I’m still waiting patiently for all of the hosting to be moved over.  My personal stuff is moved to the new data center, the clients have proven to take a lot longer.  I’m not sure why it’s taking so long, I was told 3-5 days and it’s pushing more along the lines of 8 days.  Hopefully everything will be resolved soon, I’m being charged double for hosting this month because of still having the initial accounts with the old data center.  I just hope everything will resolve itself before I head up to NY next week.

Come Tuesday (24) I’m loading up the car, throwing Sean in the passenger seat and trucking it up to Long Island for a few days.  Dad’s birthday is on the 26th, my sisters is on the 29th and there’s quite a bit of family that I haven’t visited in over a year so I figure the trip up will give me an excuse to do that.  I’m driving the first half while Sean and Bella sleep in the car, then the second half he’ll take over and I’ll have Bella on my lap.

I bought my father a BBQ and a lot of accessories to go with it.  I’ve loaded my sister up with a huge gift basket and the rest just kind of goes from there.  I just want to leave very early on Wednesday morning, figure Midnight (25th).  By the time we get up there it’ll be about 4am.  This gives us plenty of time to get in and to just head to bed for the night.  Then the next morning we’ll take the gifts out of the car and hide them in the house after Dad’s gone to work.  I’ll get some minor grocery shopping done for Dinner on Thursday (Dad’s birthday) and then that should basically take care of everything.

Up until that point I’m going to be working.  I have a few different projects going on right now that are bringing in some fairly decent change, this is how I was able to afford the $200 I dropped on presents this year.  Guess I should get myself back to work now though, few emails to go through.

I’m unfortunate enough to have come down with a pretty nasty cold. Some are telling me that it is bronchitis while others are telling me that it’s just congestion. Either way I’m rather unhappy and when I can start breathing through my nose and not having such a rough sounding inhale through my mouth - things will be much better!

It’s kind of easy to stick to a diet when you’ve spent 24 of the last 48 hours, asleep! I’ve been snacking here and there on 100 calorie packs but I’ve been drinking a lot of tea as well. It’s very hard to get myself to the point of being as active as I used to be considering I’m having trouble standing up.

I managed to get a little bit of exercise in tonight though. Bella hasn’t poo’d in about two days because there is a rabid animal on the loose and it’s already attacked a 70-100lb pit bull, lord knows what it could do to a 18 pound Lhasa who thinks she’s a cat, minus the whole crapping outside thing, naturally. Sean went off to do his own thing, not quite sure what it was but no matter how dizzy I was, Bella was going to take her much needed nightly poop walk. So I threw my sneakers on and high-tailed it out the door. I admit, I was having some trouble and half way down the road I realised that I’d be screwed if something did happen to jump out at us because I’m in no condition to run anywhere, I just know that my dog is not going to be attacked by a cat/racoon with an attitude problem. So the littlest bit of noise that I heard behind me wound up having me walk just a little bit faster. Sean caught up with me just as I was getting back to the house so I’m certain that he made some sort of noise to scare me but either way no one was attacked, Bella got to do her business and now we’re home safe and sound.

It’s been very hot for the last few days, I know previously in the week there have been record highs all across the mid-west. I heard that one area hit the 115°F(46°C) mark. I felt so bad for those people, and then it made it’s way over on the eastern shore. DE hit high 90’s for the last few days but at least I was lucky enough to have the air conditioner in the window and being fast asleep during most of the heat. There was supposed to be some massive storm going through here today but nothing ever touched down. I noticed that my flowers are dead and I have to say I’m really annoyed by it. No one could think of watering them for me and even on top of that - where’s the rainfall? We’re about 5 inches behind this year, many farmers in the are are suffering pretty badly as well considering their crops depend heavily on the rain and I don’t think they’ve got those big booms that shoot water along their 5+ acres of crop like many other farms in the area do. Either way it’s hot and it’s just aiding in making me even more uncomfortable.

I waddled my self over to the office, took me a while to get here too. The AC is on but that trip from the bed to the office after walking her has left me with little to no strength. I’m more than likely going to get myself in bed as soon as possible, no need for me to be up if I can’t be productive about anything, you know?

Last night I was feeling rather sluggish but this is based on my new schedule which has me a tad bit depressed. I go to sleep just as the sun is beginning to rise and by the time I wake up there’s only a few hours left of daylight and I love the sun so that has me down. The thing is, by the time I get up the sun is around the front of the house which makes it seem much warmer than it actually is. While I enjoy the sunlight, I don’t so much like the heat that comes with it in the summer.

I barbecued but no one was really actually hungry when I did. I was just in the state of mind to get it done and walk away from it. I also created a website for Karen because she’d like to get herself into the blogging world. She’s always floating around Sean site, as well as my own, so I threw something together and hopefully she does well with it, I’m going to have to teach her how to use Wordpress but just having her own domain name has perked her up a bit, and her being giddy about something is always amusing to watch.

