There were a few that were good enough for me to give
them either a 4 or a 5. Far more earned a 3 or even a 2, and only a
few got a 1.
Some periodic breaks were worked into the showing. During
one of them, The Gryphon and I shared a bagel. In another, we moved
downstairs with The White Rabbit, seeking more comfortable furniture
than the hard wooden kitchen chairs we'd been sitting on. The AMV Editor
had set up two projectors, linked to show the AMVs simultaneously. He'd
even taped down all the wires so nobody would trip.
It was nice sitting with The White Rabbit, because we
could share our thoughts about the AMVs with him. He had a very similar
taste to The Gryphon and I. One of the many reasons The White Rabbit
and I have been friends for 20 years!
We stayed through the rest of the action, all the comedy,
and most of the drama before we decided to head out. It was about 4
p.m. by then, and people were talking about ordering pizza. But not
only did I have a slight head that was threatening to blossom into a
full-grown migraine, should I subject myself to more intense video and
sound, but I was in the last stages of a 48-hour stomach flu. The thought
of pizza made me nauseous. So we turned in our sheets and made our apologies.
On the way home, we stopped at a French bistro in Ardmore,
A La Maison,
where I had the herb-roasted chicken with pomme purée (mashed
potatoes) and seasonal vegetables. It was much milder and more easy
to palate than I think greasy pizza would have been. I also had enough
extra to take home for another meal.
After I got home and changed into comfortable clothing,
I started to feel a little better. A nap further restored me, so that
in the evening I was able to launch into Wild Violet work. I
did most of the fiction pages, which meant scanning in the stories (for
mailed contributions; not needed for e-mailed contributions, reading
through them and making corrections, breaking them across several pages,
and designing graphics for each page. Since our redesign is not complete,
I stuck to the old method of having a different graphic for each page
in a story. In the new design, we plan to use just one graphic per piece.
On Sunday, I completed the fiction section, which took
longer than I'd expected, in part because of all the ways I was splitting
my time. I put together a Kodak Gallery album of our New York City trip,
with captions, to share with family and with friends in the photos.
In the morning, I also took some extra work assignments
for pay, which I had to give priority. They took longer than expected:
I wasn't finished until about 2. When I'd finished that, The Gryphon
and I dropped a video at the local Blockbuster store and ate lunch at
a local coffee shop. Then we stopped at the grocery store to pick up
ingredients for a fantastic dinner he would cook that evening.
I might have gotten even more work done on Wild Violet,
but The Gryphon and I felt it was important to spend some time together.
The dinner was fantastic. He researched some recipes
by August Escoffier, the French chef, restaurateur and culinary
writer who shaped modern French cuisine. He made us Poulet Sauté
Marseillaise (#1566: chicken prepared with garlic, green pepper, tomatoes,
white wine, lemon and parsley); Pommes de Terre à la Lyonnaise
(#2227: red-skinned potatoes and onions, boiled, sliced and sauteed
in butter); and Carrottes à la Vichy (#2062: carrots, sliced
and peeled, prepared with salt, sugar and butter).
Overall, it was a delicious meal, although he had some
critiques of his own technique and I thought he'd added too much salt
to the carrots. I would give very high marks to his chicken and potatoes,
and I told him he can try out recipes on me any time!
