficult for me. she didn't want tea or snacks, she seemed cold outside and uncomfortable inside.

after they left i tried my hand at making sticky rice with coconut milk in nao fashion. miguel played football with my kids

i gave felix the idea to start the destruction of a cabinet (we are trying to throw it away but it doesn't fit in the garbage unless it's in small pieces) with a hammer while miguel (maybe a bit terrified) looked on - he pointed out he also noticed that felix sometimes uses the punching bag in the basement.

bath time then should have been bedtime but henry begged to play corelli, so then it was trio time... then lots of fairy tales: howard pyle, grimms, italian ones by calvino....

then a nice late evening tea time while i was waiting for brian to come back from his choir rehearsal (ausnahmsweise on monday instead of tuesday) and i explained what flickr was to miguel....

and now ......... i am completely up to date on my blog! no joke. :)