On Blogging – Busy Bee Suz

Fake {name} Friends, Simplifying My Christmas, And Feeling The Spirit In The Smallest Dose

Have you dreamed of your virtual friends? I have and I do. I mean, as if I don’t already have enough sleep issues without YOU invading my sleep, but this is out of my hands.

This past week was super fun; I was receiving mail/packages from some of you.

Get Out Of My Dreams, Get Into My Car

Who loved that 80’s tune?

Anyhoo, my friend Nance sent me a huge box. Inside was a jar of strawberry preserves, and another box that contained huge strawberries. I mean, giant like the size of Shaq’s basketball shoes. BEHEMOTH. And then some books, some papers and STAMPED RETURN ADDRESS ENVELOPES. Get this, the return address had her REAL name and address. Nance: I thought Nance was your real name, but it isn’t is it? BARBARA! The return envelopes said Barbara SomethingOrOther Last Name.

At first I was disappointed to know you falsified your name, but the strawberry gifts softened the blow. But what the heck would I do with all the strawberries? They aren’t even my favorite berry.

Then Ally made an appearance. She sent me some letters and I’m not sure if there were gifts because things are getting fuzzy, but Ally isn’t Ally’s real first name either. I mean, according to MY dream, which we all know is All Telling.

There have been others in the past and it’s a fun surprise to visit with my Around The World Friends while I’m getting my beauty rest.

Passing The Torch, and I’m No Scrooge

Back in September while in GA with my MIL, I was lamenting to her that I didn’t know how I’d find the time to decorate our house this year. At that time, I’d scheduled all the furniture/bed deliveries for our beach condo (decimated by hurricane Ian) to be delivered the weekend after Thanksgiving) That weekend is generally when I decorate our home, which takes two days minimum. I went on to say, I wouldn’t even decorate if not for us hosting Christmas Eve for the family.

My MIL is nothing short of brilliant. Without missing a beat, she said: “Now that Lindsay has a house, why don’t you ask her to host this year?”

A lightbulb the size of Gibraltar went off over my skull, we called Linds then and there and she agreed to host this year. *sigh* Passing the torch is hard for me, so I’d like a blue ribbon or a plaque stating so, but I’m excited to let her do this.

Will I go to her house and leave my shoes in the middle of the floor? Will I drop my purse on the kitchen island in the middle of everything? Will I turn on every light and open every cabinet door without shutting them? Maybe, because dreams are made of such things. 😳😜

*I’ve since had to push the furniture deliveries back a week. It seems that even sleeping with your contractor doesn’t help these days.

On 12/1 it was time to tune into some Christmas Tunes on my Sonos system, then I pulled a few decorations out of my Christmas Cabinet that is located in my craft room; stuff I won’t store out in the garage because of the heat/humidity. No Christmas tree for thee, but I did buy a giant Poinsettia from Home Depot and placed in UP HIGH away from plant eating Frenchies in the Christmas tree spot. This will work for us this year.

I almost didn’t make cards this year, but yesterday I took a half an hour and threw a card together online. I worried that if I didn’t full-on decorate AND send out cards, the world would spin off its axis and we’d all be doomed.

If you have a few minutes, this is the best Christmas commercial I’ve seen in a long time! Grab a hankie (or your shirt sleeve) and a kettle ball.

Anyone else minimize your decor and stress this year?

Raise your hands if you’re blog friends have visited you during sleeping hours.

XOXO

^{pic borrowed from Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com}

I Made It To Year Fifteen and My Present To You Is Hooker Heels And Lemons.

Today we I celebrate the fifteenth birthday of this blog. Or is it an anniversary?

WHO knew I could sustain such silliness for so long? I didn’t even foresee the internet lasting this long.

My blog was initially started a a way to keep my Mom up to date with our lives as she was in GA and I was in FL; ya know, anything to avoid a phone call! (I’d give all the toes on my left foot to call her today!)

From what I remember, the name at first was: ‘Day By Day With Suz’, (my moniker has always been Busy Bee Suz)

then, ‘Busy Bee Productions’, (making a production out of everything!) then I simplified with:

Busy Bee Suz. (you get tired as you grow older)

When I started this blog my girls were in 7th and 9th grade, and now they’re not. I was almost 41 years old, and now I’m not.

If this is an anniversary, Crystal is the traditional gift for year fifteen, so bring it on!

But if it’s my fifteenth birthday in 2023, I’d probably ask for a piercing or a tattoo. A sassy bee on my butt would be appropriate.

In 2020 I made the leap from Blogger to WordPress. I am 100% happy with that move. That being said, I thought l might lose my last four remaining marbles while do so. There are two different types of WordPress; hosted in house and hosted OUT of house. I tried out of house first (wordpress.org) and it was horrible; too much work and then I moved it to in-house hosting (wordpress.com); much easier. I think it’s $98 a year and it’s so freaking easy to add photos/videos which was a nightmare in blogger. And you know, I’m all about visuals here.

WordPress has great anyalytics/stats that you can look at if you’re interested. I don’t generally look, but this is a special occasion. Things I learned on my stats:

Most of my spam comes from Russia. Who knew Russians could be shady?

I average 5-8 posts a month, but in 2020, I averaged 10 a month; oh, to have that much time again!

Stats for 2022.

I have 160 subscribers. People receive my nonsense by email; I can’t imagine!

The busiest day on my blog was on 8/6/2020 when I shared about a documentary movie and that a bear was in my ‘hood.

The most looked at post of ALL time is Gravel Gertie and Other Lies.

Why does one blog? For the comments, of course!

