And it is all worth the effort...

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It is Monday night at 10.30 on the 19th of August in my first year in Forget-Me-Not Valley. My Pot was delivered this morning at 6.00 a.m. and I spent most of the morning making new dishes... among them all the Curries apart from those requiring White Grass, an herb that is available only in the Winter season. Unfortunately, Skye's Most Favourite gift happens to be 'Finest Curry', the one special curry that does contain White Grass. Even so, the other special curries do appeal to him greatly.

I lavished attention upon a very complicated dish known as the 'Ultimate Curry' and when it was completed, set it in a golden vessel. I barely could concentrate on my farm chores today as the Ultimate Curry was intended for Skye and I only can find him in the Valley at night.

I have made it a habit to 'drop in' casually at Vesta's farmhouse at 10.10 p.m. each night. I am pleasant to every one. I hope they cannot guess the real reason I have been making the visit. It enables me to switch my accessories from Teleport Stone to Love Bangle without wasting any time. I am able to place my gift for Skye in my hands as well, in preparation for each nightly encounter.

In the past, the best gifts I had for him were acceptable ones of jewelry or toiletries from the Excavation Site. Those gifts DID please him but his affection for me only increased at a slow rate.

Now tonight, my heart was pounding as I met him with Ultimate Curry in my hands. Oh beautiful moment! O moment of magic! What do you imagine his response to have been?

'What a wonderful woman you are!' Skye exclaimed. 'Thank you.'

Some may consider the difference between 500 points of AP and 300 points of AP to be fairly insignificant but for a woman in love, it means that I can win the heart of my beloved in almost half the time it would have taken previously. I may not be able to marry Skye before Winter in these circumstances, but I am confident that he will accept my Blue Feather, should I proffer it, before the Year's End.

Tomorrow, my house will be upgraded for the second time. Due to some unfortunate occurrences in the past (never experienced by me personally, thank God!), I feel it will be best if I place my cat and dog outside tonight. Gotz has been known in the past to wall up an unfortunate pet when performing the second house expansion! Ranchers who have experienced this terrible accident of fate either have been forced to live with the horrible view of their cat or dog struggling within the wall forever or never have seen the pet again at all. I don't know which is worse but I do know it is better to take the precaution perhaps of setting the two pets outside for a few hours.

My heart is singing as I walk home slowly, savouring Skye's response to my Ultimate Curry. Ultimate Curry is a lot of work to prepare and some of the steps can become rather tedious after awhile, but Skye is worth any effort.