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

Usually when I’m feeding Milly and I have to go away from her in her high chair for a minute, like to fix the food or rinse out a bowl or something, I’ll give her a few puffs to occupy her time.  I leaned down near her face when I got back to her this morning, and she had two puffs in her hand.  She stuck her arm out so I took a puff with my mouth.  The next one, though, she specifically put in my mouth, and she seemed pretty entertained by it.

Harvey’s been licking his foot a lot lately and it looks like one of his nails (claws?) has split or something.  Amanda finally called the vet today and they knew exactly what was going on when she started describing it.  She’s taking him by Dineen tomorrow afternoon.

When Kirsten came over to watch Milly tonight Amanda told her that Milly had bigger nipples, or maybe she said we gave Milly new nipples.  Either way, she was talking about putting nipples with larger holes on the bottles, but she should have mentioned the word “bottle” somewhere.

Amanda and I stopped by Sam’s to pick up some soap and Similac on the way to small group.  At the checkout line I was talking about how cool it was that Milly can be made to laugh so hard by smacking her in the face with a pair of folded socks, then I hit Amanda with my jacket sleeve, which made her laugh a little.  Then I saw a gift card with a Thomas Kinkade picture on it and I remarked how amazing it was that he could paint something like that on such a small card.  For some reason that struck Amanda as really funny, like the long, silent laughs where you keel over or need to lean on something.  I don’t know if it was just that or that way I kept looking at the gift card in wonder or the fact that I kept moving slightly to be obnoxiously close to her or what, but for some reason she was just beyond tickled.  The lady in line behind us even told her to be careful she didn’t split wide open.  Whatever the deal was, I really enjoyed it.

Small group was pretty fun tonight.  We got to talk about the two things you’re not supposed to talk about: politics and religion.  Mike had been waiting for this chapter for a while.  On top of that, Joel and Mia were pretty entertaining.  I don’t know what exactly happened but there was some confusion in feeding Felix (who seems to have already gotten longer) and they both ended up in the kitchen.  There was some sort of crash or splash noise then Joel saying, “Mia!” then another splash noise.  The second splash noise was a cup of coffee being knocked over.  You had to be there though- it was one of those things where everything seemed to be going wrong and then it all reached a climax and everybody just had to laugh.

The ladies discussed going out some time next month and possibly putting together a mom’s small group.  Sarah’s in one now.

I’m pretty tired right now, but I think I’m going to do a bit of work.  There were a couple things I wanted to get done that didn’t get done today.  It was a good day though, as I had a (successful) meeting with a company from Hampstead.  We met at the Port City Java in Porter’s Neck, but it was nice out so we didn’t even go in.

Zach Dotsey

Milly was really good today.  She napped a pretty fair bit, which allowed me to get quite a bit done.  I’m not as swamped as I was even a week ago, but there’s still work to do.  Even when she was up though, she was pretty good.  It’s so easy to make her laugh, and that’s my favorite sound in the world.  She was very talkative all day too, mostly saying, “Mamamama.”  She’d look right at me and it was like she was calling me “Mama,” but I just could not get her to get that D sound going.

It was my first day or work with the new laptop.  I had just about everything I need for work set up yesterday, but I still had a few tweaks to take care of.  No major issues.

It felt really nice outside this morning.  It reminded me for some reason of waiting for the school bus on a cool morning.

Amanda thinks she might be getting sick.  Hopefully not.

Zach Dotsey

I woke up around 7:00 this morning.  Milly wasn’t fussing, but she was awake and I didn’t know what time it was, so I got on up.  Milly and I talked to Uncle Roy for a bit, and when I heard my parents I took Milly to see them.  Since Mom got in late last night she didn’t get to see Milly.  She didn’t get to see anyone, come to think of it.  I think I ended up going to sleep about 15 minutes before she and my dad got back to the house.

As I noticed last night, there was snow on the ground, probably a couple inches.  Amanda and I took Milly out to check it out, but she wasn’t really into it.  I got a few pictures and a little bit of video, but nothing monumental.

We mostly just hung around for a good part of the day.  Milly had her first taste of eggs, which she didn’t seem to mind too much.  I tried to install a printer on Uncle Roy’s laptop and drew and colored a picture of one of Jackson’s toys in Photoshop.  I’d shown him a little bit about how to use it yesterday, which he seemed to enjoy.  I wish they’d come out with a new MarioPaint, because the basics I learned playing with that were the basis for a lot of what I taught myself with Photoshop.

