Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: December 2020

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 12/31

    This week the big peonies went from this: … to this: The glazed peony went from this: … to this: So, of course I’ve now over-corrected, but that’s okay. It’s been absorbing.

  • Horns

    We have been watching Bridgerton on Nextflix. It’s a period drama — not in all senses of the word, because the female lead does not seem old enough to to have her period, though there are dramatic scenes with missed periods and surprise periods. The girl is luminous enough that Gary feels called upon to…

  • Wild Bill: a Review

    I wanted to watch Wild Bill because I chanced across a promo and it seemed funny. Ron Lowe seemed smug, and local British people seemed over it. British people slapping down smug Americans. Amusing. (She said, smugly.) I liked the first episode, though there wasn’t quite as much smug-slapping as promised, and I persuaded Gary…

  • Dr. Fauci

    I was watching CNN, last week, with the sound off, because it’s what I do, all the time, and Dr. Fauci was answering viewer questions about the vaccine. I wondered, “Can I even take it? I can only take dead virus vaccines. Is RNA live or dead?” And just at that moment the closed captioning…

  • Christmas Gift

    Last week: “Gary, your hair has grown so much since March. Can I French braid it?” “No.” “What about a high pony?” “No. What is that?” “Think Sarah Palin.” “Absolutely not.” “Can I put you hair in a high pony for my Christmas gift?”

  • Christmas Events

    Does it seem as if there has been a spate of Breaking News Events on Christmas mornings? I remember in recent years there was a tsunami, the airline shoe bomber, a typhoon, and now this Nashville bombing. It’s eerie how my subconscious looked at the aerial photo only identified as “downtown Nashville” and I said,…

  • Merry (?) Non-Christmas

    We had such success with the Thanksgiving coping technique (Shake Things Up To Spite the Virus) that we are doubling down on it for Christmas. Or more accurately, maybe tripling or quadrupling down, because instead of picking one tradition to shun, we’re ignoring Christmas entirely. You know, so as not to invite comparisons with Christmas…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 12/24

    Very slow progress this week. The big peonies went from this: … to this: … and the glazed small peonies went from this: It looks interesting, but less and less like a flower and more and more like a surgery in progress.

  • Review: The Lady Vanishes (various versions) (spoilers)

    Nothing but spoilers below! Once upon a time the was a book titled “The Wheel Spins,” and Alfred Hitchcock adapted it into The Lady Vanishes, and it was entertaining. When I saw that there was a BBC adaptation that was closer to the book, I recommended that Friend Anne and I set up an Amazon…

  • Rewriting the Novel: Exposition

    I am in exposition hell. And it’s odd, because I love novels that trickle out the exposition slowly, or else don’t give it at all. Like The Handmaid’s Tale. But I keep thinking of cunning ways to dole it out in chapter one. So I’m 6,000 words into chapter one. If I were bold I…