Tropical Depression

OK, we're slowly settling down into a nice vibe here in the Lowe household. The "Hurricane" has settled down now that everything is sparkling clean. I'd say she's more like an occasional "Tropical Depression" with occasional breaks of Sunshine.

Hehe well, overall it's kinda fun and interesting having to live with someone now. We're ok so far, we haven't felt like going for each other's necks yet at home. Occasionally we'd have fun trying to experiment with regular domestic life... we're actually COOKING at home once in a while and my fridge is actually stocked up with food now instead of just cases of juice and Gatorade.

Work is coming along. I know I haven't talked much about design lately. But it's been a little difficult getting into the design mindset in between checking a million visa forms, or having to vacuum the house at 11pm at night. But I'm getting there.

Luckily I think my planning before the wedding is slowly paying off. I have a few nice juicy projects coming in now which is perfect timing. It got a little scary there having a while month without work. Those of you with regular full time jobs and vacation pay better appreciate it. When you work on your own, you end up hoarding money when you have it, just so you can weather the dry spells.

I have some fun projects to get me in the spirit. 2 logos, a few business cards, 2 or 3 websites coming down the channel. Hopefully that will get me running full steam again. I still have a mission to eventually get enough regular business to justify actually opening up a shop somewhere and hiring one or 2 people... so I have to keep the business up rock solid. Now that the big wedding is behind us I think I can focus on that. Florence is a pretty bright cookie too...I think I'll have some extra help and support going forward. VERY NIIICE!!

Talk about Visas....we sent out another stack of paperwork and roughly another $1000 US in checks. I think overall, if you're looking to bring someone over from another country, count on spending about $2k on US forms alone. I heard just one of the forms we rushed out this week is going up from $300 to $1000 this coming month. So you'll need to spend even MORE. MMM Hmm...I'm not even going to start to mention how stupid I think it all is.

Ironically one of the forms we file is to show I can support the "alien" for a few months. (I occasionally call Florence my "alien" now for laughs; which promptly earns me a pretty mean looking stinkeye) You know why they need to know? Because it's going to literally take months before they let her work AND you've paid all that money so that they can check you. Fun eh?

ANYWAY, things are going good....