too much excitement for one week

Hello everybody! It’s been an eventful week to say the least. I’m actually writing this entry as Chad and I drive back to Iowa. It’s a beautiful balmy evening and the sun is just setting now. Chad and I were supposed to get back to Iowa yesterday, but we extended our stay in Wisconsin due to a bit of an emergency in Appleton. We drove to Wisconsin last Friday, with plans to stay with my parents that night, and then continue on to Door County for our 5th anniversary celebration. As we turned onto my parents’ street after five hours on the road, we noticed a fire truck and ambulance parked in front of their house. As we got closer, I saw that their front door was propped open and I ordered Chad to stop the car and I bounded out, sprinting inside the house, my imagination running wild. Luckily the scene inside wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but my dad was about to be put on a stretcher, getting ready to go to the hospital. It turns out he had a minor heart attack, and he was just discharged from the hospital today, after a weekend of some not very fun procedures. He’ll be okay, but he has a fair amount of healing to do. As awful as this all is, I’m so thankful that I was not only in the country, but actually in town! My mom is being a great caretaker, and both she and dad pretty much insisted that Chad and I still take our two-night trip to Door County. I wonder if they just wanted to make sure we picked up our specially ordered wedding/anniversary cake (pictured below) from the Door County Bakery! I kid, I kid!

So on Saturday late afternoon, Chad and I drove up to Baileys Harbor, Door County to check into the Blacksmith Inn, which is where we spent our honeymoon. It was our fifth stay at the inn, and needless to say, we love it there! It’s on the shores of Lake Michigan, and is a very relaxing environment. I didn’t let Chad touch his law school homework while we were there, although I’m not sure if that relaxed him, or stressed him out even more! We ate some delicious food, including Swedish pancakes at Al Johnson’s where our rehearsal dinner was held, and lucked out with beautiful weather. We took a long hike through Peninsula State Park, and I made Chad face his fears yet again by climbing to the top of the Eagle Tower. I am such a cruel wife. Before we left Door County on Monday we stopped at Cave Point County Park to enjoy the sound of waves crashing against the rocks. Cave Point is at its best when it’s windy, and we were lucky to have a gusty day, even if it was too brisk for us to enjoy it for long!

Outside Al Johnson's Restaurant

Chad is super excited to be on top of the Eagle Tower!

Frolicking in Peninsula State Park. I really love Door County!

Taking in the sights and smells of the forest...

An amazingly beautiful morning at Cave Point.

Once back in Appleton, Chad pretty much had to buckle down and study, so he packed up and went to a coffee shop, and I hung out with my dad for the night, who seemed much better than he had two days earlier! I’m really thankful that Chad (and his professors!) were so accommodating in giving me some more time with my dad. I’m glad I got to hang out until he was settled in back at home.

As Chad mentioned in the last blog entry, I took a one night trip to Chicago to see some friends perform at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. They did an awesome job, and it was fun to see the theater again. I forgot how huge that hall is!! Such a beautiful theater, and I’m sure it’s pretty intimidating to look out at the sea of people! I got to see an old friend of mine, who took me to a delicious vegetarian restaurant (yay!) and also to a great cafe in the Logan Square neighborhood. It made me think that Chicago might be a nice place to end up some day! :-) We’ll see...

Well, Chad and I are nearing Iowa City, so I shall finish up! Let’s hope this coming week doesn’t bring any more family emergencies! Enjoy the beautiful spring weather!

Break's over, back to work

Hey all! Some things have changed since I wrote to you last week: spring break is over, my wonderful wife is in the country, and I'm not eating cheese while watching shows about traveling around Europe. I am still eating cheese, though, so I guess not everything is different.

Last Friday Brenda sang what I can only imagine was an inspired performance of The Magic Flute. The next day she got on a plane and flew to Chicago where I picked her up. I brought her back home and, wouldn't you know it, today she escaped and went back to Chicago. Brenda has a few friends performing at the Lyric Opera of Chicago this evening and she went to cheer them on. I'm hoping that she'll come home tomorrow so we can get back into our routine of her watching me study.

