I am just about to call it a night, or morning.. depending on where you are!

I’ve just shot off an email to my dad, which wound up being quite emotional. My dad and I haven’t had that “daddy’s girl” kind of relationship since I was a little girl. He’s always been a very hard-working man, holding down 2 jobs while finishing up his degree in Criminal Justice (I was like 2 then.. so I don’t actually remember that lol). He also raised 5 kids, and at 64.. he’s just as active as he was 20 years ago. He just has a few more aches and pains than he did back then. I don’t know why it got so emotional, really. I guess it really hit me just how much he means to me and I really wanted him to know this. I’ve been extremely worried about him since this whole nervous disorder came about. We might not be as close as most father & daughters.. but I love that man to bits, and realize just how awesome he is.

It got me to thinking though, how something as simple as an Eagle emblem can trigger memories of my dad and I at the Georgia Southern Eagle’s football games. He’s like.. they’re number one fan. He donates to the school each year and winds up with season tickets. I didn’t go to every single game with him, as my youngest sister and I always took turns, but I would love to be at the next game with him!

It’s funny how little things can trigger a memory like that though. Like different scents, songs, and even weather. There isn’t a time that I hear Ice Ice Baby (admittedly it isn’t with a gun to my head), that I don’t think about those ridiculous hyper color Ice Ice Baby shirts my mom used to buy for us. Yeah, they were in style.. but really.. is that style? Ha, ha. I also think of my mom a lot when I smell White Diamonds perfume - her favorite - or think of my grandma Mac when I smell Beautiful - her favorite. This happens a lot, especially lately. I can hear a song on the radio, or even sometimes on TV, and my mind is flooded with all of these memories. I can remember exact moments, exact emotions, and even remember exactly what I was wearing (unfortunately) back when. And sometimes, when the sun hits my cheeks just right on an Autumn morning, I’m taken back to 25 years ago; raking leaves at my great grandmother’s house on a cool Autumn morning.

Does this happen to you? I can’t imagine I’m the only one. :p

Most people are passionate about their cars. My mom’s side of the family has always driven Ford’s. It wasn’t until a few years back that I decided to invest my own money into a ford of my own. I had recently sold my car, which was costing me nearly $500 a month (when you included the monthly insurance payment). I could obviously afford that or I would have never signed a contract with a payment so high. I hated sending that check out each month though.

After about a year and a half of driving my first new car, I decided enough was enough. I was ready to look for a better deal. My husband had been after me for months about SUVs. I wasn’t really too keen on the idea at first because I honestly worried about how much gas it would guzzle (yes, even back then). We found ourselves on a Ford car lot, gazing at a fabulous Ford Escape. It wasn’t too large, and had a really nice price tag on it. After learning more about it from the sales guy (which I knew from work), we decided this was the truck for us. We got a great deal, and knocked about $150 off of our total monthly payment. We were happy too, to find out that it actually gets great gas mileage. We really haven’t had much trouble with our Escape at all, and much to our surprise.. we loved driving a Ford.

She looks a bit cold here, with that blanket of snow. I can’t find any other photos of her right now, so this will have to do!

We’ve had our Escape now for almost 5 years (next month), and have already been considering buying one of the new Escape Hybrids. Though I admittedly didn’t know much about Fords back then, I will be now that I’ve learned about Ford Car Reviews. For those looking for reviews on Fords, this is a nice resource. You can browse reviews by year, type and even price! Some reviews even include a photo gallery, full review, trims & specs and you can request a quote if you’re really serious about making a future purchase. This will definitely help with our decision making in the future.

I’m a girl, and aside from the basics, I don’t know much about cars. Anything that can help me with that has to be a awesome!

At last! It’s finally here! I know you’re all just super excited about it, huh?

Today I began a new chapter with So Chic Design, my new web & blog design site. If you are interested in a custom, one of a kind theme for your blog, be sure you check it out! I’m currently scheduling for October and November, and will work with you regardless of your budget (so long as you don’t expect custom work for free). I’ve also made several premades available in the shop for those of you in a big hurry for a blog face lift. Personal themes run $45-55, while the photoblogs come in at $100.

Have a look around. Maybe something will interest you! Be sure you bookmark it too, and check occasionally because I’m planning to add oodles of freebies too (by the way, future Wordpress freebies will be available there in the future).

I’m really excited to have finally launched this, and it feels really good! I’ve already gotten several requests, which I’ll be responding to soon!

Well, not quite!

