Zach Dotsey

Conference tournament upsets continue.  As of today, Duke is the only top ACC team still in the tournament, and Virginia gave them all they wanted for the first half of the game.  Maryland, the second seed in the tournament, lost to Georgia Tech.  The Yellow Jackets can be decent, but it was a bit of a surprise.  Then Miami and NC State beat Virginia Tech and Florida State, respectively, which was a pretty huge shock.  Both of those teams have been sitting pretty snugly at the bottom of the ACC for some time, but here they are playing in the quarterfinal games tomorrow.  Duke should have a pretty good go of the rest of the tournament.  They’ll face Miami tomorrow then the winner of Georgia Tech and NC State.  The smart money’s on Georgia Tech, but I’d like Duke to get a revenge match for the beating the Wolfpack gave them earlier this season.  Either way, like I said, Duke should win the ACC and lock up a #1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.

So, it’s gotten to the point where we pretty much have to put the dogs’ and cat’s water bowl up on the table any time Milly is out and about.  She heads straight over for it and really enjoys putting her hands in it.  I think I mentioned that yesterday, but it literally happens whenever she’s awake now.  Sucks for the animals- they’ve complained about it some.

We went over to Nick and Amy’s tonight for dinner and games.  Amanda and Nick were a little burned out on Puerto Rico so we introduced them to Wits & Wagers (Amy and I each won a game) then played Yahtzee, which I won over Amanda by six points.  I think it was Amanda who mentioned what time it was when we were going to start the second game as an argument for not playing Puerto Rico, but Yahtzee probably took twice as long.  We had a good time with them, as is the norm.

Zach Dotsey

Today was a special day, officially marking the start of March Madness for 2010.  Well, some conferences had already started their tournaments, but in particular the ACC Tournament started today at noon.  I was excited to watch what I could, but I had a pretty full slate including a meeting today.

I will say that there have been a lot of upsets so far.  I think the lower seed advanced in all the ACC games except one, that being Carolina.  I’ll give them this though- they actually played pretty well in the first half and had up to a twelve or so point lead over Georgia Tech, who had already swept the Heels in the regular season.  Georgia Tech came out pretty strong in the second half though, and I figured once it got close that they’d pull through and win, which they did.

Syracuse, Villanova and Pittsburgh, all Big East teams, were all upset today too.  I just hope all the upsets stop by noon tomorrow, when Duke plays Virginia (who upset Boston College).

On the subject of Duke, they got a verbal commitment from Michael Gbinije (ben-ee-jee?) today.  He’s part of the 2011 class and is currently rated as one of the top 15 player in the country.  Congrats to both him and Duke University!

Billy Supplee and Cyra Sherburn came over for dinner and The Office tonight.  I was in the middle of changing Milly when they got here, but she had gotten up and wandered off before I  put a diaper back on her, so we let her greet them at the door like that.  This may sound funny, but it’s so cute when she’s crawling around on the floor with her tiny bare butt.

Speaking of Milly crawling around, I’m looking forward to a time when we can get her a kiddie pool.  Every time she goes to the kitchen she heads for the water bowl.  She likes to put her hand in it and splash it around a little.  That girl loves the water, so I think it’s good that she’ll be growing up going to the beach a lot.  That’s the plan anyway.

A few weeks ago, Seth and Dana Holloman turned me and Amanda on to an iPhone/iPod app called Words with Friends.  It’s basically online Scrabble.  Amanda and I had a really close game going, but she won in the end.  That was my first loss.  So far I’ve beaten a random player and Dana and lost to Amanda.  I think I’ll beat Seth and Ben Lambeth, who also has the game.  Amanda and I started a new game tonight and we’re also both playing Billy.  No idea how those game will go yet.

Zach Dotsey

What a great night, and there are so many things that were great about this game.

I’ve been amped about the Carolina at Duke game since yesterday.  Going into it, I knew that Duke should win the game handily, and that it could be a blowout, but I figured we wouldn’t be that lucky.  I thought Carolina would hang around for a bit.  In reality, Carolina scored the first single point then Duke killed them from there.

• Michael Mercer, my brother-in-law and UNC fan, told me he was giving me two Duke wins over Carolina for my birthday.  It was a nice touch for him to make the margin of victory on this one the same as the age I just turned: 32.
• The worst loss Roy Williams has ever had was 33.  So close!
• I said beforehand that if Duke beat the largest margin of victory in the series (37, by Carolina many, many years ago) that I’d shave my face.  I thought it was going to happen, but it did not.
• Duke scored more in the first half (53) than Carolina scored the entire game.  That means Duke could have not scored at all in the second half and still get the win.  Think about how crazy that is.
• In the first half, Brian Zoubek had more rebounds by himself than the entire Tar Heel team.
• This was Carolina’s worst loss since 2002 (to Maryland) and the fewest points scored in a game since 2003 (to Duke).
• This was the worst loss by a defending NCAA champion since 1990.
• Duke set a school record for home wins in a season with 17.  All but one of those was by double digits, and the one that wasn’t was an out of conference game.
• Duke tied Maryland for the ACC regular season title but is the #1 seed in the ACC Tournament next week.
• Carolina has secured a #10 seed for the ACC Tournament, their lowest ever.
• Duke is being discussed as being the probable fourth #1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.  It helps that Kansas State lost today.
• It was Senior Night for Jon Scheyer, Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas.  Coach K was emotional during the Senior Day celebrations, which they showed before the game.
• The Presbyterian fan who was kicked out of a Carolina game by Roy Williams for mild heckling was in attendance.

