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Wine does what it says in the warning

I had three glasses red yesterday evening- very appreciated when having to watch a catastrophic football game performed by our national team. Best thing was when all of a sudden a player took out a piece of green and found a deep hole in the park. When someone came running with a bucket of soil I had a laughing fit, so hubby sent me to bed. We won, barely, and only by the help of a penalty wrongly given. But, oh, I slept through! Nothing did wake me, no music, no party, no cow, and most of all, no overactive bladder! Even the neighbours slept in, that's a new. There's always one ready for starting a ruckus!
Hubby intended to meet up with family number two for lunch at the fair next village. Only that DiL came home at two from meeting friends and was fast asleep all morning. So no lunch at the fair, which meant I had to cook. That woman is messing up all plans! At least hubby got his much needed after-lunch nap! It took until four in the afternoon till DiL was ready to go the fair. Hubby was off on the bike, I harvested another batch of tomatoes. Tomatoes did not do well in July in the west, where prices for local fruits went up to eight euro per kilo. Hubby must have dined on tomatoes worth a fortune- he can't live without them. Harvesting was not so easy-spiders are everywhere now, even in the tomato plants. Hate it, hate it, hate it! I have sprayed insect spray along the terrace door, so that they might consider staying outside. Hubby has vacuumed spider webs in the living room. Has to do so almost each day now- autumn is in full swing now. Just got reminded by FB that six years ago I had been bemoaning the end of the pool season, because the water had reached the critical temperature of 23 degrees. Reading this I had another laughing fit. It's been a long time that our pool water had 23 degrees, and I was in the water then, to make up for missed bathing time in July. Which might have added to the tendinitis- swimming against the counter-current system is straining!
Weather should have been sunny today, alas, the sun was not to be found most of the time. It got a bit better in the afternoon, so that temprratures went up to fabulous twenty degrees. I took my phone and sat on the terrace for reading when Whatsapp began to send
notifications- daughter sent me pictures of their karaoke night. All is well with the ladies, I hope it will stay this way!
There'll be an eclipse of the moon this evening we most likely won't be able to see. Too early in the evening, too many clouds, too many hills and mountains around to see the blood moon rising. One needs to live in a plane area to watch the spectacle. Next opportunity: December 31st, 2028. If I'm still alive then...

It's September 6th...

...and it was six degrees in the morning. I spent the second part of the night (the one after the tour de loo) huddled under the duvet- of course, the bedroom window was still open. It's early September, windows will stay closed from November on only. I already hate the oncoming cold days without fresh air in the bedroom!

wiseheart- your suspicion got confirmed, someone is indeed trying to break my sleep. This time another farmer was the culprit, or more correct, another cow from the farm up the hill was in need of a sperm donor. The constant mooing started at five in the morning.There were moments when I thought the cow was in our garden...
Husband mine left at ten to help son with the mahagoni book shelf. We had thought DiL had finally given up on buying it, because it would neither fit in my car nor on the trailer. But the seller himself brought it to son's house, and today son and hubby had to bring it into DiL's work room via balcony. Of course, DiL had ´forgotten´ to clear the old shelves and had hubby watch her offspring while she finally did what she could have done yesterday or this morning. Good that I was not there, I might have given her a piece of my mind! But I had decided to clear out one of my dresser- one of the drawers is defect, so all has to come out, a lot of the all will wander straight into the bin. I also found the culprit which damaged the drawer- heavy boxes with slides I was supposed to sort through. I rememmber that I did so with some boxes, but more came in when sis started decluttering the flat. That´s when I must have bowed out and the drawer collapsed-slides are heavy! Later I sat in the conservatory contemplating the jigsaw, when I heard an ominous bang coming from the main street. Soon after there was police, ambulance and a helicopter. Another biker who made acquaintance with a car. Most likely one who ignored the wide cycle way separated from the main street by a boulevard strip. I do not get it that this us allowed in Austria. Most idiotic rule in a country which favours idiotic rules!
Naturally hubby came late for lunch, finally bringing the Frankfurters meant to go into the potato soup. I did not rest after lunch today- I was home early yesterday, so no dire need for sleep. My friend had a cold and even she noticed that I was keeping my distance when I was at her flat- there'll be plenty of colds brought to me via grandsons, as soon as school and kindergarten have started. I do not need one now! So I sat on the terrace and did read a bit. When hubby was off on his bike I unfortunately I got bored- I had already watered the plants then, had torn out two tomato plants which had given up (the fruits, still unripe, are in a bowl with the last apple of the season), it was too warm in the conservatory for jigsawing, So I unboxed the throw. I swear I was careful, did only one row (which is 190 stitches). Now let´s see what my hand will tell me tomorrow...

