Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: December 2021

  • Happy New Year’s Eve

    Which do you prefer? New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day? In my world, New Year’s Eve is better. First off, it’s an eve, and eves are at night when it’s dark and sparkly, whereas the days are in the harsh mid-morning light of early winter. Still, I feel I should be more excited about…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 12/30

    This week the Ball pitcher went from this … … to this: Some parts I preferred before. The new cartoon contrast nature of the handle is distracting. Plus the way the bottom peony is shaded now suggests it needs a stem. Oops. Well, I’ll patch up those problems and then the table needs a wash…

  • Think Outside the Box

    Gary often buys “me” Christmas gifts which are transparently technology gifts for himself. Latest stereos, laptops, wireless devices, home assistants, he can only buy himself technology if it is wrapped up as a gift for “me.” It’s a firm Gary Rule, on par with Never Take the Last One of an Item Off the Grocery…

  • Review: The Matrix Resurrections

    Last night Gary said, “What movie do you want to watch?” I answered, “I picked the last one.” (Being the Ricardo’s, excellent, needed some more eyebrow pencil for her and Spanx for him.) “What do you want to watch?” “The Matrix Resurrections,” he said. “Oh god, no. I hate those movies. They make no sense.”…

  • Rewriting the Novel: The Return

    Well, I thought the next draft of the book was going to be easy, compared to erecting the scaffold and hanging all the plot points. But now viewed as a whole, the novel is a funhouse mirror of my injured inner child, and she is not pretty to look at. Then again, I’m on the…

  • Thermometer

    So, I finally bought the fancy Kinsa crowdsourcing thermometer that Rachel Maddow recommended at the beginning of the pandemic. (No fear. I am fine if the Gubment watches my temperature for the Greater Good.) I promptly took my temperature, and a then few days later I got an email from a nurse. See below. —————…

  • Christmas Waffles

    The Christmas traditions in my tiny family of two are limited to food. There were specific things we ate when Mom would come over for Christmas, buffets Mom set up when we went over there, and now that Mom’s gone we have waffles on Christmas morning — or we have the last two years. I…

  • Christmas Eve 2021

    Santa may be busy out in your world, but here, this year, Christmas is about as minimal as Christmas can be. Well, except for the cookies (Eight kinds of cookies plus a fruitcake). Merry Christmas!

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 12/23

    This week the Ball pitcher went from this: … to this: I know, it looks like I’m going in the wrong direction, but I have a plan. A plan for three washes.

  • Domestic Mysteries Resolved

    The desperate beeping is coming from the CO 2 detector, and it has been thrown out and a new one installed. The KitchenAaid plate token came from this tiny cutting board that must have been in the washer, and the heat was high enough to melt the glue.