Well, dear readers, the good news is Grant came over around three o’clock yesterday, had some treats, and then he scanned a couple of things for me and then, to my surprise, not only dove into the book but designed the entire thing while we were sitting there. It only took about ninety minutes, which was incredible and now I can print it out and do my final proofing, although the two things that are usually the biggest pains in the butt cheeks in terms of fixing stuff, have been alleviated, so proofing should go much quicker and if there’s anything to fix it will only be bad breaks and stuff like that, unless I find any more typos, which is certainly a possibility. So, that was a great way to spend the afternoon of a holiday.
Prior to that fun, I’d gotten a little over eight hours of sleep, got up, answered e-mails, then I picked up a couple of packages and went to Gelson’s for some cube steak and chicken breasts for later in the week. Then I came home. One of the packages was from Amazon Prime Pantry – I’ve only done that once before, but if you order over thirty-five dollars it’s all free shipping and very fast. And everything I got was a good two to three dollars cheaper than even Ralph’s. So, I got a bunch of Campbell’s chunky soups, cream of mushroom soup, some of the Uncle Ben’s microwave rice that I like, pretzels, pasta, paper towels, and other fun stuff, including Swedish fish. I’d also gotten some food from the hot food bar – chicken enchiladas and some rigatoni with beef (very small portion of that) and I ate that all up.
Then we did the book stuff, after which I came home and sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched a French motion picture from France entitled La Verite (The Truth), which somehow I’ve managed to miss all these years, even though I like its director very much, Henri-Georges Clouzot, who made The Wages of Fear and Diabolique. This one is basically a courtroom drama with lots of flashbacks, starring Miss Brigitte Bardot and a host of fine French actors. It’s a bit long for its own good at 128 minutes, but I enjoyed it, it has interesting things to say, and Miss Bardot turns in a truly wonderful dramatic performance. The transfer is fantastic – rich-looking black-and-white, great photography, wonderful clarity and contrast – could not be better, really. I can absolutely recommend it and do, absolutely.
After that, I relaxed, listened to music, but the designed book PDF on a thumb drive, ate some Swedish fish for a snack along with some pretzels, and that was that.
Today, I’ll get up around ten, and mosey on over to Staples to get the book printed out. I’ll probably give them an hour to do so and come home and make something light to tide me over until dinner. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, I’ll pick up the book, and come home and proof until I’m done proofing. Then if Grant is available, we’ll enter corrections and then go dine.
The rest of the week is Grant getting the finished book stuff to the publisher, which I hope will happen by Thursday or Friday, meetings and meals, seeing a couple of shows, and doing whatever else needs doing, including announcing a new Kritzerland release.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, print out the book for final proofing, do the final proofing, hopefully pick up some packages, eat something light to tide me over until dinner, hopefully enter whatever fixes there are, dine, and then relax. Today’s topic of discussions: All during the 1950s there was the motion picture phenomenon known as the sex-kitten. Today that would not happen, so let’s go back to yesteryear and that curious phenomenon – who were your favorite sex-kittens of the 1950s and 1960s – I believe one could say that phenomenon began with Miss Marilyn Monroe in the 1950s. Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, thrilled that the book is designed and ready for its final proofing.