After a few chilly days, Spring has finally come back to Delmarva.  I woke up today with a lot of energy and hopefully that’ll help me get through the long day of work that I have ahead of me.  I’m almost done on a few templates I’ve been working on and then I’m going to get myself in gear on two that need to be done for Jackie.

When I went outside I was hit with the warm sun an the smell of Miracle Grow – the lady across the street is working on her garden.  I can’t wait until I have enough time to go outside and start working on ours.  I did the basic maintenance the other day but Karen and I went out this past weekend and loaded up on tons of supplies that are still sitting in the back of the van.  We picked up a cute little white fence, then we loaded up on soil and seeds and even some pots and what not so that we could really make the porch and the front yard shine this year.  I’d also like to do some things in the back yard but I doubt I’ll ever get around to it.  It would be nice to be able to setup a fence so I can let Bella run free on the grass, but complex restrictions won’t make that possible for me.  You can do heavy landscaping to block things off but supposedly you can’t put up a full wrap-around fence.  BUT you’re allowed to have a privacy wall.  I wonder what’s the point with that but oh well.

While I do have a lot of energy bursting to get out, the coffee hasn’t kicked in for me to focus it all on what’s important.  Sean is still asleep so that stops me from cleaning up the bedroom.  I do need to get myself into the bathroom and scrub everything down because Karen’s sister is coming to visit sometime within the next few days and since our bathroom is in the main hallway – everyone tends to use it.  Bleach and a little elbow grease are all it really requires, I know I’ll have that done within the next hour though.

I’ve gone back to car shopping and I found a few that I really like.  I’m alternating back and forth with Hyundai and Chevrolet.  I found one for a great price up in Pennsylvania but I’m not sure if I’d actually wish to take that trip.  I found a few excellently priced models in New Jersey.  I was also lucky enough to find one in New York that is only about $6500 and it’s brand new.  It’s one of those Scion tC models, not really a Toyota fan but they have inexpensive cars when you get down to the right level.  It’s got about 2,000 miles on it and it’s the same color and size that I’m interested in.

I think I’m going to stick with either a Chevy Cobalt or Hyundai Elantra.  Icka (remember her?) just picked up an Elantra and it’s absolutely gorgeous.  After talking to Tom I was able to find one that really caught my attention but it happens to be a Dodge Stratus, I’m really all over the place when it comes to this but if it’s going to be a car that needs to last me a few years then obviously I’m going to have to shop around.  The one Elantra that I found, Tom has actually test-drove and as someone who’s into the racing community and knows a lot about cars – I knew his opinion would be valued.  He said it’s a great price for what it has on it but it’s difficult to drive.  He doesn’t drive to race (every time) but he does know how to control a car and when you notice that the car has some trouble when it comes to merging and making right-hand turns is unbalanced, the 2006 Elantra isn’t the route to take.

Either way I’ll figure something out.  I’m hoping to get in touch with my mother later and see what she thinks.  I know she got her Nissan on the Island and I can’t – for the life of me – remember the name of the Dealer she got it from.  A phone call later should clear that all up,  I hope.

In any event, time to get to work.  I think I’m going to lug the extension chord outside and take the laptop out there.  It’s too nice of a day to sit in here!

It’s been quite a week, if I had the energy I probably would have updated sooner but when daily life gets in the way – a blog really isn’t a priority. I’ll break it down into categories so you can skip the areas you probably won’t care about. I also had to throw a break in it because I’m certain it’s going to be a 2500 word entry. Sue me, it’s been a week.

Health & Wellness – Back Problems SUCK!
I threw out my back last weekend, it took me a few days to nurse myself back to health but me being the stubborn person that I am – I still insisted on cleaning whenever I could and getting some shopping done. I had trouble lifting the heavier items (soda, and even a gallon of milk for that matter) but we needed it and I know that Sean has been really busy working on a few different sites. He’s chugging along getting the social networking site up for one client, Jackie and her father have taken him under their wings with some programming work and he was approved to write plug-ins and hacks for Social Engine, the only out-of-the-box social networking site on the market right now. So it’s safe to say that while I’m not feeling well, he’s still very busy with other things. He did really help me out though, as far as the heavy lifting and laundry is concerned. I had to spend Sunday in bed, which is something I absolutely hated, because I don’t like being unproductive but when you can’t stand up it’s very difficult to accomplish just about anything.
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For some reason I was really itching to get out of here last night. Sean and I had spent most of the afternoon in the local libraries in search for information on grant writing. Thankfully when I came home a letter from Dick put me in the right direction. The Rehoboth Library really had nothing that I needed. The Lewes one didn’t either. They told me that the books I was looking for were up in Dover and the rest were on the Deltech Georgetown campus. I really didn’t want to travel that far so I wound up heading over to Atlantic Books and picked up a book that’s a complete guide to grants. It not only gives me a simple breakdown of everything I’m going to need to do but it also gave me a few samples so I can understand what I’m going to need to have listed, and how to go about grouping it together properly. The problem for me isn’t FINDING the grant resources, I’ve found a program that gives me thousands of listings for places to apply to, the issue was the actual write-up. While the Internet is typically a great resource for things, every “How to write a grant” website that I came across told me that I needed to purchase their eBook or the sites linked me to other sites that just kept sending me in circles. Either way I have the book I need and a few emails from Dick explaining how to go about every aspect of it so I’m sure over the course of the next couple of weeks I’ll have my formal write-up and then have the ability to start submitting to different companies.

