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Conservatory is for the plants now

I got up at five in the morning for a place elderly people tend to go during night (many do this way earlier), went to bed again and realised what had woken me- not a full bladder but some idiot, who had decided that concrete chipping at this early hour was a splendid idea. I got up again, went down to the living room, had a glass of water and continued my sleep on the sofa, though it was an unpleasant sleep- the room was too cold and my blanket too thin. Of course, hubby came down for breakfast early, as did daughter. Hubby went shopping- we got an invitation for goose lunch at number two tomorrow. Naturally it's me who has to do potato dumplings: son does not know how to do them, DiL won't do them, and we had no potatoes in the house. Meanwhile I cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed the ground floor, and daughter mine went for a sweater to brave the cold in the conservatory, so that she was able to continue with the jigsaw. Since I won the bet that son would ask for the dumplings it´s husnand mine who will cook them this time. Wow, two days without cooking for me! There was enough of the noodle casserole left for three for today´s lunch, since hubby sliced a pair of cabanossi and added the sausages together with cream and more cheese. Plenty of time tomorrow to finally continue with button hunting and help daughter with the Ikea box getting turned into a strange handbag. The jigsaw is finished. Or better said, mostly finished, because one piece was missing, which may well be with second-hand jigsaws.

I hate the way the last update on my mobile altered some settings on Android. I want the old ones back! Those were much nicer! Even my photo gallery is different. Why oh why! I really should ignore the request to update, but number one says it's not an option but a necessity! Though husband mine blatantly ignores his son's advice, and nothing bad has happened... as of yet!
Weather was fine for the last time. Sun, warm temperatures- terrace door was open for some time, with guest cat number one walking in and out at pleasure, while number two hopped onto the rattan chair outside and waited for getting petted and kibbles. From tomorrow on temperatures will drop, and we will get a foretaste of winter. That's an experience I'd love to go without- I do not need winter. Spring is nice, summer is what I love, autumn is meh, but winter sucks. Besides, snow should limited to over 1000 metres only. At least, this would prevent the yearly chaos in Vienna, when there´s one centimetre of white on the streets and life in the city will collapse...

(no subject)

Hubby went to Aldi alone- I overslept spectacularly, woke up at half past eight, when hubby's car drove off. In my defence, I had been awake from two to four in the morning, twiddling my thumbs, reading on my mobile, twiddling again...
So I took a shower, had breakfast, read the newspaper, did housework. Daughter also got up late. How one can skip breakfast is an enigma to me, but she can. Went straight to the conservatory and started with the jigsaw. It is as feared- now progress has slowed down considerably. We were debating about what to cook for lunch, when daughter found out that we had two litres of milk already expired. Hubby bought milk for family number three, but this time none of the four wanted it. And none of us here wants milk save for hot cocoa- but none will drink hot cocoa when it's 20 degrees outside! Eventually we decided on pasta bake with cheese sauce. Was okay, but definitely not tasty enough. At least, hubby had cooking à la maman. Damn!
Daughter decided on going shopping in the afternoon, but will return by bus later in the evening. Hubby will be at a classical concert again. As I said already- in case the boys are here they will be tied to my apron string. Reward will go to hubby in form of concert tickets. I think I should hate my life- then again, an evening without crime TV sounds acceptable to me!