I hope that all of you enjoyed the first day of spring. I couldn't be happier about the weather lately. In fact, it's been so warm that I've actually considered turning on the air conditioning. I heard a story on Iowa Public Radio about how people in Pella are concerned about the unusually warm weather affecting their tulip festival. While my heart goes out to them, I really could get used to having 80 degree weather in March.

I try to avoid all things political in this blog, but I'm making an exception to link an article about the Supreme Court reviewing the constitutionality of the health care act. We studied the cases mentioned in the article in my Constitutional Law class, and I find the topic (the Commerce Clause) particularly interesting. I thought you might, too, so click here if you care to read it. The article isn't taking a side; it's just informative.

And speaking of Constitutional Law, I should get some homework done. I hope you're all having a great week and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!

5 years and counting

Hey All! I'm at my parents' house right now enjoying an evening of wine and cheese and watching Rick Steves talk about traveling around Europe. I'm on spring break and, even though I'm not laying on a beach somewhere, I'm having a good time. My break will get even better on Saturday when Brenda gets here.

This past Saturday was Brenda's and my 5th wedding anniversary. Thanks to the wonders of technology, Brenda and I were able to celebrate with dinner and a movie. We both rented the same movie from iTunes, ordered pizza, and talked via Skype. Our in-person anniversary celebration will happen in a couple of weeks when we take a weekend trip to Door County.

Brenda is in her second week of rehearsals for The Magic Flute. From what she tells me, the rehearsals have been going well. The opera opens on Friday.

Well, there is cheese that needs eating so I had better end this here. I hope you're all enjoying your week, and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!

Ready for a (spring) break

Hey All! It's week 9 of 14 of the spring semester, and I am ready for spring break. Good thing it's next week. I'm afraid I don't have any big travel plans for the break. Instead, I'm going to start preparing for final exams. Exciting, right?

The weather today in Iowa City was fantastic. Don't believe me? I have proof!

On Sunday we got a substantial amount of snow, and today I could have laid outside and worked on my tan. I don't know what exactly is going on with the weather, but I'm not going to complain about days like today.

I realized that I haven't posted any pictures of the law school on the blog, and considering I spend so much time there, I figured you might like to see what it looks like.

A view from a bridge over the Iowa River.

The path from the parking lot to the law building.

I'll take a few more pictures at some point. Maybe I can even sneak a picture during one of my lectures. You can see learning from my point of view, which is basically a bunch of students stalking each other on Facebook instead of paying attention to the Professor.

I have a big paper due on Friday which, for the purposes of our assignment, is a document destined for the US Supreme Court. Let me tell you right now, if you have a case you want to argue before the Supreme Court I am not the man for the job. My paper seems to be more akin to science fiction/fantasy than legal argument. Luckily, I'll be done thinking about it after Friday.

My better half is in rehearsals for the Magic Flute right now. This is the fourth season in a row that she's performing the role. In other news, Saturday marks our 5th wedding anniversary! Unfortunately we won't be together that day but Brenda is flying back to the US the following week. We'll definitely do something to celebrate then.

Well, it's past my bedtime so I had better call it a night. I hope you all have a great week, and I'll talk to you next Tuesday!

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene...

Hello all! How nice of Chad to let you know that I forgot to write the blog yesterday. I had a great thought today: I didn't actually forget to write it -- my subconscious had me wait until today so I could write the blog on February 29th! Hooray for the leap year! A famous opera composer had his birthday on this day 220 years ago: Gioachino Rossini. I'm sure you'd recognize many of his melodies, as they appear in popular culture quite often! Here's a link to a video to give you an example: The Barber of Seville.

I hope that put you in an Italian mood, because this blog entry will be all about my trip to Verona! I returned to Frankfurt on Monday after spending a beautiful week in the city that is perhaps most famous for its two celebrity lovers, Romeo and Juliet. The city of Verona would love to have tourists believe that the Shakespeare play was based on a true story that happened in Verona in 1303, but there is no proof. True story or not, it's a beautiful city!

The weather was gorgeous while I was there, and I sat outside on multiple occasions without my coat on, enjoying a cappuccino (okay, a pizza too!) and basking in the sunshine!