So it was a good night, as you can see.

We started the day going to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  Actually, the day started earlier than that.  Bruce kept getting up and going downstairs to bother Karen and Milly woke up and cried a bunch around 1:00.  Maybe she’s teething again, because she was very fussy today.  She didn’t like being put down for naps, and when she did nap it wasn’t for long.  She wasn’t a fan of going to sleep tonight either, although she seemed to go out (or at least quiet down) pretty soon after I shut her door.

Anyway, Cracker Barrel.  We went to Wal-Mart after that to pick up a few things and Karen took off when we got home.  Amanda actually napped on the couch, which is very much a rarity.  I went out to pick up some chicken for our enchilada dinner tonight (we forgot to get it at Wally World) and to drop off the recycling.  I took a huge amount of paper recycling that had built up over a few years.  There were some slips of paper at the bottom of it that had been used for Balderdash, and I can’t remember the last time we played that.

Around 5:00 Amanda started getting things ready for tonight.  Blake and Stephanie Konny came over around 6:30 for dinner.  Since there was time, we went ahead and introduced them to Puerto Rico.  It didn’t go well for me and Amanda.  Blake won, followed by Stephanie then Amanda then me.  That’s okay though, because the game came on before we finished and I’ll admit I was a little distracted.  (Not that that’s why I lost.)  I did DVR the game, and I plan on watching it again.  It really was fun.

Zach Dotsey

I got a lot of happy birthday wishes today.  The first person I talked to (aside from Amanda when she was leaving) was my dad, who also celebrated his birthday, his 54th, today.  He’s going up to Rochester to see my mom this weekend.  But between IM’s, Facebook, Twitter, phone calls and message boards, I had a lot of people wish me well today, and I appreciate that.

Work was actually pretty busy, but for some reason I had a hard time concentrating today.

Milly was a bit bipolar today.  She was really happy and fun some, but then she’d turn around and only be happy if she was being held, or just not happy at all.  On top of that she wasn’t into napping much this evening.  I was a little tired and took her upstairs at about 6:00 to see if she’d take a nap with me, but she was enjoying crawling around on the bed too much.  At least she was entertained.

Amanda made quiche with sausage and biscuits for dinner with cinnamon rolls for dessert.  The Warkentiens joined us and brought no bake cookies.  After dinner we played Puerto Rico.  I actually had a bit of a plan going into it, and it worked out well.  I won, and by a pretty good margin.  Amy got second, Amanda third and Nick was last.  I don’t know exactly why we do it, but we tend to speak in various accents when we play that game, particularly Amy and I.  Usually it’s a British accent of some sort, but we both spent a good bit of time in something that was mostly Russian, maybe a little eastern European with maybe a dash of Hispanic sprinkled in here and there.

After that we watched The Office, which was the episode (well, two episodes put together) where Pam and Jim have their baby.  I thought Amanda was going to bed after Nick and Amy and Eli took off, but we ended up watching Community too.

That was pretty much my day.  It was a low key birthday, but it was a decent day.

Zach Dotsey

I’m told that at about 5:00 this morning, Harvey busted in to the guestroom, cone around his head and all, and said, “Hey, Mack!  It’s 5:00!  Wanna go play?”  Then Mack jumped up and said, “Yeah!”

At least that’s how Jessica tells the story.  I suspect it’s not far from the truth.

Milly was asleep when the Lambeths got here last night, but she got to see them this morning.  She and Graelyn are a little out of sync with their schedules though, so they haven’t had a whole lot of interaction time, not that either is at an age where they interact a whole awful lot with other babies anyway.  Still, watching them, I couldn’t help but look forward to a time when they’re big enough to play together or hang out together on visits.  Later on we went to meet Ella-Jane Clark, and I thought about Graelyn coming to visit and Milly taking her to hang out with her friends at the beach or something.  It’s just fun to think about the future.

After breakfast and a short trip the Lambeths took to the local branch of the company Ben works for (where he used to work for them) we all went to the mall to grab some food and, mainly, so the ladies could look at baby clothes.  Milly and Graelyn got matching outfits from Baby Gap and are expected to have pictures taken in them tomorrow at the beach.

I was, for the record, checking my email regularly and answered a few calls from clients.  Fortunately, it wasn’t a very busy day.