On our way home we stopped at the market and picked up some things for dinner. I was really insistant that we BBQ last night considering it was the first nice 70°F day that we’d had in a while. So burgers and dogs were really the only menu items last night but that’s OK because there’s plenty left over to do it again tonight if we really wanted to.

After dinner I had the urge to get out of the house and something was pulling me in the direction of Dollar Tree. I knew that we needed a few house-hold items but I was shocked to find out that everything I needed was on sale. Yes, the dollar store was having a sale. The thing I like about Dollar Tree is the fact that it’s a TRUE dollar store. No matter what you pick up it’s only going to be a buck. And thanks to no sales-tax in Delaware, if you get 13 items you pay $13 dollars.

I went in for the basics, carpet fresh, toilet cleaner, air freshner, tissues, and a few odds and ends to complete my need to redecorate the bedroom. I was shocked to find out that almost everything I wanted was 2 for $1. So the simple break down went like this:

2 carpet fresh – $1
2 tissues – $1
2 air freshners – $1
2 bowl cleaners – $1
2 mirrors – $2
1 lotion – $1
Total: $8

How awesome is that?

I then took a trip over to Walmart, unfortunately the dollar store was out of a few items that I needed. There were also some decent sales going on so I picked up the items I couldn’t get at the dollar store, all of which were on sale for a whopping $1! I also loaded up on a few odds and ends for Sean to get by, that gave me another $10 worth of items.

I came home with about 10 bags filled to the rim and only spent $18! If that’s not shopping on a budget, I don’t know what is.

I’m still kind of set on getting myself out of the house for a real vacation. Yes, going up to New Jersey at the end of the month doesn’t look like a possibility right now but I do hope to be able to get up there the following month depending on what’s going on with work and what not. I have been surfing around one of my numerous bookmarks, mainly Trusted Tours because you can find everything you need from them. You can basically get information on just about any major city/town of interest. I have it bookmarked as Things to do in Boston for when I actually get the chance to get up there again but my main focus is finding things to do in Orlando. I know that there are major attractions down there but I can only take so much if Disney World and Universal Studios before I get bored. It’s a goal of mine to get to know every aspect of Orlando and I think a great place to go for that info is Trusted Tours. They can even give you a few tips on basic sightseeing tours as well. They have a newsletter too.

I’m to a point now where I’m just itching to get out of here, honestly. I know that there is a lot of work to do but my stress levels are through the roof right now. I need a change of scenery, and I also have this urge to visit family. I think if I’m unable to get up to Jersey at the end of the month I may try and persuade Sean into going up to New York for a couple of days. I’ll have to base it on how my work schedule is though, I know his is filling up quite a bit as well now that he’s working for three people instead of the original one he’s been with for the last couple of years now. Jackie took him on board as a programmer, and a larger site that created a social networking script has taken him on for plugins and upgrades. Everything is working out pretty well for him right now, it’s just a shame that I’m only getting started on things. It’ll all work out in the end, I just think I’m going to have to spend a little more time down at the beach to clear my head. Right now they’re swamped because it’s a pretty warm day and since it’s a weekend all of the tourists are coming back to open up their houses and relax on the beach. I’m going to make a trip up north in hopes to find another beach that the DE residents in Sussex are sent to because of the lack of ability to get anywhere near the beaches we live by year round. It sucks having to go up to Kent county but if traveling is the only way to get an ounce of privacy while still being able to enjoy the beach then I guess it’s worth it.

I’m really not sure why but my schedule is beyond screwed up right now. I’ve finally got some work to do thanks to a new contract position but for my initial project I stayed up until about 5am putting a lot of finishing touches on the photoshop aspect of things. I rolled into bed and then popped right up at exactly 10:32am. Now, the reason that number is so “hrm….” for me is based on the fact that my body has trained itself to wake up at the exact same time every day for the past week or so. I really don’t understand why, either. I know that yesterday the landscapers showed up around our house at the same time yesterday morning which then triggered Bella to sit in the window and bark her freaking head off. I’m seriously going to start going to bed with her sonic zapper because I can’t take waking up to a barking dog anymore. Today was no different. They’re showing the house next door and having people walk around is never a good thing when you have a bitchy dog to deal with. So of course she insisted on barking. Come to think of it, she’s been the reason I’ve popped up so frequently in the morning. I wish I could figure out why she’s the new resident alarm clock.

It’s taking it’s toll on me though. I’ve been up for an hour and a half and I’m already exhausted. I can’t continue on 5 hours of sleep but I really don’t want to go back to bed because I have so much to accomplish today. I have a couple of posts to do, a lot of emails to respond to, a PSD to convert to XHTML/CSS and then I think I just landed my first big project with this company of creating a template for a social networking site. I’ll base my template on the network site that Sean’s designing, and then add MySpace, Facebook and Vidilife to it. Why? Because I’ll do the complete and total polar opposite of all of them. I see no point in having them all look the same so I’m going to come up with something different. :hmph:

Guess I should get myself in gear. I think I’m going to need to put on a pot of coffee. If I don’t get some kind of energy boost I’m probably going to be asleep within the next half hour.