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Too much hassle going on

Hubby is panicking. Does so each time he makes a trip. It is like ´have you seen´, ´where have you put´ all day long. The guestroom looks as if Huns had built a camp- clothes, toiletries, shoes strewn on the guestbed, one suitcase right in the middle. Slowly things got sorted out by wandering into the suitcase or back into the wardrobe. That´s when the shit hit the fan. I asked hubby to consider that the suitcase had a combination lock and that he should write the number down. Hubby, as always, closed the lid, turned the numbers then went back to the old ones. Or what he thought were the old ones. What is so bad about writing down? He was lucky that he found the right combination after half an hour of testing. Last year son wrote from Tunisia that Cassian must have changed the numbers, becasue no one was able to open their main suitcase. Turned out that he only forgot about recording the correct number. Son sat for half a day to get to his belongings...
I did a long plant-watering tour in the morning, since the weather was so warm and dry. The lemon trees have begun to shed the lemons in spe- I forgot to take care of them in time. Well, there will be new blossoms and new lemons if I treat them with care from now on!
Cassian did a call of his own (never show a child how to use a mobile) and ordered me to keep my fingers from Diagon Alley- the boy is obsessed with Lego building, only that it´s mostly my Lego he builds, but he lays down the rules. Rules are Never build without Cassian. This puts me under pressure- I want to finish, before Elsa snows in, but cannot. Unless I will pick the boy up, when hubby is off and the house is peaceful and quiet. No,no, no...
The ants are back. I already suspected so, when I found two next to the sugar caster in the morning, the exact place I found a few some days ago. I immediately started another ant hunt and found quite a lot of them housing in the kitchen near the window. Turned out that hubby had removed the anttrap, thinking that someone had unwittingly dropped a piece of plastic outside the kitchen window. As if he´d never seen an anttrap! Or maybe he hasn´t, in the old house he searched for the location of the anthill in question and poured boiling water on it. Anttraps are more decent for killing and also more effective. I do not care about anthills as long as the critters stay out of the house, but they better not come in! So first way on Monday will be a drive to the garden centre for new anttraps, because it´s Saturday evening, and most shops close at six, only the Diy and garden markets one hour earlier.
Hubby did a last minute shopping- he intends to do an early cooking tomorrow, before he has to leave, and needed some salad. He came back with two kilo of salmon for cooking. Half price, because it will expire on Monday. It´s in the fridge now, replaced the meat hubby took out for tomorrow´s cooking. I will bring husband to the airport after lunch, where we will meet up with daughter mine. She will get a portion of breaded spider steak (panierte Fledermaus in German). In return she will invite us for coffee and cake- she has collected a vast number of coupons for the cafeteria and finally wants to make use of them.
It´s also spider time. No clue why those critters want into the house, when the insects they live from are mostly outside- I must have killed at least five of them. The worst sat in the mudroom, where it happily bit a relatively big beetle to death. Both dead now. To be on the safe side I had a look at the weather forecast. It will get cooler towards the middle of next week. But cooler does not mean cold, the foremost reason a spider would want inside. And what did I forget when shopping in Germany? More insect spray, of course! It´s half the price beyond the border...

From cold to cool to too warm

We had 22 degrees in the afternoon- the only constant was the strong winds we still have. I spent a good part of the morning with body care then dusting (who the heck does open the kitchen windows, when dust, sand and pollen snow into the house with all that wind) then crocheting, before I went to my PC to finally answer some of the mails I got during the last days. Writing mails is definitely not my forte! Then I had to snip the ungodly amount of soup vegetables hubby had bought. Not my favourite job, but now we will have a base for soups and sauces for quite a while- hubby does vacuum-seal the vegetables then freeze them for later use. Afterwards I continiued with the shawl- I am at the crucial stage again- easy to crochet, but even easier to overlook stitches. The moment husband mine was off for Action market for luggage tags I climbed the exercise bike. Unfortunately suffering from a cold has definitely reduced my already limited fitness- I can do only half of the exercises, before I will fall off the bike. Takes me quite a while to recover my breath at the moment!
No cooking got done today, we only had cheesy toast and salad and a prolonged after-lunch nap. I got woken after two hour of peaceful sleeping by hubby turning the coffee maker on, then dressed for shopping a toy for Matthäus- did not get a fitting one. What I got was a free rat- during the Christmas season Peter the rat went into hiding- my guess is that one of the boys took him out of the cabinet to play with, Peter fell onto the carpet and got eaten by the vacuum cleaner. In the shop there was a rat-only wrapper, the character of Ron absent already. I asked a shop assistent if they did not have the complete set, which they had not. When I told her of the misising rat she took the tiny animal out of the box and gave it to me for free. Apparently no one wanted the rat without Ron, so they would have discarded the wrapper. Good for me! I also bought my monthly magazines and a new puzzle book. Daughter wants to come for a visit and spaghetti carbonara (the authentic ones) and lots of crossword puzzles. I already bought guanciale (cost me an arm and a leg, but is totally worth it), Parmesan and Pecorino. On the way home fatigue caught me again. I wish I´d be able to sleep more than two hours straight during night. I got out of the car, and it took only one look at the table under the kitchen window to notice that something was amiss- hubby had the order to bring the potted flowers to the cemetery. He thought the flowers looked a bit meagre, so he planted the hyacinths that decorated the table amidst the pansies and was off with the flower bowl. Now it´s the table which looks meagre...

