Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: November 2020

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 11/19

    This week the peonies went from this … … to this: The Orange went from this … … to this:

  • Skin

    A barbecue place in my area serves deep fried chicken skin as an appetizer. “Well that’s keto,” I thought, and I ordered some. Heaven. Two cups of tasty crunchy chicken skin. Two days later, I made a spatchcocked chicken, and of course the real appeal there is the crispy skin. Gary elected to eat a…

  • X Feet Apart

    I saw an image of the Georgia recount, and thought, “take away the masks and that looks just like the Florida recount in 2000.” Then I realized that while those people aren’t seated as close as you would have seen in 2000, they are not six feet apart. The six foot rule is not being…

  • Procedural

    We’ve been watching a lot of detective shows lately. (Poirot is back in the rotation – we’re sticking with it, except for the hard pass on the After the Flood episode.) Every episode has Japp or Poirot or someone asking “Where were you at 8:17 Tuesday evening?” This is how I imagine I would answer…

  • Soy Burger

    McDonald’s is here to say it will be offering a vegan plant-based burger called the McPlant. I am here to say, “been there, ate that.” I grew up on plant-based burgers. Our school district served soy burgers exclusively. Perhaps next year McDonald’s will introduce another of my high school foods, the McRectangle: From the press…

  • A New Word for Me

    Today I met a co-worker who described himself as a brutally frank over-sharer. I thought, “Ah, the distaff version of me,” — only I would be the distaff version of him. I needed the opposite. I looked it up and he would be the “agnate” version of me. Did you all know this? Am I…

  • Rewriting The Novel: From Planning to Action

    Right now the novel is an overly detailed outline. I need to stop planning and start putting down dialog and descriptions, and, you know, paragraphs and the like. I imagine I will tear right through it and then discover that I have an overly long fundamentally flawed short story. Calling this my practice novel allows…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 11/12

    Because again .. dang it … both projects finished simultaneously, I have two new projects to start. With both, you will notice the foundational drawing is really messy – because I no longer care if things match the original. I think that’s progress. I looked for something that would have strong contrast and easy colors,…

  • Garden Advice for New Gardeners

    When I had my first garden, Mom, an accomplished gardener, gave me some advice. “Don’t waste your money on anything in the White Flower Farms Catalog. It won’t grow even if it says it grows in our Zone. Only plant the things you can find in every nursery in your area.” The years since have…

  • Ill

    I had big plans for today, and then when I woke up I was profoundly exhausted. So exhausted I signed up for a sick day. I thought if I could rest for a day I might fend off any cold or illness that might be creeping up. I decided that if I was still just…