Our first concert down, twenty-three (or so) to go�

It is early for a Saturday morning, and my guests still slumber in the windowless chamber we call a guest room. It�s a great spot for sleeping, that�s for sure. When I�m done this I�ll make pancakes for them, but first I must recap yesterday�s activities.

The morning was spent in my bathrobe and pyjamas, cleaning the basement and main floor in preparation for guests. I dusted (dusted yet!), vacuumed, made the bathroom hygienically acceptable (I even used C0met on the shower floor, improving its appearance a hundred-fold), made up the bed, and washed the kitchen floor. I did two loads of laundry, the second load had to be finished off in the dryer since I didn�t get it out early enough in the day to dry completely in the sunshine, made a loaf of bread in the bread machine and had a nice bubble bath about mid-day.

Our guests are charming. Meg drank copious amounts of tea before having a rest while the rest of us ate supper, then they presented a very fine recital of contemporary music from the Americas, one piece for voice and piano alone, one piece for piano and tape, one for soprano and tape, and three others for soprano, piano and tape. Meg is an actress foremost, with a beautiful voice (more mezzo than soprano, I thought; at least that�s the range she used) who used movement throughout, and alcides is an incredible pianist. The students had prepared a reception afterwards, and then we took them to Da T0ni, where they consumed a meal. I was a very bad girl and had an appetizer-sized C�sar salad, shared a piece of triple-chocolate mousse cake with Hubby, and washed it down with a very strong cappuccino. Amazingly enough, it did not keep me up.

At the reception a tiny oriental girl came up to me and said, �Aren�t you in the choir? You�re one of the first sopranos who sings really high!� I admitted, yes I was, and then informed her that I taught singing in the department. She was very impressed by Meg�s performance, saying that it wasn�t �just singing, but acting too, and there was an operatic quality about it as well.� I�m sure that latter description referred to Meg�s well-developed vibrato. I certainly wouldn�t have called what she did operatic, but people who aren�t �in the know� immediately associate a warm sound with opera. Interesting.

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