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

Our day started out in a similar manner to yesterday, with Milly talking to herself off and on throughout the early morning until she fussed, at which time she spent a few minutes in bed before we got up to feed her.  Phil went to church early because the Baptist Men’s Group was singing in the choir (or some such).  Amanda went to get some biscuits for me, Karen and herself for breakfast then Karen went to church.

Amanda and I played MarioKart and took showers.  When Karen got home, about the time Michael and Jenn both got up, she made some steak and cheese sandwiches out of leftovers from last night.  She laid a bunch of other stuff out too, basically trying to get rid of as much food as she could before we all left.

After Milly went down for a nap Amanda, Michael, Karen and I played Puerto Rico.  Jenn wasn’t feeling it and Phil’s not much of one for playing games.  Amanda won this one, but the point spread was crazy close.  She had 43, Karen and I tied at 42 (though Karen had more dubloons, so she won that tie-breaker) and Michael had 41.  I really like that game and I could play it back to back several times if someone else would go along with it.

It was just about to time to feed Milly again after the game so she was fed and everyone packed up to leave.  Michael and Jenn left a little before us.  Bruce snuck out of the house while I was going out to load the car and jumped in, waiting for us to take off.  He stayed in there the whole time, except for when I took him out right before we left so he could relieve himself.

The ride home was without incident, though Milly again didn’t sleep on the trip and was angry fussing the last ten miles.  We thought she’d pooped, but it turned out that one of the dogs, very likely Harvey, had simply farted.

Back home we unpacked and watched an episode of The Soup and a couple Law & Order: SVU’s.

Two other things of note from today:

1.  Amanda accidentally knocked a statue of St. Francis of Assisi in the sunroom onto the very laptop I’m typing on right now.  It’s working fine, but I think a few keys are loose and there are a few very small pock marks on the screen now.

2.  Jason Revill called me today and asked me a favor.  He wanted me to call Barry Frazelle, Amanda’s uncle who is a dentist, and ask him about a situation.  You see, Jason went to Greensboro this weekend to hang out with some guys we went to college with.  Apparently Jaime Arnold accidentally knocked Jason down.  Jason tripped at the same time and ended up faceplanting into the ground.  His front left tooth was knocked back (on top of busting his lip and getting a shiner) but he was able to push it back into place.  He said it doesn’t hurt or bother him except for when he messes with it.

I talked to Barry and he said to keep on a soft diet and take Advil.  As for what would happen with the tooth, he said it depended on the root.  If the root wasn’t damaged they would splint the tooth by tying it to one next to it with floss and put something on it to keep it in place until it heals.If the root was damaged though, he’d need a root canal and that sucker is going to have to come out.

Zach Dotsey
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Neither Amanda nor I slept all that well last night.  We’d wake up just about any time Milly made a noise.  I’m sure she does it all the time, but it’s different being in the same room with her.  On top of that, it seemed like the dogs kept wanting to come and go in and out of the room.

Amanda and I went with Karen to the home of Peggy and Earl Lemons (Amanda’s grandparents) for the country breakfast they serve every Saturday.  We got to see their new car.  Their Taurus was giving them some trouble so they bought an Impala.  We put Milly down for a nap in Peggy and Earl’s room right before we ate and afterwards I went to check on her.  I decided to lie down with her and she turned and snuggled up on me.  It was so sweet.  The time in between was spent eating and debating etiquette.

We got back to the Mercer house around noon and gave Milly her lunch.  Amanda and Karen went back out to do some shopping.  After I put Milly down for a nap (she didn’t have a particularly long one at her great-grandparents’ house) Michael, Jenn and I played Puerto Rico.  I beat Michael by a point.  He would have beat me but he misunderstood the implications of one of his picks.  That was my first win at that game.

We played a little MarioKart and Amanda played some when she got home too, feeding Milly in between.  Peggy and Earl came over a little later to have dinner and celebrate Michael’s birthday, which is Monday.  We also watched NC State suck it up against Maryland, which I figured would happen since the Pack beat Duke a few days ago.  Texas, who started the week undefeated but lost to Kansas State earlier, lost to UConn.

Anyway, we had a great dinner of steak, potatoes, salad, apple sauce, green beans and more.  In attendance were Amanda and I, plus Milly after we’d mostly finished eating, Karen and Phil, Peggy and Earl and Jenn.  Plus Michael, of course, as it was his birthday we were celebrating.

9:00 came around and we turned on the Duke-Clemson game.  Now, Clemson humiliated Duke last year at Littlejohn Coliseum and held Duke to 47 points, which was the lowest score Duke had in a long, long time.  Clemson’s been mostly playing pretty well lately, and Duke’s been sucking it up on the road though they beat Clemson soundly a few weeks ago.  A loss would put a lot of doubt on the Blue Devils, but a win would show that Duke can win in an opponent’s arena, and against tough competition at that.

The game was tied at a horrendously low 23 at the half.  Duke ended up winning 60-47 though.  (Remember that number, 47?)  Nolan Smith had a great game and Lance Thomas actually outscored Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer.  The second half was all Duke.

