I’m painting the helmet now. No idea how long he will have to have this one. We go in on Thursday to get it checked and tightened, then again at the start of next week, then they make the decision about whether to keep us coming in twice a week or if once a week will be enough.

I’m honestly not sure which I hope for. Twice a week means he’s still growing fast, so maybe he’ll be in the helmet a shorter time. On the other hand, I’m tired of having so many doctor’s appointments!

This is another one of those hectic weeks. In addition to the aforementioned helmet appointments, Gage has a visit with the surgeon again. Life’s just crazy sometimes.

It felt so good to see the shuttle go up again, and have such a smooth launch. Ariel was impressed by the early parts, but got bored watching the commentary as things started taking longer to happen. It was a neat thing to watch as a family, though.

That’s one of the things I would love to go see in person. The one time I was in Florida there wasn’t a launch scheduled anytime near, and believe me, one of the considerations in planning that trip had been checking for even a chance of a shuttle launch. None in our time frame that time. Someday I hope to manage to see one. My dad used to take his 11-inch telescope to launches, so he got a really great view and was always very popular with the other onlookers.

She’s really looking forward to it. This is a two day a week, 3 hours a day program through the public school. I wasn’t able to get the closest elementary school because it’s program filled up already – registration started back in May. I’m looking forward to having the quiet time.

This program requires some parent participation, which I think is a good thing. I have to help out at least twice. I’m sure that helps to keep the cost down a good bit.

I also made a change on my site last night. I split the direct sales opportunities section into separate pages by category. The page was just getting to be too long. I also removed a lot of dead links, so there are a lot of openings that weren’t there before. I suppose that’s one of the hazards of offering it as a free service – no incentive to keep track or tell me when you quit. But I’m still not quite ready to start charging for it, even though I certainly could.

It’s hot here today. The thermometer says 90 degrees inside and 100+ outside… which can be taken with a large grain of salt as the outside sensor is on metal, I believe, so no doubt it’s hotter than the air is. Either way though, it’s not only hot, it’s muggy. We have some glorious thunderheads building up in the mountains, so it’s probably a good thing the computer is on a UPS. Of course, in a bad storm I unplug it anyway. Best to be safe.

It’s so hard to keep the kids busy in this kind of weather. Well, actually Gage is pretty easy, he sleeps more than normal because it’s so warm. But Ariel has a harder time finding things to do because it doesn’t take long for her to be just drenched in sweat if she plays outside. I’ll probably fill her kiddie pool tomorrow for a nice treat. Swim lessons start next week, which will also help.

Of course, when Ariel’s bored, it’s harder for me to get anything done. I’ve had to neglect so many things to cope with the move, and there are still lots of boxes all over the place. However, most are books, and until the bookshelves are attached to the walls in the rooms they’ll be staying in, there’s just no point in unpacking. Same for the fragile items.

I did finally call the local preschool to see if it’s possible to get Ariel into classes this fall. She really needs something like that, since she doesn’t know any kids around here and I know she is very, very bored sometimes. I have her table set up so she can play with her crayons, markers, playdough and so forth, but it’s still not the same as having other kids to play with. Hopefully it’s not too late… registration was in May.

So I finally get to at least look at business. I hope to get a lot of work done today relative to what I’ve been getting done. It’s such a challenge finding that perfect balance. If I can find a preschool, that will help for at least a few hours a week.

We’re settled in enough now for me to get online again – such a relief! The move was exhausting, and of course most everything is still in boxes. Bit by bit, though, we’re finding the most important things we need.

Found out that Gage will be getting another DOC Band helmet. We should be getting a call to set up the casting appointment soon. I feel bad about having to do it to him, as he has made so much progress since getting the helmet off. He’s lifting his head, doing pushups and playing a lot more. Some of that’s just normal development, of course, but he had been lifting his head before he got the first band, then quit when it was put on, so I’m wondering what impact this second one will have. Poor kid, but his head is still visibly a little squared off, so it’s overall for the best.

Ariel is settling in pretty well. She loves that we have a back yard now. We’re going to change her turtle sandbox into a wading pool for the rest of summer as a surprise for her.

Google has indexed some more of my pages, but still way behind Yahoo. The DigitalPoint tracker now shows 911 pages indexed, which is certainly a nice improvement. I assume that’s due to the sitemap, although it could be coincedence. We’ll just have to see how long it takes them to decide how much to index.

I can’t spend too much time playing online right now, of course. There’s still loads of unpacking to do. I can hardly wait to get the kitchen table unpacked – this house has a major ant problem that we noticed even before we began unpacking the first boxes, so I really want a good place to eat so there won’t be food all over the floor.

It might only be off for a week or two, but he has completely outgrown the original DOC band helmet, so until the surgeon tells the therapist whether or not he thinks Gage needs to continue his therapy, we don’t need to put a helmet on him. It is so nice to not have to place that helmet on his head and to be able to cuddle him more comfortably and closely.

His head is still a little bit squared off, though, so we’ll see. I don’t know if it’s at an acceptable level or if it would appear worse over time. He has lumps where the plates of his skull come together, but those should ease over the next month or so if the helmet stays off.

I have to admit, the timing is possibly pretty good. If we don’t need to see the doctor, this is a good time to not have appointments. However, Dr. Cohen, the surgeon who will be making the decision, may opt to see Gage, and he only sees this kind of patient on Wednesday afternoons. Guess what day we’re moving? I’d do it, obviously, but it would not be convenient.

After an entire weekend of internet connection troubles, I finally called the cable company. I’m still not clear on what exactly was wrong, but they finally tried renewing the IP and now I’ve kept a connection for longer than I have in several days. Hopefully that means it’s fixed.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to run an online business without an internet connection? That’s right – it’s essentially impossible. All you can do is get pages ready – can’t load them, test them fully. It’s quite a headache to have to deal with, especially when you’re getting ready to move.

Just over a week until that happens. We’re moving on the 13th and 14th from the condo to the house we’ll be renting. I can hardly wait to be done with it. More room for my office, 3 bedrooms instead of 2, and a back yard instead of a patio for Ariel to play in. Should be very nice, even if the rent’s a bit higher than I’d prefer to be paying.

I finally heard from our landlady to be, and we will be renting in her house. It’s such a relief to finally have a solid answer on that one. She was very nervous about the fact that my earnings come from a home business, but I spent some time explaining how I earn my income and my backup plan.

Even though we didn’t have a solid answer yesterday on the house, we went to the Del Mar… err, San Diego Fair. It’s been called the Del Mar Fair long enough that that’s how I still think of it. Lots of fun. We left Gage with my inlaws, since, let’s face it, infants are no fun at the fair. Ariel was exhausted by the time we left – we got the pay one price ride deal for her and my husband, so they had lots of fun. I enjoy the rides too, but someone has to stay with the stroller. I got to go on the merry-go-round with Ariel, since parents don’t need to pay if they’re just going to make sure their child stays on the horse. It was a very fun day.