I have been on one heck of an emotional roller coaster for the last week and a half. Some of it deals with something I have no desire mentioning, while other things include; various illnesses in the family, missing my nephews to bits and wishing I could be at my friend Jess’ (childhood friend) wedding. It’s not so much that I’m boohooing, as it is that I can’t stop thinking about all of these things. It’s taking a lot out of me!

Anywho. Enough of that. I’m looking to more positive things, and hoping to launch my snazzy new design site by tomorrow morning (at the latest). I’m pretty much done, but have been making some minor adjustments to some of the pages.

We just had dinner about 30 minutes ago, so I’m pretty stuffed and lazy right now. I’m going to let my food settle a bit before I get cracking again. I have a lot to do tonight, plus the new season of Survivor starts tonight. Can’t miss that!

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of GPS Tracking is the use I’d get from it if it were in my truck. Like when I’m traveling across country, because there’s always a chance that I’m going to get lost when traveling in places I’m not really familiar with. There are, however, many more uses for GPS Tracking.

This key, which is small enough to conceal in your pocket, can record data such as; arrival destinations, route being traveled, time en route, the speed and direction of travel. The information logged with the GPS Tracking Key can be used with Google Earth, which would allow it to be displayed over satellite images and street maps.

As a former employee of a fairly large, local financial institution, I could see the use of of a GPS Tracking Key. Just think of the extra bit of peace of mind you would have if in the situation of robbery, but could rely on a GPS Tracking Key to aide in the capture and arrest of the suspect. The accuracy of this key has already been used in one such case.

Parents of teenagers will also appreciate the GPS Tracking Key, which makes it easy for them to monitor their teens location, rate of speed, and time of travel. I may not be a parent, but I can certain understand and appreciate the availability and convenience of something like that and would likely rest better at night.

Well, I was hoping I would have had my new design site launched by now. I’ve been working on it off and on since last week. So what’s the problem? I’ve been sick. It seems the flu is getting a jump start this year. I’ve had a really bad throat, stuffed up nose, irritated eyes, I’ve been aching all over, sick to my stomach, but thankfully no coughing or high fever yet. I’ve been trying to take it easy.

I want to finish tying up some loose ends for the design company I worked for until last week. I had a few clients I was still working with, one whose design I had just begun when I decided to leave the company. I couldn’t imagine leaving them all high and dry, so I’m trying to get that all squared away. Hopefully that will be all done with before the weekend.

I’ve also been working on redoing a header for a lovely lady (previous client). Nothing huge, but it’s taking me longer than expected because of the whole flu bug thing. That’s also my reason for not having So Chic Design launched yet. Will be busy over the next 24 or so hours for sure! I finished up the design for it, the shop, TOS, free quote form and am now trying to finish up the portfolio, FAQs and testimonials.

I’m going to go relax now, and try to get some sleep. I want to get up a little early tomorrow, so that I can get a head start on my agenda for the day (which is kind of intimidating right now ha, ha). Oh, and I’m so not proofreading this. :p

While we were in Corner Brook this week, we decided to do a little shopping. It was mostly window shopping though, since we didn’t find anything that we wanted on sale. One of the things we were looking for was an LCD TV. Jo knows more about this stuff than I do, so I left all of that to him. We found a really nice 42″ 720p at one of the local stores but were disappointed in the price of over $1000. Jo says that the 720ps aren’t really “high def” because of the resolution, and he really wants an HDTV. We decided to leave those “deals” behind us, and continue our search for a TV.

I’m sure we’ll wind up buying our TV via the internet when we do go to buy one though. You can’t really find any good deals on them around here, as it seems everyone is overcharging these days. Buy.com seems to have some pretty good deals on a couple of LCD TVs this week though. I’m especially drawn to the Westinghouse 37″ LCD TV. As you can see, it has that 1080p resolution that Jo said he’d prefer to have.

I personally like that it isn’t black, since most of our other entertainment pieces (DVD player, digital receiver box) aren’t black. I really like that it doesn’t cost $1000 or more too. I would have been so upset if we actually followed through with purchasing that other TV and found something with a better resolution, for a way better price! That’s usually how it works though, but thankfully not this time!

I think I’d love to go on one of those Bahama cruises. Jo’s also been putting in for that for the last few years. I’m starting to really give in to the idea lately. I’m not nearly as afraid of boats as I am planes. I guess that’s kind of silly, but anyway. So Jo’s really excited that I’m finally giving in. What we’re hoping for is to go on one sometime next year, 2009. Possibly around our anniversary, and inviting our families to go too. I think it’d be pretty awesome to have both families there. None of us have been on any kind of cruises before, unless you consider the ferry trip from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia a real cruise - I don’t!