Poor hubby!

Today was definitely not his day. First my lungs decided that the cough-blocking syrup had quit working and tried to get out what the syrup had kept inside, then my sinuses did the same, which ended with an endless stream of coughing and nose-blowing and a fairly irate husband who wanted to go back to sleep. At least, the headache was gone then! Then hubby hung the washing out on the terrace, which ended in the drying rack being blown down onto the lawn- four times at that, but hubby is persistent and a tad too optimistic, thinking that at one point the wind would give up. Well, it didn´t! Husband´s daily cycling tour had to be cancelled also- it simply was too cold and windy, and he did not want to risk catching a cold, when he will listen to two concerts in Amsterdam. People with cough are not wanted in a concert hall! In the afternoon hubby dragged the wheelie bin to the main street and promptly ran into the one neighbour who tried to enter our house two days ago. Her visit then had had a reason- she needed husband mine to do janitor repair work. Her water pump in the cellar does not work anymore and she is no more able to do her washing. But before he went to work hubby had to drive to the DIY market (by car) to buy a new door stopper for our terrace door. We found Schnuckele happily wandering around in the house, after hubby had went outside to lift the drying rack back onto the terrace and the wind blew the door open. That cat is experienced in sneaking into the house and hide for a while, before the little tuxedo will start exploring, and often enough we will find her dozing in places she is not allowed to doze, like the marital bed. With the new door stopper neither cat nor wind will be able to push the door open anymore. Hubby did not need much time to realise that there was no possibility to repair a pump that had died- poor neighbour will have to buy a new one. Installation will get done by hubby, of course, and neighbour will recompense him by giving him a crate of beer he won´t drink because of gout.
Daughter had wanted to leave after breakfast but stayed for lunch she helped me cook- strudel filled with minced meat and champignons (properly roasted without oil, to get the best flavour, a cooking method husband mine always ignores). Hubby contributed what he does best- green salad. Only that he used too much of salt and not enough vinegar, which got him a hefty rebuke by daughter mine because of the harmfulness of too much salt. Husband also smashed the sugar caster, when he found an ant parading on the shelf, an ant followed by another and another. The hunt was on, daughter operating the insect spray, hubby the kitchen roll to squish as many ants as possible. Same procedure as every year, that´s what you get when you live in a rural area! Daughter missed the bus she intended to take, but it was worth it- we found the place the ants used for invasion and put an ant trap there. When daughter finally left her backpack was full to the brim with groceries hubby had given her, so no wonder that her bank account is nicely filled- she won´t have to shop for groceries the next days! Now I wonder when I made the wrong turn- my mother had a fairly high pension, but often let me pay for her expenses. Should I try the same thing with dearest daughter mine? I think I´d quickly meet with a rebuff...

Too tired

...for a longer entry. Daughter and I were off at nine in the morning and back home at two. Unfortunately I rang the door bell then and woke Flavius, who had just started a late nap. Well, he did not continue with his nap but joined the rest of the family. We had a late lunch we had bought at the Turkish take-out. The boys loved it, daughter and I not so much. Afterwards I went to the bedroom for resting, and hubby kept grandsons with him, afraid that the two might catch my germs. Haha, where does he think my cold did come from?
What we bought today: three pairs of comfy shoes, two very stylish Nike backpacks, a decent sweater in spring colours, the one book for Elsa we did not find on Amazon (is that even possible?), a raspberry cake, quite a lot of toiletries, a few groceries. Amazon delivered my Bellatrix wand. When hubby is off Lil and I will do some handicraft work to present the wands we have. HP meets LotR is the motto. Daughter has booked tickets for the Cursed Child, so we will be thoroughly entertained when in London. Now I am resting again. My head still hurts. I have sore muscles because of all that coughing. Otherwise I am fine. Yet I might stay in bed and follow the discussion concerning the cast of the future HP series. There's a bit too much of wokeness going on- the new Snape is- dark-skinned! The only character who is definitely white! Good luck with this actor! I and many others quit watching The Rings of Power when the same wokeness happened in the series...

