Welcome back to the Hilltop! It appears to be party time! First, today happens to be my birthday, and I’m NOT a big birthday person, so you don’t need to wish me happy birthday, just pretend I’m 29. But hey, any excuse to have a gathering with good friends, food, and libations! It will be a modest finger-food party at our house with a few other couples this evening.

However, we will have to manage entertaining without a refrigerator!  “Old Marley and our refrigerator were as dead as a doornail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a doornail. Marley was dead, and so was our refrigerator: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of their burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner.”

On the bright side, we have an appliance protection plan and may even get a new fridge worth $3,000, for our fee of $50 a month ($600 a year), which has already almost paid for itself on other appliance repairs. On the down side is the fact that it will take days for it to be inspected and then days longer for either the new part or the new fridge to arrive. I went out and bought additional coolers and bags of ice. Fortunately, we do have a large box freezer in the garage, too. So we will manage the birthday party. Crystal has outdone herself by making me a fabulous-looking German chocolate cake (my favorite) from scratch. UPDATE (Sept. 24): Here’s that cake being served, complete with candelabra, like Liberace!

This week for a pre-birthday treat we went to a performance of La bohème downtown, with one of our lovely friends, soprano Tyler Samuel, singing in the chorus.  It was beautifully performed and staged, with subtitles at the top, and really enjoyable. It used to be my dad’s favorite opera, of which he played his vinyl record often in our house, so I grew up knowing and loving it. For those less fortunate who don’t know it, I will say that it is very much like the Broadway show Rent, but with real music (Ouch! Sorry, Rent lovers, just teasing).  

By now, many obnoxious pleas (by me and by a few friends) are out there asking for people to PRE-ORDER my album before Oct. 14, and to write me to request the free pre-order bonus podcasts. Sorry if it’s too much, but if you are going to buy one, pre-orders before Oct. 14 will help most with the Billboard chart. Amazon finally got their fully constructed pre-order site up and running. Here is the link: CLICK HERE!  If you just search with my name for it on Amazon, it’s there, but you may have to scroll way down to find it. It does not appear that you can pre-order the download before Oct. 14, only the CD, but hey, don’t you want to see the lovely cover and 12-page booklet and play the CD in your car, then also get your digital version later? 😊

Btw, if you still owe an RSVP by Sept. 25 to someone, please be sure to respond, whether yes or no. so they will know how much food to order. Thanks.

Finally, my current ballet project and perhaps for other things, I’ve been tinkering with an old idea I had of weaving together new original music with musical quotations from Gregorian Chant. This might be for some sacred scenes in the ballet where the characters go to the temple for a blessing. However, this one (below) may not work for that – I got a bit carried away with romance – It is called “Ubi Caritas Amore,” because it combines the chant Ubi Caritas (“Where Love Is”) with something like a Puccini-style love theme by me! That’s amore!

Wishing you the best, till next time.