Farmer's disco

During yesterday evening's TV programme hubby and I got startled thrice by gun salutes. More were to be heard when I was in bed. At two in the morning I woke to disco music. Better, what I thought was appropriate disco music when I was young and definitely not in a disco, because I already had a child to take care of. Music lasted until four in the morning. That was when the farmer switched from hosting his birthday party to farmer feeding the cows. The cows will be off towards the end of the year, as will be the farm machinery. Another farmer who throws in the towel. Wish he had done so a year earlier, and Schnuckele the cat might be alive still! It must be strange, sad even- having three children and none of them interested in farming!
Another cold and rainy day- I got up late (discoing does that to an old body), did the usual (breakfast, shower, a bit of housework) then plucked the leaves off the stems of the lovage to do lovage paste for seasoning. The boys love it, I love it, hubby not so much. The poor guy must have had too much of it when living at home. I have to admit that it was some sort of a culture shock to see the huge Maggi bottle placed on the table at husband's parental home. Lag(u)ena? non grata at our home then- my father forbade my mother to buy Maggi, even though it might have added much needed taste to mum's cooking. But lovage turned to condiment paste adds freshness to soups and minced meat I'd say!
Still no crocheting or knitting, but also next to no jigsawing- it simply was too dark to continue because of the darn weather. I did not reach my goal of twenty pieces a day I had set for the first week of daughter's absence (30 during the second week, 40 during the third and so on) to finish the jigsaw of doom. I maybe got ten, if at all. That's also because hubby's ex-colleague came for a visit, the one with the bad-mannered dog. Only that the dog is not bad-mannered anymore but nice. Pico slept under the table for almost three hours, because her owner did not want to leave. Good doggie, bag owner! Hubby as well as I nurtured a growling stomach- we are used to having lunch at two. That's when the lady finally left. Of course, I had to cook lunch then. Good that we had gyozas in the freezer...
At three we had a veritable thunderstorm with strong winds. Temperatures went down to 12 degrees. Today would have been a nice day for shopping, except that it´s the last Friday before school will start and all shops will be swarmed with last minute buyers! It would also be a nice evening to turn the heating on, alas, repair work is not yet finished. One valve is still on the run, the one hubby bought at the DIY market, where strange clients must do a game of change the contents of the boxes. Hubby will have to go back to get the right valve. DIY market says that this has happened quite often during the last weeks. Some people must have a very boring life... Good thing is that only hubby will have to suffer from the cold inside the house, because I will be off at four to meet a friend, non-alcoholic prosecco with me, so that I will be able to safely drive back home in the (late) evening! Idiot clients or not- hubby has had plenty of time to bring the wrongly dimensioned valve back and get the right one! Maybe he read only half of the weather forecast and ignored the two cool days, before a minor heat wave with 26!!! degrees might hit us on Sunday and Monday!

I don´t get it

Yes, we were supposed to have the boys today- after Flavius had finished his after-lunch sleep. But DiL brought them at one. No after-lunch sleep, no, worse, no lunch at all! Our kritaraki had chillies in the sauce- too spicy then. Hubby made palatschinken. We ignored the napping- imagine, DiL had the gall to check if the guestbed was made for her son's resting- and were off to Tedi and Action. Let mummy struggle with a grumpy son in the evening, that's what e thought. I don't care anymore! The boys loved Tedi- so much to see no one needs but buys anyway. We got some new decoration for Halloween, though it seems that Tedi went from Halloween straight over to Christmas. Our Wichtel now has a cosy rocking chair and a red bike. Not a bit of sleeping got done by the boys, not even in the car. As I said- let the parents struggle with the two. Unfortunately, the parents didn't come in contact with their offspring before seven in the evening- that's when hubby brought them boys to their home in son's car and picked mine for going back home. Even though DiL was supposed to get her sons at our house at six. The only good thing was that Cassian managed to find four pieces in the jigsaw- the boy seems to have an eye for colours...

Bland day

I slept like a log until five in the morning and was wide awake from then on. Did some reading on the tablet PC, listened to the delivery of the daily- we have a new delivery woman, a very chatty one who talks loudly on her mobile when walking to the post box, besides, her car must be on the verge of falling apart- defect exhaust, same with the gearshift, and if she will slam the door so loudly more often it will fall off sooner or later. But it's sort of nice to hear the surroundings awaken. The buzzard is the first one in the morning doing patrolling, followed by the magpies holding a meeting. Lots of magpies around at the moment! Those birds are pretty but really loud, and they are accustomed to meet on the roof of neighbour's garden shed, which is directly opposite the bedroom window.
Hubby was off to buy meat for the new bacon season. I stayed at home, put on fresh bedding, stuffed the used one into the washing machine and turned it on. Even hung it on the clothes rack without hubby's help- my hand is far from healed but definitely better. Finally! Lunch was Greek omelette hubby style (with tomatoes, spinach and feta) and salad. After lunch I went up for a nap, alas, daughter's godmother came, woke both hubby and me and sat with us for a chat. Since daughter had checked in early yesterday and had breakfast in the VIP lounge thanks to nice colleagues who won't give a damn what their boss told them she was not able to take leave of goddaughter. The VIP lounge gets catered by the owner of the airport restaurant, a very unpopular person, who often forgets about the bonus for the airport staff. So breakfasting in the VIP lounge for those who aren´t supposed to is a retribution. I showed the newest pictures daughter had sent me, mostly of huge shopping centres which seem to impress the ladies, who were fighting off jet lag- their rooms were not yet free for moving in at ten in the morning! I was fighting off signs of fatigue, too. Why can´t I live my life in peace, at least for one day! Tomorrow the boys will be back again, because the parents will buy new bathroom equipment. They do this every five years- maybe I better hide my furnishing magazines next time, when DiL´s at our house for a visit! Who needs new bathroom equipment so often!
In the late afternoon husband mine did another tour for antifreeze mixture for the pool. Still sold out- or not yet in. Not many people will ready their pool for winter in early September. Apparently there are lots of frustrated pool users this year, just like hubby and me! So maybe, if DiL won´t wait until Flavius has slept the full two hours she wants him to sleep (so that she can sleep, too) the boys can do a last mini dip into the cold water then dress for Action shopping...

