[Be sure to see the more recent update to this article,
VPS! Getting Drupal up and running on a linode (revisited)]
Well, after realizing the limitations of shared hosting for Drupal development, I decided to go with the big boys and use a dedicated server or VPS solution, at least for development. So I can make a multisite install for the docs and I can make subdomains for each development site.
So after perusing various options, I decided for linode. After checking out the various plans, I decided on the Linode 300, and got 50% more disk space by paying for a year.
While I was waiting for my account to be ready (after all today is Thanksgiving: but it still took no more than 40 minutes), I mosied over to ZoneEdit (see excellent tutorial reference below) and signed up for DNS service and domain management (free for the first 5 domains that you add to your account).