#339 - Ahead of Schedule and Some Soup!

I worked from home this morning.

That was a decision I made last night before going to bed. I had a call to hire a painter scheduled for noon and I thought it didn’t make sense to do that from the studio. Maybe when my new earphones arrive. But for now, my home setup works better for calls.

I woke an hour early, probably because I got to bed by midnight last night. But there was no way I am starting work early. I had about thirty minutes left to watch on the Michael Jackson movie so, why not start the day in a nice, relaxed way. This part of the movie was all about the good things in his life, he is at his pinnacle, before anything too questionable might have happened.

I found myself smiling away as I watched. I think you would have to be dead inside to feel anything other way. As a biography, I think the movie falls short. There really aren’t any insights into the man. You get the feeling that this is a propaganda piece to make some money but also to secure his place among the world’s top performers. And I think there is a reason they stopped the movie where they did to avoid having to go into all the allegations. You can’t have your hero, who fights the bad guy, Joe Jackson, win the big to get his freedom only to end up in court charged with pedophilia. Not how the heroes journey works in storytelling.

But it did give me some joy to see the performance and remember what he was like on stage. You can’t take your eyes off him. He was that good.

I grabbed the last slice of leftover pizza for my breakfast and ate it while I finished the movie.

Don’t judge me.

When it was done, the movie, not the pizza, I headed to my desk.

My day looked like it would be steady, but not to overtaxing. I started off by going through the approval folder and revising the work that needed it. These first painting didn’t need much work because we a had painted these areas earlier and we had good reference for what they looked like. I had a ten AM all-supervisors meeting to attend, and I collected all the information about where we were at as a crew and what things we still needed from other departments.

This meeting is another chance for us to see where we all are at in the production schedule and to ask for new resources and or ask any relevant questions. We have a really excellent team, so it was mostly just a report of where we were all at.

My art director let me know she was going to approvals for me today and provide some paint overs for the paintings she wanted corrected. And that meant I might be able to get this current episode out and fully delivered to the next team by end of day. Anytime you can get something off your plate is a reason for celebration.

I went back to checking work after the meeting and stopped when my second meeting of the day started. It was a lunch time meeting, which I naturally despise, but the purpose of the meeting was to interview a painter to take a lead position at the company.

A person I have worked with before and trust said really good things about the candidate and my current supervisor also was talking this person up. So, I had high hopes for the meeting.

The candidate was great and I think would make a good lead on the team. One of the things we want to make sure to do is to hire experienced people from the industry right now because there are so many of them available right now. So, if someone on our team gets pulled of the show t move onto a new show, we want our replacements to be top notch candidates.

It rained all morning, and by the time the meeting ended I was ready to get some exercise and at least get out of my chair. Luckily, the rain had stopped, and Robyn and I decided we would take a short walk around the neighbourhood since it was already twelve thirty.

We stepped outside into a sauna. I think the humidity had risen since yesterday. The sun came out and made for a really warm experience. We were both glad and disappointed that we had gone for the walk. The humidity made it very uncomfortable, but we both agreed we needed the exercise.

We returned home very hot and very sweaty. The air conditioning never felt so good. The humidity has been so high our refrigerator has been icing up. I set it to defrost itself and headed back up to my desk carrying a Dr. Pepper and a Perrier. Walking is thirsty work.

By the time I go logged back in, the art director handed in the revisions she’d asked for as well as the promised paint-over file. I set about rendering any of the files she had approved and while that ran in the background I started in on the revisions. Sometimes we have the artists fix their own files, but I didn’t want to distract them from what they were working on.

Two of the revisions were fairly quick and easy.

The third required a bit more painting work and would take some time to finesse. I did the easy ones first so I could send them to the render farm and then got started on the harder revision. It took me about an hour to revise that file, but the changes really helped the painting to feel like it belonged with all the others.

I placed the painting into the sequence and was pleased how it felt apart of the show. I sent that off the render farm and turned my attention to the next episode. Some of the artists were starting to hand in their work and the timing was perfect for me.

I spent the rest of the day working on approvals until a little after five. Outside, thunder rumbled in long slow rolls. Robyn and I needed to go gets some ingredients from the grocery store this evening and there is now a big weather warning. An Orange Watch. Threatening severe thunderstorms, gusts up to 100 km and a risk of a tornado and hail.

It was time to see if my lushing bride wanted to get groceries sooner rather than later!

