The Thursday that Was NOT a Weekend (237/365a)

Well our thanksgiving was on a Wednesday and we stayed up till 2, but that doesn't stop the rest of the world from continuing.
Too early I awoke, to find it snowing. and Cold.
I had a gig to be at at 10, so off I went, taxied there, to get the most out of my morning - even a shower! #veryproud (#andofcoursethankful!)

The gig was in the beautiful aula of the old campus of the technical university, and we listened to lectures, and played birdland, and some handel and had broetchen, discussed feminism with klaus and went home. it was still snowing.

i cancelled everything else i could possibly cancel. A few minutes before we had to leave Fritz showed up for an unexpected visit with a little girl who is living with her (refugee) family in Fritz's home. i showed her the attic, offered fritz some extra beers and then got us a ride (me in seatless back of an old vw bus) to theodore's very first production of Eine Nacht in Venedig. He was so nervous, and he was very stiff, but he did it, and I was very proud of him. The audience was terrible the entire night, no reaction to many of the jokes. Maybe just a dull Thursday night? I wanted to spend 7 euros to stand in the back, but a lady sold me an awesome front and center aisle seat for 10 euros because her friend was sick. Theodore was too tired to "prost" us (with apple juice) when we got home. Poor thing. I hope he is having fun with this show.......

as always the question: keep or get rid of old programs?

very thankful (236/365a)

it's hard to even say what we're thankful for. we are so damn lucky that we forget about the very thing that makes our lives possible and, of course, worth living. all the extras... well, they're just gravy.

the very beginning of the party. about half the people and about 60% of the food are not pictured

my camera ran out of battery blah blah blah, so i used theodore's. 

we partied till 2am, with piano playing and guitar playing and off key singing.

many wine bottles were properly recycled.

the kids stayed up really late and played pretty much independently.

and henry lost his first tooth! (the front top, the one that wasn't black)

Thanksgiving Prep (235/365a)

Almost didn't make it to my 8:30 quintet rehearsal - got there at 9:15 after a crazy amount of time spent at red lights in a taxi. We were pretty efficient though, and didn't laugh too much so we got a lot done anyway. Got home in time to open the door for Nina the second time she came by. She lent me her giant tart pan for my pumpkin pies. Last year we used Mary's - we had brought them back for her from the US and used them at Thanksgiving before we gave them to her. :)

cute!

Henry wanted pictures of himself for school. - when I went to get them their photo printer ui was very bad and annoying, but henry took it in stride and waited patiently.
Thomas and I practiced some Siegl, and I'm looking forward to the performance in a month...

And Centa chopped up her giant pumpkin

Before...

During...

After....

With the kids in bed we adults continued our cooking, cleaning, (and in Centa's case, carving) with wine and Jazz.

homey (234/365a)

It was a nice morning, I was awake relatively early and made soup for the kindergarten lunch, and Brian packed it all up to keep it warm and took the food and felix up the hill. The other kids in the fahrgemeinschaft were sick/staying home. At the end of kindergarten I thought it would be nice to hike as a family and since we had the extra time picked up Felix as a family and did the very short hike the rest of the way up the platte to stefaniewarte.

brian grabbed this picture me coming out of the woods into the sun. i didnt have my camera with me

While the kids were at choir I played around with felix, taught him some guitar, we painted, we cooked, and all that fun stuff. Kale and garlic omelette for dinner with bread nearly too fresh to cut.

We did a bath/practice switcheroo (one practices, the other bathes, and then they switch) with the older two, and Centa read them to sleep while we went off to our last Lindy Class of the season. Nice happy day.

COOKIES! and my first orchestra gig ... in Graz(233/365a)

one of these mornins, im gonna rise up singin...

mmm, the house sounded good today, everyone singing in the morning...

Mmmm, the kitchen smelled good today, like sugar and cinammon. Manuela came over to bake cookies. I didn't take any pictures of them, unfortunately, or of Manuela, although lots of moments were quite pretty. we made three kinds.

.....after years, I finally got to play in an orchestra, thanks in large part to Nina who sings in the choir.
It was so fun! There are culturally funny things here, like that we wait to go on stage... I almost went on stage 20 minutes before we started, but then I noticed that the stage was empty so I just ... waited ... and I'm really glad I did. Many people were playing in winter coats --- it was cold!

Afterwards there was a little post-party at a restaurant, where wine and chatter was lively and fun. I ended up at home, just in time to take brian out for a walk and stop at j&a's for more chatter and to pick up the car... and a hammock for centa's sleeping experiment... she would like to know if she should exchange her bed for a hammock long-term.

Starting a New Deck (232/365a)

Theodore invented a new game, created a set of cards with a lot of effort, front and back. Nina came over for coffee and in sweetness took me theodore and henry on a bikeride to her office to borrow the laminating machine. The kids and I caught Brian and Felix at the Farmer's market buying so many vegetables :) We were already thinking about Thanksgiving, which we are celebrating on Wednesday next week, but our heads weren't clear enough to buy anything useful. Then Nina and her parents and I went to our last rehearsal before tomorrow's concert. I was warmer than yesterday, but I also forgot the big thermos of tea Brian had made for me. No matter, there was no break. 