Verona is home to a huge Roman arena, which Chad explained last week. I would love to sing there someday, just to experience its famed acoustics!

Juliet's balcony. Again, no proof that this was the

Capulet's house, but it makes for a great tourist attraction!

Well, I wasn't just in Verona to sight-see. I actually worked while I was there! Here's some proof that I was in Verona singing!

The concert poster. The picture of the orchestra is NOT

a picture of our performance, so don't try to find me!

A picture of me in my dressing room. Yep, same dress

I wore at the Appleton concert if you were there! I figured

it wasn't a fashion faux pas since I was on a different continent...

The group of soloists. We represented three countries from

left to right: Italian, two Germans, and two Americans!

After our last concert we went to a very nice restaurant across from the Castelvecchio.

Well, at least it was nice for the meat eaters! Their speciality is a cart of roasted meats

that they bring around to your table. So many different kinds of meats, including tongue!

As we bowed at the end of the concert, the ladies were presented with beautiful bouquets of flowers. Since I was staying in a hotel, I had no vase in which to keep them, so I had to improvise.

A practical use for the bidet, don't you think?

The bouquet was quite large, and I didn't really want to haul it back to Germany with me. However, it would have been a shame to throw away such beautiful flowers, so when I checked out, I gave them to the hotel. I wonder what they would think if they knew the flowers had been in a bidet... Oh well, what they don't know can't hurt them! And I promise the bidet was clean!

So here I am, back at home in Frankfurt. It feels good to get back to "normal" life. Like dealing with the potatoes I forgot to throw away before I left for my trip to the States...

Pretty!

Enjoy this leap day, and have a wonderful week!

Check back tomorrow!

Hey All! Good news: I remembered that today was blog day! Not as good news: this week's blog entry won't be posted until tomorrow. To make up for that, however, Brenda is going to write the blog, and I think we'll all agree that her blog posts are worth waiting for. I hope you all have a great night and I'll talk to you next Tuesday. Don't forget to check back tomorrow for Brenda's post.

Chenda on ice!

Hey All! Confession time. I totally, completely, and utterly forgot about the blog this week. I was thinking about it on Monday when I had one of my weekly, "I have to write the blog entry tomorrow!" moments. But I promptly forgot about it until this morning as I was walking out the door. I thought about skipping my Civil Procedure class and writing the blog instead, but then I remembered that I can barely understand Civ Pro when I go to class. I would be in deep trouble if I had to teach it to myself. So a million apologies, and I will do my best not to forget again. (And a shout-out to Florian for reminding me that I neglected my duties. Thanks, Flo! It's nice to know that the blog is missed when I forget to write it.)

Brenda has fled the country once again. She flew to Frankfurt on Sunday, and 36 hours later she flew to Verona, Italy. She is currently in rehearsals for Mendelssohn's Elijah (sung in German) which will be performed this Saturday and Sunday. The oratorio is being put on by Arena di Verona, but it won't be at the Arena di Verona. The performance will be at the Teatro Filarmonico. If you care to learn a little more you can do so here.

A little over a week ago Brenda and I went skating in honor of her birthday. Her birthday had been the week before that, but sometimes all of the requisite celebrating can't be squeezed into one day. It was the second time in my life that I had gone ice skating. The first time was in college. During undergrad, to be more specific, which was the first time that I went to college. I just realized that I've gone to college more times than I've gone ice skating. That's a scary thought. Anyway, the first time I skated I fell a lot and the rear of my jeans split wide open. I'm happy to report that the second time was much more successful. I didn't fall once, and my pants didn't rip. Who could ask for more? On top of that, Brenda and I had a great time. She's already mentioned going again sometime.

Brenda is headed back to Frankfurt on Monday, and she may be flying to New York on Tuesday. Ah, the joys of flying. I'm going to start work on a paper this weekend for one of my classes. It has something to do with the Tenth Amendment which I think has something to do with the Constitution. As you can tell I've already done a lot of research. Anyway, I should get going so I can get a little homework done tonight. I hope you all have a great week, and I will do my very best to remember to write to you next Tuesday!