Someone remind me...

please, that I shall never plan to do another long journey together with daughter mine. It began with the pictures she took during our stay in London- got them today. I think I reminded her to give them to me twice a week. Then there was the packing. Not a clue how we have managed this until now, but our house is a mess and will stay so until tomorrow, when I hopefully will feel like tidying. Daughter had spread things she wants to take with her all over the rooms. Began doing so in the morning, so that I was tempted to bar the door to the sleeping room, where I had taken refuge. Hubby left twice together with her to buy things she had forgotten. My stash of Anti-Grippin is no more. Insect protection spray? In her suitcase. Face lotion, nail polish? Off to Korea. I tried not to think too much of what was about to wander off but gave her a slip of paper so that she was able to write down all things, so that I will not search for them in vain but restock. Then I went to the kitchen to prepare lunch- cooking does indeed help me in such situations. Only that I was barely able to cut the Guanciale for the spaghetti, because my hand is getting worse. And yes, I did a bit of crocheting but will have to stop for real now. After lunch I was asked to decide which clothing she should take with her. At five the suitcase was mostly packed, and daughter and hubby were off again to get some snacks for the trip. And Mozartkugeln... what for?
Today was Elsa´s first day of school. She was so happy about her school cone. I was not happy how she was dressed- looked as if there´d be a skirt missing. Hubby was put out about this- our children have always been dressed with utmost care. Maybe it´s different towards the east of the country, and we just don´t know about this practice! Now it´s time for a proper rest- I will open a bottle of cider and sit on the terrace for a while, after daughter had called some minutes ago and asked me to search for her passport (which I found immediately). That girl is driving me crazy...

Counting airplanes

...instead of sheep. Should be more efficient because of the wait between those, which might tire me. Only that I was interested whereto all those planes might go and turned the flight radar on. At one thirty I gave up, went to the loo, to bed again and ended the first part of nightly recreation, when hubby, who always follows suit, managed to create a ruckus by unintentionally clearing a shelf by throwing some of its content down while angling for the light switch. When back I did not get much more sleep, because a neighboured family started their third summer vacation, and the girls were swarming the back garden at five thirty in the morning together with their Rhodesian ridgeback. It definitely did not help that daughter started a Whatsapp discussion about the absurd regulations of Eurowings- this morning a passenger had to stay grounded aka at home because of a cast that wasn't a split cast. Split cast makes sense with a freshly contracted fracture. Definitely not, when the fracture happened three weeks ago and the non-passenger was in possession of a fit-to-fly approval...
I did not get up early, but I did read a lot to bridge the time, until I deemed it was best to get up and make breakfast. Weather was fine but not warm enough to consume ham and eggs on the terrace- eleven degrees only. Oh yes, autumn is here in its full glory. Only that I do not like and have never liked autumn. First it was, because school started and I was a schoolgirl not so fond of school. Later, because school started and I had to teach students. And now it's because autumn reminds me of withering away. Which is what the vegetation does each year, and people do it from the day of birth. Only that the process is more visible at an advanced age...
I did not have to cook tonight- hubby wanted us to eat at a Greek restaurant, but only after daughter had done what chores had to be done before she will leave for vacation. Tidy the flat, pack clothes into the bags we had provided and bring it to our house, where she has room enough to pack the suitcase and whatever she intends to take with her. I had half a piece of Topfenstrudel to bridge the time between breakfast and late lunch/early dinner. We did not go to my favourite Greek restaurant but to the posh one hubby favours. Well, since it's his turn for paying I won't complain. Next time we will definitely go for the cozy ambiente of the other Greek. Posh restaurant and an achy hand did not make for a good combination, since I was barely able to cut my meat myself and had to rely on daughter's help. I practically ate only left-handed, ignoring the glances of other guests. But I had to admit that everything tasted wonderful...
Back home we had to do two loads of laundry then continued with the jigsaw. Slowly but surely we are progressing. One more day and I will have to do that job alone. Maybe a booster seat might be helpful for a better overview...