Duke hosted Maryland today.  Not only was it Coach K’s 1oooth game, and not only was it his birthday, but it was also a game to determine the #1 spot in the ACC.  The Terps were second but if they won they’d take Duke’s #1 spot.

The game started and Duke rebounded a Maryland attempt then Jon Scheyer made a three.  Then the power went out.  It came back on, but the satellite was taking forever to sync back up.  Then the power went out again.  Not only did it interrupt my game, but both laptops that were in use (mine, with Amanda on it, and Uncle Roy on his) died.  Dad and Josh were doing some bathroom work (they ended up pretty much completely stripping out the bathroom at the top of the stairs) and had to cut the power for some reason while they were draining the water.  Or something like that.

Once the power came back on the satellite took forever to reboot again, so I watched some of the game online until the TV was ready.

It was a great game.  Duke won by 21 and Brian Zoubek had his best game ever with 16 points and 17 rebounds!  Dude was a beast today.

In other basketball news, Carolina beat NC State in a game to determine who would reside in the cellar of the ACC.  Carolina, sadly, was able to stop their losing streak.  I watched UK beat Tennessee just a little bit ago.  It was tight until the end of the game when I guess the Wildcats decided they were tired of trading buckets.

We played some MarioKart for a bit then Amanda, Milly and I left just before 5:00.  The trip was pretty uneventful aside from the fact that I drove (even though I drove up as well, and we usually trade off duties) and Milly cried most of the last 15 miles or so of the trip.  She seemed to just be tired of being in the car.  She was also distracted while eating and didn’t go to bed too easily.

Amanda and I watched The Office and 30 Rock before she went to bed, then I watched an episode of Smallville.  The next one features the Justice Society.  I’d have gone ahead and watched it, but it’s a two hour one I think, and I remembered that Kentucky and Tennessee were playing.

The Revills, by the way, got two new dogs today.  They were just going to get one but they decided they liked two of them.  Lucy and Maxine are their names.  As you may recall, they recently lost two dogs.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda, Milly and I left this morning around 9:00 on what would turn out to be the longest trip to Rougemont, normally about a two and a half hour trip, ever.

First we stopped off in Clayton at about 11:30 to see my boss, Scott.  We used the GPS to get there.  Anyway, Scott hadn’t met Milly yet and Amanda hadn’t even met his younger daughter, Ava, who is now… two or three?  Scott, Ava and his wife, Ann Marie, were all there.  Addie, the older daughter, was in school.

After that we met up with Erin at Southpoint for lunch.  We were there for a bit before she got there, then we went to look for a birthday present for her.  Since the dogs were in the car, I ended up taking Milly and heading on out while Amanda and Erin shopped.  We did get Milly her first ever Duke hat.

On the way to the Rouge I called my old buddy, Jason Revill, to update him on my goings-on, since he was going to try to meet up with us.  He was helping prepare some stuff with his parents at Aldersgate Church, so Milly and I ended up stopping by there to see them.  Nearly eight months old, and she finally gets to meet my best friend and his parents, who were like a second set of parents to me.  We tried to get together before, but it just never worked out.  It felt special to be able to introduce Milly to them.

We went on to Rougemont after that, arriving at about 4:00.  Seven hours, longest trip from Wilmington to Rougemont ever.  My dad, Andra and her baby, Addison, were there.  Addison was so sweet.  She was excited to see Milly (they’re exactly seven months apart) and kept hugging her.  Milly isn’t very advanced on her interactions with people her size yet, so I think it annoyed her more than anything else.  But it was so sweet to see.  I thought many times today that I can’t wait for them to be big enough to really play together.

Josh and Jackson arrived with Erin and Amanda right after them.  Amanda and Erin had seen Elmo and Dulce, one of my parents’ dogs and Erin’s, by the road and had picked them up.  Amanda got some poop or something on her clothes from it, so she went to change and wash her clothes.  I spent some time working this evening.