After the mall we went to the Port City Java on Shipyard, where I used to often go while working when we lived in Sunset Park, just to kill some time before going to see Elliot, Melissa and Ella.  For the record, her name is Ella-Jane Ryan Clark, whereas I though before that Jane was her middle name.  So they did like we did in combining two names to make up the first name, but where we just combined them for Meliamae, they hyphenated.  I still wish we’d capitalized the second M to make it easier for people to figure the name out.  MeliaMae.  Then again, that doesn’t look at good typed out, does it?

We stopped to pick up some dinner for Elliot and Melissa then headed on over.  Ella was born three weeks early, and she’s so tiny!  I saw some pictures of her and thought she looked like a little gnome.  She’s so tiny that premie clothes are loose on her.  We hung out there for a while and caught up with Elliot and Melissa then headed out when Milly started getting a little fussy.

We got back home and the ladies worked on food while I worked on some work then fed Milly after she napped.  She had fallen asleep on the way home and I put her right down when we got in, and she really didn’t seem to want to get up when I did get her up to feed her.  Nick, Amy and Eli came over and all three kids were fed and put to bed before the adults had dinner and played Puerto Rico.  In order to accommodate six players we took a few pieces from Nick and Amy’s game.  I just read that there is a six player setup, and we were pretty close to it.  Amanda won by a good bit, followed by Nick or Amy, me, then Ben or Jessica.

Zach Dotsey

Tonight Amanda and I watched Duke take on the Golden Hurricanes of Tulsa.  Coach K scheduled the game with the projected top team in Conference USA (though it hasn’t panned out that way for them) to give his team a late-season look at the type of game they can expect early in the NCAA tournament.  It was actually a very close game in the first half but Duke stepped it up in the second and won by 18 points.  The freshmen got a lot of burn too.  Andre Dawkins was in a good bit, it seemed, though I’m not sure if he scored.  He kept trying though, which is good.  He started off the year shooting very well, but he’s been through some tough, personal issues.  Coach K said recently that Dre is about to break out, so hopefully it’ll come at tourney time.  Zoubek had a double-double and if he keeps playing like he has the past few games there’s no telling how far Duke can go.

You know, I just realized that I forgot to mention that Carolina played Florida State and lost by 10, though the game wasn’t even as close as that makes it sound.  They’re now tied for last in the ACC with NC State.  Some polls show the Heels as being ahead since they beat the Wolfpack twice, but some have the Pack ahead because they have a better overall record.

Amanda spent a good portion of the day picking up, cleaning and vacuuming around the house in preparation of the arrival of the Lambeth clan.  Ben, Jessica, Graelyn and Mack got here around a quarter past nine.  Mack and Harvey spent all night playing out in the yard while Bruce hung out inside where Amanda and I introduced Ben and Jessica to Puerto Rico.  Amanda won.  I scored seven less than she did and Ben and Jessica tied with one point less than me, though Ben won the tiebreaker since he had more money.

We got to hang out with Graelyn a bit before that though.  She’s five months old now and so cute.  It’s funny how light she is, and yet she’s a sizable baby for her age.  I’m just so used to holding Milly, you know.  She interacted with me some and gave me a few smiles.

Harvey won’t leave his infected paw alone.  He was able to lick it even with his cone on, so I ended up electrical taping his bandage and gauze onto his foot and Amanda went by Dineen Animal Hospital to get a larger cone.  It’s so funny how he bumps into everything when he’s got it on.

I woke up a little late this morning.  Usually I’ll hear Milly making noises if I sleep in some, but she slept in too.  My morning was a mad scramble which wasn’t helped by my baby’s unwillingness to drink much of her formula.  It’s funny- she’ll drink hardly any formula but she’ll eat all of her oatmeal.  She wolfs that stuff down these days.

It was very cold today.  I even heard reports of a little bit of snow being sighted (though none accumulated at all), but it’s supposed to warm up tomorrow.

Zach Dotsey

This week went by pretty fast but today seemed to go pretty slow.  I got done most of what I wanted to get done, and it felt great not to feel as rushed as I’ve felt the past few weeks.

Amanda kept herself pretty busy today.  On top of keeping up with Milly she did a lot of cleaning today plus some household shopping and cooking.

Amanda’s mom’s birthday is Sunday and her sister, Anna Frazelle, has some sort of surprise lined up for her and for Amanda (an early birthday present) tomorrow.  Karen came here this evening with plans to stay the night and watch Milly while Amanda and I went out to eat, but we surprised her by having dinner for her.  Amanda’s dad, Phil, came without Karen knowing (although he showed up before she even got in the house) and Michael and Jenn arrived just a few minutes later.

Milly was hardly left alone, which she didn’t mind.  We ate dinner and cupcakes and Phil left to go back to Richlands while Milly was (not really) eating her dinner.  The rest of us played Puerto Rico after we got Milly down to sleep.  Amanda won by six points.  Michael (and Jenn, who wasn’t really playing but was ostensibly on Michael’s team) and I tied, but I had more money so I won the tiebreaker, leaving Karen in last place.

Zach Dotsey
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