Headache day

Headache day always comes around the end of the first week of coughing, when the cough turns from wet to dry, and one sounds like a machine gun. So I only cleaned the bathroom showers and the kitchen floor, took my shawl-in-spe and retired to the couch. Damn, had I known the vast amount of errors I did produce when crocheting I'd have turned the TV on only, and that's it! I chose the pattern, because it seemed easy. Have done it often enough when crocheting the throws! But honeycomb cables done with such a thin wool are the horror! And the crochet hook needs replacement, because it's old and napped and tears the wool. Will buy a new one on Wednesday, when daughter and I will do a shopping tour to Germany. Until then I will have to suffer from double headache caused by coughing and crocheting. At least I did not have to cook- hubby defrosted the minced meat Mexican style and filled it into tortillas by adding cheese and roasted onions.
Yesterday evening I was dead sure that the cold would spare us- it was four degrees at ten in the evening. When I got up at seven we were down to minus five, and some of the plants did not like the low temperatures. I wonder if the fig tree will survive. Figs are supposed to be frost resistant, but mine is young and got just dragged from the conservatory onto the terrace! Bad enough that hubby had placed the pot on top of the shelf inside, where only he was able to water it but forgot now and then. When he took the pot down the tree had already shed this year's first harvest of figs! Might be that I will have to buy a new one- I so love fresh figs!
In the afternoon Amazon driver delivered hubby's smart watch. Oh boy, hubby was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things he had to set but was not able to- I heard either hubby swearing or the watch loudly beeping, at worst both at the same time. That was so very annoying that I gave up on doing nothing and went up to the bedroom and turned my tablet PC on. Haven't had a look at my abos for ages!

Cold, but dry

Instead of staying inside to avoid the cold today´s agenda for hubby was doing work outside- clean the dustbin (who cares if it´s a bit dirty), the organic waste bin and the entrance area. He even braved the four degrees to get to the cemetery and pick up the big planter he was supposed to bring to our house more than a month ago, when the pansies had not yet given up on flowering, while I did my daily exercises. So now there´s the planter filled with fresh flower soil but no flowers to plant. I will have to buy new ones tomorrow, after searching the shops for dyed Easter eggs- not so easy to get to a reasonable price this year. No way I will do the dying myself, now that I have neatly cleaned the kitchen with the steam cleaner. The surfaces at least, inside the cupboards there´s still room for improvement. So eggs then plants then planting it is, so that husband mine can switch from housework (such as dragging heavy planters across the cemetery) to personal chores like going to the hairdresser or to the outlet centre for new clothes- the polos and trousers he found in his wardrobe are no more to his liking. He wants to cut a fine figure when in Amsterdam! My hope is that hubby has not caught a cold when in the cold. A sneezing hubby in a plane- oh, dear God! An emergency landing cannot be ruled out, because hubby´s sneezing sounds like a bomb exploding. Neighbour´s three houses afar will shout bless you when they hear the specific sound!
My peaceful Easter got killed this morning- all of a sudden family number three decided to come for the holidays, when the house is already full with guests. Means that number four and five might decide to not come, because they cannot stand the hubbub. Family number two will be here but will have to do more cooking, as have I. And our neighbours will be delighted, when children like Elsa and Matthäus will be let into the garden for egg hunt at six in the morning and get a repeat, when Cassian and Flavius will arrive and Elsa will be out with them to help them search their ggs and presents. To fill the cup to the brim the family will stay one day longer than expected, to make sound use of Hotel Mama. Mama is tempted to pack a suitcase and check out for some spa days as an alternative Easter programme, but papa does not let her do so. That´s vile, vile, vile...

(no subject)

Hubby went to the flea market alone. I was simply too tired to get up so early, take a shower then be off. When he came back he had bought some educational games (for Cassian mostly), more cars, one remote-controlled not working (he brought it back later and got his money back) and two jigsaws- one of them exactly the same he had bought for me a year ago (no exchange, of course). For a short time I entertainded the idea of going to the fleamarket when I finally fetched medication from the nearby apothecary, then saw the vast number of cars there and those who had not yet reached destination- and promptly turned tail. There´s no way I want to deal with crowds at the moment!
Back home I did my daily training then took the shawl I am crocheting- and noticed that I had made a big, big mistake. I had to unravel three rows of hard work, and even unravelling was a hard job. More than once the wool was on the brink of ripping- not good when one is short of that special colour! After disaster I went to the kitchen for cooking. It was fish-only day declared by hubby, which would be fine with me had I ordered my medication, which I had not. I found two measly tablets in my handbag, enough to make it through lunch without problems. Hubby better not insist on more fish the next days! Then husband was off to son, to drag the plan cabinet up to DiL´s studio with the help of a friend, a strong one hopefully, because that thing is extremely heavy! Meanwhile I turned my PC on to do some online shopping. I noticed that the mouse did not work as prompt as usual and decided to update the driver. Could not find it, so I updated all drivers I found and did a Windows update, too. One can call it overkill, and I am glad that Ashmael is still working. At least my antivirus programme does not cry for driver updates anymore! Online shopping did not happen because hubby forgot to tell me the title of the book I am supposed to order. That´s the problem- hubby has Amazon Prime, I have not. To not have to pay shipping feas the order must be 40 plus euro, so I combine my purchase with others. Of course, hubby always wants me to order via his account. I can bet my life on it that the moment husband mine sees what I have ordered the Spanish Inquisition will move into our house...
I took some photos to show that there, too, is colour in our garden, although not much. Of the pink at the backside of the house I will take pictures tomorrow- hubby has barricaded the way with ladders and a work station. I have absolutely no clue what he is about to do, and I do not even want to know it...
Upload od the photos did not work out, no clue why. Will try again tomorrow. Livejournal does not work properly for me since two days now...

