have you seen this amazing dog?

Vent

Oh, how I love Mozart. So imagine my excitement when I was invited to sing a concert at the Basilica in GR this May. Mozart's "Exsultate, Jubilate" is a most beautiful motet written for solo soprano voice and orchestra. I began working on the piece last year when my contact at the Basilica asked me to sing it. Unfortunately, this man turned out to be a slight, well, weasel. Without giving any details about why he changed his mind, he simply notified me that he's "taking the concert in a different direction." I have two theories as to the reasons: 1.) He resents me for not auditioning for America's Got Talent with one of his original songs (I'm not interested in going on TV and even if I were, he didn't give me the music until three weeks before the audition and I had other commitments that day.) 2.) He couldn't get his act together enough to make the concert a reality. I personally believe his motivations having something more to do with no. 1, as his e-mail was highly formal and seem to imply a certain termination of contact, as though he wanted to say he wasn't interested in my singing for him ever again. I'm highly disappointed but know someday I'll have the chance to sing Mozart again. Click on the link below to watch a clip of my favorite movement from the piece, "Tu Virginum Corona." And be sure to avoid any concerts at the Basilica!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d67jpC5YlA0

New Apartment

So here is a small video of our new place. Washer and dryer in the unit! Hooray! It's pretty charming, and I love the shape of the entire apartment. The lighting's not great, and we haven't moved in yet, but I know it will feel like home in no time!

Haircut

Three Peas in a Pod

I'm so proud of my Jasper! He's so sweet, gentle and accommodating to the two new pups- he even shares his toys. Puppies are unbelievably precious, but no puppy could take the place of the original fuzzball in my life.

Pipsqueak.

pip-squeak (ppskwk)

n. Informal

One that is small or insignificant.

Canine Bliss

My Fuzzball

Last night we wanted to get Jasper a special treat. M insisted on this enormous rawhide bone that I argued was too big for Jasper's mouth. When we presented our little guy with this bone, at first he couldn't contain his excitement. Then he couldn't figure out how to wrap his teeth around it in his usual way and just barked at it for a while. Then he got frustrated, slunk his head down and whimpered at it for a few minutes. Finally, he figured it would be fun to eat despite it's excessive size and started chewing away on the ends. He chewed, chewed, chewed for about two hours nonstop, and we couldn't bear to take it away from him, as he was just having too much fun. So we let him take it to bed, (...it was so big that even after two hours of chewing he'd hardly made a dent so we knew he wouldn't break off any small pieces.) We fell asleep around 11:00, and I awoke at 2:30 in the morning to find Jasper STILL chewing away! I obviously had to take away the treat so that he would have no other choice than to actually sleep. When I gave it back to him this morning I realized that he would never eat his real food again with such a delicious bone around, so once more I had to take it away. Will Jasper ever see his beloved bone again? Sources say "yes," especially if ever I need to occupy him again for a good twelve hours.