Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: July 2021

  • Review: The Little Foxes

    Two things struck me about the Bette Davis classic The Little Foxes. There were no foxes. I knew I had watched the movie a long time ago, and I especially remembered the staircase scene. But I was confused seeing it this time, because the staircase was way smaller and darker than I remembered. Turns out…

  • Rewriting the Novel: Weirdness

    When I was painting the birdbath I kept thinking, “These are the craziest colors. I am so far afield. These colors are way too bright, too exaggerated.” And then come to find out, they weren’t too strange. That’s how I am feeling about the book. What I am writing is crazy exaggerated stuff. For example,…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 7/29

    Weekly Paint Progress: 7/29

    Done with the bird baths. This was last week: Here is this week: This is the original: I finally like it. The slant of the light in the morning is all off, and I never felt like I was getting the colors right, but now that I look at it side by side it isn’t…

  • Who Am I to Criticize

    I recently watched the Covid news, and of course, condemned the legions of unmasked virus-deniers who live in the southwest corner of my state. Right after that I took a hot shower, which my first neurologist told me I should never do, and then I ate a tasty lunch of sous-vide pork loin, even though…

  • Cleveland Indians

    How was this ever okay? The term Indian became controversial in my adult life, somehow — I mean, we knew we didn’t live in India — but the grinning mascot could not ever have been okay. Could it? I like the new name better … but, couldn’t the cartoon fastball have used more work? It’s…

  • Overbought

    I personally don’t like to eat the same thing two days in a row, but Gary delights in it. Given that Mr. S___ will eat no meat, and his wife will eat no carbs, we share no meals. I’m back to cooking home meals for myself on the weekends while he assembles ornate salads for…

  • Olympics

    I must have been partially asleep during the Olympic opening ceremonies. I “remember” these things, and yet they can’t be real: The announcer said that the Winter Olympics are in “just a few months” and I thought, “The Winter Olympics are in just a few months and no one is canceling them?” But it’s true,…

  • Foot Update

    I spent two weeks with a swollen red foot, after I traumatized it with Mom’s sundial, before I made a doctor’s appointment. I just kept waiting for it to stop being red swollen and painful, and I didn’t, so clearly something was wrong. That must have done the trick, because the day after I made…

  • Rewriting the Novel: Slow but Steady

    This week I made up pages of predictable garbage, but I did it consistently. The words were still slow. Saturday: 1 hour = 1.5 pages Sunday: 15 minutes = one sentence (Literally, this sentence: “I wondered if the stove was still on.” It means more in context: there’s been an explosion and gas is screaming…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 7/22

    This week the morning went from this: … to this: The noon version went from this: … to this: The evening went from this: … to this: One more swing and they’ll be done.