Survival mode

Did not sleep until two in the morning last night but had to get up at three, trying to not wake Cassian up in the wake. Fortunately the boy slept like a log. I was back home around four fifteen, took the obligatory early-shift picture and had a short but fruitless fight with Schnuckele cat. I had to search for the furry beast, who had sneaked into the house and went into hiding. At four thirty I was in bed again and tried to catch up on sleep- did not even hear Cassian getting up at seven. But I very well heard hubby discussing with the boys, so I got up, too, helped husband dress the two and did breakfast. The three were out of the house before eight- finally! I did not do any housework save for tidy the kitchen and cook lunch- essentiell, because daughter was back at twelve. We decided to skip the shopping part we had wanted to do- we both were simply too tired for so much action. Will do so next week. Besides, one of the things daughter was looking for was a new wallet- when she went in search for the batteries hubby needed for his new alarm clock she found an amazing one- unused, decent colour, made of finest leather. No clue who the owner is or was, guess it must have been me, because it´s clearly made for females. My guess is that it came as a present from Romania with one of the relatives. Now it´s daughter´s...
Hubby brought two more cardboard boxes to the neighbouring church. Tomorrow there´ll be fleamarket time, unfortunately without me. Definitely not getting up early again! I need my beauty rest, and since it won´t happen during night because of more playing taxi for daughter I will take what I can get during morning. BTW: Today I almost killed two running!!! birds at not yet four in the morning. Sorry, but the last running birds I had to cope with were in NZ, and definitely not up at four in the morning in early spring!

Next time...

...I will accept the invitation to DiL´s vernissage. Will marvel at the paintings, have one or two glasses of sparkling wine then take a cab back home, where husband mine will hopefully have put the boys to bed. Because DiL complained that I never was there with her. Now that´s strange, because first she parks her offspring at our house then whines because we won´t come? Today I told Cassian that he is supposed to stay off me when he has a cold, because I do not need more sneezing and coughing. Boy told me that he is too young to stay at home alone, and that his mum has to bring him to our house, because she is so busy. With cold or without (the boy). Boys aren´t allowed to go to exhibitions, mum has told him. Says the woman who drags her offspring into museums and exhibitions, be it in Italy, Romania or wherever the family has travelled. I have plenty of photos of Cassian in a museum or a church. I do not have any of the boy on a children´s playground. Playgrounds are for beginners...
I had a shortened fitness programme (ten minutes on the exercise bike, a bit of stretching) in the morning- my cold is so annoying, especially the cough. I made lunch- meatballs and roasted potatoes- then did a bit of crocheting. On the left side of the shawl I lost two or three stitches I have to smuggle back in, before the next round of the pattern begins. Had to do the Staubmäuse game with the boys, which always involves lots of screeching, did build another bag of Lego- took us quite a while, because I had to find and correct a mistake. And then the day was practically over. Hubby was nice and brushed teeth with the boys and made them put their pyjamas on, otherwise I would not have been able to do this entry. It´s really hard to carve out some free time for me the moment the boys are in the house....

Current Mood: angry
Current Location: at home
Current Music: none

Slow-going

More decluttering got done during day, albeit it was a complicated process, with questions such as do I want to keep it, will I probably need that thing? In the end I gave less away than I should have and kept more than will be good for the state of my cupboards. And since almost everything I do seems to get done in slow motion I turned my PC on and searched for a pattern for the last of the sock wool I found in a hidden box in the guest room. Found The Phoenix- one can always make use of a new shawl! I was so confident that I knew most of the patterns. What I did not anticipate was that I did all of them with relatively thick wool and a 6 mm hook. Now the hook is a 3,5 mm and the wool is very thin. My fingers are old and tired and definitely not used to shift the delicate strangs of treble crochets, which is essential. In other words: this is by far the slowest progress I ever had when crocheting. But I am determined to pull through, even though I had to unravel twice as often as usual. And believe me, I have to unravel often enough. But I like crocheting to the lady´s instruction, almost always accompanied by the sound of water (the sea? a lake? no clue!)
I did a carrot-ginger-coconut soup for early lunch- hubby was off soon after to fetch the plan cabinet DiL2 had bought on Willhaben. At first he thought that he would have to wait for Friday (the only day the seller would be able to help with the transport except for today), because it was merrily snowing along. All of a sudden the sun came out, and hubby rejoyced- Friday is his favourite shopping day, and having to drive 50 kilometres for a cabinet that does not even belong to him did not sound like fun. Meanwhile I continued with crocheting, hung the washing up and realised in the very last moment that I had to order prescriptions- my general physician does accept such orders only Tuesday and Thursday from one to three PM. It´s always hard to get through, since a lot of people will call at the same time, but I made it! Later in the afternoon I felt another cold coming on- runny nose, scratchy throat, some coughing. Damn, the last one, the one which did not want to go away, I had had in February! And now another one? Cassian had been coughing a bit, when he had been with us last Friday. Damn, why must he always spread his germs! Tomorrow I will see the boys again for another sleep-over and more germs-picking, and daughter will be here, too, for making use of me playing early shift taxi, and twice in a row at that. There goes my restful nights...

