Zach Dotsey

I’ve been listening to Christmas music on Pandora lately, and this morning Christmas Canon Rock by the Tran-Siberian Orchestra came on as I was dancing with Milly to Christmas music.  Now, I have to admit that I’ve always been a little emotionally susceptible to Pachelbel’s Canon in D and many of its various incarnations.  Anyway, I was dancing with my baby girl (really just holding her in my arms and swaying around a little) and she was grinning at the Christmas tree.  Writing it down it sounds like that’s really all there was to it, but it’s an image I think will always be with me, seeing the profile of her big cheeks and an open-mouthed grin on her face as we were dancing and listening to Christmas Canon.

I’ll post a video of the song below, but dancing Christmas lights don’t do any justice to the emotions I was feeling.  It was just a very special moment to me.

Amanda and I were both busy today.  Amanda was working on Christmas presents after she got home from work then made enchiladas for dinner.  Usually for me at work things are so slow right around this time of year, but right now things are really hopping.  Most of today was spent putting the finishing touches on the formatting of one site and I kept trying to make time to work on the mockups of another one, but I haven’t been able to make as much headway on that as I’d like because of minor updates that keep coming up.  Not that I’m complaining!

In other news around the household, we kept smelling cat pee upstairs and discovered that Cobb has now peed in the bed we got for him!  Our guess is that he did it because Bruce liked to go in it and would sometimes even spend the night in it.  It was saturated, too.  We’ve got one dog bed left, that being the first one we ever bought for Bruce.  I guess we’re done buying those for a long time.

There’s a rumor on a website that Duke player Olek Czyz will be transferring before the season is out.  If it’s true it’s a shame- he seems like a pretty funny, affable guy.  He actually started a game at the beginning of the year so it seemed like he might get more playing time, but he’s disappeared into the bench quite a bit since.  If it’s true I wish him well, but hate that Duke will have yet another transfer.  Then again, it does open up a scholarship.

Zach Dotsey
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I let Amanda sleep in a few minutes by getting up first to get ready for church this morning, which included feeding Milly and such.  Since we both enjoy carrying Milly and dropping her off and picking her up at Grow Zone, we decided we’d take turns.  We can both drop her off, but only one parent is allowed to pick a kid up from Grow Zone (for safety reasons- there are a lot of kids and a lot of people that go through that hallway), so this week was her week.

I planned on going surfing today, but I was just tired and didn’t feel like doing anything but watching crappy TV and taking a nap on the couch with Milly, which I eventually did.  Took me a while to fall asleep.

For the evening, I headed to the Lampstand.  It’s the place at the church where Michael’s been doing his band booking.  I was there early and took pictures of all the bands.  I didn’t know anybody but Michael and Jenn, though I did get to meet Jenn’s roommate, Erin, and I talked to her a bit.  She likes Duke though she really knows very little about the teams, so we had that to talk about.  Anyway, I had a good time at the show and enjoyed the bands, particularly the last three.

Zach Dotsey

I forgot to call my Aunt Robbie Horner to wish her a happy birthday today.  It sucks, because I thought about it all day and even said something to my mom about it when she called to see how Amanda, Milly and I are doing.  I sent her an email a few minutes ago because I’m not sure how late she stays up.

Nothing too exciting today.  Work wasn’t like it was yesterday, although it did get slightly stressful at times.  It’ll be nice to have Scott back.

I mentioned yesterday that it had rained quite a bit.  Well according to the news today, it rained much more than I thought.  There was pretty massive flooding in parts of Wilmington, but everything was fine here.  It rained just over six inches in about two hours, which set a record for rainfall for yesterday’s date and was one of the highest, I think they said the 14th, recorded rainfalls here in Wilmington.

I woke up in time to grab a bowl of cereal and read a bit in the Bible as I do most weekday mornings, but then I had to get straight to work and didn’t end up taking a shower until after I finished working. Milly was a bit fussy at the time but she quieted down.

A note about my Bible reading.  I’ve been reading the Bible over a bowl of cereal for some time now.  After skipping around here and there I decided to start from the beginning and work my way through and I just started Leviticus last week.  My advice to Moses is this: you can’t start out with all kinds of action like in Exodus with plagues and death and violence, end the book with repetitive descriptions of tables and tents and blue, purple and scarlet cloth and acacia wood over and over then go straight into Leviticus with all its rules for burnt offerings and peace offerings and fellowship offerings.  You load all the action up front like that then go through a bunch of rules and regulations and repetitive descriptions, it’s just not the best literary technique.