Sharing

Daughter and I shared for breakfast what was left of the smoked salmon. We had one slice of toast each. The boys had two and a half- both of them. I vacuumed the ground floor then joined daughter for jigsawing. I have to say that she did exceptionally well, sorting in what I had sorted by colour. In the afternoon almost half of the jigsaw was done- but now we are getting to those parts I was not able to sort. Blessedly daughter has ordered from Amazon and decided to wait until tomorrow for delivery, so more time for her to help me. We had gnocchi with onion sauce for lunch- don't like it, but quickly done, which is fine for me. I am not a big fan of cooking at the moment. It's not because of the process of cooking itself but the things husband mine wants to eat. Funny, but each time the days get shorter he drifts towards 'I want to eat the things my mother cooked when I was a boy'. Unfortunately for him that's a definite no for me. That's why husband mine has altered his tactics and brings home mostly things that need imminent processing and go with his own meal plans. Husband is clever, this I have to admit. Tomorrow I will accompany him to Aldi, or we will live on potato dumplings and wurstnudeln. And all sorts of cabbage, of course.
In the late afternoon daughter mine started to scour the basement for things she needs for next week's Comicon in Vienna. She came back up with one red sweat shirt, a black clothes bag, white felt I have been searching for last year, adjustable straps- all will get turned into a huge black handbag with lips and teeth. The good thing is that tomorrowm daughter will return to her flat with hubby, they will pick up her bike (there's some person living in the house who's taken her bike out of the bicycle storage room twice to park it outside on the parking place) and the broccoli dying in her fridge, then the two will return to our house for sewing and crafting and hopefully more jigsawing. Thing is that four big plants have to move into the conservatory soonest- we are supposed to get snow next week. Jigsawing might be less fun then because of the critters which come along with the plants..

No such luck

I have been hunting for the missing buttons all morning. Went through the drawers in the bedroom. The studio is a mess. Alas, I was not successful. How is it possible that two boxes have fallen off the face of the earth? Granted, the boxes are not hugh ones, but neither are they tiny!
Three Amazon deliverers arrived during morning, bringing rusty stars, Elsa's Advent calendar and Christmas presents. Matthäus's things are still on their way, delivered by Austrian postal service. Means that delivery will take a bit longer. We had leftovers from yesterday for lunch, but now that daughter would come (hungry, as always) I decided to try Arabian yogurt soup. What can I say...fantastic? Rice, lentils, onions and meatballs cooked in a mix of yogurt and soup, seasoned with garlic, curcuma and berbere. Hubby ate three bowls!
The boys arrived at two thirty. First thing was having Cassian finish his homework. Apparently he does not do well in after school care. And his mum does not care if he neglects homework- she still thinks that such things have to be done in school only. So either his dad takes care of the problem (if he does not work late) or there's no finished homework at all. After homework the boys had a snack, then we started to furnish the lanterns. Afterwards we did paper stars for the conservatory- a tedious affair if one has to use real glue instead of glue stick. Lasted forever and a day until the glue dried up and we were able to cut shapes. Daughter came late, too late for jigsawing- it was dark already. She, too, loved the soup. Hubby prepared cold snacks for the boys' dinner- salmon and ham sandwiches. How can it be that those two rascals always come to our home when smoked salmon is in the house? And why does hubby always offer it to them? He already must know that they'll eat most of it? I hope there's enough salmon left for daughter and me for tomorrow's breakfast. Hubby left at six to put the boys to bed. Their mum is at the opening of her next exhibition. Their dad has to work late. Daughter and I turned the TV on and will watch a doku. But only if hubby does not come back early for the next prime time crime story...

So typical

Today I sewed together the cardigan's sleeves (after unravelling ten rows on each and producing a more appropriate top shaping). Darned in all threads- and the buttons I bought are still missing. It's hubby's fault- he was the one who unvoluntarily made me reorganize the content of the cupboards:)) Oh well, there's still time- tomorrow the boys will be here, so no time to search for buttons. We will do the wichtel laterns instead. Also daughter will come in the afternoon, alas, too late for jigsawing. She promised to stay the whole Thursday, but I know it's karaoke night for her, which she won't want to miss...
Otherwise it was a quiet day. Not much housework to do, only lunch-cooking turned out quite time-consuming- potato strudel with minced meat and a selfmade curry mayonnaise which I had to do twice. The first try ended up in a glass jar. I will use some of it for curried eggs tomorrow. Son did not want the train table for Matthäus for Christmas. He thought I'd better buy him a toniebox with four figurines. Costs? 152 euros. I am doomed. That's not what number three would want for his son, it's always DiL3 who does the choosing. This lady is a piece of work...
Anyway, the presents for Elsa and Matthäus are ordered and will arrive tomorrow. I'd better stay at home all morning, because Amazon deliverers always put the delivery in front of the entrance door instead of the terrace door, as specified on my Amazon account. I also ordered metal rings and rusty stars for handicrafting. Found some very interesting handicraft instructions on Facebook. Now comes the time when we have to lock either aunt Lil's or number four's room, to have a place where we can store Christmas presents. The basement isn't safe anymore- Cassian with Flavius in tow are very interested in getting down there. Hubby just caught them on Sunday, before they found grandchild number four's present...