No weather for people easily depressed

I woke around four in the morning to the sound of heavy sleet, which turned to rain in the morning. Got up at eight, which is unreasonable late. And because I got up so silently hubby did not wake. He came down at nine, believing it was eight in the morning. Good man should have changed his clock radio to summer time! Rain did never stop, our private street was a mess even though paved not so long ago- huge puddles, the neighbour´s lawn at the bend of the street flooded. And it´s cold, too cold- only three degrees. Why does this always happen when our plum tree (former mirabelle tree) begins flowering, and the bees stay at home?
I have spent a big part of the morning putting things together for our church´s flea market this weekend. It´s two full banana boxes and a half, the rest will get filled tomorrow. And I cleaned the upper bathroom after a long search for the window cleaner. I found it hidden behind the leaves of the enormous monstera plant on the shelf. How it ended up there will remain a mystery. I know that I could not have put it there (my arms are too short, and I won´t brave the jungle voluntarily), hubby protests his innocence. Most likely there will be some household spirit playing with detergents...
Hubby and I were taking turns with resting and reading, a strange thing because husband mine is usually running at full power all day long save for half an hour after lunching. BTW: Lunch was two jars of stuffed peppers hubby bought a while ago. I do not like peppers, but I like the stuffing. One thing our grandchildren must have learned from me- it´s stuffing-only for all of them. If we continue eating those jars twice a month we will have finished them in December. Even though we have given glasses to number four for beefing his menue plan up. Oh dear, I really should keep husband from grocery shopping! I think he bought all those jars, because they look so pretty and will be suitable for jam.
Our newspapers are telling us that this winter was even warmer than the last one. Well, I do not think so, and many more here are thinking the same. Hubby is a ~~master of disaster~~ avid controller of room temperatures and gas- and energy consumption and will turn heating off or keep it low if possible- I have been complaining all winter long. Yet we have used a lot more gas than last year- another heavy bill, which will get in line with electricity bill and other inconveniences. At least the window in the conservatory does not leak anymore- must have been the missing roofing tiles, when the roofers were repairing the leaky dormers and there had been a downpour of epic proportions, even though a short one. With the tiles in place again no more rainwater made it into the conservatory- one bill less to pay!

Another cooking marathon

Since the boys´ parents did show up very hungry yesterday evening no more than a thin slice of pork was left. So hubby took beef out of the freezer and searched for recipes. All he found comprised either horse radish or pickled cucumbers, which son won´t eat. So we had fried beef and onions with gravy and potato patties (half of them without parmesan- what a waste!) plus a huge bowl of mixed salad. Hubby´s contribution was the food arranging and the excessive use of parsley for making it look pretty. Now I will have to wait, until parsley regrows for further use.

The switch to summer time went relatively unnoticed. I did get up at eight, met hubby, who had been up very early (dumb, when you skipped one hour already), got tired after lunch, as usual. Since son had to leave for Graz at four in the afternoon all we did, from lunch to nap to coffee time, took place earlier than accustomed. Bedtime can never come upon me soon enough, because springtime fatigue is still dominating my day, so no problem on this front. We will survive, as every year, no matter how hard some people are complaining. For my part, it would be worse to have to wake to too early sunrise from May on. Bad enough that the last time I brought daughter to work the birds were up and warbling- for God´s sake, it was not yet four in the morning! I do not even want to know how it feels with the birds up before three, the sun rising at five in the morning and two hyperactive children in the house. The horror!
Son managed to get a reserved seat for the train, which is good, because today seems to be one of those days where a mass migration towards Graz is happening. Reserved seat is good, because he took a lot of clothing with him and had two suitcases and a backpack to store- not an easy task when one has to spend the trip at the corridor. Before he left he did some Lego building- he thinks he did not have that much Lego during his childhood, which is funny, because there´s two huge boxes of Bionicles in the bathroom and pirate ships and knight´s castles in the basement- all his (once upon a time). Hubby brought him to the railway station at three thirty, I leapt onto the exercise bike. Sadly no improvement yet...
Weather has been sunny and mild in the morning, but in the afternoon it became overcast. There will be rain in the evening, which might or might not turn into snow tomorrow. Well, I am definitely not interested! Winter has had plenty of time for individual fulfillment- time is up!

