Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: May 2019

  • Famous Families

    I recently watched The Center Will Not Hold, the Netflix documentary about Joan Didion. (An aside: Yes, I am watching lots of television. The landscaping is taking up all my energy, so nights are spent in front of the TV.) What struck me was how every member of that family excelled. Well …. excelled or…

  • Toto Two

    We have this interesting sculpture sitting in the corner of our bedroom. One month ago today, we ordered another Toto toilet through Amazon. This is the upside-down lidless toilet. It would be installed right now, only Gary wanted the same installer he got last time, and that man is suddenly very busy. He only responds…

  • Three TV Recommendations

    The first one is brief: remember the Apollo 11 documentary I watched in the IMAX theater and loved so much? It is coming to your tiny TV screen on June 23 on CNN. Space nerds, enjoy. ———————— The second recommendation is They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, the story of Orson Welles and his last…

  • Gary’s Sudden Weight Gain

    Gary and I have been doing some muddy, sweaty yardwork, and as such, every day we’ve been stripping in the laundry room, putting the mud-soaked clothes in the washer, and then padding naked through the house directly to the shower. Friday, when I was at work, Gary looked for his clothes, didn’t see them, and…

  • Saint Louis Sports

    Saint Louis has a secret cabal of TV sports execs who orchestrate game outcomes to make the most satisfying stories and get the highest ratings. Here is a sample of their meeting minutes from last year: Saint Louis Sports Cabal Meeting Summer 2018 Meeting called to order 9:30 am Old Business Saint Louis Cardinals Baseball…

  • Opera Fan

    After Friend Anne and I went to the opera last year to see The Trial and La Traviata, we got season tickets for this year. This year we get to see The Marriage of Figaro, Rigoletto, The Coronation of Poppea (quite old), and Fire Shut Up In My Bones (a modern story). I am very…

  • Add Birding to the List of Old People Behaviors

    The other day I was looking out on the patio and I saw a new bird. I raced to the birding book, misidentified it as a Fox Sparrow at first, but now I know it’s a Brown Thrasher. (By his song ye shall know him.) It’s an entertaining animal. It hops, and with every hop…

  • Ring-Naked

    I generally don’t take off my wedding and anniversary rings, but I need to prepare chicken wings and then I have landscaping ahead of me, digging up rocks, so I am going to be ring-naked for a couple of days. I hate being ring-naked. These rings are on me almost every day and night (except…

  • Work Story

    Our entire team took part in a phone meeting the other day. The bosses called the meeting to let us know that our leader of ten years was moving on, and our leader’s leader aka our ‘Grand Leader’ aka Rex Dangervest wanted to weigh in and say reassuring things. Suddenly the phone meeting went into echo…

  • Hockey

    This whole town has gone hockey mad. The Blues — the Saint Louis hockey team — started the season in last place and are now in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The real, pre-cup playoffs, not just the bogus extra rounds of pre-playoff wild card playoffs. For some superstitious reason I don’t understand, the players adopted…