Heigh-ho, heigh-ho

It's back, oh my! On Friday I got up at four in the morning for a tour de loo. That's when that song hit my sleepy brain and did not leave all day long. Today, at the same time, it happened again. I was even humming the tune when waiting for sleep to come back. Hubby was not amused. Me, neither. I don't get it- haven't watched the movie, did not even hear the song on TV recently. Dvarves must have digged a tunnel to my brain and sit there singing and making merry. I hummed the tune until afternoon- when doing housework, while jigsawing, while being outside. When I started darning in Elsa's cardigan I started humming the theme tune of Pumuckl. I think my brain is dying. Instead of being not amused hubby was absolutely bewildered. Understandable...
Since it was sunny and quite warm hubby and I have begun to install garlands of lights under the glass roof of the terrace. Hubby had to bike to the DiY shop twice, because he needed more clamps. Doing the tour twice must be because hubby loves biking, while I dislike to waste away precious working time- sun is behind the mountain ridge at one thirty in the afternoon. From then on it will cool down quickly. Needless to say that I had to hang the washing up late- it had been time for a change of bedding. Now the cloth hanger is in the house, blocking the way to the TV nook. Husband mine always puts it next to the wood stove, the narrowest place in the living room.
Our new guest cat is funny- she does not like to stay inside long but will show up at least ten times a day, pawing at the terrace door or at the windows. Trying to ignore the young cat lady is hard, because she gets quite loud when not let in...

Christmas is coming!

You will feel it in the air, but mostly in your purse. Today I bought four Advent calendars on Amazon. Cost me 100 euros. Good that family one does not do the thing with Advent calendars! Number three also sent me a suggestion for a Christmas present for Matthäus- a play table including two wooden trains, a village with trainstation and landscape. Another 100 euro gone. Well, the boy is my godson, so this is acceptable...
I did not do much in the morning- housework, jigsawing, a crossword puzzle and two sudokus. And I cooked lunch- roast pork and dumplings. After-lunch nap got cut short, because son number two with sons snowed in. The father had promised them ice with the apple strudel their mother had baked. Only that there was no ice in the freezer, so son decided he'd do a trip to our house. Apple strudel was so tiny that hubby had to add a cookie in addition to the ice. And we got more grandchildren- supervising time. Boys will be here on Wednesday. And December 5th to 8th. Daddy has to work. Mummy is off to Venice. I told husband that maybe I should have quit teaching to get out of the house without children tied to my apron strings more often, because apparently that's what only non-working mums can do. Hubby was not amused ( because of me, not DiL). Life is not fair...

And I thought...

...that my last shopping experience beyond the border had been bad! But I can tell you that this has been the last time I brought my lazy bum to a German shopping centre! I swear, never again on Saturday! My friend and I left at nine in the morning. Did a short detour to a flea market, where we watched one of our neighbours selling the things she gets bestowed by friends and neighbours. On the way to the shopping centre we found a new Tedi- in the building were once Kik had a shop, which got closed because the building was meant to house apartments. We found a lot of things we don't need but bought them nonetheless. One needs nice things in dark times! Then we arrived at the shopping centre. Fifteen minutes to find a parking space at the farthest end. Twenty to buy lunch for hubby. The grocery shop was swarming with people. I almost panicked- I hate crowds! My friend is short but has elbows made of steel. She fought her way to the things we needed. And since she looks like a grandma gone rabid no one complained. Yet it took us more than one hour to get all things. To the drugstore I had to navigate through a bulk of early Christmas shoppers who now waited to get their meal orders, their carts loaded with toys and decoration. Good luck, the waiting line was now twice as long as before. Finally fresh air! We skipped Lidl and went straight to Aldi, where I finally found those tiny Christmas lights I need for decorating. We bravely fought our way to our house through darkness and cold, for coffee and cake. And chatting, of course. Hubby was at home, fighting the cold inside. Heating was on, but the radiators refused to get warm. Hubby did a tour to all of them. Vented them. Vented them again. Finally he succeeded. Tomorrow he will refill water. Something is very odd with our heating. It has been tested only two? three? weeks ago and got declared fine. Hmm...absolutely not funny when it's only three degrees outside, with not a single sunbeam to be seen but a dark grey sky only. Tomorrow we might get a bit of rain, but rain is better than the fog we have at the moment...
When my friend had left I retreated to the bedroom with a cosy blanket and a Baumstamm- milk chocolate filled with marzipan. I watched the early darkness (pitch-dark at five thirty now) munching the sweet treat. Usually I won't eat chocolate, but there are days when I need sweets for comfort!

