Lessons learned

Proving that you are never too old to learn and that experience is the best teacher, I gained three new nuggets of knowledge this week:

• Never attempt to apply mascara while listening to Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me. I was listening to the podcast of last week's show while getting ready yesterday morning and a particularly funny part caused me to nearly poke the mascara wand into my eye. It didn't help that I am using a new kind of mascara that has a wand handle the size of your average fireplace log - using that mascara is almost a two-handed job.

• Concentrate when working in the kitchen, no matter how many times you have done a particular task. Although the roast was still tasty, I completely forgot an important step when preparing a beef roast for the slow cooker on Wednesday morning, and I have made that particular recipe dozens of times. This morning, I came downstairs to find coffee the color of light tea; turns out that while I did put coffee in the coffeemaker last evening, I forgot to grind the beans first.

• Don't knit when tired and/or absorbed in a television program. Last night, I was trying to knit, watch Survivor and yawn my fool head off, all at the same time. After unraveling several rows of knitting not once but twice, I decided that watching and yawning were all I could handle at one time. At least I am getting better at recognizing my knitting mistakes so that I can correct them almost immediately and not when I have since knit five or six inches.

So there you have it: life lessons from The Queen. You can thank me later.