Michael is sitting across from me now, playing with his new iPod Touch.  He had a problem updating iTunes, which he needed to do to register his Touch and ended up just formatting his computer to get it to work.  Well, it works now and he’s looking at games to download for it.

Zach Dotsey

I had a bit of running around to do this morning.  I left the house around 9:30 and went over to Michael’s apartment to put his cats in their carriers because the apartment was getting sprayed around 10:00 and it was thought best for their health if they were not allowed to go sniffing around the insecticide for a bit.  After I got them up (Mooo! was no problem, but Goat struggled a bit) I picked up my paycheck, dropped it off at the bank then went to Port City Java to do some work.  I left a little before noon to let the cats back out and headed back home.

Back at the house Amanda had everything packed up, so I took care of a few quick work items then we headed off to Richlands.  Milly didn’t sleep at all on the trip, but she was good the whole way.

Once there we went to Arnold’s with Amanda’s dad then stopped by Richlands High to pay her mom a surprise visit.  It was a teacher’s workday, so no kids were around or anything.  On the way back to the Mercer homestead we stopped by to see Miss Eleanor.

Back at the house I took care of some work until breakfast-dinner.  Michael and Jenn showed up at some point before dinner and played some MarioKart.  I had to take some time out to play that.  I tried using the normal controllers that Michael brought, but I’m so used to to using the Wiimote that I got some controls mixed up.

After dinner and eating we let Milly hang out for just a little bit.  She took a few more small crawls, but I’m not sure if Karen, whom we called every time she did it, got to see her in action.

After we got Milly down Amanda and I introduced Karen, Michael and Jenn to Puerto Rico.  We were planning on doing a round or two to teach it to them, because the game is really hard to explain without actually playing it, but we never started over.  Michael won, beating me by two points.  Every time we play that game I want to play again right after.  Hasn’t happened yet though.

Amanda came back downstairs after going up to bed.  Milly had woken up when Amanda was trying to get sheets and such for Michael from the room my whole clan is staying in, and doing it in the dark she ended up making some noise, and making some noise she woke Milly up.  She was pretty upset, but we held her for a bit and changed her diaper and she went right back down.  So far so good anyway.

So here’s something I’m really excited about.  Seth Holloman called today and asked if I’d be interested in going to the Duke-Florida State game on Wednesday and sitting front row for an extremely reasonable price.  Um, YEAH!  So he and I are heading to Durham on Wednesday.  Amanda’s a bit jealous, but she’s cool with it.

Zach Dotsey

I had a dream last night that Amanda, Milly and I walked out to our usual spot at Wrightsville Beach, and when we got out there I saw nice large, rolling waves that looked easy to get out to and catch, but there were very few people out in the water.  It was warm out, but the water was still chilly.  Overjoyed, I ran back to the Frazelle house to get my wetsuit on and grab my board.  I told Barry and we headed on out for a session.

I’ve really been missing surfing lately.  There hasn’t been much out there and the water’s so cold right now anyway.  I’ve been thinking of Nosara, Costa Rica a lot too.

As we usually do when Karen comes to visit, we had breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel.  On the way there Karen sat in the back and played with Milly.  She was laughing, which is always so great to hear.  It’s the best.

Michael and Jenn joined us, and afterwards they came over to our place.  Michael had burned his hand pretty badly at work on Tuesday (though work did nothing about it) and he, Jenn and Karen stopped by a drug store on the way over to pick up some salve and bandages for it.

We played some MarioKart and I did pretty well, though I haven’t unlocked some of their usual cars and characters yet and they’re used to playing with a regular controller, not the Wii-mote.  I’ve been assured that the two of them are much better playing as they’re accustomed, which I’m sure is true.

Amanda and Karen took off to go shopping or some such and the rest of us stayed to watch Carolina defend the Dean Dome against Georgia Tech.  Jenn didn’t care at all about it and Michael has hardly watched any games this season, but he was still pulling for his Heels.  I, of course, was not. My prediction though, given my luck and the fact that the game was at Carolina, was that the Yellow Jackets, after beating Duke and losing to Virginia (who is supposed to be towards the bottom of the ACC but actually has the best conference record so far), would lose.

Georgia Tech got out to a 20 point lead and they were up 16 at the half.  I never felt comfortable though, and Carolina took the lead with just a few minutes to go.  They swapped lead changed a few times, but Carolina did end up losing.  Amanda got back home just before the end and we were pretty happy about it, though we tried not to flaunt our joy until Michael left.

My mom called to see how things were going and how Milly is doing.  She was stuck in Rochester this weekend.

A little while later Amanda, Milly and I went to have dinner and a game with the Warkentiens.  Milly was off and on fussy but didn’t want to take a nap.  But then, she hadn’t napped much today, so I can understand her being cranky.  We put the kids down around 8:00 then played a game of Puerto Rico.  I changed my strategy but still came in third place, though I was surprised by even that.  (Thanks for losing to me, Nick.)  Amanda absolutely crushed it for the win.  The game was fun, of course, but we imposed a rule where the Governor (which is a position that switches every goes) had to speak in some kind of accent.  We all had a lot of fun with that, too.

