Skål!

Hello all! We're having a noisy day at home today with a lot of drilling and pounding coming from the apartment upstairs. It's been under renovation for months, and we have the scaffolding outside our apartment to prove it. The odd thing is that workers only come once a week at the most. That's fine by me since we've got a baby that needs to take naps, although even with the noise he still seems to sleep pretty well.

Brenda's parents flew back home a couple of days ago after a wonderful visit. They spent a lot of quality time with Rowan and even taught him a few new tricks. For example, he now lifts up his sippy cup and expects you to hit it with your glass to say cheers. They also babysat so Brenda and I could go on dates and so I could see Rigoletto (which was incredibly well sung). We were sad to see them go but look forward to seeing them again in a couple of months in Santa Fe.

Brenda begins rehearsals for her next opera on Monday. She'll be playing the part of Zdenka in Strauss's Arabella in a revival at Opera Frankfurt. Revivals typically get only two weeks of rehearsal but for some reason Arabella is getting four. Brenda made this discovery last week, and since this is a role debut for her she has been forced to accelerate her role preparation. After Arabella Brenda doesn't have to learn a new opera for a whole year (next season is filled with roles she already knows). This season she's learned five new roles so she's excited for a break.

So that's what we're up to. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next time!