Frozen

Not as cold as feared, but not as warm as I'd hoped. Thick fog was all around. It started yesterday evening- when I came down for watching TV I was barely able to see my car. At least temperatures did not go down to zero during night then thanks to the fog! But today it was cool, only five degrees, and so dark that I did only half an hour of jigsawing (after having done all necessary housework, of course) then gave up. Originally I had wanted to do a tour over the border, but then my friend was not able to join me. She had to supervise her grandchildren- bomb alarm at their school. We have so many brain-damaged idiots here leading police on a merry chase! And children who won't be able to attend school, because schools will get closed then. And lots of parents, who have problems to take care of their offspring because of working schedule. Unfortunately those brain-damaged idiots rarely get tracked down. So we will do our shopping tour tomorrow, when considerably more people will be on their way in shopping- and garden centres. And no, I cannot wait until Monday, because I need some drugs which are definitely less expensive over the border. Strictly speaking- practically everything is less expensive over the border. What a blessing that said border is not far away!
I did not do much in the afternoon. Watered some plants with pest killers and put them onto the new shelf in the conservatory. Ordered Schleich horses and a new slide-viewer from Amazon, because Gucki went back to sister mine, and I still have to do the next round of filtering less interesting slides out. I am definitely not willing to scan more than 300 pictures no one wants to see! Hubby left for a concert at six, so it was a free evening for me. Alas, no PCing, the room is too cold for such an endeavour. I don't get it- heating is now on, I did not forget to close the windows- my guess is that hubby has screwed with the supply temperature! Not nice, because we are down to one degree at the moment! I had to put on my Slytherine socks and the polar bear jumper...

Perigee moon- who cares?

For days all newspapers here have been writing about the upcoming supermoon. Impossible not to watch it, go, get your view and take a photo! So I went outside, took a look, oh, there's the moon, looks as always, darn it's so cold, let's go back inside. No photos taken, not sure then if I picked up a cold. I definitely don't remember such a Let's have a look campaign for a piece made of iron, rock and moondust. But watching the moon in the cold did have consequences, unwanted ones: My nose was running all day long. I won´t die of a sneeze, at least I hope so. Bad enough that I forgot about my ficus, which has died for real- we had minus two during night and I did not bring the plant into the cover of the carport- the leaves were quite mushy when I found it. Will go into the organic waste bin tomorrow. Hubby had a lot of ice scraping to do, when he left for the insurance office this morning. But only after the chimney sweepers had finished their job. One of them had been at our house a few days ago, and son, who had opened the door, first thought that his cousin had come for a visit, so lookalike those two are. BTW: Sis called to tell me that her husband is in hospital- he did a tumble, sustained a laceration and got a pacemaker as a result. Sis is very worried, because his blood results did not come out clean, doctors suspect he has been suffering from untreated borreliosis and is on antibiotics now.
I had to reorganize some furnishings in the conservatory to make jigsawing easier. Apparently not easy enough, because I found a few pieces only. Will have to call daughter to the rescue, before Advent is here and she will be working again. In the late afternoon I dressed for shopping- I needed tissues and some toiletry. Also bought Grippostad and nosedrops at the apothecary- why is it that each time family number three is here Grippostad, nosedrops and Gaviscon for gastric protection are suddenly gone?
In the early evening husband mine noticed that we were close to zero degrees and made a run for the tarp in the garage, to cover the plants on the terrace. I think he is right, three out of four are not made for such temperatures. I know it´s November already, but all the last years the plants came in only towards the end of the month, and mostly because I was fed up with waiting for the real cold to drop. This year is a strange one here, with too warm days (not enough of them) and more cold than usual. I dread the upcoming winter...