I took Manfred out for a belated birthday drink, but still got home in time to practice with Henry and play some cards. It was fun, but the rules are not quite decided upon.

no fair, three against one!

Then a quick change and out to Michi's birthday party, also belated. Among other things we had wine and toasts and antipasti, and played a fortune telling game asking the fairies of the universe to tell us what we needed in our life. I need to let go. according to the fairies. The lady at the far end of the table took the card about "friendliness" which made her a bit annoyed.

surrounded by friends

Afterwards everyone went dancing, except me. I waited at a taxi stand in the rain, took the taxi (into which we fit 5 girls into 4 seats) with them to the awesome club, i looked/listened in... it was too loud, too much strobing, no people, so I went home. Lucky me got to walk back in the rain in my high heals to where I left my bike a mile away. Funny thing, when I got there I found I had forgotten I had an umbrella in my bag the whole time. 

Black Friday Thoughts - Costs per use (231/365a)

It’s black Friday, and that means, shopping, and saving money. Stuff you wanted to buy anyway is now 40%, 50%, 60% off of regular price, and you figure "better now than never".

It’s a fun game to play, what is the cheapest price for this item? Easy to compare two similar things:

Thing A cool functions. ugly colors. Fun. Price A

Thing B ergonomic. Awesome cool-factor. Fun. Price B.

Step 1. Decide what features you want

Step 2. Compare prices

Step 3. Buy the thing

Step 4. Bask in the glory of a good deal.

 …. Except my theory is that itemized comparisons are not a good deal – instead, you can try to compare price per use, which I will explain in a few examples. 

Shirt vs. Suit

A really cute shirt at T.J.Maxx that was only 15 dollars (original price, $49.99!). It gets worn once, doesn’t really fit nicely, gets forgotten in the back of the closet, eventually given away to Good Will.

Vs.

A $500 suit, worn once a week, for a few months, and it is already cheaper per use than that shirt.

Maintenance also plays a role. Maybe your suit needs dry cleaning. That’s $15 dollars, if you wear it just ONE more time, it’s still cheaper per use than the stupid shirt.

If you NEVER wear the shirt, it is mathematically infinitely expensive per use, and I mean that kind of practically too – you have to think about it, move it around, take care of it, hang it up if it falls down, it takes up space, in your closet, and, of course, in your brain.

If, on the other hand, you give me the shirt (thank you!) and I wear it 10 times, you are effectively paying $1.50 for each time I am wearing it, which seems very nice of you. That is, if you take me out for coffee (thank you again!) you are paying $3 for my coffee and $1.50 for my shirt.

By the way, this does in no way include the labor, the transport, the social or the environmental costs, nor the time it took you to shop, chose, wash, dry or fold.

[I do not want to advocate for or against any one item, purchase, entertainment choices or deals. I am herewith not saying a $500 suit is a good idea at all! i'm just advocating a different perspective on costs.]

Book  vs. Film

$15 per watching in the kino… but you can go with many friends

$15 for the first reading, but free every time after that. ß this is another way to look at times per use.

Bigger Example:

You buy a bicycle to maybe get your commute cost down, and to give you some exercise. It’s an experiment, so you buy a cheaper model, the cheapest model that Walmart has, at only $199.99 … If you were to break a part, they really can’t be fixed, but first you try riding to work. A week or two you manage. Then it rains. You find the tires really don’t work if it’s icy. You sometimes have papers to keep dry. You put it in your basement. It doesn’t bother you, it was a cheap experiment, and besides, you justify to yourself, I’m already paying for my car, it’s not worth letting it just sit in my driveway. It cost you $20/day for the thing. Hm…  

Even Bigger:

Your future husband buys you a $3000 engagement ring to seal the deal. You swear to keep it on your finger forever, but you divorce after 7 years….the ring on your finger cost your husband $1.20 a day, every day, which is more than a billion people live on.

Use it use it use it! (And don't forget - some things deteriorate with repeated use, and some things deteriorate in storage - which means, you can't use it forever!)

It works with apartments, and cars, and with services. Some people’s hair costs $3 a day. Some people have shoes with infinite use costs, because they only store them and never wear them. There are sofas that you could calculate cost $1 a day, but because they are rarely used, they cost $10 a sitting.  Worth it? You decide.

reality :)

lots of people thinking hiking is "free" but first you have to get there. and if you buy $200 boots, and wear them twice a year for 10 years, it's about the same price as going to the movies... every time you go hiking. and going to the movies is one of those costs people often complain about as being "too much" for entertainment. According to Thoreau... 

"I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. "

[how was my day today? i'm writing this where the most expensive things i'm wearing are my underwear at $0.09/use ;) ... fun and full of little things. mom time. coffee time. found a little pile of cut hair, presumably felix's. walked up and down a million steps a few times. forgot to do laundry. nice rehearsal gig in the big basilica south of town, which was so cold i thought my toes would fall off. warmed up with gluehwein at nina's with her family - who are such warm people!]