Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: January 2021

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 1/21

    The big peony went from this: .. to this: I’ve decided to stop glazing by the book for a while. I need some positive reinforcement, so I’m going to use my cardboard box to combine some things I’ve painted before: the croquet ball, the dog bank, and the small mason jar. And this time I’m…

  • Thank God It’s Over

    I am old – how old? So old that I’ve taken a White House tour. To further emphasize my oldness, I was there during the bicentennial in 1976. I remember touring the White House, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, some of the Smithsonian. The outside photos would suggest I toured the Capitol, though…

  • Review: 63 Up

    I have now the latest installment of the Up series, 63 Up. (If you don’t know what 63 Up is, it’s a documentary that has followed a group of 14 British children every seven years to test the saying, “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.” It’s…

  • The Benefit of Brainless Work

    Most of the time I have very interesting work projects. I have a database that routinely runs into its own limitations, and I have to test my limits wrestling it to my will. I enjoy that. SadLy, I’m also I’m routinely asked to do things that require “Vision” and “Strategic Thinking” and other qualities I…

  • NOVA DNA

    A few months back I used ancestry.com to accuse my 6th great-grandfather of incest. I based that on the doubling-down of DNA and some iffy generational numbers. “How can my 5th great-grandmother bear my 5th-great grandfather? Oooooohhh.” This week I watched a NOVA episode on DNA that explained that it’s a range of DNA matches…

  • Life of a Mouse

    Well, the mystery chipmunk/rat/wee squirrel has been identified, and it is most assuredly a mouse.

  • Clapping

    This morning I suddenly heard someone clapping right outside my window. ClapClapClapClapClapClap! I immediately pulled the blinds to see WHO the HELL have the nerve to clamber up in my landscaping and mock me with applause right outside my window, and why. No one. No one was there. No flutter of shrubs to show they’d…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 1/14

    This week the big peony went from this: … to this: There’s a part I like. Can you guess? I plan to paint over that part I hate and start that over. The small peony went from this: … to complete failure. I give up. Pulling the plug. It’s just like when you say a…

  • Emotional Urination

    Yes, I’m going there. I know fear makes people pee. In addition, there are a lot of medical articles explaining how anxiety causes excessive urination. I am looking for the article that explains why every time I have an argument with Gary, and I get angry enough to cry, I also get angry enough to…

  • Bumped!

    The Missouri rules had Gary and I in phase 1B: Only now, the rules have been released for my specific county, and Gary and I have both been bumped from Phase 1B to Phase 1C. If I did not admire first responders and the elderly I might be resentful.