Note that I say that with full knowledge of it being written in the style of oral tradition, and I know the significance and importance of what was being written.  If not for an anal tendency of mine to complete things that I read I’d probably skip over a vast swath of Leviticus.  Possibly Deuteronomy too, and any other parts that are just laying out the laws and not telling a story.  But I want to be able to say that I’ve read the whole thing at least once, plus it gives a solid knowledge base for all that it to come after.

After the shower I went out to get a pizza for dinner and when I got back our neighbor from across the street, Deanna DuVal and her younger daughter, Kimber, were over here.  I had talked to her husband, Charles, about a week or so ago and he said she’d wanted to come over to see Milly.  We’ve only talked a few times, but they seem like really nice people.  She even brought some gifts and I had fun listening to and playing with Kimber.  She’s adorable and apparently knows no strangers.

A little after that our small group peeps started arriving.  In our baby-induced absence the group had started watching videos online from the last series about the Holy Spirit and what it is and is not (and I already messed up by referring to the Spirit as “it”) then doing the questions that go with that week.  We loaded it up on the PlayStation’s web browser, which worked out pretty well.

I’ll go ahead and say it now, since I think it’s been public knowledge, but Joel and Mia Kay are pregnant, and we’re very excited for them.  Amanda and I just found out last week when Mia sent out a text message saying she’d been to the doctor and everything looked fine.  When I asked her about it she said she’d told us in an email and I’d even replied to it.  It was apparently right after Milly was born, so I’m guessing I just skimmed the email and used the reply-all to get in touch with everybody about something.  Anyway, we’re really happy for them!

Michael Jackson’s funeral was today.  I had planned on watching it, just because I know it was going to be a big cultural event, but when the time came I was not only busy, but I didn’t care as much as I thought I would either.  Don’t get me wrong- I know Michael Jackson was a HUGE deal, but I think the media’s hyper-coverage of his death every day for the past week or so desensitized me to it.

Zach Dotsey
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Wow, we actually had a pretty good night of sleep last night!

Milly Dotsey in her first trip to the mall

Today’s Milly’s First was Milly’s first trip to the mall.  Any time Amanda’s grandparents are in town they treat us to a meal at the food court, so that’s what we were there for.  Michael was there too, along with all the ladies Frazelle.  After we ate the women all went to The Loft while Michael and I wandered around in between there and whichever video game store is across the way from it.  Earl, Amanda’s grandfather, walked through there with us.  We told him we were going to buy him a Wii.

After work I planned on going surfing, but I talked to Barry on the way out to Wrightsville Beach and he said unless I had a boat I wasn’t going to be doing anything out there, so I turned around and went back home.

So here’s something.  Farah Fawcett, who has been struggling with cancer for some time, died today.  It’s sad, but it wasn’t a huge surprise.  Amanda and I were in the office looking at something or other when we heard some talk about someone dying on the TV in the living room.  Figuring they were talking about Farah Fawcett, news which had been out already today, we didn’t think anything of it.  When we got to the living room we saw images of Michael Jackson.  We both were thinking, “No way,” so we rewound the TV until we passed something that read: Michael Jackson 1958-2009.  Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, is dead.  It’s so out of nowhere that it’s pretty mind blowing.

Much has been and will be said about all the influence Michael Jackson had on pop culture and music.  He was about to go on a concert tour, and who knows how that would have gone.  I’ve always said it would have been better for his legacy if he’d died earlier, before all the strange diseases/surgery and the questions about his character had arisen.  Despite all that, people are mourning his passing in droves.  It’s really just hard to believe.

Moving on, Amanda and I watched a little bit of the NBA Draft tonight.  We just wanted to see where Gerald Henderson went, and we happened to turn it on just before he got drafted at #12 to the Charlotte Bobcats.  I’m mixed on that because the Bobcats are such a Tar Heel team that I don’t root for them (as much as I root or don’t root for any other NBA team, really), but I really enjoyed watching Gerald Henderson and really hope he does well.

Seemingly as a joke, Tyler Hansbrough was taken by the Pacer in the very next pick.  What I did like about it was that his highlight reel showed a flop, a tremendous travel and his weird sissy fist pump celebratory dance.

Zach Dotsey

I’ve had this song in my head a lot lately and so I sang it to Milly before we left the hospital.

Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, the only thing you have is a song
And in these times, in these times, in these lonely, lonely times, I will sing along
Ever since I found you, I’ve been orbiting around you like you are the sun
Ever since I met you, there’s no way I could forget, you are the only one
Every single morning when I hear you in there humming on a brand new tune
If I blink I’ll miss you, honey, all I want’s to kiss you and I want to soon
Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, the only thing you have is a song
And in these times, in these times, in these lonely, lonely times, I will sing along
I might just surprise you, I might be the one who tries to love you every day
I propose forever, although longer would be better, what d’ya say, what d’ya say
Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, the only thing you have is a song
And in these times, in these times, in these lonely, lonely times, I will sing along
I will sing along

All of my family, that is, is now gone to Kentucky, not me.  Mom and Erin drove to Charlotte and picked up Andra and Addy and Adam got a flight from Wilmington to Lexington (only $10 more than going to Louisville- well worth the extra few dollars!).  I’ve gotten to where I’m cool with being here.  I expressed that to Amanda’s grandfather when he called and offered his condolences.

Earl told me that he had missed his grandfather’s funeral.  He had just gotten back on his ship a few days earlier after being on leave and they didn’t tell him for a few days.  That had to have been hard.  There’s something about going through everything at least mentally at the same time as the rest of your family.  Of course, Earl was also on a ship when his first was born, so at least I get one of the two.

Speaking of the firstborn, Amanda and I discussed it and I think we’re going with Omelia Mae.  Adding Maeleigh to it, while I like the name, just sounds off to me.  We could change the Melia part (we at least added the O), but then we’d either have to just name her Milly (we’re sold on that) or it would sound like you’re mispronouncing Maeleigh.

In other Milly news, she’s still not here, although we feel like it’ll be before long.  There’s been no real indication or anything, and it could just be that we’re just getting antsy, but we both feel like it’ll be soon.  Of course, it will be soon, one way or another, it’s just a matter of degree.

I’ve been listening to Rhett Miller as much as I can, which I tend to do when I get a new CD.  I don’t think there’s really a bad song on it, although Happy Birthday Don’t Die doesn’t quite fit in with all the rest of the album, in my opinion.  Not that that’s a bad thing.  Some of the songs sound very Old 97’s.

The last thing I need
Is another girlfriend
Two’s enough for me
Two is enough
And you would make three

I did another design that I was pretty happy with today.  The support side of the job has been a little slower lately and I brushed up on all the sales, which has given me a little bit of time to play with Photoshop a little, which I’ve been enjoying.  Not having gotten my fix with just work, I played around a bit with making some Twitter backgrounds, which could actually turn into a little more business money.

That’s about it for today.  Amanda came home and we watched the season finale of House plus an episode of The Soup from the DVR.  Bonnie Narron, our neighbor, took my car today so her husband, Dave, could do a few things with it.  He was going to fix the right blinker, which has been out for a week or so (probably just the bulb is my guess), give it an oil change and take a look at the window that doesn’t want to roll up and the air conditioning.  Lots of stuff, but at least the car’s paid off.

Exciting day, I know.  Maybe tomorrow will bring more excitement.

Zach Dotsey

Thanks to Nick to showing this to me.  I thought it was pretty funny.

Amanda picked up some groceries on the way home from work tonight and made two chicken pot pies- one for us and Nick and Amy Warkentien for dinner tonight, and one for Kevin and Lauren Millard, to whom we are taking dinner tomorrow night.

Yeah, that was pretty much it for today.  They came over with Eli, who slept most of the time, and we talked about babies and church and pregnancy and delivery and other such things.

Amanda did have a baby doctor appointment today.  She got her dilation checked, and while she’s hardly dilated, but her cervix is pretty effaced, which means that it’s thinning out, which is a sign of impending labor.  Not impending like it’s going to happen tomorrow (which would be nice, and it could), but impending like, you know, you’ve been pregnant for almost forty weeks and the baby should be on the way out before long.  Doesn’t tell us anything, but it’s nice to know.

She’s also been cramping a little lately, and Amanda said she was feeling it more today than yesterday (I do believe).

David Carradine was found dead today in a hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, where I think I read he was shooting a movie.  I didn’t think too much of it, being that he’s an actor and it was Thailand, but then reports came out that it was a suicide, that he’d hanged himself in a closet.  Now reports claim that his genitals were bound, so some people are saying maybe it wasn’t a suicide.  I’m guessing we’ll hear more about this as time goes on.

It feels like it’s already a Friday.

Zach Dotsey