life

So I went to bed on time, slept well and forgot to set an alarm. Which resulted in 8 1/2 hours of sleep. And a bit of a scramble in the morning because we wanted to leave the house early.

Which we did. Well, relatively early at 9.30.

My husband and I took the train to Steinebach, walked down to the lake and then all the way around.

The original plan was to eat at a certain restaurant that I had never been but, alas, it was closed. Apparently, during the off-season they only open on weekends. But there are more restaurants around and we ended up at the one we often go to.

You can only walk directly beside the lake on a few parts but the rest of the landscape was very picturesque as well and there were interesting houses everywhere:

It’s a nice restaurant with good service but the first mistake was to sit outside in the shade. I was very, very cold, especially drinking cold alcohol-free beer.

The second mistake was to order the venison. It wasn’t bad as such but it wasn’t all that good either. The pulled pork burgers on the daily menu looked better:

We walked back up the hill to the train station after that and found that we had missed a train by ten minutes, the next one was canceled and the one after that was late. So we had to wait for almost forty minutes. Which meant my husband had to skip his usual nap but we were still in time for his one student of the day.

I went home via the pharmacy and the health food store. I am now all stocked up on allergy meds and I ate a lot of chocolate in the afternoon.

My legs and arms had been sore in the morning and while walking was not a problem at first after two hours or so my whole body really wanted to stop and sit down. There was a twinge in my left knee and I was reminded that barefoot shoes have very thin soles and that feeling every pebble is sometimes a little too much.

Walking all around the lake took about 3 hours plus about an hour walking to and from train stations.

I took a break at home and played Genshin for a bit, then the boy and I did bodyweight training. I thought I would have to make the exercises easier after all that walking and biking and my legs being rather sore but, interestingly, I was fine. Well, the one-legged squats (on a chair and then I have a really hard time getting back up again) were interestingly hard but otherwise things went okay.

I ate dinner with the boy, took a shower, then start playing a bit more Genshin Impact and when the boy saw that he kept helping me. So I played longer than I originally planned.

After that I started writing this post and did the usual reading, Duolingo and bullet journal, also watched a bit of C-drama.

The only exercise I have planned for today is ten minutes of gentle yoga which sounds about right.

So I went to bed on time, slept well and forgot to set an alarm. Which resulted in 8 1/2 hours of sleep. And a bit of a scramble in the morning because we wanted to leave the house early.

Which we did. Well, relatively early at 9.30.

My husband and I took the train to Steinebach, walked down to the lake and then all the way around.

The original plan was to eat at a certain restaurant that I had never been but, alas, it was closed. Apparently, during the off-season they only open on weekends. But there are more restaurants around and we ended up at the one we often go to.

You can only walk directly beside the lake on a few parts but the rest of the landscape was very picturesque as well and there were interesting houses everywhere:

It’s a nice restaurant with good service but the first mistake was to sit outside in the shade. I was very, very cold, especially drinking cold alcohol-free beer.

The second mistake was to order the venison. It wasn’t bad as such but it wasn’t all that good either. The pulled pork burgers on the daily menu looked better:

We walked back up the hill to the train station after that and found that we had missed a train by ten minutes, the next one was canceled and the one after that was late. So we had to wait for almost forty minutes. Which meant my husband had to skip his usual nap but we were still in time for his one student of the day.

I went home via the pharmacy and the health food store. I am now all stocked up on allergy meds and I ate a lot of chocolate in the afternoon.

My legs and arms had been sore in the morning and while walking was not a problem at first after two hours or so my whole body really wanted to stop and sit down. There was a twinge in my left knee and I was reminded that barefoot shoes have very thin soles and that feeling every pebble is sometimes a little too much.

Walking all around the lake took about 3 hours plus about an hour walking to and from train stations.

I took a break at home and played Genshin for a bit, then the boy and I did bodyweight training. I thought I would have to make the exercises easier after all that walking and biking and my legs being rather sore but, interestingly, I was fine. Well, the one-legged squats (on a chair and then I have a really hard time getting back up again) were interestingly hard but otherwise things went okay.

I ate dinner with the boy, took a shower, then start playing a bit more Genshin Impact and when the boy saw that he kept helping me. So I played longer than I originally planned.