Am deaf

Cassian was his usual self- well-mannered, interested in reading books with me, doing Lego, watching video clips. His brother was the complete opposite, would have needed to run out excessive energy but could not. Wonders will never cease, but it finally has started to rain, and how! The buckets in the conservatory had to be activated, to the amusement of the boys. The moment I turned around Flavius was out to put the bucket on the table away, again and again. Third time is the charm, they say. That was when I finally exploded. That boy was like a leech all day long, but apparently found enough space to wreak a lot of havoc in between. Son number four told hubby to not always cuddle the young man, but this one has a very volatile temper. So volatile that at some point I sent him to the guestroom and told him to only show up again when he was ready to behave. I do not want to get bitten by a rabid three-year-old, who thinks that he is in charge-always!
Of course, hubby forced me to cook the big programme, even though he did not know when the boys´ parents intended to show up- son did not answer hubby´s invitation to pork roast with knoepfli and vegetable sauce, a meal the boys liked very much, especially the knoepfli. Glad that hubby had brought up more meat than I thought I´d need! My hope is that some will be left for number four, when he will return from his visit to a friend! In other words- I did cook a lot, the boys helped with cutting carrots and onions and what goes into a vegetable sauce, then we built more of Diagon Alley, had lunch, I tidied the kitchen, went upstairs to the bedroom, had half an hour of me-time while Cassian watched Ninjago, then younger grandson showed up from after-lunch nap, and the racket started anew. It´s almost six in the evening now, and the boys are still with us, no parents in sight. And I am tired...

Early post again...

Hubby was on pins and needles, so ready to pick grandsons up from kindergarten. Weather was fine but should change during the afternoon. All bikes were out for the boys getting in good trim- we will see, especially Flavius is no friend of getting trimmed. And even less by the use of bikes- Cassian was well able to bike at this age, his younger brother prefers the balance bike, if he can be persuaded to stay outside for a while. Hubby did palatschinken for lunch, I did a spicy filling with minced meat. Unfortunately husband had to do the batter twice- he had muddled up flour and sugar. So I gave the famous do-it-in-the-pan cake another try, and it did not work- again. This has been at least attempt number four? five?, and I am giving up on the recipe. Today I haven´t even caramellised the apples, yet the batter burned at lowermost heat, and after five minutes at that! Hubby cut off the burnt part and will have the rest as desssert for coffee time. And I thought that I might be delighted to have to cook again after three days of Chinese restaurant food! Nope, I´d say. Yet hubby is already planning for a big meal tomorrow, when the boys will get fetched by their parents- which means I will have to do dinner for five adults and two very hungry children. Okay, count me out, if the parents show up after five...

There we go

Daughter came late last evening, did a crossword puzzle with me then had dinner. Afterwards she went to her room for getting some pre-work sleep. She also had uttered a proposal- before she started full employment at the airport (can't be that full when she will be off in September) she wanted to do a trip with me, just the way we have done in pre-covid times. She had thought long about it and was sure that London would be fine for the two of us. So on May 22nd we will spend a few days there. Flights are booked, hotel, too, and this time we won't have to visit the Dungeons but go to the Warner Bros. Studios instead. Those tickets are also booked. We will not take Cassian with us this time. Maybe there'll be a next time for this. But daughter insisted on mum-daughter time only, before she will snowed under with work first then leave for South Korea and Japan, whereto she will travel with a friend of hers- friend´s grandmother lives there. Hubby did lasagne for lunch, then daughter took two boxes with Chinese food and left while I went upstairs to catch up on sleep. Had not had that much of it last night, even got up before the alarm went off, made the obligatory coffee and typed the three dreams I had had into my Whatsapp memo. Stupid, stupid dreams, the worst was the one when I stood on the terrace of a house of a friend and poured dried herbs and granulated garlic over the slope, after I had gotten physical with some kids hence was a bit beaten up. Still do not know if vampires were involved because of so much garlic! Another dream had me climb up a hill near my parents flat. With a brandnew reservoir on top, where I met a fanfic author who had not posted for a long time. When I went back the same author got dragged down the street, arrested by police, because readers had complained about her. Dumb, dumber, dumbest...
I slept for two hours straight then got up to prepare tomorrow's lunch. The boys need to eat earlier than we do, and I will be off for a doctor appointment in the morning. Since son number four will show up to, too, it has to be a meal without cheese, fungi and broccoli and the like. Strange that only few of our family do like cheese...
Since my fitness is not-existent and has been that way for years now I spent ten minutes on my exercise bike and ten minutes doing exercises for muscle building, before I collapsed onto the couch, which was more to my liking. I fear the following weeks will be hard for me, but otherwise I'd better stay at home instead of doing travels with daughter...

