Busy as what, now?

I was about to start to describe the extreme busyness of this week, which begins with three days packed with meetings, peaks with elder daughter’s 11th birthday, slides in an unnecessary down-and-back to New York, and culminates with a dreaded 5-girl slumber party, followed by the family celebration Sunday next, and I was about to describe such busyness with the phrase, “busier than a one-armed paperhanger,” when it occurred to me that no one would hire such a creature, and that in fact such a creature would probably spend his days in a somewhat restful, if destitute, state. But that leaves as an alternative only “busy as a bee,” which is too cutesy and trite in almost any event, and which phrase was ruined when I learned in college that sorority sisters of my acquaintance were forced to answer their house phone with the gramatically tortured phrase, “We’re busy as a bee at D Phi E!” and, again, how busy could one bee be? And now I’m going to start singing the “Eric the Half a Bee” song, and it’s time to go read Lileks.