Jim,
I got Pearls of Wisdom the other day* and may I say, my mind is already blown. Best money I've shelled out for any book on spirituality in recent memory. I had a couple more questions about your HGA working, besides ones I've asked about the HGA in general recently. Obviously I understand if either of these things is too personal for you to be comfortable sharing, in which case, just accept that someone else is benefiting from your Work and move on.

1. (As I read this first statement, it sounds possibly rude, and I don't intend that at all, so please bear with me ...) "You make it look so easy."
You were clearly going through a hell of a lot of personal ups and downs of the greatest magnitude. I can only imagine how difficult that was.
But, when I look at the details you provide of the "formal" magical process - doing the ritual ש and the Phoenix version of the Pentagram - and occasionally missing ש on some nights (the book's not handy as I'm writing this from work, so I can't cite a specific number) that weren't Saturdays, I go, "Wow, this is way lighter than Liber VIII and its three hours of prayer each day and then the seven more at the end."
Now of course you note in your introductory notes, you had your law practice to tend to, etc. and so you couldn't do the 7+3 hours/day week. But you only prolong the Operation from 78 days (the HGA shows up on day 78 according to VIII though there's more stuff on later days) to 93/94 days.
It feels like you're not "making up" for not doing all those extra hours of prayer by making the Operation significantly longer. Yet you succeeded! So what's the secret? Or did the ritual ש actually involve ~3 hours of energized enthusiasm per night?
Were you constantly "inflaming thyself in prayer" pretty much at all other hours of the day as well? If so, and that worked for you, why does VIII recommend so much more "formal" time spent instead of just saying to do that? Was it the psychological stress of your immense personal ups and downs? Was it just years and years of good training in advance? Was it just something about your relationship with Ψ which was just ready to be consummated? All of the above?

2. This may seem an oddly mundane question for such a key event in one's life, or perhaps too intimate, but: After K&C, is the Angel wont to advise one about "mundane" matters? "Hey, we should diet." "Hey, we should exercise." "Hey, that person we're thinking about asking out on a date? We shouldn't do that."
*I got the book via Amazon, which reminds me: is it more money/quicker for you that one buy direct from thelema.org instead? If so I'll keep that in mind in future, but I wanted to see the Proserpinus record quickly as I expected it to be (and it is) informative for my own work.