After that I started writing this post and did the usual reading, Duolingo and bullet journal, also watched a bit of C-drama.

The only exercise I have planned for today is ten minutes of gentle yoga which sounds about right.

And yeah, completely my own fault.

I had gone to bed an hour late and then, an hour before my alarm I was lying in bed wide awake. And that was it.

It was a very, very slow morning. Well, day in general. But. I managed the morning routine including half an hour of novel revision, I did all the dishes including the ones from the day before and then I set out to renew my prescription and go to the health food store. One town over because of the doctor’s office.

I found that biking would take the same amount of time as taking the train, the weather was beautiful and so that’s what I did. It even felt like going up that one hill went way easier than usual, so maybe all that running is making a difference after all.

I had to wait a bit at the doctor’s office but left with a prescription for my allergy meds, and then off to the health food store. And then all the way back but, hey, at least I never had to wait for a train.

I would have liked to go to the pharmacy and the other health food store on my way back but I was already late for lunch so that had to wait. There was asparagus risotto:

I knew the probability of an afternoon slump was very high but I was also very determined.

But first a break, some chocolate and some Genshin Impact. I felt particularly incompetent because now that my characters leveled up the monsters did the same.

The boy showed up right when he should have left the house for uni. Well, he hadn’t heard his alarm and also the trains to the city weren’t going which is always a huge hassle. It is possible to take a bus and the subway but also, the train fits way more people than a bus.

I went out again, on foot, for the second round of errands and health food store. My meds were not in, I’ll get those some time today but the health food store had everything I needed.

At home I saw the boy again and we talked for a while. Then it was time to tackle cutting out the fabric. But first I needed to figure out if I had all the pattern pieces and in the right size. (Never mind that I have been sizing the leggings pattern up by just adding an inch all around or so. But that wouldn’t do for the t-shirt.

First I thought the t-shirt pattern was the wrong size. But then it wasn’t. But I only had the short-sleeved version and had decided to do the long-sleeved one. So I looked for the missing parts of the pattern, taped them together (crookedly) and – there was a piece missing.

So I went hunting for the original file on my computer, tried printing a few pages out and then I ran out of time. I’d say at least I tried…

I ate dinner and read for a bit and then it was time to meet a writer friend over video call. That was real fun!

And then I had to hurry up to do my evening routine so I could turn the lights out a little earlier.

Because today we’re going hiking! Very exciting!

But it feels as if not much else happened, let’s see.

Complete morning routine, which is good, talking with my husband about amps and music and all kinds of things, also good.

I went running/walking for an hour, also good, even if I left a bit late. The weather was gorgeous:

I know it doesn’t look like it in this picture.

I cam back home, took a shower and we had lunch:

Both the potatoes and the rutabagas were from my husband’s garden. And very good.

The afternoon was not quite as productive. My sole student for the day canceled just before lunch, I did some admin but mostly I tried slaying that cursed dragon in Genshin Impact. Spoiler: I did not manage it.

I tried it twice with the controller and with just the touchscreen controls and failed, then did some other stuff, then half the afternoon was gone.

I made some music. I folded some laundry. I did not do any dishes which is still a problem right this moment.

I ate dinner and some gummy bears. And chocolate. And more gummy bears. And some more. (Note to self: don’t buy huge buckets of gummy bears in the future, thanks)

I decided to just real quick try the dragon again and – failed. Two more times Until my son couldn’t see it anymore and tried it himself. He agreed that the whole thing is easier on a desktop with a mouse but, well, you can’t play the game on my computer, wrong OS.

Anyways, eventually my son got me to the next point where I made a real mess again until he grabbed the controls and helped me.

So, well, the dragon has been slain, and now I am free to fail at exciting new things.

After that I watched a really interesting video about opera singing:

I don’t agree with her historical overview at all, I mean, what about Italy? What about the changes in orchestras? In how instruments were built? But the rest is pretty solid. What you really should watch the video for is the parts where she actually sings and takes elements of opera singing away one by one. Wow.

You can still hear at the end that her voice is trained a certain way but still.

Anyway. Then I watched some BTS videos and failed to recognize the members even in one where they had their names on bibs so I thought I should maybe go to bed.