I don’t know. I just think it’d be something we could all enjoy together. We’ve all been through so much these last couple of years, with the loss of my grandmother Mac, Jo’s grandmother Nan, various illnesses in the family, two huge moves.. etc. Winding down somewhere in the Bahamas would be a welcomed treat for sure! It’s been years since Jo and I have had a real vacation. Same goes for almost everyone in our families. I’m a little anxious about being on any boat for long periods of time, but I think that’s because of the nightmares I had after the movie Titanic. Same thing goes for planes too, I fear them because of nightmares after seeing crashes on the news or hearing my mom talk about her own fear of them. I think I’ll do much better on the boat though.. I hope!

It seems his allergies have gotten the best of him! He mowed the lawn yesterday, which was hopefully the last time for this year. If the mowing (push mower, and the yard is big) wasn’t bad enough, the air just made him so stuffy and sick. He’s been coughing so horribly, and his eyes have really been bothering him a lot. They’re so itchy and red! To make matters worse, he’s breaking out on his back and belly. I’m not sure if it’s from sweating or if it’s a reaction to something. Either way, he’s got tiny red bumps all over those areas. In some places it looks like a rash, but in others it looks more like acne. Poor thing.

We’ve both been dealing with sore throats and stuffiness the last couple of days. Neither of us have been happy campers, but he’s definitely gotten the rawer deal I think! He’s already ready to call it a night, and this is way early for him. I’m actually considering doing the same, should he actually head on to bed. I’ve been pretty tired all day today. Maybe with a little rest I can regain some of that energy I lost with all of that driving earlier this week!

I would just like to make a note of something, just so there is no confusion, assumptions, implications.. etc.

I have never, ever been fired from any job I have ever held. Offline, or online. I have always worked hard and gone above and beyond what was expected of me. My work has always spoken for itself. There have been times that I have gone out of my way to help the person before me, be it a patient or loved one from the ER’s I have worked in, a member/customer of the financial institution I worked for, or any clients I have worked with throughout my years of design and photography. I don’t simply do what is expected of me, I do what I think would be appreciated and what I would want if the shoe was on the other foot!

I have appreciated every single job I have ever held, as it helped with bills, luxuries and made me feel like I was helping someone else.

I just want everyone that reads my blog to know that for future reference if needed.

People, take my advice. Never, ever use Host Once for your web hosting needs.

I have had a domain with them for 7 years this October. On September 11th, they took full control over that domain. As it is now, it appears they deleted my database which housed Wordpress for the blog I hosted on it. They changed all the passwords to the control panel and ftp. When you view that domain, you are immediately greeted with a big fat “Directory Listing Denied.”

I put in a support ticket on September 11th, the moment I realized something was wrong. As of this exact moment, there has not been a single response to that ticket. No “We’re going to check this out for you.” No “Kiss our butts.” No nothing! I looked up my whois for that domain and phoned the number they had listed. Imagine this; it’s dead. I read on a review site that they were doing some pretty horrible things to other customers too, and I wasn’t the only one up a creek without a paddle. Someone noted that XIBI Group took over Host Once. From there, I phoned XIBI Group. They gave me a toll free number for Host Once’s billing department because “XIBI Group” can’t do anything. Excuse me? You took over. It’s yours. If you can’t handle that part of the business you took over, why in the heck did you take it over? So.. I phone this billing department. I don’t know why I even made the call. I knew that billing couldn’t handle a support issue, if they could, they’d not just be a billing department. At any rate. I phoned and spoke with a woman named Tracey. She said it was out of her hands, there was nothing she could personally do. Her suggestion? Put in a support ticket. Well, she obviously does a good job at ignoring customers like the Host Once support team because she completely ignored the fact that I had already mentioned I had one in.. that hadn’t been answered yet. I asked for an alternative route to support, since it was clear that the help desk system wasn’t getting me anywhere. She said “No.” “How convenient is that?” I asked, but before she could answer I hung up because I knew if I didn’t, the sailor that resides in my mouth would come rushing out.

The point is; find a great, reliable host that not only provides tech support through a ticket system, but also offers legitimate contact information to customers for situations like this. Do your homework. The host for this site, Reseller/Hosting Zoom has been such a blessing. And while there were a few delays in my recent merge.. they are fabulous.

My mind is far too scattered to proof read this, so please excuse errors and typos.

OK, I think the whole transferring to a new server is complete. It took several hours longer than I expected, and I suffered the loss of a couple of entries that I had to manually add back up (they were not in my recent backup from the other day). I also lost some of the recent comments, so if you left one and it is no longer on the entry you left it, that is why.

