I have never posted about stats before. I’m talking WordPress numbers. But after I posted Party time! something weird happened. It’s only happened once before.
My stats boomed. I was up 1,427% !!
The question is why? Wouldn’t I like to know that secret.
The other time my stats skyrocketed was when I wrote about a Darlene Love concert I attended with my husband, dad and son. We had a venue in Palm Springs called The Follies. She was the headliner for their last few shows that included dancers in their 60s and 70s who look amazing!
I figured out why those stats boomed. I shared my blog post with Darlene Love through social media and she posted it!
But Monday’s post? Maybe it’s because our son’s sister-in-law Alexandra Simpson has a following or Chuck Prophet, the musician she’s playing with in the Youtube video for newly released song “Meet Me at the Roundabout.”
If you don’t know who Darlene Love is, I highly recommend the Oscar-award winning movie “20 Feet from Stardom.” Heck, I recommend that movie because the stories of the backup singers are so powerful and it includes many big stars like Sting, David Bowie and the Rolling Stones.
What are your thoughts about stats? Do you think spikes happen because of key words, SEO, tags? Or just luck?
I’m glad I found this photo from Christmas pre COVID, December 2019 to be exact. My son is a master at creating delicious and gorgeous charcuteries. (It only took my two years to pronounce that word). I will study how he put it together and try to make something similar.
Saturday we’re hosting his girlfriend’s sisters and one has offered to play viola for us. She suggested we could invite some friends. I immediately thought of our fellow California refugees who live a mile away. I then invited two couples I met working on the HOA newsletter.
I counted my RSVPs and my original thought of four to six people has turned into 16. My husband keeps asking me what we’re going to serve. I keep telling him charcuterie, veggies, chips, dips, shrimp platter, several hot appetizers.
“What about meatballs?”
“Okay. Meatballs, too.”
We went to Costco a week ago and they once again had samples after two years of not allowing them. Yay! We tried a number of different bites, and bought a couple for our upcoming party.
Here’s the stitch. My husband wants something with puff pastry. He doesn’t want me to cook. I had gotten some ideas from my Santa Barbara friend, who caters parties and makes her spanakopita and other delicious bites — using her own puff pastry. She gave me several ideas where I could buy puff pastry already made and cut it into rectangles or triangles, bake it, and fill it with savory or sweet fillings.
My husband said no. I know he’s trying to save me from wearing myself out and putting too much time and effort into this. He suggested it would be easier for me to pop things ready made into the oven and put them in a chaffing dish or platter and let it go.
For the past three or four days, we’ve been living on appetizers. Everything looks good on the box, but I wanted to know how quickly they cook and how they taste. By the way, Kroger’s makes a delicious spanakopita. Costco has really good spring rolls — and you can order a shrimp platter from them, too. We tried meatballs in the crockpot but didn’t like the sauce I found on Allrecipes. There are some things that I really like but don’t think will work for a party, like my favorite soup dumplings with pho.
Last night I was scouting for more appetizers and I swear my car took over and stopped at Burger King on the way home from the grocery store. I ended up with two Whoppers for dinner.
Any suggestions for easy appetizers? What are your favorite finger foods?Do you have a delicious sauce for meatballs in the crock pot?
Here’s the link to Alexandra Simpson’s website who will be playing viola for us. Her website has her bio and videos of her playing. She’s visiting Arizona to play with Kygo, who I never heard of before her upcoming visit. Have you heard of Kygo?
