Zach Dotsey

Amanda convinced me that I need to work on a photography site, and she’s right.  I wanted to do something pretty simple so I looked at a few other sites to get some ideas and these are what I came up with and I just need to decide if I want to go light or dark.  I’m leaning heavily towards dark, but I want to get some input from some other people first.

Thoughts?  Feel free to leave a comment.  To do so click on the place at the top under the title where it says “Comments” and it’ll take you to where you can leave one.  I don’t expect anyone to actually leave one, but it would be nice, people!

Today wasn’t quite as busy with work as I thought.  Not that it wasn’t busy, but I was expecting it to be busier is all.  I did have a big flurry at the end with one client.  Amanda came home during that and laughed at me while I was on the phone.

This week has gone by pretty fast- I can’t believe it’ll be Friday soon.

Speaking of Friday, Seth and Dana are coming over tomorrow night.  We’ll probably play some Rock Band, although I said something to Amanda tonight about introducing them to Settlers of Catan.  We’ll see.

Amanda and I had dinner at O’Charlie’s tonight.  There wasn’t much food around the house and neither of us felt like cooking (been a long time since I’ve done that- I should do it sometime soon), so we went out.  Nothing too eventful there- Amanda had her usual Caesar salad and potato soup and I tried a Cuban sandwich or some such.  It was good.

We came home and Amanda caught up on her Facebook account while I watched Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie.  I think I’d seen it before.  We saw it while flipping around on HBO On Demand and I’d thought a while back that it would be fun to see some MST3K, so I watched it.  Amanda looked at some YouTube videos then we flipped around on the TV for a while.

Other than working on that design I’ve just been watching Batman Begins.  Speaking of that, Michael went with Anna and Barry to see The Dark Knight tonight.

The Olympics begin a week from tomorrow.  I’m really looking forward to them, and I think it’s mostly because of Mike Krzyzewski coaching the men’s basketball.

Zach Dotsey

I did end up watching both the BBC’s Robin Hood and HBO’s Deadwood last night.

I sent an e-mail out this morning to the members of our small group strongly urging everyone to show up for our September 3rd meeting.  Amanda and I have chosen that time to have a discussion about commitment and what people are trying to get out of the group.  Kyle called me a little bit after I sent it and we decided to meet for lunch.  We discussed several things, including the decision to lead a new small group, which he and Lorin have been praying about.

Work was really busy.  Lots to do yesterday, lots to do today, lots to do tomorrow.

After work Amanda and I went to PetSmart because Cobb was almost out of food.  We went ahead and picked up some food for the dogs too then headed out to Wrightsville Beach.  Small group tonight ended up just being me and Amanda and Mike, so it wasn’t really small group.  Amanda wished she’d known Kaitlyn wasn’t coming because she sat bored on the shore while Mike and I went out to catch some waves.  Theo and Josh were there too.  It was windy and choppy which did not the best surfing conditions make, but we did manage to catch a few.

Amanda and I came on home after a bit.  I started watching Mallrats, which was just coming on HBO, but since Amanda had just watched it a few days ago she wasn’t up for it, so we watched a new Ghost Hunters International.

I played a little Grand Theft Auto IV after Amanda went to bed then Michael and I played Catan.  I had nine points and was about to win but one of the computer players had six points, built a settlement, played a Soldier card and revealed a Victory Point all in one turn to steal my game.  If Michael hadn’t come out of nowhere at the beginning to take the wood port I was going to go after I’d have easily won the game.  That is so freaking frustrating.

Zach Dotsey

I woke up a little after 8:00 to the sound of the phone ringing next to the bed.  Amanda had left something at home that she needed for work, so I got myself up and ran it there for her.  On the way back home I stopped by Michael’s Port City Java and let him pour me some orange juice and got a blueberry muffin.  Good stuff.

I got back home just after 9:00 and proceeded to be pretty busy all day.  I’ll likely be pretty busy again tomorrow.  That’s okay though- I’ve set some goals for myself and keeping busy helps get me closer to them.  I feel pretty wiped out though.

Amanda made some egg and cheese sandwiches for dinner, and I was going to play Catan with Michael while she did that but he was about to go meet his small group at Flaming Amy’s.  Since the Xbox was already on I figured I’d just go ahead and play some Grand Theft Auto IV. I started one mission and died then turned it off because I knew Amanda wouldn’t care to sit there watching me play it.  We watched The Soup instead.

Michael came by a little while later and we played Settlers of Catan.  He won pretty handily and I sucked pretty mightily.  Amanda was starting to do pretty well, but it was too late by that time.

Michael’s developed a pretty big crush on Nanny Carrie.  She was in the coffee house again today and as always was very nice and friendly.  Part of it is that she’s really pretty, but Michael says she’s really just so nice and down to earth.  He thought about seeing if she’d want to go hang out, just to get to know her better and try to become friends with her (she’s got a fiancee so he really doesn’t have any true aspirations for romance), but he chickened out.

