Lustige Leute Newsletter Feb Mar 2023

Happy New Year! Happy National Polka Month, Happy Valentines, Happy late winter!  My goodness, it's been a while.  Last newsletter, we were getting those last Christmas errands run, gifts (and water pipes) wrapped, food prepared, and now we find ourselves already at Fat Tuesday!  Time flies indeed, and we hope you've had a wonderful winter season.  It was fun hearing from some of you last Christmas.  
 
We've only had one performance so far since Jan 1, and it was a semi-private event.  Houstonfest on Feb 4, the German contest in the Houston area, is one of our very favorite shows to play.  Robert joined us, and the auditorium was filled with energetic teenagers dancing polka, waltz, schuhplattling, and yodeling along.  There are a few pictures from the Houstonfest Pre Award Ceremony Polka Party attached below.  Performance season is slowly picking up again with the end of Feb and getting in to March.  We hope we get to see you in person soon! 
 
 
February and March public performances:  
 
 

The Sauer Kraut Gill 3rd Anniversary Celebration; 734 Crabb River Rd in Richmond, TX
Saturday Feb 25; 12pm - 7pm;  The Trio with Robert, Ross and Valina - party all day!

Nathan's BBQ; Corner of Prairie Lee and HWY 290 in Brenham, TX 
Sunday Feb 26; 3pm - 6pm; The Duo

Momma's At Sengelmann; 531 N Main ST in Schulenburg, TX
Wednesday March 15; 6:30 - 9pm;  The Duo celebrates "Halfway to Oktoberfest AND St Patrick's Day! 

St Patrick's Day at Saint Arnold Brewery; 2000 Lyons Ave in Houston, TX  Friday March 17, 6pm - 9pm; The Four Piece AKA Das ist Sláinte (special dub of the day by Saint Arnold's themselves!) Yes, there will be a few Irish selections in our repertoire for the evening!  Free Admission!
 

Tomball German Heritage Festival; Market Street between Elm and Pine, In Tomball, TX
Saturday March 25; 2:30 - 6pm, Sunday March 26; 12pm - 2:30;  The 4 piece band   Free Admission!
 

 
Have something to celebrate?  Call us for pricing and availability if you have something to celebrate in March, April, May.  We can play for you as a duo unplugged, or we can bring the sound equipment and specialty folk instruments.  We tailor our set up and repertoire to your needs!  Maybe a halfway to Oktoberfest or an April Fool's party is in the cards?  Let us know if we can provide the entertainment for your event.
 
 
Hosting our trips:  The itinerary for the June 2024 trip is beginning to really take shape, with a 3 week trip to Germany and The Czech Republic. The basics are: Depart Monday June 3, arriving in Munich on June 4, spend 2 nights in the eastern part of Franconia, Then head north for 4 nights in Wittenberg with day trips to Halle, Leipzig, and Berlin, 3 nights in Bautzen with a day trip to Dresden, and a day trip touring the region. Then we head to the Czech Republic for 3 nights on the outskirts of Prague with a day trip to Prague, a day trip to Kutna Hora, and Cesky Krumlov.  Heading back to Germany, we'll spend one night near Munich, then spend 4 or 5 nights in southern Bavaria with day trips to Mittenwald, Linderhof Castle, and Garmisch Partenkirchen. We'll depart on Saturday or Sunday June 22 or 23 from the Munich airport (details still coming)  There will be an option to do the first two weeks with us, or to stay for the entire 3 weeks.  Stay tuned for more information! 

 

Website:  You can always find out what's happening with us at http://www.prostyall.com.  We update our calendar as information becomes available, and always keep the upcoming gigs and last minute changes on the home page.  The shop page https://www.prostyall.com/shop has all sorts of fun things still available. 

 
Social Media:  You can find us on Facebook, and Youtube.  You can subscribe to our Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/valinapolka , friend us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/valinapolka  "like" us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prostyall/  We have an instagram, but don't know how to use it.       
 