Lazy, as always

When daughter is here it's getting up early, doing housework then wait for her coming down from her room to have breakfast. From then on it's mostly doing crossword puzzles, watching silly TV programmes- we found more episodes of Ancient Aliens with the lady straight from the Muppet show! Huzzah! Made our day! Tought daughter how to do Salmon galette (who says that galettes have to be fruity!) then we started another jigsaw, a smaller one this time, in the hope we (or better, I) will be able to finish before Advent starts. Only when daughter packed the things for the birthday party she noticed that we had painted the wrong side
of the colon. More paint mixing, more painting, more cleaning of tools followed. We did blow-dry the colon, so that daughter did not have to pick it up tomorrow- she's getting a visit from her Hungarian friend in the morning. My guess is that daughter dearest has a lot of flat-cleaning to do this evening. Serves her well! Not the cleaning of the kitchen is her problem, that she does immediately after cooking, but her washing machine gets turned on twice a week, and her clothes won't walk into the wardrobe by themselves. But she has plenty of salmon galette to not have to cook dinner- hubby gifted her what was left of today's lunch. After daughter had left, I had a phone call with a friend, before I finally resumed my fight with granddaughter's cardigan. Button border got added, now all I have to knit is the collar. Well, not today- I have been at a neighbour for maybe half an hour, bringing back the baskets she lent the children for Halloween. Had a short chat and one more cup of coffee, went back home and noticed that I forgot to close the bedroom window. It's five degrees outside at the moment, hence we have very low temperatures in the bedroom now. Too low for knitting or using my PC...

They´re back!

I had spa time in the morning, trying out a new aromatic oil to lessen my respiratory problems. Things have worsened during the last weeks, after the latest infection. I mostly feel it during night, but yesterday it bothered me all day long. I will have to seek advice at my doctor, maybe I have to increase the cortisone inhalations. Daughter got picked up by hubby at the nearby village at ten, and with her came the acrylic paints she had borrowed for colouring. Only that she and her friend had been so busy with chatting that both forgot about colouring, which had to be done in the conservatory today. But first we had to cut things like liver, lungs and other internal organs out from cardboard. Colouring, especially mixing the colours needed, was so much fun- there were times the colour hues we had created dried up before discussion ended. But we did it, even though husband mine did an excellent job in putting those glass plates we carried to the kitchen for a quick washing up into the dish washer, before we were able to bring them back to the conservatory for more colour mixing. I think we went through a whole set of plates, before I got a bit loud. Those coloured organs are designed for a party game for daughter´s friend´s birthday on Friday- similar to the Put the tail onto the donkey when blindfolded-game we did, when we were children. If you miss spectacularly- have a drink. Oh dear, I hope daughter will survive this game!
Daughter and I did quick ramen for lunch, the one where you put all indegrients into the pan then turn the electric stove on. Almost burned ramen (not enough soup) because I was so occupied with chasing hubby off, but my good sense of smell saved me just in time. After lunch daughter and I watched Ancient Aliens on TV while resting- fits of laughter included. Hubby´s commenting from the sofa were the best! Daughter and I did a short walk in the afternoon. The weather was fine, but I dislike the smell of wet leaves. Seems that we are behind the Let-the-leaves-fall schedule, at least here. Number four reported of most leaves down already. I heard that´s because the east of our country did not have the regular rain we had in our part, so that leaf fall started early this year. Back from our mini walk I found another box with slides and immediately sorted it out. I am still looking for one box I must have hidden really well. Need this last one for a last intense weeding out then filing then scanning. My dear father did only label very few of the slides, so it´s hard to get them in chronological order...