The rest of the evening consisted of the three of us watching Wipeout and some of I Survived a Japanese Game Show.  I know we weren’t planning on really watching the latter very often, but it’s entertaining enough and we’re usually not doing much on Tuesday nights anyway.

Now that I’m done with typing all this I may putz around on the computer a bit, tweaking my sites, or I might go watch Robin Hood, the episode on the DVR being the penultimate episode for the season.  I’ve got a Deadwood too, but I doubt I can make it through both right now.

Zach Dotsey
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Look, Nick, you made the headline.

I think I got a total of about twelve hours of sleep last night, from the time I started napping to the time I got up this morning.  And man did I feel heavy.  I had gotten to bed at about 1:30 or so on Saturday night, got up for church, tried to doze a little after church but never got around to it, surfed all day then crashed early.  I had a great time, but man did I feel just beat today.

Work was really busy in the morning, but it eventually calmed down to a more manageable pace.  Michael called around 1:00 or so and asked if I’d meet him at PT’s Grille for lunch, so I did that.  The AC in my car still hasn’t been fixed and it was really hot and muggy today.  My glasses fogged up within seconds of getting into the car.

After lunch I came back and kept on working.  Amanda had the bag run todat so she got home a little bit earlier than usual.  We called Nick and Amy to see if they wanted to go eat with us at… I forget the name of the place, but it’s a little Italian place up by the Food Lion by Northchase.  Papa Bella’s- I just looked it up.  We met them at a little after 6:30 and ate.  It took a while for me and Amanda to get the calzone we ordered so a guy there made us some doughnut type desserts which were extremely yummy.

We left the restaurant around 7:30, I guess a little before that, so as to not take up space but we just sat right back down outside of the place.  We talked about our small groups a bit then the discussion turned to baby names, which I think took up the bulk of the conversation until 9:50 when we finally took off.  My favorite names we came up with were Libido Warkentien and Violent Justice, although I think it sounds better as a Dotsey name than a Warkentien name.  Violent Justice Dotsey.  What do you think, Nick?  I know you’re reading this.  Is this entry brief enough for you?  Yeah, I know you can hear me.  Leave a comment, I dare you.

Amanda got ready for bed pretty much as soon as we got home and I took an Aleve for a headache that has been plaguing me today.

Zach Dotsey

Port City Community Church wasn’t nearly as crowded as it was last week, but that was to be expected since there was so much buzz about the new building and we probably had people come to just check it out, or people who weren’t consistent members. Amanda and I got up and went to the 8:30 service at church.  We got there a little early so she grabbed some coffee and, seeing that they had some green tea, I got some of that.  We talked to Don and Laurel for a bit then went to sit down.  We saw Anna and Barry so we sat behind them.  They usually go to the 10:30 service, but Terry, Anna’s cousin, was coming for a visit today.

You know, I don’t think I ever told Anna “Happy birthday” today.

The message this week and last was about cultivating change, and after the regular set the band played John Mayer’s Waiting on the World to Change.  It was cool in that you could feel a bit of a lightness in the auditorium as people started to realize what song they were starting to play.

After the service Amanda and I talked to Nick and Amy for a bit.  I waited around a little and talked to Mike Ashcraft, our rock star preacher.  We chatted a bit about surfing and he told me to give him a call if there was anything good out there this week while I was out.

Amanda and I were planning on grabbing something small to eat on the way out to the beach, but the Frazelles had invited us to have some bagels with them, so we ate there.  Barry had gone to Barnes & Noble, but Anna made us egg and cheese bagels.  Terry showed up just as I was finally getting in touch to tell my mom that one of my clients was on The Dog Whisperer (which she watches) last night.

Michael arrived and we all sat around on the porch for a while then, just as we were about to go out, the Boscaljons and the Hauensteins arrived, although they had to park in a metered spot because all of the Frazelle driveway was spoken for today.  Justin hadn’t surfed before, but he decided to give it a try since the rest of us were going out for it too I guess.  He actually did really well- he caught two waves that I counted and even stood up.

The waves were a bit inconsistent so we all eventually got out, though most of us went back in for some more later.  Even Kaitlyn and Lisa gave it a try, but I don’t know how they did since I was inside getting a sandwich at that point.  Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, showed up so we had a nice big crowd of people taking up a swatch of beach.  Justin, Lisa, Mike and Kaitlyn all took off eventually.  I still ended up spending most of my time out in the water.  Barry came back out after a while, but there really was very little to catch at that point- the water was so choppy and the rip current kept pulling me down the shore.

