Belgium's Voice Male -- amazing!

Belgium's version of Voice Male. (Genius Child #2, this one's for you.)



And here's the American group.

Percy and Harry meet Rossini

We had to opportunity to see the Utah Opera Company's production of The Barber of Seville this month. And we actually made it. We bought tickets for their production of The Magic Flute, and showed up at the theater the evening after our tickets were for. You see, when I purchased the tickets online, I picked the second to last performance (the last performance was Sunday afternoon), so I assumed that we'd be seeing it on Saturday evening. Silly me. I just didn't realize that UOC doesn't do Saturday evening performances both weekends of a run.

With Barber, I was much more careful. And we were good travel mascot owners and brought the boys. Here they are waiting to go in:

And here they are waiting for the show to begin:

As you can see, we had really good seats (thanks to a good friend and good connections). Of course, we didn't take any pictures during the performance. That's not only tacky, but it's illegal.

I was delighted to discover that an old friend from college was singing the role of Rosina (the female lead). Celena Shafer has one of the most amazingly clear, articulate, and beautiful voices in opera today, and she's just the sweetest person ever. The whole show was fun and fabulous, but she was especially great.

Next year, Utah Opera is doing Turandot. Not my favorite show, but Mr. Perfect does need to hear "Nessum dorma" sung live at least once in his lifetime. And we will not be missing the Mozart offering this time around (it's the comical Abduction from the Seraglio, which is almost more musical theater than opera).

Wordless Wednesday

Do you understand the Pledge of Allegiance?

From one of America's most brilliant comedians.

Another amazing video from The Piano Guys

Wordless Wednesday

The Drowsy Chaperon and a new blog name for one

A couple of months ago, Game Boy landed his dream role in Cottonwood High School's musical The Drowsy Chaperon. No, he's not the title character. He's much better than that. He's Man in Chair. If you know the show, then you know that means he's the narrator and main character. Mr. Perfect and One Happy Girl saw the show last night, and it was amazing. Everyone was perfectly cast, but Game Boy is the reason to see this show. He is amazing. For the last six weeks, we've basically been living with Man in Chair. As a tribute to his awesomeness, Game Boy will now be known to one and all (at least on this blog) as Man in Plays.

*and the crowd goes wild in the Palace*

Here's the set:

The really cool set

Here is Man in Plays in his extremely appropriate and comfy looking costume (with Mr. Perfect, the proud papa):

And here he is with Drama Queen (the proud sista):

And a couple more random shots of him and another friend from the show in character:

Robert Martin

As Man in Chair

Happy Birthday, Mom M!

Tomorrow is Mom M.'s birthday. We know that she enjoys good food and good theater, so we took her to dinner and to see No Time for Sargents at Hale Center Theatre. It's a really good production, so I recommend getting tickets and seeing it. We saw the Mon/Wed/Fri cast, but I'm sure both casts are really good.

For dinner, we let her choose. She was in the mood for chicken, so we headed to Cracker Barrel. (There's one really close to the theater.) At Cracker Barrel, it's all about comfort. Mr. Perfect and I shared an entree (they give you really big portions), and we had cookies at intermission.

The play is very funny, and there were a couple of places where the cast had a hard time keeping it together and not busting a gut laughing. We were a very  responsive audience, which helps a cast do even better than with no audience or a dead audience (zombies make the worst audiences).

Happy Birthday, to a lovely, wonderful lady!

Wordless Wednesday

I dare you to not dance along with them.

New master bedroom

Whew!! It's finally done, mostly. There are a few very minor things that need to be finalized, but other than a handle or two and a new light switch for the fan/light, it's done. We have officially moved into our re-done master bedroom.

And the crowd goes wild in the Salt Palace. (Okay, sorry about that. Old reference.)

And here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Finished, but no furniture (just a nice rug):

And now with furniture:

Mother's Day

This was the best Mother's Day I've ever had. Saturday, we moved all of the furniture back into the bedroom, so I got to sleep in my own bed instead of on the futon in the basement. It was heavenly. And the room looks amazing, see? (More pictures of this later.)

Mr. Perfect made me breakfast of eggs and sausage (my favorite breakfast meat). I love it when he cooks. Not only does it mean I don't have to, but he's really good at it.

After breakfast, I had a meeting before church. On my way into the building, I got a call from my secretary, who was supposed to teach the Young Women's lesson that day. She wasn't having that great of a Mother's Day. Her daughter had stomach flu and had been throwing up all night. It meant that I had 3-1/2 hours to prepare a lesson in-between meetings, singing in the choir during Sacrament Meeting, and having the Young Women hand out the Mother's Day favors to all of the ladies in the ward. All I have to say is that I love the new youth curriculum the church has put together. I showed a couple of videos and asked them about their favorite scriptures and why. We talked about why it's important to read in the scriptures every day, and also a bit more about their Patriarchal Blessings, the topic covered the week before. The girls all seemed engaged in the subject and the discussion. Score 10 for the Spirit (because it was in no way me).

We invited all of the parents for Mother's Day dinner. We knew it would be a difficult one for Mom M. with Dad passing away in January. Happily, Drama Queen and Game Boy also came for dinner. They had dinner with their mom's family earlier and were able to join us. Mr. Perfect grilled salmon (my request), and we had veggies and a really good salad provided by Mlle Ami. Afterwards, we sat in the updated living room and talked. I snapped these pictures of the kids while they were sitting together.

Oh, they make us laugh.

After everyone went home, we followed Mom & Dad P. to their house for dessert with the P side of the family. Too much good food, but never enough good company.

Papa's hands

My father is an amazing pianist. His favorite genre of music is jazz. Starting in their late teens, he and his brothers formed dance bands that played at various venues throughout the Greater Salt Lake area until he was in his mid-40s. He and my mother met at a dance he wasn't playing at, but one of his brother's bands was. Now in his early 80s, his hands have slowed down and he doesn't remember many of the songs he used to wow us with as children, but his touch is still perfect. After my students finished their piano recital last night, I asked Dad P. to sit at the beautiful Steinway & Sons grand piano so I could take some pictures of him in his element.

I love you, Papa.

Wordless Wednesday

We have a livable living room!

I know it's seems like a long time coming, but it's actually been a very short time when compared to how long the bathrooms took. Of course, with the living room we weren't adding crazy amounts of plumbing, moving walls, or stripping everything down to the framing. I love how open and breezy it feels. I love the new configuration for the furniture. It gives us the feeling of an entry way. The only thing that we don't have space for is a curio cabinet. We didn't really want to bring the old one back in, but we did want to replace it with a nice, new one. We'll have to save that for our next home.

Before:

During:

After:

The T.V. is in place and the little foot stool doesn't really live behind the white chair, but you get the gist of it. Tours commence on May 20.

(P.S. I can't begin to express my joy at having the piano out of the kitchen.)

From an Evening of Songs You Should Know

If the world all sang like him...

Wordless Wednesday (today it's a double!)