Why, oh why

This morning I decided to tackle the darn cardigan again. Knit one front blend first, started the second one but wanted to finish the left front first- it was up to the arm hole only. When up to the neckline I did a stitch count and found out that I had four stitches too many. Counted again, counted the other front- problem not solved. Until I realized that I forgot to decrease those four stitches when doing the armhole, so back down to it it was- this cardigan will be the death of me! So much time wasted already!
I did a quick cream of garlic soup with croutons for lunch, since hubby had bought way too much bread for Halloween. Blessedly I always cook for three people (hubby loves a repeat in the evening). This time daughter ate the rest- she snowed in in the afternoon, to take off with my acrylic paints she needed for a birthday project. Well, she will return tomorrow morning, to eat more of the cake I baked. When I started with the pear cake I noticed two things- hubby had eaten two ot the five pears I had put aside. One had turned rotten. I had to substitute with apples. The cake turned out acceptable, but definitely won't get a repeat. Sponge cake with oil is not my thing, but I forgot to take the butter out of the freezer.
In the late afternoon I met up with sis and BiL at the cemetery. Parking situation there is so bad that we decided to cancel the meeting for All Souls' Day and bring candles to the family grave today. Mum and dad won't mind, I'd say. Grandpa even less. The only thing he might complain about is that once again I did not bring him his beloved cigarettes. He smoked at least one package a day up to the day he died...

T'was nice

So funny to watch- DiL3 arrived, and Elsa was back to her usual self- louder even than before and so very selfish. It was do you want this, or that, or that- no wonder that today's children are the way they are. I had another short moment to recharge my batteries, when the children were off for Trick or Treating. When they came back with bags of sweets they also brought Luca, his parents and grandparents. I was silently thanking God and all divine powers for making me do all that cooking (which I thought was too much then). Hubby quickly brought in his selfmade bacon and made a batch of Frankfurter for the children. Not a single crumb was left, when all went home around ten in the evening. Even the spicy salmon salad Korean style was gone. I did a new apple strudel in the morning. DiL and son were up early, because their youngsters do not have to wait for the sun symbol on the clock to rise when with them. They were loud from six o'clock on. The children ate a small breakfast, the parents must have turned into hobbits. First breakfast with their offspring, second breakfast when hubby and I had ours, then DiL found the freshly baked apple strudel and ate most of it. The rest got eaten by son number three. Half an hour later DiL demanded cheese toast for her son. Hubby made two, then another one. A tiny bit got eaten by Matthäus, the rest by his always hungry parents. Sorry, each of the two had already eaten double as much as I usually eat a day. And then sis called, because she wanted to meet up with our son's family, and since son intended to leave after lunch she'd come for coffee and cake. Alas, the strudel was long gone, but hubby found profiteroles in the fridge. Sis and her husband left at twelve, and Matthäus demanded sweets afterwards. For the first time I was strict and told him to have lunch first. DiL was silently fuming, but I ignored her. I did not need another situation, when her child picked at his food and ate next to nothing. My house, my rules! Besides, lunch was ready to be served. The moment the family was finally off hubby poured us a shot glass of vodka, then we both had an extended rest, to catch up on sleep. A friend phoned in the afternoon and woke me. She wanted to know if I was well, and how the party had been going. I told her I would call her back tomorrow- will have to set an alarm for this. I am so bad at calling back...

I have been...

...up early. Elsa was up at five and switched her tablet on. I ordered her to turn it off and wait for the sun symbol on the clock. Funny that she followed my order. At six thirty (that's when the symbol appears) she and Cassian were in bed with me, watched a Ninjago video then went down for breakfast. From then on I was cooking non stop- two strudels, salmon galette, pear-gorgonzola galette, salmon noodles. And lasagne for lunch, of course. At two in the afternoon I was dead on my feet but could not go to the bedroom, because Flavius was napping in our bed. So I decorated the artificial Christmas tree with ghosts and little brooms. Hubby carved the pumpkin then did a last minute shopping. At three in the afternoon family number three arrived. Cassian had just gotten picked up by his mum for a Halloween party at his school friend. That's when I finished writing my daily post. Chaos has reigned from then on but more of it tomorrow..