Idiotic dreams which I don´t remember

I fell asleep again easily after returning to bed this time and had the most idiotic dreams ever. I only remember the one when I was sent to copy a highly illegal pamphlet- the copying machine was placed at the outside of Schloss Mirabell, in the Mirabellgarten, and tourists were trying to get a look at my copies. I, too, but I was never able to decipher the text. In the early morning I got woken by farmer´s cow. It´s about time to either turn this one into steaks or give her what she´s looking for- a bull. No fun when that darn animal exposes people down the valley to constant mooing. Bad enough that they also have that very persistant rooster who does waking calls at two in the morning! At twelve I left the house to pick daughter up at the airport, while hubby did lunch- salmon, again! I was not amused, because I had forgotten to buy antihistaminics for my allergy. It took me some time to get back home- traffic jam in both directions. Salmon was a bit overcooked. Needless to say that I concentrated on the dill potatoes and left salmon to daughter and hubby...
Sister mine had called at ten in the evening the day before, when I had been in bed already. She wanted to inform me that her family intended to come this afternoon. I was not happy about it, but then there´d be one Leander, my nephew and the only one in sis´s family blessed with humour. Lots of humour even! We had three prefabricated apple strudels, all with raisins to hubby´s horror. Leander must have eaten one whole. My guess was that sis had not served lunch, as she often does. Leander and daughter mine rocked the coffee party by telling anecdotes straight from their working life, some of them where hilarious. For instance the one when the orchester my nephew works had toured and accidentally managed to load the instruments of the local orchestra and bring them to Switzerland. Needless to say that the local orchestra was only able to perform again some days later, when the instruments got returned. Lil and Leander even went to the conservatory to continue with the jigsaw, which ended with all of us searching for fitting pieces but finding none. Six adults in the conservatory were a few too many... The family left at six in the evening, and daughter started a washing marathon for her new clothes. She was not sure if some of them would bleed out. None did, so she can act as she is used to since having lived in NZ- cram all your stuff into the washing machine and see what will happen. A lot must have happened during such washing cycles, because when daughter returned we had to replace most of her clothing- who loves grey-blue on every piece of garment! I think it will not be so different this time- the girls who will start their trip on Tuesday have no clue where to dine but have successfully located washing salons near their hotel...

Day one with Voldadol

It´s definitely not a bout of rheumatism but `tendinitis`. Gets worse when I do crocheting and the like. I wandered off to Voltadol, but, of course, no handiworks at the moment. At this rate the throw might be finished next year. In all honesty, that was the dead line for the second throw I intend to do. Does not look like as if this will happen...
Sister has invited herself and her family into our home on Sunday. Definitely not funny, because this will be a day of driving back and forth between daughter´s flat and our house. I know daughter mine, which means that I am aware that one drive will never do, because essential things for her journey to Korea and Japan will still be at her flat when her suitcase waits to get packed at our house. She is chaotic, and husband mine will be all too willing to drive her, as long as he is able to escape sister mine and her husband. That´s absolutely unfair, since it´s me then who has to do all the talking, and sister mine is not so different from the Spanish Inquisition. Daughter also is not that much interested meeting her aunt, since stupid sister of mine thought if funny to try to bring her niece and her archenemy from school days together, mostly to take personal advantage. Had the young man and his father twice over for help. Yup, that´s my sister to a T. Even if she looks like a hardy woman- she is a master at delegating work she is supposed to do herself to others. Hubby is able to tell a thing or two about that! I had a good laugh when I learned that archenemy will spend the ice hockey season in his new flat in Graz instead of Salzburg and will rent out his flat here- I sincerely hope to a family with two or more kids, would serve sister well!
Since I am a bit handicapped at the moment not much got done today. I studied the crocheting instruction for the throw- it´s an easy one I choose for re-entering the world of crocheting. Did clean the bathroom on the upper floor- not perfectly, but still. Cooked mango-chicken- curry for lunch and stole the only chillie we got this year- the one hubby wanted for dinner, which is mostly cold cuts and bread (and chillies apparently) here. Had a long nap after lunch, did find exactly eight pieces in the jigsaw then waited for daughter´s arrival. Well, she came, but too late for helping with the darn jigsaw of doom- it was already too dark thanks to the sh.. weather we have. It had been clouded all day long, but in the afternoon heavy rain was back, and temperatures, which were acceptable till then dropped again. Now we are down to eighteen, but there´s more cold to come. Plus we got a storm warning, came out of the blue, which meant that hubby and I had to clear the terrace of things that might fly off, which were many...

Look what we have here!