Ermm...

Another day interspersed with rain showers, not enough to set the conservatory under water but too wet to make husband mine crawl onto its roof to seal the leaks with silicone. But nature needs water anyway after such a dry winter, and temperatures were comfortable still, so no complaints from me.
Hubby bought another load of Chinese food on Too-Good-to-Go. Blessedly daughter mine and her famous appetite will show up tomorrow- that's way too much food for hubby and me. Food in the fridge for two days is okay, three is one day too much. Since no cooking had to be done and housework was easily manageable I turned my tablet on and went onto AO3. Ploughed through a lot of fanfics no matter which fandom, doing the guessing game of how old the author might be- it's easy with some fandoms, which attract mostly young people. And if one reads the intro and comes to the 'sorry for the delay, had to learn for a test or do homework' part one better skips the rest and switches to a new fanfiction because it´s either an overload of romance or a Barbie meets Ken meets Skipper and and story. Typo of the day- apollogizing. Darn, unsurprisingly I rocketed over the moon with this one, and hubby was like Do I have to call for a doctor, dearest? Dear god, it´s one letter too much and I was practically detonating with laughter!
I found a gadget in a folder of Hofer I will have to buy come next week: a wildlife sound imitator. Oh, I always wanted to hear hedgehogs sniffling and birds chirping inside the house. Add crickets, and life will be perfect! There are days when I think that maybe the extinction of mankind is long overdue!
I had to do a phone call with the doctor´s office, which took me one precious hour- I could have taken my car to drive there (20 kilometres), get the prescription and drive back home in less time. While waiting to get through the mass of callers I listened to what was going on one floor down. It was loud, very loud. Hubby is dead set on ruining the door to the conservatory- I heard him banging at it all day long. Even found an axe- yet that darn thing works even worse than before. I told my husband to simply leave the door ajar and wait until everything is dry and cosy again. And if it won´t work then he will have to seek help from a professional. All better than break the window pane! Knowing that husband mine is a very stubborn person I hope that my message was loud and clear- hands off!
In the afternoon I was so bored that I continued with the owl container for my glasses. The container has eyes now and two ears. The only thing missing is the nose. I hope that my boredom will last until tomorrow. Then the darn thing might finally be finished!
My Amazon order arrived- two!!! new Blu-Ray discs for the time when hubby will be off to Amsterdam. I have already sent out a warning to the family- if my husband gets five days off, I insist on five days without family duties, too! Not that they all suddenly feel a longing for my presence and come to visit! I see no problems with my offspring and their offspring. Not so sure about sister. Since she lives in Salzburg she wants to meet every other Sunday, with me doing the cake baking and she the coffee drinking...

Impeccable timing

The roofer was supposed to come today. Hubby waited, and waited some more. At nine in the morning he decided that it was about time to end waiting and start shopping instead. Five minutes after he had left roofers were here- two of them. First thing I did was cover the bathroom window with a sheet of blue plastic, so that no one was able to pry into the room in case someone needed to make use of the loo, which usually is me. From then on it was sheer chaos for sensible ears. Roofing tiles sailing down, saws howling, feet trampling, hammers hammering. Since we had leftovers for lunch so I did not have to cook I decided to start my car and do some Easter shopping instead of going in search of headache pills. I swore to myself- no new articles for decorating. Haven't even used two thirds of what is stored in the basement. The temptation was a big one, but I succeeded. Almost. Only a tiny string of eggy lights did I buy. And some plastic Easter eggs, because many of the old ones were a bit faded- must have been the ones which once got hung up the apple tree. I also bought the sweets I did not buy on Saturday, when they were offered to a reduced price. Back home I had lunch (hubby had already eaten), went to the bedroom, ate one big Easter egg with rum raisins then had a nap. I went down when I heard hammering from the inside- the door to the conservatory could not be closed. Hubby resigned at one point and went for a cup of coffee. Outside there was a thunderstorm, the poor roofers were drenched already. And then I heard it- pop, pop, pop from the conservatory. The rain did not use the well-known way along the wall, it now came in from one of the conservatory windows. This one had never leaked before, now it did. That´s what roofers are for- renovate the roof and trample down the window´s sealings. I am so happy at the moment!
In the late afternoon DiL2 sent a message that she intended to buy a special office cabinet to store her paintings. Not exactly cheap, but extremely heavy. We´d have to make use of the trailer to transport it, yet there also have to be people carrying that thing around the house and up to the first floor- and son with his arm in a cast won´t definitely be of help. I so hope that someone will be quicker and buy that darn thing...
My back is angry at me once again. It does so quite often now. I woke during night and already felt the pain sailing in. It got better during the morning, when I was moving around a lot, but after napping it got worse. Getting old is a bitch! Isn´t it ironic that I have to go in search of pills again? Should have done so in the morning, when moving around wasn´t that hard!

