A few month’s ago I had no idea what steampunk was . . . check out Sumy Design’s latest and greatest for acclaimed writer Lia Keyes. It was a lot of work, but with a little help from our friends, everything fell into place nicely.

I needed a break, so I self-suspended my blog. I know, I know. But now I’m back and I’m going to try and be really good at balancing my life. It’s hard when you have bad gas, but I trust my lovely Internet People will keep me in line.

So, what have I have I been up to besides fighting bad gas and prioritizing my life? Well, let me tell you.

Sumy Designs got a much-needed makeover.  I like to think the entire world is powered by Apples, but sadly it is not, so take a look around and give me some honest-to-goodness feedback on all the pages.

And then, there was the Muddy Buddy. And it was muddy and I had buddies, but most of all I had a really fantastic time. I learned some really important things that day – like I need to be me and I need to make taking care of myself a priority – now is not the time to compromise my health. But most of all, I need to let my hair down a little more often; it’s good for my soul. And my soul is in need of some desperate healing.

In the midst of all the things going on in my life I sometimes forget how far one day of fun can take me. I forgot that I don’t smile very often these days, but with a little help form my friends that changed for a day.

Call me crazy, but when was the last time you danced in the kitchen to the Gap Band while chopping veggies just because it was fun? Or was on a mission – because someone, somewhere out there needed a beer – and who are you to deny anyone a much needed beer? Why not deliver those beers while riding a mountain bike for the first time without pedals  wearing a dress and a tutu?

Internet People, especially those around my neck of the woods with really bad gas, if I can give you one piece of advice it would be to take a break and do something fun or wild or crazy.  Take your friends and give yourself a little mind some piece of mind to let loose and know that the world will be a better place for what we are doing. We have to believe this, it is what keeps us going.

So let’s talk about that crazy. Crazy like I’ve registered for the White Rock Half Mary in December with Sister Runner Amy, and crazy like I’m going to run the Cowtown full marathon with Mr. Thintrade in February and the craziest of all is that I’ve registered the for the Galveston Half-Ironman in April with my Muddy Buddies.

I need to get back on track, my mind and body are aching for normalcy. So, Internet People, I need your help. I need you to keep me on track and spank me when I mess up, love me when I do good and most of all, tell me when I get too gassy.

You can view the rest of the Muddy Buddy Photos here.

EDIT: (Whoever is putting “RS in the nude” in OTHER can stop now. Not gonna happen.)
EDIT EDIT: (Go shoes, go shoes!) (Also, if you don’t fill in the OTHER it’s defeating the purpose.)
EDIT EDIT EDIT: (Cleavage is kinda naked, Internet People!!! Sorta)
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT: (I wish I knew who was commenting the OTHER! Behave)
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT: (Yes, WINE is an option, that’s what the option line is for. I should have put it as one.)

Here’s a great little site for all you athletes out there. Banana Blossom Press has designed a new line of greeting cards for anyone who loves/hates exercise, for the people in your running group, for your spouse who runs and you don’t, for your child who had a great year in their cross country team at school, for your friend who is training for a triathlon and for your mother who is going to walk a half-marathon after seeing you run a marathon.

If you haven’t noticed, things in my world are busy lately, hence my lack of commenting and sporadic posting. I’ve gone from disassembling my vacuum out of boredom to gleefully doing what I love best: spending time with my iMac. My tongue is so happy. Those of you who know me well knew that I could not stay unemployed very long. Go ahead, laugh now or forever hold your peace.

For a while now, my sister Amy and I have been toying around with the idea of starting our own web design business. Finally, it’s real. We did it. Not only did we do it, it’s growing faster than we imagined. This, of course, makes a previously bored Susan a monetarily happy Susan. Call me superficial. I don’t care. I like having money. If you have a moment stop by and check out our site: www.sumydesigns.com. It’s in a transitional stage, but let us know what you think. Honest opinion givers need only apply.

This brings me to another subject. You know that thing I do for all of you – that thing I love called designing your blog mastheads for free. I can’t do it anymore. Don’t get me wrong. I loved doing it and I love visiting the blogs I’ve designed for to see how they capture each of your personal style and spirit. It really brings joy to my heart. But the requests are getting more frequent, and now that it’s my job to design, I just can’t do it for free any longer. I’ve spent too much of my own money purchasing images and it’s not fair to my sister or our new business to take away time and skill that could be used to grow our new company. (Besides, my sister was threatening to bitch slap me if I didn’t stop – she can be mean that way.) But I hope I’ve come up with a solution, we do have ready-to-order mastheads available on our site – reasonably priced I might add at only $20 per masthead. Please don’t hate me, it’s nothing personal, it’s just that without an income I can’t purchase that new fall wardrobe for Rowdy.