It's rain, precious rain of which we had so much this summer that hubby's favourite occupation was pump the excess of pool water out into the canalisation and do a better roof for the tomatoes so that they won't drown. In knowledge that our weather was about to change from mediocre last summer days to autumn during afternoon I got up early, did the daily housecleaning chores then told hubby to ready the pool for me. I meant him to uncover it and maybe fish out dead spiders. He took the robot and let it run its course- one and a half hour of frolicking in the water missed- that's the time robby needs for cleaning. We had a swim after hubby returned from biking to the grocery shop, I took my throw-in-spe, managed one long row (yes, I do crochet even though my hand is still hurting) when strong winds began to bring in the clouds. I did not even manage to finish cooking lunch before the rain started. I threw a tantrum, had a short, last swim (why is it so hard to let go of pool time, and this year it's even worse, because there's been so few of it, not that it's ever enough), took a shower to warm me up then took my plate with rose tteokbokki and had lunch on the terrace, morosely watching the rain pouring down. At least there's now a glass roof between me and the rain water...
In the afternoon I had a phone call with a friend who will leave for another vacation tomorrow. Now one week on a sailing ship would not be my first choice to spend a holiday, but it´s still better than staying at home and babysit the grandchildren, which hubby and I did all summer long. Now that Cassian will start school we fear that the situation might even worsen- DiL has made us known that school is school and being home means leisure time. I think she will be in for an unpleasant surprise in form of homework her son has not done during after school care. Then what, dearest lady? Oh yes, I see it coming, hubby picking the boy up in the afternoon, to oversee homework getting done and picking the other boy up, too, because kindergarten is next to the school- even less inconvenience for the stressed mother! What will she do with her free time then- do more paintings? Watch Romanian TV? Phone calls with friends (in Bucharest, she does not have real friends here)? I think it will be number three followed by two. Definitely not doing dinner, because that´s daddy´s job, as well as being in charge of the boys when he is back from work. It´s pathetic! Most of all because my former colleague told me the same family situation is happening with one of her sons, who even has to bring offspring to school before he goes to work, because mummy is in the gym already. Today´s women are strange, very strange...
Our internet is not working properly. PC is running okay, that one works with cable. Mobile internet is teetering between on and off, which affects my tablet PC. Not good, when I am at the beginning of the crossing of the stitches in the throw and have to listen what the lady in the video is telling me to do. I fervently hope that husband mine will figure out what's wrong...

It's back, algorithm and other inconveniences

Bad hand is bad again. Yesterday evening I thought I'd hit my thumb. During the nightly tour-de-loo I noticed that I could not move my wrist properly once more. Blimey! I had done a tiny bit of crocheting, now that can't be the reason! So it's back to diclofenac and pantoprazole for a while...
Son talked about Youtube and Tictoc and the like having hard days ahead, because EU will start tigthening security rules, so that young people won't be able to use those media. Using algorithms will be standard, and if there'll be video clips for younger people on the list one will have to provide ID in form of an official document aka passport, which shows the date of birth. That does not bode well for me, since Cassian, Flavius and I are used to sharing my tablet PC...
I had a nice shopping day- since my hand hurt my friend picked me up instead of having me do the drive. I now have more wool, still no crochet hook (they sold the same one I have, which is so wrong when one does a throw), I stocked up on Chinese foodstuffs, bought sanitary products, two magazines and some pretty cool stuff for Cassian's school cone. Afterwards friend and I went to a coffee shop for iced coffee Viennese style. Back home we had more coffee and coconut cake. Poor hubby, he had to wait for his Leberkässemmerl, because I was quite late to bring him lunch. Friend left in the afternoon and I was finally able to do a last dip into the pool, even though the weather was far from what we were supposed to get: mostly clouded and only moderately warm. Now whereto has the hottest day of the week wandered off? Boys were here, too, had a swim, got the last Leberkäse then left to keep their mum off her online class. Unfortunately our neighbours started a barbecue using huge amounts of meths on wet wood- neighbourhood got swamped with smoke, I almost coughed my lungs out and had to retire to the bedroom with asthma spray. After I had recovered I helped hubby with the terrace- we are supposed to get thunderstorms so we collected towels and swimwear to put all into the washing machine, piled the chairs and did more spider hunting- those beasts are already plotting home invasion! One more reason to dislike autumn...

I survived...