And she did not. Or at least she didn’t have the free time to go. With her freelance work she was better served by staying home. And that’s okay, it’s really a one-man job anyways.

I headed to Walmart first, because the groceries there tend to be cheaper than across the road at the Fortino’s. But Fortino’s has better meat and vegetables. The shopping began for some chicken thighs and canned tomatoes to make the chicken ruby. But tonight I was planning to make the parsnip and pear soup we had at our friend’s son’s wedding a couple of weekends ago. We thought it would be nice to bring to the cottage for everyone to have with a sandwich at lunch or before a meal. I needed 2 lbs of parsnips, four pears and some cream. I had just about everything else back at home, but finding parsnips as Walmart was a dead end. I also needed some fresh dill weed and again Walmart was not suited for that. After finding almost everything else on my list, I knew it a trip to Fortino’s was in order.

Just as I reached to cashier, everyone’s phones went off with a government alert about a severe storm that was inbound. The sky outside when pitch black with swirling grey clouds and then the rain came like it was the end of days.

I rang in my purchases, shrugged my shoulders and headed to the exit. It was just a bit of rain, and I am not entirely made of sugar. I ran for the car and got the back hatch up as a temporary relief from the rain. In the time it took to run the short distance to my car, I had already been soaked to the bone. Staying dry was a bit of lost cause at this point.

With the groceries away, I carefully backed out. I don’t trust people in Walmart parking lots. Someone is always walking behind cars that are pulling out.

It was extra hard to see with the rain coming down in buckets and driven by a strong wind. I got into the Fortino’s parking lot, and it was mostly empty. So, I got a spot close to the entrance. I got soaked again running into the store and entered a nearly empty building. The staff outnumbered the shoppers at that instant.

I found some parsnips and dill and headed to the check out. I had my choice of ten lanes. No one else in the store was checking out at the same time. It was a bizarre sensation. The cashiers looked utterly bored.

The rain wasn’t as bad on my way out the door, but I ran to the car anyways.

One of the other dishes I wanted to make for the cottage was some poached pears. I wanted to poach them in a red Beaujolais because that variety is fruity and should go well with the pears. You can get wine at the grocery store, but you can’t get a Beaujolais. I’m sure a pinot noir would have worked just as well, but I wanted the French shit!

So, that meant another trip to the LCBO to see if I could get a bottle. They three Beaujolais available and I bought the cheapest one. I am boiling pears in it after all, not drinking it cold in a glass. That was the last item I needed so I headed home in the rain accompanied by the loud rolling drumbeats of distant thunder and flashes of chain lightning the split the darkness like it was broken glass.

Safely back at home, I started peeling parsnips and roasting them and then doing the same for the pears. It smelled great. The recipe called for onion and celery to be soften in butter before adding chicken stock and spices. The pears and parsnips were added and the whole pot were simmered for thirty minutes. I was very dubious about the recipe I was following. I couldn’t see how it was going to end up like the thick and creamy soup from the wedding. There was just too much chicken broth to make it happen.

I kept on. What choice did I really have other than starting over?

After it finished simmering, I blended to soup in batches until it was smooth. The blending made the soup colour lighter and the texture ended up being almost the exact same as the wedding soup. I added in the heavy cream and gave it taste.

To my mind it was close, but it was missing something. I thought perhaps the soup at the wedding had been a bit sweeter, so I had in a splash of maple syrup and gave it a try.

Better.

A little more salt.

Better.

Another splash of maple syrup.

And I had done it. This was as close the wedding soup as I could hope to come on the first attempt. I let Robyn try some and she loved it.

It wasn’t an exact copy, but it was still a delicious soup.

The whole process had me exhausted and after cleaning up the mess in the kitchen I was done for the day. No more work for this guy it was time to watch some tv or something.

Robyn said she wasn’t going to work more than another five or ten minutes and that made me smile. We might get to watch a show together.

But then I remembered I still had to hit my word quota and my shoulders slumped.

I dragged out the laptop and got down to business. How many words cold I get before Robyn came upstairs?

I passed my quota just as she entered the bedroom and I was elated.

We would be able to relax together for an hour or two.

And then she said those dreaded words.

“I’m going to go straighten my hair.”

A complete was of time in my opinion as she looks lovely with her natural curls. But she like her hair straight and there is no arguing with her about it.

Oh, well. Maybe I can read for a bit instead!

Until tomorrow.