Am dead...

Elsa turned her tablet on at five in the morning. Hubby turned it off. We slept a bit longer, got up at seven (after granddaughter had secretly watched another episode of whatever she is used to watch), had breakfast, I went upstairs to start a much needed cleaning of the shower (no clue how number four managed to do such a mess in such a short time) then daughter mine arrived, and Elsa was over the moon to meet her again. Means that she did not stop chatting. Loudly, as always. At half past nine they left for the tourist mine, and I made me more coffee to get through the day. No more posting about today will get done- for lunch we will be seven people (okay, three small ones who eat as much as adults), there's still a lot of cooking to get done, and then those three small ones will stay overnight. Hubby and I are still contemplating the sleeping arrangements, but it's pretty much a done deal that I will end up with Elsa and Cassian taking over the guestbed in the studio- which can be expended to full size since the rearranging of the furnishing. My bad!

All went fine?

Well, most of it. Granddaughter went to bed without problems. We invented a funny fairy tale, before I put her under the duvet and turned the fairy lights on. Turned them off when I went to bed at eleven, husband hard on my heels. Until four all was well, but then my digestive system played another prank, and I spent the rest of the night downstairs on the sofa which feels like a cement block clothed in velvet. Hubby and Elsa came down at seven, just when I finally managed to fall asleep. Oh my God- hubby was off at eight thirty, and Elsa and I were, too! First stop Tedi for furnishment of the Wichtel lantern (of course, Elsa wants one, too). Next stop Smyth Toys, because Matthäus, my godson, will get some Duplo to bribe him. Elsa got Karajan, the cat from School of the Magical Animals. Last stop Ikea, where I finally bought another artificial Christmas tree, one which does not look like as if made of paper. No, it looks and feels like solid plastic. No clue what's worse. Also bought two red pillows for our cement sofa, a lantern for Elsa and meatballs for lunch. Son's train was one and a half hour late- no wonder, it came from Germany, where trains are almost always late. Hubby took Elsa to two shops to buy a belt for her. No success, it's either trousers with belts or no belts at all. Hubby opted for the second.
Tomorrow hubby, Dil2 and daughter mine will take Elsa, Cassian and Flavius to another tourist mine. I will stay at home and rest. While hubby prepared tomorrow's lunch (spooky noodles with red and white sauce) I did some knitting but had to admit defeat- too tired, too demotivated. But...we will take the cardigan with us, when we will do a trip to St. Pölten in early November, to bring Elsa my scaffold I am giving away, together with canvas and acrylic paints. Yay! More things decluttered!

She's here...

..and I am dead beat- after only a few hours. That girl is a living disaster. Lunch alone wss a challenge, and only her father- strict for once- made her eat her a tiny helping of frittatensuppe and one omelette with jam. Tomorrow she wants lasagne with red sauce only. And a toast with processed cheese of a local brand which isn't sold here for dinner. And that girl is loud, so very loud! I think I might go mad soon! The funny thinh is that our number four decided to leave not today but tomorrow at lunch time. He played a lot with Elsa. For example- football in the house with a soft ball is fun, even though coffee cups will topple over when hit. I brought number three to the train station, turned the TV on for Elsa, prepared bacon sandwiches for granddaughter and hubby then sat down to get some quiet. Forget about it- that girl won't stop talking and singing. At seven, when hubby's TV programme for retired people (that's what I call it) started, I did reading exercises with Elsa, practised her recorder homework, sent her to the bathroom to brush her teeth and dress for night. She insisted on inventing a fairytale before going to bed- with me, of course. Hubby is definitely not suitable for fairytales!

Still too cold...