Uncle Roy got home from work as Jackson and left to find some Cold-Eeze, mainly for Amanda because she felt some sick coming on, but I had a little bit of a sore throat yesterday and thought it would be good for me too.  We went to three or four nearby places but couldn’t find any.  I had a good time riding around with Jackson.  I told him why we preferred to call my mom Mum Mum instead of Nana (a name in honor of my own grandma versus a name similar to what we’re calling Milly’s other grandma, which could make it confusing) and he told me that with my peacoat on I looked like a villain spy.  He asked if I was a spy so we talked about what situations I’d be able to tell him if I was a spy or not.

As I said, we didn’t find the Cold-Eeze, and I didn’t realize Amanda wanted them as bad as she did, so I went back out after I dropped Jackson back off at the house and this time I went towards Durham instead of towards Roxboro.  I also picked up some extra baby food because Milly was wolfing it down.  On the way back I noticed that it was lightly snowing.  Amanda’s brother, Michael, texted a little later and said it was coming down pretty heavily in Wilmington and actually sticking.

Amanda and I put Milly to bed after I got back then Erin, Josh and Andra went out and Dad went to pick up my mom, whose flight had been delayed.

Amanda got Addison to go to bed then she went to bed herself shortly after.  I snoozed on the couch while Jackson played Wii.  When he was done he wanted to watch cartoons, and while I was flipping through the channels trying to find Cartoon Network for him we came across Pink Floyd’s The Wall, which he decided he wanted to watch.

I just went to let Bruce and Harvey out to pee and the ground is already covered in snow, so tomorrow we’ll have to get some pictures of Milly out there in it.  Amanda packed warm clothes for her just in case this situation occurred.

Zach Dotsey

Looking at others sometimes gives you a different perspective of yourself.  My first little sister turned 30 today.  It’s one thing to turn 30 yourself, but when someone you’ve always associated with the word “younger” turns 30, it makes you think a bit.  Not that 30 is old by any means, but it is the number of an age where you start to consider that the person should be mature and grown up, but to me (not saying Erin isn’t either of those) she’s still my little sister, and there’s no way she should be 30 years old already.

Today was a busy day.  We finished a website and published it and are just about done on a redesign that’s been in the works for a week or two.  I’ve got another one I was trying to finish up this week, but I don’t think that will happen.  I also had a meeting with a potential new client this afternoon.  I think it went well, and I sincerely enjoyed listening to the man.  I like the way he talks about his business, and I can tell he takes pride in it.

Today was also Melissa Nicholson’s (I think she’s hyphenated the last name to Nicholson-Clark now, but I’m not sure so we’ll stick with Nicholson) 30th birthday.  Milly’s cousin (well, Amanda’s cousin, Milly’s second cousin) Hannah Frazelle came over and babysat tonight her for the first time tonight while Amanda and I went to Indochine for Melissa’s birthday and had a good time with people there.  Elliot did a really nice job putting together a surprise party for her.

Amanda and I considered leaving to go to Rougemont today, but with all I had going on it just wasn’t a good idea.  Adam headed up there to surprise Erin, but he’ll be leaving in the morning so we won’t see him.  Andra got there yesterday.

On the Duke message board there are what’s called avatar bets for the Duke-Carolina games.  Each person can have a picture under their username which is called an avatar, and you pair off UNC fans and  Duke fans, and the fan of the team who won gets to pick the avatar for their counterpart.  I tried to get in on it last year, but we ran out of Heels.  I did get into it this year though, and the avatar I created and gave to my counterpart was very well received.  I got a request to make another one for someone else, which I think is also a pretty good one.  Keep in mind that as cheesy as they are, that’s the point.  The Carolina people have to look at these every time they post a message.

It’s supposed to snow an inch or two this weekend here in Wilmington.  I assume that being in Rougemont, we’ll still get to see some and maybe have a chance to get some pictures of Milly in it.

Zach Dotsey

Lately Amanda has been thinking of ways to make it easier for me to both work and watch Milly at the same time.  Her first idea was to move a desk to right outside of the nursery, which wasn’t a bad idea.  Today she mentioned another idea though, and that was to switch the guest room and the office.  She mentioned this as we were walking in the house after church.  When I went to take a nap after breakfast (more of a brunch, really) and she said she was going to start picking up things in the office, I should have known my day was over.

