Queen Mediocretia of Suburbia

Putting the TMI in absentminded

Month: January 2025

  • More worries about the LA fires

    As long as I can change channels when people start to cry or shout, I’ve been fascinated by the coverage of the LA fires. The fire departments have bee battling them for days and still there’s zero containment, what with the Santa Ana winds carrying embers to drought-dried shrubs. So now I’m worried about more…

  • Weekly Paint Progress: 1/9/2025

    This week the 2025 Croquet balls went from this: … to this. The wet paint on the balls isn’t photographing well. It’s better than it seems.

  • It’s like a foreign language commercial

    I just had to suffer through this commercial below. (By the way, I just upgraded to YouTube Premium, so no commercial for me, but that does mean I can’t see to select commercial-free content for you. Apologies if you had to watch a commercial before watching a commercial.) Is it just me? I could not…

  • What do you want out of sex

    I just began reading “Come Together,” by the same woman who wrote “Come As You Are,” and it asks an interesting question, which is: why do you want to have sex with others? What motivates you? She promptly knocks down the obvious answer (“Feels good”) because you could also feel good by yourself. So I…

  • Review: A Real Pain

    This is the IMDB page for the recent Jesse Eisenberg movie A Real Pain. While it is a wonderful movie, the page below is not accurate. Do you see at the lower left where it says “Buddy Comedy” – I say no. I mean, maybe the first few minutes might make you think that, but…

  • TWIL: How to disable a Kenmore ice-maker

    In this house we don’t need ice: we don’t use ice. We had to wait weeks for our previous fridge because we ordered it without an ice-maker. Ice-makers break. This time, we just decided we’d keep the ice-maker but turn it off. (They hum away trying to make ice, otherwise, deluded things, even if there’s…

  • In which we are both sick

    My back went halfway out last Thursday. Gary, of course, has the lock on illness because of the horrific rash. I have had enough of saying “you poor guy” for the rest of my life. That, plus my sore back led to the following exchange. Gary (Working up some sympathy from me): “I feel so…

  • My favorite hotel, threatened

    There are very few hotels where Gary and I opt for a second visit. If we re-visit a city, the hotel with the best deal on the day usually wins. There are two exceptions: the Michigan Avenue Hilton in Chicago and the Bourbon-Orleans hotel in New Orleans. Per the latter: we stay on the side…

  • 2024: In Review

    The worst first, followed by the rest. The Worst: Gary’s rash, and multple doctor’s visits, and his fanciful scientific explanations for everything. This morning, though, he said that while it feels just as itchy and even more painful, it’s getting better in some sub-cellular way that only he can notice. The Other Worst: Goldie the…