...but barely! Too much family, too many neighbours, but all in all it was a nice weekend, even though the weather was awful, as always. We remembered the good old days, when I had a garden party for my birthday and we'd even take a swim in the mini pool we had then. Daughter worked hard this weekend- first as a baker, then as a waitress for the guests, and when all was quiet she sat in the conservatory to help with the jigsaw. Oh dear, that 'girl' is so good at finding pieces! Must be because she is rather tall and I am what we call a Sitzriese.
This morning I did a quick tidying of the living room, before I joined daughter in the conservatory. Almost half of the jigsaw of doom is done now, so maybe I will be able to finish, before Elsa will join our household at the end of October, and she and Cassian will want to decorate for Halloween all over the house. Yes, we decorate. No, we don't do so on the first day of September, the way our relatives have done. No. No, thanks! Besides, there's still so much other work to be done- eliminate more plants (especially those which tend to get mealybugs), dismantle the plant shelf, clean and paint the low section of it and and and...
Today's weather was sunny with only a few clouds in the afternoon- but 21 degrees only. We have been deflating pool toys and hubby's lounge seat- pool water is 20 degrees now thanks to this year's no-summer. Not even hubby will risk bladder infection! Since my right hand works fine again (and the left starts to act up, but only a bit) I continued with the throw. On Wednesday I will do a drive over the border with a friend and will go to the wool shop for a next new crochet hook. Either my eyes are failing or my fingers get clumsy (or both), but I am missing the target aka stitches way too often because of the extra round tip of that new hook I have recently bought! At the moment crocheting is no fun, so I decided to turn the runny coconut mousse-au-chocolat into a coconut cake with lemon glaze, pitted the cornelian cherries (bloodiest job ever) to turn them to chutney tomorrow. Also harvested a third of the (few) apples- for chutney, too, and apple sauce, which I will freeze for winter. Lots of scraping out to do because of codling moths, respectively what's going to be their offspring. While doing the scraping on the terrace I watched blackbirds feasting on the grapes. Next to no wasps this year here, contrary to where son lives- he says that they have a wasp invason. It's only the blackbirds killing the grapes, but since no one here wants to eat them anyway it does not matter.
It's depressing how quick evening sails in now. Where once was sunlight at seven there's need of electric light now to be able to do the daily sudoku. It's about time to order autumn plants at the local nursery. Holder is a former student of mine. Her daughter and our number four played in the school band a long time ago, so there's always a lot of gossipping, when the two of us meet twice a year!

Even shorter post

Hubby has been extremely nice, doing all the housework and lunch cooking (steak and potato wedges), since I had had a really bad night- goulash, prosecco and salmon did not mingle well, Son left in the afternoon, daughter stayed and was a perfect host to her godmother, who had not dared to visit the day before, because she had noticed that I had a lot of visitors already. I have to admit that I was not in best form, but hubby served her a decent snack. We talked a lot and she will join us at the airport on September the second, when daughter will leave for her trip to South Korea. As soon as godmother left I went to bed and only woke to notice that I had forgotten to post...

Cotton candy...

...grapes- I don't get it. Look like grapes but are cotton candy sweet. At least, no kernels. Elsa brought them but did not eat them. The family left them at our house, but I tasted them only when they were off. I fear we will have to buy more. Hubby loves them- he's an expert for sweets: the sweeter the better. Always wanted to buy grapes for twice the price of ordinary ones...It was a nice evening. A belated dinner consisting of peanuts and mountain cheese, accompanied by Deathly Hallows on TV. German version, but still. I had a phone call with a friend, whom I will meet next week. Another one with number four, who needs a new fan, because the old one died on him. Like Snape, the only interesting character in the HP movies. Kill Potter would be okay. Acting skills of all three main characters need improvement.
When hubby left for concert, our street was under water. Rain got less for a while but switched to hard again, when I was in bed. Fortunately hubby had pumped off pool water, or the lawn would have been flooded, too. That's exactly the same weather situation which led to number four's house getting flooded. Only that tomorrow rain is supposed to end- phew! Son and family, who had been off to a Heurigen, quickly went back home to check the situation. All was in order, but they decided to activate the first phase of the flood protection as a test run. Until yesterday they had never tried out the protective system. Son promptly found a fault with the glass front of the living room- they need an electric winder to put the protecting elements in place! At least, now they know!
When I woke in the morning my right hand hurt like hell. Get that maybe twice a year, and it's annoying. Especially when one has to cook goulash using two and a half kilos of beef. Which means cutting one and a half kilo of onions. I tried to make use of the electric vegetable cutter, alas, pieces were either too small or too big. Ordered hubby to cut onions and meat. I was not even able to fill out the numbers in the sudoku, because I am unable to hold a pencil at the moment. Hate it when this happens! And even more so, when the only ointment which will help is nowhere to be found. So no crocheting for me today. Anyway, I have big problems with the newly bought crochet hook. The old one worked, but was made of plastic and squeaked with every stitch I made. The next one was super, but I must have lost it. The new one has a big, comfortable handle, so big that there's not much place for the hook. No fun when one has to do quadruple trebles or crochet bobbles!
When hubby was off to do more grocery shopping we had another downpour of epic proportions. First thing hubby did when back home was more pumping out. Only that he forgot to tell Alexa to set an alarm. Now it would have been nice if it had rained a bit more- it´s just enough water left to keep the filtering system running! Needless to say that not a single raindrop made it down from then on. Tomorrow hubby will have to climb down, activate the ground water pump and refill water. Not my business, I was upstairs while the deed was done- since I had gotten up at two in the morning and went to bed way later than usual the day before I felt tired all day long and mostly rearranged things in the bedroom and the studio, while hubby was watching Youtube reels- definitely not recommendable in such a situation!
Hubby was nice and did lunch, I had a nap, continued successfully with the jigsaw of doom (one quarter done now), and in the afternoon I finally found the incense ointment exactly where it belongs. I really should get an appointment with my eye doctor! But my hand feels already better, I can move it a bit, and it hurts less! Would be extremely nice if I´d be able to do tomorrow´s sandwiches myself: daughter´s always look a bit bland, and hubby´s are soaked with tomato juice, because surely no one can have salmon or shrimps sandwiches without the (mostly) red menace!

