Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: November 2020

  • Rewriting the Novel: Dreams

    Okay, now I’m dreaming about the novel. This was not a Kubla Khan dream. This was an awful dream, a Puppies in Peril dream. Somehow, my dreaming subconscious decided it would be a fine plot point if someone in this Oklahoma boom town decided to put puppies in bags and toss them off roofs. I…

  • Thirty Years

    My brother has been a recovering alcoholic for 30 years. That’s a long, long time. Evidently if you’re make it to 30 years, your chance of relapse is less that 15 percent. That’s encouraging. I don’t know that I could stick with one thing for 30 years. How could I make it if society said,…

  • Turkey Soup Recipe

    Go into kitchen at 8:30 am and assemble all the turkey soup parts on the counter. Roast bones. Make stock. Realize you need to de-fat this if you want to eat it today. Do speed de-fatting like Mom did with the ice cubes. Research Best De-fatting device and order it on Amazon so this doesn’t…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 11/26/2020

    This week the peonies went from this … … to this: The orange glazing project went from this: … to this: The Orange appears to be a bit overripe. I think I will stop on this one. Oh, and happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful Gary is still here despite his (crosses self) Covid. He feels…

  • The Season’s Cheese

    Only 30 shopping days until Christmas! Yeah, and then what? Given how this year has been measured out in coffee spoons full of POISON, it seems like this year there should be a multitude of tiny little gifts instead of one big gift. Perhaps that’s why so many friends have been buying themselves Advent Calendars.…

  • Skipping Appointments

    The doctor’s office called to say our sainted GP will be working in the ICU on the day of our physicals, so I opted to have the physicals with the Physician’s Assistant. Gary heard about it and stated forcefully that he was not visiting any hospitals with the covid spike the way it is now.…

  • 2020 Retrospective

    My favorite time of year is fast approaching. No, not Thanksgiving. Not Christmas. It will soon be Retrospective Time again. 2020: The Year In Review. What do you think the big story will be? Of course, this year, some CNN or Time intern has been tasked with finding the Non-COVID stories. Australia caught fire, there…

  • Weekend Time

    It annoys Gary, but I like to do two things at once – especially if one of the things I am doing is watching television. I like to clean up after dinner and watch television, or do the laundry and watch television. (In case you think I’m overly burdened with domestic work, and that makes…

  • Rewriting the Novel: New Phase

    Done with the outline and on to writing. Much more fun than outlining. Of course there are new problems. When I was in the community college class, the teacher commented that there were no noticeable differences between my writing voice and Jerry’s. That day has passed. I am retooling chapter one and now it’s all…

  • Gavle Goat

    I was discussing Zozobra and Burning Man with a friend who clued me in to what must be the greatest of all Fiery Catharsis Voodoo Dolls: the Swedish Gävle Goat, or Gävlebocken. First off, the goat is just really visually pleasing. It’s a Swedish Yule goat, which is evidently a straw goat with a handle.…