The next few days are basically going to be cleaning days for us, Sean more than likely won’t help us out but either way things will be done. Vacuuming is desperately needed throughout most of the house, counter tops need to be cleaned off and organized, the tables could use a scrubbing with some windex. I’d like to clean the windows as well considering all the junk that’s building up on them - I’m unsure as to when they’ve actually been cleaned since Sean and Karen moved into this place. So far we’ve got some carpet refresher soaking on the rug because all of the urine spots thanks to the two dogs who are supposed to be wee-wee trained are really getting to our heads, we’re talking straight ammonia. Thankfully Bella does all of her business outside, which makes for a very happy me. Of course when she was first starting out she had an accident here and there, but now that she knows outside is the only place to go then it makes life just a little easier - less to clean and pooping on grass is free, wee-wee pads aren’t. I know that when I’ve got my own house I’m just going to stick with hard-wood floors this way it’s even easier clean-up in case of an accident…Sean and I do plan on getting another dog in the future.

So while Karen is vacuuming I’m getting some work done and I guess this is considered my ‘break time’ so I can just vent a little bit - it’s been a while since I’ve really done it.

Around 8:30am I finally get into the shower and then I sit down on the computer to do a few quick write-ups for clients and notice that 9:30 is fast approaching. I brush my hair out quick, throw the leash on Bella and then walk towards the door. I forget my sun-glasses and quickly turn around, knowing there’s literally no time to spare. The three of us (Sean, Bella and myself respectively) hop in the car and take off towards the groomer.

Upon arrival, I walk in and notice very cute and beautifully groomed pooches laying around in the waiting area. From there, I walk up to the front desk and note that I’m here for my scheduled appointment. They thumb through the book and note that I’m not scheduled with them. I could have sworn I scheduled my appointment with Wizard of Paws - I was wrong. Thankfully it was the good kind of wrong when I saw their pricing - they’re abusing the “Best Groomer in Delaware” popularity by over charging for the smallest things. So they let me know of the two others in the area, asking if either name rings a “Bella”, I wasn’t amused because I knew I was late.

Walking back to the car, Sean notes “Uhm…don’t you need to leave the dog AT the groomer for this to work?” I note that we’re in the wrong place and there’s the possibility of two other groomers that I made my appointment at. Finally we pull into “Dirty Dog” this place sounds familiar, even if the owners at Wizard of Paws notes that they don’t think Dirty Dog is accepting new clients. The stores are labeled, respectively, so I head towards the door that says “Dog Grooming” it’s locked - I’m freaking out until I look down and see the arrow pointing towards the other door. Walking in I’m met by a sweet faced girl in her early twenties and ask if she has a scheduled appointment for Bella S. she gracefully replies “Yep, we’ve been expecting you.”

The rush of the morning has now subsided and I begin filling out all of my information on their new client cards. Bella, at this time, was already in the back room and I could hear her crying which is literally breaking my heart because I know how scared she is when she’s at the groomer. I tell her that I’d like a very short puppy cut, then continue to say that her tail and ears need to be taken care of as well. She notes that Lhasa’s look - strange - without their signature curly tail but I note that it’s one huge mat of fur. She let me know that if she can ’save the tail’ she will. I’m thinking “as long as you don’t chop it off, just take the mats off it”. I then continue to note that she’s skiddish when a buzzer gets near her face but she will not bite, just make life very difficult. She notes that they’ve dealt with all kinds of temperments and will be fine.

I walk out the door knowing that my precious pooch will no longer be a fluffy puppy…but a bald bitch when I pick her up. Either way she won’t be so easily overheated and I know her hair will always grow back. If this place does well with her, they’re more than likely going to be my new establishment. I finally have a groomer for Bella, I just need to find a hair dresser for myself!

So we get back here and I’m in a rush to get all of the garbage to the curb. I know that the garbage men plus the landscapers will be around very soon and know the garbage men leave the cans in the middle of the yard. Since we all know that the landscapers around here don’t do SHIT - then naturally I’m going to make sure the cans are removed before they get here. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way and there’s still a patch on the front lawn that’s over-grown, one they could have easily gotten to if the stupid teenager on the back of the garbage truck would just put the can on the curb instead of throwing it onto the grass. BASTARD. I rush off the stairs and put it on the side of the house but I was just too late. I do still hear them floating around so my only hope is that they do another pass in the front yard before they leave. :: crosses fingers ::

This entry was cross-posted from krissy.nu

Up until recently, I was doing fairly well with income. I was working on about four design sites a week, posting about $1200 a month worth of paid entries on krissy.nu and also having the subscription payments coming in for web hosting. I was unaware, however, that this was going to drastically change over the course of the last three days. I’ve had little to no energy by the time I was done at the end of the day in order to get things done, I also didn’t have any clue that issues would come up with Bella that are beyond my control. I haven’t gotten her groomed in over 6 months. I know it seems kind of wrong but when it’s $75 a pop to get your dog shaved, it’s difficult to keep track of everything when you’re shelling out all of your money on bills, food and modifications because of a recent move. She gets baths regularly, it’s not like she’s a filthy dog. Her hair, however, says differently. She’s very matted down and it’s hard to get any of them off of her because she moves around so much. I was close to the point of filing for one of those payday cash advance loans but most of them require X amount of money to borrow. I don’t want to bug someone for a loan, I just hope that something big happens soon so I can get the hair off of her before the summer heat really starts to beat down on us.