Yes, we spent the entire rest of the day moving things in and out of both rooms.  It was like one of those puzzle games where you have to move pieces around in order to get everything to fit right.

On top of all the moving, we also pulled up the carpet in the former office.  We’ve talked about doing that for quite a while because Bruce has made a habit of going in there when he doesn’t feel like going outside to do his business, and as much as we don’t notice him doing it, it’s added up a bit.  Hopefully we can keep Bruce out of the new office.  He only likes to go on carpets and rugs.

Amanda had an idea to paint the concrete floor below the carpet, but to our surprise it was already painted for some reason.  It’s not perfect as there are a lot of glue spots where the carpet pad was put down, but it is nicer than the stained carpet we had before.  Still though, I think we’d eventually like to extend the bamboo flooring from the living room and hallway on into there.  We might even have almost enough left over from when we did the floors before.

Eventually we got things switched and cleaned up, although there’s a good bit of stuff on my desk still to be put away and a few things here and there that we need to find places for.  It’s nice though.  I set my desk up to look out over the room and we’ve got a good bit of open space.  It will allow Milly to move around and play with pretty much whatever she wants without being able to get into things she shouldn’t.  We also set up our mammoth old TV in there and there’s plenty of room for Rock Band and the like.

Speaking of Milly, she seemed to do much better today.  She was back to her old self for the most part and actually kept herself entertained for most of the time Amanda and I were working.  We’ve decided to try to start spreading out her feedings as of today too, so hopefully that will go well.

Once we got everything off the floor in the new office Amanda vacuumed.  The noise surprised and I think scared Milly a little.  It was so cute though, she kind of leaned into my chest and let me wrap her up really tight.  It was sad, but it was also so damn sweet.

In other Milly news, she moved up to the next level in Grow Zone at church today.  She’s just moving around too much not to.  We stopped by her old room to let them say goodbye to her.

The service itself was pretty cool today.  It’s a focus on the book of Jonah, and I always really dig the in-depth look at Old Testament books.  One big point that Mike Ashcraft, the preacher, made today was that anytime someone mentions Jonah, all you think of is Jonah and the whale, but that’s really such a short part of an already short book.  The story as Mike said, should be Jonah and the God.

Also at PC3 today, Micah, who is in the band Rio Bravo with Christian, Hannah’s boyfriend (who was on drums today) was with the band today and lead a song or two.  I thought he did an awesome job.

Towards the end of the work Amanda and I put in today, I decided to make sure the desktop computer was set up properly and that it was connected to the internet by checking out today’s basketball schedules and I saw that Carolina was playing.  I decided to turn the game on after Amanda and I put Milly to bed and was surprised to see that the Heels were down by a few at home with a few minutes left in the first half.  I was intrigued, but Amanda didn’t feel like watching it and wanted to catch up on some shows on the DVR so we watched Fringe.  Once that was over I put the game back on to see how it was going.

Let me tell you about Virginia.  They have a new coach this year.  The Cavaliers were picked to finish last in the ACC, but they were actually on top for a little while.  (Duke’s actually there now.  Boo-yah!)  Anyway, when we started watching the game again, the second half was about halfway through and the Heels were down by 20!  It made me laugh and made me feel a bit better about Duke’s loss yesterday when the final score was 75-60.  It wouldn’t even have been that close but for a few offensive lapses by UVa at the end.

After that went off, (mostly) Amanda and I worked on getting making an ABC book for Milly on Shutterfly.  We got a $20 credit for the website when we got Milly’s Santa picture and had put off using it until yesterday, but we got in gear because it expired at the end of the day today.  We had everything done, but it wouldn’t put the order through because of errors, most of them being typos because, in a book of ABCs, single letters were marked as typos, so we ended up having to go through every single page and tell it to accept the letters.  It came right down to the literal last minute with us making corrections and putting in the coupon code.  The book won’t be perfect, but it should be pretty good.

I talked to my dad and Uncle Roy today.  They got about six inches of snow in Rougemont and Roxboro Road, a pretty major highway connecting Durham and Roxboro, wasn’t cleared yet.  They were making pancakes.

Incidentally, I made French toast this morning and it was quite good.  Amanda accidentally dropped the lid of the butter container in the stove and a lot of it melted onto the floor of the stove pretty quickly.  She was very mad at herself for it.

Zach Dotsey