#389 - Pisco Sour If You Please

The morning started sooner than we wanted to.

Our new neighbours next door must have got a new leaf blower/ sucker recently and decided to use it at 8 o’clock in the morning. From our perspective, there is no reason to ever use a power tool that early in the morning unless you belong to a construction crew. The only thing I could imagine, was that it was also garbage day and they went wanted to get rid of his many leaves as possible when they came to pick them up at the curb.

I really enjoy these neighbours, they very kind and generally very thoughtful. But I don’t enjoy 8 AM power tool usage.

That meant we were up a little earlier than usual, for me that meant getting to my desk for 9 AM. There wasn’t a lot on the books today except for a couple of meetings one of which was to see how our department was doing and what improvements we could think to make. For our part we could only come up with things we needed or other departments work supplying us with yet. Our main issue at the moment is a render farm that doesn’t always want to work. This means we have to render files locally on her own machines and that means we can’t do any other work while they are running.

We informed our producer that the studio needed to buy three new computers for each 2D animated show otherwise there was going to be a bottleneck for all three shows once they were all up and running.

After the meeting I started doing approvals and revisions and for the most part they were small changes that needed doing.

Scroll down Robyn and I managed to take a walk at lunch in our favourite park. There were tons of dogs and dog walkers today. And I would say it was fair to say that the dogs outnumbered the people.

Unfortunately, there were also quite a few cyclists on the paths. The worst part about cyclists is they always expect you jump out the way so that you don’t slow them down. But, they put those brakes on the bike for a reason.

When we came back we both got back to work straight away. Robyn had to go to school later in the evening and I had plenty of backgrounds to revise. I will say that the last two days have been calmer and less stressful than usual at work. Since we made changes things seem to be moving along much smoother. It’s nice not to feel so worn out at the end of the day. And I think our team was starting to get burnt out, so any positive movement will bring them relief.

I worked until around five. Robyn had already left to go to school by 430. I made myself dinner from the left-over chicken and vegetables from the other night. I decided to heat them up in a skillet instead of the microwave and that allowed me to read crisp the chicken thighs skin. And since we are going away soon, it made sense to use up things we already had in the house. And of course it saved some money.

I watch some YouTube while I ate. One of the videos was about Matt Damon and how he and Ben Affleck started in the business. He talked about Robyn Williams and how when they were filming Good Will Hunting, Robyn Williams asked them if they wanted to go across the street and meet Stephen. They both understood that it was Steven Spielberg and when Stephen met Matt, he said, “Where have I seen you before?” Matt had put in an audition tape for Saving Pvt. Ryan.

But Stephen laughed at him because there was no way he would’ve ever seen that tape. It turned out he’d seen him in another movie where he played a drug addict and had commented that that guy would be perfect as Pvt. Ryan except that he’s too skinny. And since Damon had lost weight for the role and had since gained it back it was a chance meeting with Spielberg that got him the role and saving Pvt. Ryan.

So it seems, that Robyn Williams had a major role in helping Matt Damon and Ben Affleck get started in the movies. It was Robyn Williams signing on to Good Will Hunting that got the movie greenlight.

After that I watched a video about a different way to prepare some potatoes which has you basically roasting them mashing them through a sieve and then piping them into cones before putting them in the oven to bake. After that’s done you coat them and herb butter. A bit of extra work for some dinner but it looked delicious. I may give that a try while him up at the cottage and have more free time.

I made my first attempt at making a Pisco Sour cocktail using the premix and some pasteurized egg whites. The mix already has the Pisco, lime and sweetener so all you have to do is add the egg whites and gove it a shake over ice. I didn’t have the bitters to add the dots to the top of the foam, but you don’t really miss it as a flavour.

I was really impressed at how good the mix is. I’ve had Pisco Sours made from scratch at a Peruvian restaurant and this mix was just as good as that. I’ll be bring a bottle of that mix up t the cottage for sure.

After Robyn came home, we got into our cozies and watched Seth Meyers followed by The Daily Show. Seth Meyers had Jenna Ortega as his guest, and it wasn’t the best interview I’ve ever seen. It felt very forced and unnatural and I guess I expected her to be more interesting.

 

After catching up on the news through a comedy show, we put on an episode of The Diplomat. And although this show is more about politics, at least it’s fictional. After that we watched a second episode of The Diplomat, and I was pleased to see that the story is getting better.

One of Robin’s good friends also called to seek out her advice about a relationship. Her friend has been dating a man for over a year and not once has she been introduced to his family. We immediately said, “Well, he’s either married or he has other girlfriends.”

It’s unfortunate that there are people out there that take advantage of sweet people. There’s always somebody out there willing to pray on other people’s kindness and good hearts. It’s hard to see someone you care about spending so much time and effort and money on someone who’s just going to use them in the end.

But we were both proud of her for standing up for herself and cutting him off by ending the relationship. Hopefully, she’ll be able to find the right person, the person she deserves.

After watching TV, we both decided to relax before bed by reading. Robyn read her book and I listen to Dune Messiah on audiobook. The second book in the Dune Saga is not as well narrated as the first one. Also, I find the story is not as interesting as the first book.

In this book Paul Atreides has been Emperor for 12 years. The story picks up after the interstellar jihad, and he is married to the emperor’s daughter, but his true love is Chainey, his Fremen wife. Now Paul must deal with the spice guild and all the other factions as well as dealing with his own religious fanatical followers.

I’m hoping the book starts to get better as we get deeper into the story. It’s a book that has many fans, so I imagine it will be good in the end. Before I lay down to listen to the audiobook, I took my tart cherry and magnesium glycinate pills. This had the effect of making me perfectly sleepy after about an hour of listening to the audiobook. Which was just about the perfect amount of time.

That’s all I have for today.

Until Tomorrow.