Yay!

Hubby will be off this evening. He spends a lot of money for festival tickets this summer. Then again, I get free time at home, which is good for my frayed nerves. Today I got up a tad late, skipped breakfast and did grocery shopping instead in the morning- necessary to get special offers, since two supermarkets here are closed because of renovation, yet horrible at the same time, because the shop was overrun by tourists who wanted the same! It was even hard to find a parking space! I did a quick tour across the shop for salmon, shrimps and a Greek galatopita and was glad to be out again. Sky was grey, indicating there might be rain soon. Not that it hadn´t rained during night, but it had been a steady drizzle only. At home I quickly harvested the cornelian cherries, which we call Dirndl here. So few this year! I will keep them in the fridge until next week then do some spicy relish I will put them into, together with the chillies I got from DiL. Hubby has already offed all tomatoes- how can one person eat so much of this fruit! After lunch- peppers with prawns, which hubby had found in the storage room in the basement- I went to the bedroom to take a nap. Still no rain, but it had cooled down considerably. At three I woke a bit disorientated- ah, this was the telltale sound of heavy rain, the sort of which might make it into the conservatory. We were lucky- this time rain stayed outside. I continued with the jigsaw and- miracles happen- found at least twenty pieces. Twenty! That´s a new record for me with this jigsaw of doom! Soon after it was too dark to continue and I had two more cups of coffee to stay awake. Not a chance that I will waste those precious hours, when hubby is away and I will be in charge of the TV programme or find a movie on Amazon Prime to watch...

The candy cardigan- I forgot to take pictures, and son is not a talented snapper. The summer top is in the washing machine at the moment, pictures will follow soon...

Mood
tired

Bad weather...

...is back again, which does not bode well for my birthday. I am lucky that family number three is safely back home and number one is preparing for holidays in the Schwarzwald. But number four and five will be here, and family number two, too. Plus some friends, and no conservatory for use- daughter and I did not get any farther with the jigsaw of doom, yet I won´t give up. If it´s not finished at Advent time it will go straight into the oven. Until then I'll try...
Tomorrow I will have to do grocery shopping to be able to feed my guests, but today is for housekeeping and resting afterwards. Weather was fine in the morning, so I had breakfast on the terrace. That was a unique experience, me huddled in a blanket yet enjoying the crisp morning air. If only it would stay this way- let´s say until September- but no such luck. I took the standard early-morning picture and a nice one of the waning moon. Still no success at getting sharp night images, like the ones I did not so long before. It´s annoying, and even more so since I cannot find those helpful reels on Facebook I forgot to save, when they showed up without me asking for them. How should I have known that soon a lot of those problems shown would arise with my phone! Hubby picked daughter up at the airport while I cooked gnocchi with salmon and prawns for lunch- one of daughter's favourites and mine, too. The first ball of wool is used up slready, and I haven't even finished the bottom edging. I will have to stock up on grey wool next time I will make it over the German border to my favourite wool shop. After lunch, between crocheting and dozing, I made it into the pool once, before strong winds brought rain and cold. From twenty seven down to nineteen in the space of one hour, and those cool temperatures will stay for some days. Well, it cannot be helped, that's the typical weather for late August here. My eyes are sore again anyway because of too much sun and salty water thanks to grandchildren gone wild. Turned out that the two weeks the family was supposed to spend at the sea got downsized to five days, the rest was spent with DiL's relatives. Cassian and Flavius weren't happy about the change, while I have to 'feast' on figs, grapes, tomatoes and other vegetables for quite a while now- those relatives live on a country estate, and DiL packed the family's car with produce...

That girl!

Yesterday in the evening number three Whatsapped to tell me that Elsa was missing her la bubu. It's pink, it's ugly, it's expensive, and Elsa is in love with it. Only two things got missed by DiLs radar eyes- the new cardigan and la bubu. Our couch ate both. Hubby had to pack and send all by mail, or the life of family number one might be a hard one until the end of October, when the parents will send Elsa to our house for reuniting with her cousins, while Matthäus will stay at the other grandma. For Halloween the whole family will stay at our house. I am delighted... The rest of the day was uneventful for me- housework and cooking. Not so much for hubby, who had to help out daughter's godmother: she had been at neighbours' garden party, went home late, snd when she tried to unlock the door to her house the key broke. Neighbour slipped into the house via basement window and let her in through the terrace door, but today hubby had to remove the old lock and install the new one she had bought. We now have a lot of apricot cake in the fridge- godmother gave it to hubby as a compensation. Around midday number two called to announce the family would be back this evening. Oh dear, that's two days early and does not bode well for the probably last pool day for me, but hubby surely will be ecstatic if more children and grandchildren of ours will snow in...

