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?