...for my liking, but skiers will be delighted about the amount of pristine snow on the mountains. I got up at five and slept on the sofa of the living room for the rest of the night. Spicy chicken Korma wreaked havoc on my digestive system, and I did not want to wake husband dearest by running to the loo. Hubby had not even noticed that I wasn't in bed anymore- our bedroom has to be pitch-black during night, otherwise hubby needs a sleeping mask- and woke me when setting the table for breakfast. After tidying the kitchen (a warzone, when number four is at our house, because he does after-midnight snacks) I measured my writing desk out, told hubby it would fit in the space between wall and rack, hubby came, measured again, asked me to clear the rack, because it had to be moved- it would not fit. Did so, studio looked as if a bomb had hit, hubby and son dragged the rack off to the right a bit, the desk came onto its new place, then it turned out that the rack had been in exactly the right position- before. Hubby is a dork! Son reinstalled PC, lamps and drawing board, I put things back into the rack, which was a project for the rest of the day, because it also involved a lot of decluttering. Also had to cook (meat balls in tomato sauce with garlic bread). I had two phone calls with son number three, who has decided to have lunch at our house after the exhausting train ride (a good two hours) then wants to be brought back to the train station for the journey back home. Highly probably at the same time when number four needs to be brought to another train station the other way. Well, we still have two cars ( which is one car too many). Unfortunately next to no knitting got done, which does not bode well for Elsa's cardigan. Maybe there'll be some progress in front of the TV during today's prime time programme...

Best dream ever

This night I rearranged my studio. In my dream, of course. With the help of my family. Not so sure about if this might happen. I mean, it's about work we are talking! The dream was very realistic- the people, the furnishing. The dust at the top of the cabinet. Then there were three burglars on the scene, wanting to rob me...now it got tricky, because there'd been nothing to take away save for a bit of drawing equipment and poor old Ashmael. I know I was fighting one of the burglars, because Ashmael held important data. Ashmael does so, indeed. Maybe less important but interesting. Juicy, mostly, because there are folders with old writing hubby would definitely think interesting. In came DiL 1, wielding a bunch of scallions to fight the invaders. One burglar stumbled, fell and got hurt. Two made it out of the house via bathroom window. DiL, a medic, put the last, hurt burglar into a bed in the hall and brought him soup. Nursed him, while I was going through the folders of valiant Ashmael, to find out if he had kept my secrets safe. Oh, I forgot about grandson bravely fighting all the spiders that came out into light, when we moved the guestbed to its new place. In a Halloween costum, wielding a real light sword. My question was- why were burglars so frightened by a bunch of scallions, when there was a real weapon nearby? And why was the one left in the bed so terribly afraid ot the cowboy pistol in my hand, found in one of the drawers, together with a cowboy outfit for carnival. One I did not fit in anymore, not even in my dream? But I remember old slides, when I wore such an outfit...
After so much nightly excitement both hubby and I totally overslept. I had a quick breakfast then started to clean the conservatory- again. I haven't even brought in the outdoor plants, yet found lots of new spider webs. Where's that darn grandchild with the light sword when one has need of them? Hubby screwed the artificial window on then was off to number two, to do janitor work. I was left with the house cleaning, which I begin to hate. Scrubbed the bathroom, prepared ingredients for the cake I needed in the afternoon. Had another phone call with sis. Now she needs Gucki back, because I sent her some slides my father has taken of her aeons ago- Gucki is a tiny slide-viewer. She will have to wait, I found another box I have to sort out first. Blessedly hubby found Halloween Leberkäse in the grocery shop, when he was on his way to number two, so no lunch cooking. I did not manage to knit a single stitch until then. Just when I was wiping the floors hubby came back, so the mudroom had to be wiped again- hubby never looks at the conditions of the floor he is stepping on.
We prepared lunch, the cake came out of the oven looking wobbly, even though it had been in almost twice as long as told in the recipe, and after lunch I was finally able to lie down. Stomachache is back, because I had taken painkillers. When in bed I noticed that my shoulder, this time the left one, had started acting up. I know now- crocheting irritates the right shoulder, knitting the left. When my friend arrived, we had creamy, very good Swedish cheese cake with apple sauce, then the two of us went to the conservatory and unravelled more of the cardigan. I was even able to knit quite a lot while gossipping. Friend left at seven, I went up to the studio but promptly made myself comfortable in my bed, hidden under the duvet- it was 17 degrees in the studio. Yes, it's cold outside. Maybe hubby should finally turn the heating on all day through...