Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: August 2020

  • Prime Watch Party: The Scottish Play

    A few days ago Friend Anne and I watched Macbeth. We didn’t go to a theater or even a drive-in, we both logged in to Amazon on our PCs and there was an option for Amazon Prime watch party. One person invites the other, and if you are the other, you must use your Amazon…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 8/20

    This week the crypts went from this … … to this: Look, Toto, color! The only other colors are going to be touches of rust and a thin wash of brown on the cement. (And I overcorrected in the white scumbling in the cement so now that walking surface has to get a dark wash.)…

  • 100 Percent

    So I’ve been having some shortness of breath. It happens every once in a while. It’s anxiety-based. “IT’S COVID!” Gary said. “No, it’s not. It’s just Dave being sick and work stuff on top of the global pandemic — “CO! VID!” After a few rounds of this, he went away and came back with his…

  • Updates: Strawberries, Brother, Novel

    Update on Strawberries Well, the squirrel pole vaulted to the strawberry container five feet off the ground and triumphantly hurled one bare root strawberry to the patio, but I will get back at him when I snip off all the runners so no strawberries come to fruition this year. (They say that makes for better…

  • Saint Louis Amusements

    Recently, there’s been a run of news for Saint Louisians who want to entertain themselves. If you are a child and you are looking to pet some goats, the Children’s Zoo at the Saint Louis Zoo is closing. (It does seem odd to have a section of a zoo dedicated to children, like a children’s…

  • Spot the Difference

    The container on the left is the one I found in my pantry last March. The one on the right is the one I just got at Target when I was there getting my second Shingrix vaccination. It looks they no longer make any promises about killing specific viruses, and have instead decided to reassure…

  • Dr. Pepper Shortage

    Well, now it’s personal. Actually, the impending Dr. Pepper Shortage in the link above comes at a good time for Gary. For years doctors and dentists have questioned Gary’s Dr. Pepper habit, and he finally began to listen to them. For three months he’s cut his Dr. Pepper consumption in half, if not more. Perhaps…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 8/13

    This week the crypts went from this … … to this: … The flowers went from this …. … to this …

  • River Cruises

    The Viking River Cruise brochure arrived in the mail, and this time, instead of snorting at the idea and throwing it away immediately, I opened it, just to see how much the prices had been discounted. Not that I would think of going, just to comfort myself that there might be a viral silver lining.…

  • Fifty-eight

    Yesterday I turned 58 years old. In a strange incident a few days ago at work, my imminent birthday was mentioned and the Young People at work said, “You mean your ‘27th’ birthday, right, Ellen?” I was perplexed. Are people still doing that nonsense where you don’t acknowledge that you left your twenties? Plus, the…