When we got Milly up to leave through the time we put her back down in her own crib, she was in a very happy mood.  I almost don’t want to put her back to sleep when she’s like that.

Zach Dotsey

Milly turned seven months old today.  She celebrated by having a pretty fussy day.  I don’t know if she was tired or what, but I ended up putting her down just a little bit earlier than usual for her morning nap and when she got cranky this evening she fussed the whole time we put her down for her nap until we decided that there wasn’t enough time for her to fall asleep and be worthwhile before her dinner.  In fact, she was good for a little bit after we got her up, but she was so fussy that we ended up feeding her about ten minutes early.

It’s not like she was bad all day though.  She had some fun and sweet times too.

I met a client we’ve had for a year or so today.  He was having some email trouble and we were having a hard time taking care of it over the phone, so I just went over to help him out.  We have so many clients, even here in Wilmington, that I’ve never actually met, and it’s good to put a face to a name sometimes.

Justin and Lisa Hauenstein came over for dinner tonight.  It’s been since a little after Milly was born since we’ve spent any real time with just then, except for when we were all over at the Boscljons’ a little bit back, and it was really good to catch up with them.  They’re expecting a baby, Ayden Matthew, on May 8, a day before Amanda’s birthday.  That’ll be a great Mother’s Day present for Lisa.

After dinner, and after Milly went to bed, Justin checked out Wii Fit for a few minutes, but we spent more of our time playing Beatles Rock Band.  Amanda sang while Justin and I switched back and forth between guitar and drums.  Lisa, being very pregnant and all, didn’t have the energy.

My Xbox 360 is going green again, which isn’t a good thing in this case.  It means the video card is about to go out again.

Anyway, the Hauensteins left around 9:30 I think and Amanda and I watched an episode of Community before she went to bed.

On a different note, I talked to my friend Jason Revill today.  Their big dog, Maggie, went missing a few days ago.  They don’t know if their neighbor might have something to do with it or if someone just picked her up or if she’s just gone or what.  To boot, Sophie, their little dog, is not doing well.  Jason said they’re thinking they’ll put her down next week.  I remember when they first got her.  Jason said they’ve never not had a dog (I remember Norman and Winston before Sophie and Maggie) and Andy, Jason’s dad, doesn’t think he wants to go through getting another one and losing it again.  I really feel for them.

Zach Dotsey

It was actually about 28.5 hours, but rounding to 30 sounds better.  If you read yesterday, you know that Nick, Amy and Eli came over to hang out, have dinner and play some video and board games.  Nick and I ended up staying up kind of late playing MarioKart against people online.

When I woke up this morning at about 7:30 I could hear Milly talking to herself in the nursery.  I took care of the dogs then got her up at 8:00 to feed her then started working a little early.  Amy (with Eli), Amanda then Nick, in that order, woke up and the girls fixed the breakfast Amanda and I have been having when we have time to fix it lately: pancakes, eggs and apples turkey sausage.  We also had some more fresh-squeezed orange juice.

Milly and her Paw Paw

Amanda’s dad was in town getting a crown fixed, so he stopped by for a minute, mainly to see Milly I think.  I went out to get my paycheck and Nick went out to do a couple things he needed to do in the evening and brought some Little Caesar’s back here with him for dinner.

I’m looking forward to Milly and Eli being able to actually play together.  Right now you can put them near each other and they may interact some, but they don’t really entertain each other.  On the other hand, Harvey and Max had a blast wearing each other out, mostly in the backyard.  I noticed this morning that we have a very large new hole in the yard.  Nick said Max learned that from Harvey, so I don’t know if they were working on it together or not, but it’s there regardless.  I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if it was just Harvey doing all the work.  I could see him showing that off to Max.

After we got the babies down to sleep at about 8:00 we played another game of Puerto Rico.  We all scored better than we did last night and since we all knew how to play it went a lot faster.  Nick won, followed by Amy then me then Amanda.

Nick and Amy hung around for just a little bit after that then took off.  Amanda was tired and went to bed after messing around on Facebook for a few minutes.  I should be more tired than I am right now.

Tomorrow we’re going to see Avatar with the Frazelles.  Duke’s playing Georgia Tech tomorrow, too, and there’s some overlap.  It should be a pretty good game and I’m going to miss, at least, the second half, so I’m just going to have to DVR it because we’ve been talking about going to see the movie with them for some time now.  I’m going to do my best not to check the score after the movie.  I always ruin games for myself that way.

Cyra has volunteered to watch Milly for us while we’re out and it’ll be her first time being babysitting for us.  There’s talk of also going out to see Sherlock Holmes with her and Billy tomorrow, too.  We’ll see what happens.

Oh, it didn’t snow here in Wilmington, by the way.  Seems to have snowed just about everywhere else in North Carolina though.

Zach Dotsey