I had a good time though.  The waves I did catch were kind of slow and easy, so I had time to think about what I was doing on the board, like putting some weight forward to try to gain speed or try to turn the board a little, although the blue NSP board is practically a boat so it wasn’t easy to maneuver.  I also did a little hop with both feet to try to move forward on the board.  Yes, I’m acrobatic like that.

Amanda and I came home and watched a show on National Geographic- Locked Up Abroad or something.  The first episode, which I only saw a little of, was about a couple who were kidnapped by Philippine rebels.  The second was about a girl who got caught up trying to smuggle drugs out of  Bangladesh, got caught and was sentenced to life in prison.  Eventually Senatory Bill Richardson petitioned the government to pardon her and she was let out after five years.

I dozed off and on after that, mainly waking up to try to kill a spider that was on the TV, although I had to try to get it off the TV first as I didn’t want guts spattered on the plasma TV.  I didn’t get it, but harvey found it after it fell on the floor.

Amanda had a hard time getting me to move upstairs.

Zach Dotsey
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Amanda and I got up at about 9:30 and took our time getting ready, finally getting over to Anna and Barry’s about 11:15 or so I guess. We hung out with them on the porch for a bit and gave Anna her birthday (which is tomorrow) present, which was a panoramic picture of a rainbow we’d seen out there at the beach a month or so ago.  We got the frame and such for it last night.

We’d gotten a text message from Michael this morning letting us know that his car wouldn’t start and that he needed a ride home from work.  Since he got off at 2:00 we didn’t have a real long time out on the beach, but man were the waves great today!  I took out the blue long board (as the Surf City one I usually use is currently missing).  I caught probably five or six waves in half an hour, which is more than I’ve caught in probably the last couple weeks.  The water was warm, the waves were easy- it was a great time out there.

Theo was out there, as was his friend, Josh, who just moved here from Hawaii.  He and his fiancee are going to be living here in Wilmington after they get married, in September I believe he said.  Hannah and Christian were out there too.  Christian had some marks on him from having been attacked by a Portuguese Mon-O-War yesterday.

Amanda and I left and picked up Michael from his Port City Java downtown.  We each got a drink while we were there- she got a smoothie and I got a custom-mixed milkshake.  Michael named it a Milky Way milkshake because it had all the ingredients of a Milky Way candy bar.

After that we headed to his place to drop him off and see about jumping his car, but as soon as we got there it started raining crazy hard so we ran inside and Amanda and I watched a little bit of Enough (the Jennifer Lopez movie) while Michael took a shower.  He and I then had sandwiches and the rain finally died down, so we went out to try to jumpstart his car.

Unfortunately the jumper cables were not in Amanda’s car so Michael went around asking his neighbors if he could borrow some, finally getting some from a lady who had pulled up to visit her daughter.  The car jumped just fine and he headed off to an auto parts store to check the status of his battery while we went home to let the dogs out and take a shower ourselves.

Amanda had a bit of a headache, from the weather I guess, so I went to the store to get her some bread and some juice.  I tried to get some money back from my purchase, but when I put in the amount I didn’t realize you had to put in both the dollars and the cents, so instead of getting $20 back I got back 20 cents.

Adam and Renee were at the house shortly after I got back.  They brought Dobja along for Amanda to watch just in case we all decided not to come home tonight from the Old 97’s concert.  Renee was gracious enough to drive there and we only stopped once, which was to pick up some McDonald’s dinner.  Adam and I mostly talked about comic books and the discussion somehow turned to fencing while we were at McDonalds.  Oh yeah, Tyler, a guy I’d met before but saw again at Blake and Stephanie’s last night, mentioned that they offer fencing at the Wilmington Athletic Club, so I was thinking of taking it back up.  Renne said she’d actually mentioned it to Adam as an activity to get involved in, which was very coincidental.  A sign, perhaps?  I wonder if my Horner cousins still have the equipment I gave them.

So we got to Raleigh sometime before 7:30, parked and went to Moore Square, I think it was, where Downtown Raleigh Live or whatever the concert series is called was being held.  I wore a Duke shirt which I explained to both Amanda and Joel was “comfortable, casual and a little bit controversial.”  When I told Joel this he said something about me liking to take silent jabs like that.

Duke, for those not in the know, is not very popular in Raleigh.  Anywhere you go in North Carolina you’ll run into UNC fans, so you had that plus the Raleigh natives who are NC State fans.  Not a particularly Duke-friendly area, is my point.  That said, the only person who said anything to me was a guy at a booth where Adam updated his voter registration, and he only teased good-naturedly.  I saw a small kid with a Duke jersey on and told him I liked his shirt.

So Joel Freeman and his friend D Webb and another friend of theirs whose name escapes me all showed up.  Rob Sullivan was there too, but I saw him all of thirty seconds as he and his wife never joined us up front for all the action.

