Brenda wants a dog

Hello all! Its me again and I'm back with a full edition of the weekly Chenda web log. This past week was filled with quite a bit so let's get to it.

The hotel that is our apartment hosted a special guest last week named Lola. Unlike some of our other guests, though, this one was very high maintenance. She demanded to be fed, walked and petted multiple times a day. That said, we loved having her here and would welcome her back any time. Lola is a beautiful little dog who belongs to our friend, Elaine. She is a really friendly and well-behaved dog who loves to be near people. In fact, every night when we got into bed Lola would climb right in and each morning she'd still be there waiting for us to wake up and play with her. We loved having her for those few days and she further convinced us that we need a Lola of our very own at some point in the future.

You may not remember this but last Thursday was Thanksgiving! On Thursday morning Brenda and I got a call from our friend Elza van den Heever who is one of Brenda's fellow sopranos at Oper Frankfurt. That morning, Elza decided to make a Thanksgiving dinner and invited us and our friend Richard over to enjoy it. We found out that, in addition to Elza being a truly incredible artist, she is also a heck of a chef. It was a great evening filled with lots of laughs and even more calories.

On Saturday we had our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner which was also a lot of fun. Brenda had to sing in a gala at the opera house that night so she was only able to enjoy some of the party. Don't worry, Brenda got her fill of rolls and stuffing before she had to head to work.

In Germany, in the weeks leading up to Advent, stores are fully stocked with chocolate-filled Advent calendars. There are dozens of choices and the prices vary greatly. I'm under the impression that most people get Advent calendars in Germany. Since they are so popular, by the time Advent actually roles around most stores are sold out. Last year, Brenda and I tried to find a calendar a few days into Advent but all we found were a few rather shocking calendars that showed Santa with numerous bikini-clad helpers. We assumed that a calendar like that wouldn't be sold based on the quality of the chocolate and so we went without last year. This year, however, we planned ahead and, after thoroughly examining all of our options, we bought a Lindt Advent calendar filled entirely with dark chocolate. The calendar is quite big as you can see from the pictures below. We had our first piece of chocolate from the calendar today and it was delicious. It was sour cherry, chili pepper, mousse flavored.


As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Brenda and I went to La Bohème last night. It was quite good and I'm looking forward to seeing it again in a couple of weeks when Brenda takes over one of the roles. After several weeks with little to do, Brenda will have a lot of opera running through her head in the weeks to come. She will be performing roles in La Clemenza di Tito, La Bohème and Die Zauberflöte as well as learning a role in Orlando Furioso. When it rains, it pours and Brenda is starting to see the clouds roll in.

Well, that does it for us. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Until next time, have a great week!