Lazy Sunday

This morning I got up at eight, had a look at the weather forecast and a good laugh afterwards, because it said thunderstorm at eight, strong winds during day, rain. We are at four in the afternoon now: no thunderstorms, no wind, not a single drop of rain. This weather forecast I chose because it´s supposed to meet the specific location. I do not want a prediction for the hydracephalus of our country which is called Vienna. Vienna is far away (luckily) and always has weather different from ours- Pannonian climate, though boundaries are fluent in times of climate change.
Hubby had left the house around ten in the morning to pick the boys up. I did not check, I only noticed that at one point he was off because I had a spa day. Aromatic shower, a selfdone massage with jasmine oil, hair cure, manicure. I did a lot of reading and resting then, finally, tried out the Parmesan potatoes I found in the reels. Warmed the frozen, pre-cooked turkey and did a makeshift sauce with herbs from the garden. Since the winters are so warm there´s always thyme, sage and oregano at hand plus some other herbs. Potatoes turned out fabulous and will get a repeat more often, even hubby was impressed- mostly because it had been I who had found that reel. Usually it´s he who ploughs through those recipes...
The car show was a hit for the boys and included a warm meal (sponsored by hubby) and bread baking, so the trip lasted longer than expected. We had a late lunch, after hubby brought grandsons back home, heroically fending off Cassian´s attempts at getting to our house. Sorry, but the boys are supposed to be with us next Friday, though son surely won´t do the drive to Vienna to help his wife with dismantling her paintings (and bring them to Salzburg for the next exhibition in April) with his left arm in a cast.
In the afternoon I decided to change the beddings and turn the washing machine on- the next days are supposed to be rainy ones, which might dampen my energy for doing chores even more. Then I beat and afterwards dragged in the rugs, which had been airing for days now, vacuumed them and sprayed them with insect repellant. Won´t do so again- I had to do a lot of coughing during the act. More reading got done, then a neighbour called and invited me over. Maybe she wants to apologise for the trouble in form of her grandson, who does driving training in our private street. People better keep children and cats inside the next weeks...

Stuck at home

When the boys were here last time, Cassian talked about his brother having been sick the day before. Stomach pain, onto the loo all the time...Now guess who has got the same problem? Me, of course! Seems that I cannot say no to anything! So instead of taking my car and do a trip to Aldi for sweets I stayed at home near the toilet. The positive thing is that I was not able to invest in calories but lose a bit of weight instead. And good that I did not do the kiss and hug thing with family number one- they were wary already, when I got out of the car and started sneezing. No wonder, there are two willows blooming behind their house!
Hubby was busy in the garden all morning, cutting the bamboo I bought many years ago, a sort which should not grow rampant- didn´t anyone tell this to the bamboo? Husband mine also did a lot of conversation with neighbours. One of them was cutting down all shrubs- unfortunately before I was able to cut some sticks for Palmbuschen- the other was drinking one beer after another in the spring sun. This one is a strange lad- his father died last year, and son has taken the temporary grave cross from the cemetary, put it into the garden and pours beer over the makeshift grave now, when he himself is drinking. Does not even contemplate that his father might be alive still, had he broken with alcohol in time. Then again, with a son like this one... The bamboo appears to be tamed, tomorrow hubby wants to saw the yew down, which grows amidst the green of the bamboo. No clue how this one came to take root in our garden. Bad bird droppings, I´d say!
Saharan dust is mostly gone- must be because of the rain the weather forecast on my mobile told me was coming down all morning long. Only that we did not see a single drop of rain- the sun was shining all day long, still a bit yellowish, but way better than yesterday!
With the warm weather the farmers here are at their best- liquid manure gets spread over all the fields around, which are many. Gone are the days, when this vile act got done only when rain was happening...
I just caught hubby having a phone call with number two- husband will pick the boys up for a visit to a car show. I hope that he will bring them back to the parents before he comes back for lunch- he was not amused when he found me uilding Lego without Cassian. Lego is for children, hubby says. Hell yes, that´s why there´s a big 18+ on the front of the box!

Oh Schubert

Today a friend was to come for a visit. She did come, indeed. Even though yesterday evening DiL phoned to tell us she needed us for the boys. Hubby fetched them from kindergarten and was to bring them home to dad in the late afternoon. Dad called at three and asked hubby to bring them in the evening and stay with him, until they were in bed. You will now ask why! Son has decided to join a fitness organisation for students and teachers. First day of training, they played basketball, he took a tumble. This morning he was no more able to make use of his left hand. Went to the hospital- two broken metacarpals. Left arm is placed in a cast for six weeks. Cast will come off the day before the family will fly to Tunesia. Unfortunately I see a lot of Cassian-Flavius supervising ahead of us. DiL will not be delighted about the new situation- son does most of the housework when back from the bureau!

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