There were several bands playing since 2:00, but the only ones we saw before The Old 97’s was The Connells.  They weren’t bad.  The lead singer looked like he could have been an IT guy from any of the office buildings surrounding us.

After they went off I impressed Joel with my ability to maneuver a crowd, getting us to the very front of the crowd area, right in behind the barrier.  There were three girls between us and the barrier, although Adam and Renee found a little spot just a little further down where they were right on it.  It was the three girls (one of them was an older lady, the other two I’d say were in their twenties) then some large guy then Adam and Renee.  About halfway through the show the guy left and Renee tapped me on the shoulder to point the spot out to me, so I slid on in over there.

I had a great time.  They played all but two songs that I wanted them to play (Murder or a Heart Attach and Halcyon were the ones they didn’t play) and they really rocked out on them all.  Ken Bethea, the guitarist, had some sort of difficulty with his guitar or the amp and apologized after one song, but Rhett Miller, the lead singer, told him he had it covered.  Indeed, Rhett amped it up.

What can I really say?  The Old 97’s are pretty much my favorite band and I got to watch a good hour and a half of them rocking out to some of my favorite songs maybe ten feet away from me.  I had an awesome time.

Amanda had told me to call her when they played Question, which is the song I discovered them with and Amanda’s favorite Old 97’s song.  I called her at about 10:30 when they played it and she later told me that she couldn’t make out what it was at first because it was so loud, but eventually figured it out.

Amanda, by the way, had hung out with Michael for the night.  They watched Mallrats which, coincidentally, Jason and Joel had just done the night before in Charlotte.  Michael didn’t like it, but it was his first time having seen it.  Joel had said he didn’t like it his first time seeing it, but that he really liked it this time watching it with Jason.  I was ho-hum about it the first time I saw it, but I’ve loved it since after that time.

The show ended right about 11:00.  Renee drove back as well, although we had trouble finding a way to get onto the interstate from where we were.  We eventually got on I-40 and headed on back to Wilmington.  I downloaded a few new games on my iPhone (particularly Othello and a really sweet 3-D rendered version of Mahjong) and Adam and I talked about memories we had of growing up.  Like the trip there, the trip home seemed to go by pretty fast.

Old 97's in Raleigh, NC

Zach Dotsey
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I spent most of the day today working on updates for one site, but I think it looks pretty good.  It involved me editing a number of photos to look like Polaroid pictures then formatting a page of reviews for a client of ours.  Turned out rather nice.

I was going to help Anna and Barry out- they needed a witness for notarizing their will, but just as I was about to walk out the door to meet them they realized that the witness couldn’t be in any way related to them.  I offered to divorce Amanda for a few minutes, but they said it wasn’t worth the trouble.

I also talked to Ben Lambeth today.  Amanda and I had tried to call him and Jessica to see if they were coming to the beach for Labor Day and they said that if there was room for them they’d love to go.  Ben told me they were at the airport about to head to Washington, DC with Jessica’s parents.  None of Jessica’s family had ever been there before.

After work Amanda and I headed out to grab something to eat, but after discussing it we both just ended up getting smoothies at the Port City Java at the Harris Teeter on College.  We tried calling Michael and, since his apartment is maybe a mile from there we stopped by his house to see if a) he could tell us what kind of smoothie Amanda had had that she liked before and b) to see if he wanted to go over to Blake and Stephanie Konny’s afterwards with us.  We didn’t know it until we talked to him later but he was at work.  We called him several times throughout the night because the Konnys live really close to him and the teams for some games we played were uneven.  He wouldn’t have been an odd man out of a couple either, which is one of his usual excuses.

So we went to Blake and Stephanie’s.  Mike and Kaitlyn were there before us and people trickled in afterwards.  Blake had made a whole bunch of cookies for the night.  We all ended up playing The Blake Game (Amanda and I were on the same team, which almost made it unfair- we did win) then we played Scattergories.  There were some boisterous discussions about some of the finer points of the rules, but the team Amanda and I were on was thoroughly trounced (with asterisks).

When we got home Amanda and I thought about watching a movie but we slipped around the television, which reminded me that one of my other clients was going to be on The Dog Whisperer tonight.  I saw that it was on and we turned it on during a commercial, but luckily enough as soon as the commercial was over her segment came on.  Pretty cool!

So, I’d thought about not going to go see The Old 97’s tomorrow night.  It’s a two hour trip both ways and I found out that they wouldn’t be playing until 9:00.  But, they are pretty much my favorite band, I’ve never seen them come to North Carolina before and the show is free, so I really couldn’t, in good conscience, not go.  So I’m going to go see The Old 97’s tomorrow!  Jason and Joel went to see them in Charlotte tonight and Jason texted me a two-word message, the second word of which was “awesome”.  The fact that he cared enough to even text told me all I needed to know.

Zach Dotsey