Oh, and speaking of BTS, I might have found someone to watch the J-Hope movie with next week. I posted on the message board of a certain group I belong to in Munich and had someone answer. This will be interesting.

So. No cutting fabric, not the admin I wanted to do, no dishes, no spinning, no C-drama. Lots of time with my son, too many gummy bears and some fun stuff.

Today I will go to the next town over, hopefully cut some fabric out and meet a friend via video call in the evening. Fun!

Guess who stayed up too late again? Yeah. I might just as well give up.

I did do my morning routine in full but only spent ten minutes on the manuscript. I had high hopes of working for an hour or two on it in the afternoon but, well, that didn’t quite work out.

Husband and I had a very nice conversation and then I called my mother on the phone. I spent the time between that and lunch trying to figure out why my spinning wheel is so noisy but with no success. I did tighten all the screws and tried oiling the parts that need oiling but misremembered something so I’ll get the spinning wheel oil out again today.

I also pulled out the fabric for the two things I want to sew this week and found the t-shirt pattern – progress!

Then it was time for lunch:

I read a mediocre novel that was just barely good enough the I am still reading it, ate chocolate and a few gummy bears and then played some more Genshin. I failed slaying the dragon yet again (my son keeps telling me that challenge is really easy and mostly boring). One of the problems might be the configuration of my controller so we changed that last night and I’m hoping that will work better.

I played some more and explored parts of the map which was fun, and then I went and did both my singing and piano warm-up. And practiced Chopin for a bit. This will take a while for sure.

I thought I could open the manuscript again after that but the boy was in the kitchen, we got talking, and that was that. Oh, I got some new characters? And the boy said the chance of one of them happening was 0.3%? Anyway, we put video games aside and did bodyweight training.

I feel equally stupid doing both, so same difference.

After that it was finally time to eat dinner, then more reading, more video game, and then I started writing this post, found that I was too late to play Duolingo again, made a list for today and watched a bit of C-drama while the boy took a shower.

Oh, and I also logged into my account with the cover designer and looked briefly at the blurb for book 1, and I did some more research on rolling shutter repair. Which is one of today’s tasks.

So, not a spectacularly good day yesterday but tiny progress on many fronts.

I almost went to bed on time again. Fingers crossed I’m starting a trend.

Did my morning routine but only had 25 minutes left for novel revision, so there is room for improvement. (Isn’t there always?)

Breakfast conversation was great and I even wove in a few ends, I did my usual internet rounds and the breakfast dishes and then I went on a bit of a longer walk/run. 73 minutes of alternating 2 minutes of walking and 3 minutes of running with  5 minutes of walking both at the beginning and the end. So I’m now at the point where I have to run for longer than I walk and while I am doing a little better I still am massively struggling. But the weather was gorgeous and I found that I’m making a little progress. So right now, most of the running doesn’t feel like I just want to lay down on the ground, so that is good as well, I guess:

There were hordes of older couples and families out, most of them biking, and most of those with massive e-bikes.

I came back home, took a shower and had lunch:

Mmh, very tasty.

I read a little and ate chocolate (and a few gummy bears), then played some Genshin and then I planned the month and played piano for a bit. Mostly just a warm-up but also a few bars of Chopin.

Then my weekly writer Zoom, this time an hour earlier for me because we already had our time change and the US only had it last night.

Zoom was night and I made nice progress on the crochet blanket.

Then it was time to hang up laundry, heat up frozen pretzels and get ready for watching ‚Columbo‘. This episode made fun of MENSA which was a little weird. Columbo himself was great but the members of the high IQ society were very, very stereotypical.

In between I got myself a ticket for the J-Hope concert movie. I don’t know anyone who’d like to go with me and I am a bit apprehensive about going alone but, well, maybe I’ll find someone after all. And if not I can still enjoy the outing. And if I don’t enjoy the outing it will have been an interesting experience either way.

Then I played some more Genshin and failed shooting the dragon spectacularly, I guess I’ll try again today.

I did Duolingo, started writing this post and then it felt like almost midnight when in fact it was only 9.30, so I watched some C-drama and went to bed.

Today I’m hoping to make plan for the week ahead, my husband and I have all the plans and we have to see if it will all fit in.