I thought this whole merging of 3 resellers into one would be pretty painless. Boy was I wrong. I had been wanting to do this for a long time. I just finally got motivated to do it 2 weeks ago. After some mix ups with user names and passwords, and a lot of confusion, hopefully the worst part is over with.

I still have 2 domains to move, but those were not registered with my host so I am waiting on access to those. All of the data on the domains, up until the 8th, was moved over to the new server. Hopefully no one else will suffer any losses.

At any rate. We are back!

If I have free time between some projects I am trying to finish up, I am hoping to bring the free Wordpress themes back. If I fail at bringing them back before I go to bed today (the 9th), then I will make that my priority for Wednesday.

I appreciate all of the feedback regarding the themes.

I would also like to say thank you to all of the emails, tweets, message board notes and myspace comments wishing me a happy birthday. They meant so much to me!

One last thing regarding my dad; Parkinsons has been ruled out. Right now they believe it is stress related (a family issue that I do not wish to bring to the public). His doctor also believes there may be a slight chance that something occurred during his (dad) most recent surgery, that could have resulted in the shakes. According to my dad, they are not that bad. I have a feeling he only told me that today because it was my birthday. My sister says that it is much worse than he likes to let on, and that even when he thinks it is controlled, he shakes worse than anything she has ever seen before. Scary, but until I hear more I really have no idea what I should think about it all.

A few months ago my dad told me he had been having some “nervous problems.” At the time my oldest nephew and niece were living with him, so everyone (including his general physician) figured it was from the stress of having to help raise 2 more teenagers. That might not be the case.

I was talking with my mom earlier and she mentioned that my sister Nikki said he wasn’t doing so great. I asked what she meant because the last time I spoke to my dad (less than a week ago), he didn’t mention anything to me about it. Apparently, for the last few weeks, he’s been very shaky. My mom said they were trying to rule out the possibility of Parkinson, but really didn’t tell me much more than that. It’s pretty scary to hear that kind of thing when you are over 3,000 miles away. My dad and I haven’t always had a great relationship. Of course we love each other, but he’s a bit old fashioned and set in his ways. I, on the other hand, have always been very open minded. After he and my mom divorced we had a really rocky period. He was suffering from the depression of losing his wife of 29 years and had no idea how to deal with it. That eventually resulted in my youngest sister and I taking the heat. Not his fault, it was totally understandable. He was hurt and not wanting to let go of the life he was so used to. At any rate, I am really sad to hear this.

All of this really just adds to my list of reasons why I want to move back home. I know Jo doesn’t want to live in the smaller towns we once did. I’m open to larger cities if it means I can be closer to my family. I even found myself looking at Atlanta jobs for the both of us. Atlanta scares me though, so I’m not sure I want to live there. Maybe Savannah or Augusta. I want to be there for my dad when he needs me most. And my only surviving grandparent (grandpa B) is getting up there in age. I don’t want Jo to put off his schooling, but sometimes I don’t see any other option.

I can’t not be there for my family, you know?

I’m working on a form for people to use when they download the themes. I doubt it’s going to change the people who insist on removing a link back, but at least they’re going to have to agree to a simple TOS when they decide to download them. There will also be a field for including the blog it will be used on. I’m sure people will still abuse it, but at least this way I know who is downloading what and when they agree to my TOS, I can hold them accountable with their host. Again, I don’t think it’s going to remedy everything fully but it’s a start. If I don’t follow through with that, I may create a private download address where people access via a password. Actually, I kind of like that idea. Ha, ha.

In other news; I’m $400 less rich (LOL) today. We had the truck worked on, which required 2 center coils being replaced and all the spark plugs being replaced. The labor hurt the most, because the work required them to remove the manifold to get to those things. We also had to have my driver’s side, front tire replaced. Not only did we get new coils and spark plugs, we also get a lovely little nail in the tire too!

Speaking of my truck. I would like to get a car cover for my Escape. The weather is starting to take a toll on the roof, and if we aren’t going to be driving it much during the Winter, it’d be nice to have.

I’ve decided to cure my sweet tooth with a batch of brownies! I haven’t had brownies in ages, so when we were in the store the other day and my eyes met with the display of Pillsbury Spread and Bake Brownie Batter, I was sold! They’re in the oven now and should be done in about 10 minutes. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that yummy, chocolaty goodness! I was originally going to do homemade brownies, but I’m a bit lazy tonight so I took a short cut. I really don’t feel bad about it either. Either way I cur my sweet tooth with chocolate. It’s a win, win situation!

Apparently this will bust my plans for trying to shed a couple of pounds, huh? Ha, ha!