 
Behind the scenes:  We've been bbbbbbuuuuussssyyyy! Usually, except for the Tomball Christmas Market, December is a more laid back time for us with private party performances, gift baking, watching our favorite Christmas movies, enjoying the decorations, connecting with friends who have holiday, and relaxing.  Not so much this year.  Things around the house kept breaking.  First the lawnmower just died.  No reason or rhyme, it just died.  Ross took it apart, figured out what might be wrong with it, bought the parts he thought he'd need, and got it up and running again.  Then the fridge stopped freezing.  Freezer items were beginning to melt.  We took everything out of the freezer and fridge, relegating them to the drink fridges (thank God we have those!) and he began trial and error.  Finding that it most likely was low on coolant, he got the parts necessary to make that repair.  We have ice cubes again, and our drink fridges are drink fridges again!  He also made a few trips out to his parents to help them with some repairs, did an oil change on the work van, and then bam, a big freeze was coming just before Christmas.  We spent 2 days prepping the yard for the worst.  We also had a few small repairs to do at our house where our Pastor lives.  I tried to keep the gift baking on time.  Christmas cooking prep was a bit of a challenge with not enough room to store refrigerated items.  But we made it through.  The day after Christmas, we finally got to sit around to watch the movies and look at the pretty decorations. The next day, we decided it was safe to move most of the rest of our refrigerated stuff back to the repaired fridge, and put the drinks back in the drink fridges.  Whenever we have family or friends over for a holiday celebration, all of our music stuff goes from the rehearsal space in our living room into our bedroom.  So, while the house looks nice and clean, and too big for two people, we barely can get around in our bedroom for all the equipment.  New Year's Eve and day came and went with lots of time together with friends and music.  Jan 2, Valina hit the ground running with all the paperwork for the 4th quarter taxes, Texas sales tax paperwork, 1099's, and post office runs. Lots of time spent on the schedule for the Tomball festival coming in March and lots of time spent on beginning the planning for the 2024 tour.  Then around Jan 10, Ross and Valina both began going to their respective parents' houses to do repairs and chores.  Ross was finished with the repairs they needed after about a week, so he began a culling job in his office and the garage.  Valina has spent 6 weeks culling through 3 closets at her parents' house.  She and her mom are designating things for family, things for sale, things for donations, and throwing out items that are no longer of use to anyone. It's been nice to spend the time going through all the old memories together.  The other news is, Valina's Mom was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in early January.  She asked it be kept quiet for a while until she had time to process it and know the full diagnosis.  If you thought she was a bit distant at the Christmas market in Tomball, that's why.  She was getting tested in December and it was a scary unknown.  Now, she's in pretty decent spirits, taking the whole thing in stride for the most part.  She's not a happy camper with the way the treatments make her feel, and how they make things taste funny, but hopefully the treatments are doing what they're designed to do.  She gets tired easily some days, which is frustrating for her, because she's typically pretty hyper.  Would you keep her, her Dr's and my Dad in your prayers? 
 
All that culling at Mom and Dad's called for some culling around here too, to make room and better organize.  4 car loads of donations, and one ready to go now.  6 really large bags of trash.  2 bags of shredding.  5 large storage boxes emptied and ready for future storage.  Two months with just 4 days off has been time well spent.  Averaging about 6 hours of sleep a night, Valina's office, the guest bedroom, and storage area all dusted and vacuumed. Finally, ready for normal use again!  There's quite a bit of progress at Mom and Dad's too.   Ross is still busy in the garage. He dismantled and rebuilt the very corroded shelving over the utility sink, and added a cabinet for paint storage.  He rebuilt a small generator, including fashioning a filter for it.  It runs smooth now!  His office is still quite messy, but it's still a work in progress.  Hopefully he can stand putting that on hold for a while.  Rehearsals to be ready for this weekend and the upcoming gigs in March start in earnest this week.  It has indeed been a very long stretch of controlled off stage chaos for us!  We're so excited to get back out there, see you, and play music! 
 

We hope we get to see you very soon!  Stay healthy, be happy, share a smile with a stranger, and Polka On!

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