Wild days...

And here the whining starts: From experience I know that the days spent with family number three are always hard- be it cooking (those children are horrible when it comes to menue managing, as is their mother), sleeping arrangements (they insist on having two bedrooms, that's why number four left two days earlier than he had intended), sleeping habits (or better, non-sleeping habits, because Elsa and Matthäus are used to getting up at five in the morning, and no one tells them that six or six thirty is the magic time to get out of bed, and not a minute earlier). But worst was that the parents were shamelessly ravaging my stock of groceries without even asking. Freshly squeezed fruit juice, bought for my digestive system? Opened up and half of it drunken by DiL. Chorizo I bought for the pizza hubby wants to do on Monday? Already eaten, even though DiL needed to savour quite a lot of slices, before she thought it had a hint of alcohol in it and she did not like it. When I found son happily munching the peanuts I had set aside for today's cooking I had enough and poured me a glass of wine- at six in the evening, completely ignoring the no wine before nine rule. I would have preferred the choc-vodka-valium latte, but we had neither vodka nor valium in the house. The good thing with me drinking wine at this time of the day was that I finally told son off. Funny that he readily accepted the scolding. In some ways I even understand him- at home he is the one who gets told to eat up what his offspring despises, which is quite a lot. This morning, when mummy told him to eat up what Elsa had left on her plate he refused and told her to eat it herself. Mummy's glare was murderous, and I had to run to the kitchen so that she was not able to hear me laughing. By God, that lady is a dominant one! Elsa was her usual self- loud, louder, loudest, picky but happy that she had the pool and two days of fine weather. She swims like a mermaid but has the physique of a plump giantess. Nothing can be done about her height (she is 1,41 metres at the age of not yet six and a half), but thanks to her mum's feeding she is clearly overweight. And what did mum feed her? Only things that weren't on the menue, like the gummi bears the girl found when snooping, the chocolate I had set aside for baking, cookies from the drawer. Worst was that the three (dad had water only) drank eight and a half litres of apple juice. That's overkill thanks to sugar. Watered juice should have been enough, but no... only the best is good enough. It's never enough with what I give, feed them. Only the best- for instance, I bought a unicorn school cone (20 euro). The things I put into (and DiL picked out) were worth 30 euros. Then DiL chose a Lego for 49 euro as the "small" present I wanted to add to the cone. Small, indeed, but only the best is good enough! Back home from shopping DiL took a nap which ended when it was time for lunch and started anew after lunch. BTW, Lunch I had to do all alone, because hubby was in Salzburg for a matinée. And all that after a sleepless night- neighbours two houses away from ours are on holidays, their son stayed at home, ergo techno party until six in the morning. Had I known that neighbour next door´s garden party was to last until one in the morning I might have poured me more wine. That would not have kept me and the rest of the family from waking up, when at two in the morning a thunderstorm rattled the blinds. But the worst is over now- family number three is back home, all towels are washed (two per person a day, now guess how many hubby has put into the washing machine), the beds have fresh beddings and I was finally able to do an after-lunch nap. No fun at the pool today, but maybe tomorrow and on Tuesday, before another cold spell will hit us, one that will last into September, and then it´s about time to clear the water out and prepare for the cold season. That´s sort of sad, because each time the weather was warm (not very often) hubby brought in family, while I had to wait for bathing until they left and I was able to do a bit of swimming without risking vampire eyes...

I need...

...a choc-vodka-valium latte, please! How it came to this I will write tomorrow, for now I am done with this day! All I want is sleep...

Oh my!

Got up at one fifty. Not a chance to fall asleep again. Picked up the daiy on the way to the airport. Did the crossword puzzle and the two sudokus before going to bed again. Family number three arrived at ten in the morning. Until then I baked a red currant cake and did a meatloaf with vegetables and sauce. Salad got done by hubby, as usual. Too much vinegar in it, as usual. DiL loved it. Phew! After lunch (at twelve exactly, what else) Elsa and Matthäus went into the pool. Ten minutes later one of our neighbours complained about the ruckus. Thank you, neighbour dearest. I can't stand you, but I am with you this time! DiL was not amused that there were people who would not accept that children were meant to run wild. I quickly went inside to have a good laugh in the kitchen. Number four soon had enough of all the ruckus and decided to go back to Graz in the evening. He, at least, can opt for flight, if he wishes to do so. I am not so lucky! I did one obligatory swim in the pool with grandchild three and six, helped hubby serve icecream then almost had a fit- both toilets occupied for more than fifteen minutes. If this continues we'll have to add a third one in the basement. Or bring in a "five-minutes-only" rule for special guests. I was so fed up with son and DiL, having to wait for half an eternity to ge
`t the wet bathing suit off my voluptuous body and redress with the clothes I kept in the bathroom!
But I got nice birthday presents- a Lego flower and a Slytherin scarf. Despite everything I am devastated that family number three won't be able to come next week, because son has to work on Saturday:)