Kidding-it’s not the only reason, but the Proof Is In The Comment Pudding: Kari is my number one fan. (said in the voice of Kathy Bates in Misery)

(Ernie, not sure why you didn’t make the cut?)

How do people search/find me?

Toe nails and hooker heels; this is how I reeled you guys in? What? No one is looking at how I raise butterflies or spend countless hours doing charity work? It’s like the world has gone mad.

I’m shocked there aren’t any searches referring to teeth, bananas or shanking as I’ve talked about that many times.

I will try my best to continue on as this is life changing material you won’t find anywhere else.

I will soon be MIA since we have our big Veterans Charity event this weekend; in other words: I’ll be wearing hooker heels & removing toe nails while squeezing busy bee lemons. (gotta keep up my stats!)

Wait: please don’t let Lemons mean something other than fruit!

Thanks to everyone who visits here and especially those who can leave a note; I appreciate you!

Do you remember how you found me and/or is there one post or ‘thing’ that sticks out in your memory of this blog of nonsense?

If you blog, how long have you been at it?

XOXO

Humans Are Weird, But Maybe It’s The Heat.

Lillie has a kinda-large lump on her side. I called the Vet to make an appointment to have it looked at. (BTW, Can I have an animal without issues for at least ONE year?)

Me: Hello, this is Suzanne SugarBaker. I need to make an appointment for my dog Lillie; she has a lump on her side.

Girl Who Answers The Phone Asked me eleventy thousand questions about the size of the lump, the location of said lump, how long has the lump been there, etc…I answered all her questions and then she asked me:

SO, do you want to bring her in?

Me: No, I just wanted to tell someone.

*silence*

Yes, yes, please let’s schedule an appointment.

It’s Hot Ya’ll

Last week I got into my car after a visit to Publix and my car was melting. 109*. And remember, since it’s Florida it’s a MOIST HEAT.

BLOGLOVIN’—NOT SO MUCH

I use Bloglovin’ as my blog reading feed. A few months ago I just could not get it to work so I started using Feedly instead. Sadly, I could not get ALL the blogs that I read to work within Feedly, so then I was using both when Bloglovin’ finally worked. NOW AGAIN, Bloglovin’ is not working for me and I feel like I’m missing some blogs. WHAT DO YOU USE to keep up with people?

Spill the beans.

Are you melting? What do you use to keep up with Blog Reading?

XOXO

Seeing FRIENDS And We Were Van Gogh’ed

One of my favorite blog friends Ernie was in the vicinity for spring break and wanted to meet up. I had my assistant look into my schedule and see where I could fit in a little gab-fest; Friday afternoon it was! She and her family had spent the day at Fort Myers beach and it was only an hour for me; naturally we met at an ice cream shop because Vacation calls for Ice Cream. We had a great hour long conversation and could have sat and talked all day, but I had a meter running and I’m partial to NOT being towed. Her daughters are just as bright, sweet and funny as I’d imagined; basically mini versions of their mom.

Ernie is the sixth blog friend I’ve met over the years and so far I’m Zero for Six at meeting a Sociopath who wants to make a skin mask out of me.

WINNING!

Ernie doesn’t show her family faces on her blog, so I need to respect that too. I know I’ve professed before that I have zero artistic abilities, so now you can see I was clearly ~~lying~~ telling the truth.

They DID see a dolphin & they DID have ice cream (those aren’t shanks in their hands)Clearly, I am the shortest one there, per usual.

Van Gogh And My Little Artists

The girls and I had a ‘play date’ on Saturday that involved an hour and forty minute drive for me with two stops along the way to pick up my children on the side of the highway. Wait., that doesn’t sound safe. We met at a place near the highway, which is funny since I recall a few times I wanted to leave them somewhere along the highway. Or maybe just a small country road? I don’t sugarcoat that there were challenging times while raising teenagers.

The good news is we got through it and I love spending time with them. I purchased tickets to Van Gogh-The Immersive Experience for the three of us. We had reservations for a lovely lunch first and then we high-tailed it to the event since you have a timed entry and lunch ~~margaritas~~ took longer than expected.

(FYI, while looking for the link I saw that there are two different versions of this around the world, we didn’t have the virtual reality experience that they show on the other site and now I’m so mad I could cut off my ear)

I didn’t exactly know what to expect, but it was a really cool experience. The first 15 minutes you walk through an area where you read the timeline of Van Gogh’s life. He was a ‘complicated’ man who at first thought about being a preacher before going into the art world. He was SO very hard on himself. The girls and I agreed that if he realized in 130 years people would be seeing his work, he would have really lost his marbles. Although that happened anyway which is very sad.

Then you plop yourself into the huge room with canvases all around that morph from one painting to another.

I felt like I died and went to heaven when the entire room was sunflowers; I didn’t even take a pic of that part as I was mesmerized.

They don’t need a dermatologist, they’re works of art.

It was so cool to see the progression of all his work. Well, I’m not such a fan of all the paintings he did of himself with his ear/head bandaged; that made me sad. He really struggled with mental illness. Did you know he did some of his most renowned work while in an asylum? (there’s hope for me yet!)

Here are some unknown facts about Vincent if you are interested. (theories that he might NOT have cut off his own ear or even taken his own life)

I Have My Own Art Gallery

While we were enjoying the exhibit I was reminded that I also have artists; this is a gallery wall in our back hallway of paintings the girls did in elementary school. A little Vincent (Starry Night) and Georgia O’Keeffe, plus more pretties.

I’m gonna keep this artwork up until I have some NEW little budding artists one day.

Does anyone collect art? Does your art look as special as mine? I’m talking about my kids art, not MY special art.

XOXO