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

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

Amanda let Harvey out the back door this evening and watched three squirrels scamper around on a tree branch at the far corner of our yard.  One fell out of the tree and Harvey was on it.  From what Amanda said, I think the squirrel ran under the shed then came back out to try to get back up the tree, but Harvey grabbed it.  Amanda shouted for me and I ran outside yelling at Harvey, who came back in with a little blood on his front left leg.  We were later told that sometimes when squirrels fall they spit up blood, which may have been the case because we didn’t see any blood on Harvey’s mouth, the ground or the squirrel.

The squirrel itself was alive and able to pull itself some, but the back legs looked smashed.  We didn’t want to leave it out there because Harvey would head right back for it, and we felt bad for it anyway.  Amanda called the vet and they gave us the number of someone who actually rehabs squirrels.  The husband was in town and came by to pick it up.  Amanda and I put a couple old shirts in a diaper box from the pile of recycling that we’ve meant to take for the past couple days and were able to scoop it into that.  He looked it over and told us that it was a female and she hadn’t had any babies yet.  So if you’re in need of someone to rescue a squirrel, check out http://www.wildlifebabies.com.

Amy Warkentien locked herself out of the Warkentien truck at Lowe’s Food this afternoon.  She was going to walk over to our house, which isn’t far, but she’d have had Eli, a car seat and her groceries with her.  Amanda was about to take Harvey to the vet but picked Amy and Eli up and brought them back to the house first.  It worked out well for me because Milly was needy for attention this afternoon and Amy was able to give her some.  It didn’t work out well for our ceramic candle holder though.  C’est la vie.  That thing has come close to being knocked over so many times by the dogs.  I guess it was a matter of time before one of them or, as in this case, a baby, knocked it over.

The vet said Harvey’s paw or claw was split all the way back and infected.  They gave us some stuff for it and told us to keep it clean and not let him lick it.  He came home with a cone on his head, which had him very depressed.  We took it off a few times, but he kept licking his paw so we kept having to put it back on.  He’s really not a fan.

Milly and I got into it this morning.  She drank an ounce and a quarter in 20 minutes.  I finally got her to drink all but about an ounce and a half or two that I mixed into oatmeal for her, but man was it a struggle to get her to eat!  Funny thing is, she seems to enjoy being spoon-fed.  She just seems to be over the whole bottle thing.

Zach Dotsey

Since today marked the first Duke-Carolina game of the season, it was hard to focus on everything else today (although I made some significant strides at work).  My guess was that Duke would either win in a blowout or lose a close game.  They ended up shooting 32%, 50% from the three (thankfully!) and only 61% from the charity stripe.  Jon Scheyer, Mr. Freethrows himself, missed three.  That’s not supposed to happen.  Seriously, what happened to Duke’s free throw shooting these last couple of games?  The Heels also recorded 12 blocks.  It was ridiculous.  In the first half I think Duke was sitting at about 9% shooting inside the arc.

I was wrong about my predictions, but fortunately Carolina is terrible this year.  In the last six minutes or so I put on my Duke hat at Amanda’s suggestion and Nolan Smith started scoring, Mason Plumlee got a monster behind-the-back dunk and the team went on a run to finish the game 64-54.  Seriously, it was one of the worst Duke-Carolina games I can remember watching just because it was so ugly.  But Duke got the win, and that’s what counts.  The Heels’ dreams of making a run to get into the NCAA Tournament are pretty much shattered unless they can miraculously win the ACC Tournament and they might be lucky to make the NIT.  Carolina fans are either giving up or telling everyone to wait until next year.  Yeah, they have a nice class coming in, but I don’t think it will make them much better than Duke, if at all.

So yes, I was thinking about the game all day long while I was working.  Amy and Eli came over and hung out with Amanda and Milly.  And that was my day.

Zach Dotsey

I was up at 6:00 and ready, after showering and everything, at 6:15.  Now, to be fair, the alarm clock by the bed is, I think, four minutes fast, so it actually took me 19 minutes.  I still think that’s pretty good.  Nick swung by the house at 6:25 and we were off to Port City Community Church.  I was running a camera today, and I think it was a pretty good time.  Joey Connolley was directing.

I sat with Amanda at the 11:00 service after I finished my camera volunteering and went to get Milly from Grow Zone.  I was the first or second person in there and was surprised to see Milly crying and being comforted out in the hall.  The person who had her said she thought there might have just been a bit too much going on for her since she just graduated to the Cruisers room, which may be true but she had done fine last week at the 9:00 service.  My guess is that she hadn’t had a nap, and indeed when she was crying in the car it was a very tired-sounding cry.  In fact, when we got home I just took the car seat upstairs and let her stat asleep in it.  She was out.

Another note about Grow Zone- when Amanda and I went to drop her off a lady in the first room, where she has almost always been up to now, saw her coming and cried out excitedly, “Milly!” and did a little skip to come get her.  It was so touching that she enjoys watching my baby so much, and I felt sad to tell her that Milly wasn’t going to be in that room anymore.

I talked to my sister, Erin Dotsey, for a little bit today.  Her birthday is this coming week and she was hoping, despite the short notice, that we’d be able to make it to Rougemont this weekend to celebrate it.  She sounded really excited when I told her we’d be there.

Amanda and I killed some time watching stuff on the DVR to kill time until we got to watch Maryland massacre Carolina.  That was really fun to watch.  Carolina has now lost six of their last seven (and seven of their last nine) games.  And while I was happy to see them disheartened yet again, Maryland is still sitting back just one game behind Duke for the top of the ACC and Carolina is due a win at some point.  Their next game is against Duke at the Dean Dome and while Duke should win going away, you just never know with these two.  I was confidant about Maryland beating the Heels, but I had no real investment in that one.

Nick and Amy came over later to watch the Super Bowl.  I joked that I forgot Nick was there, because he was messing with his laptop sitting by himself on the love seat the whole time while the rest of us sat on the couch and watched the game.  None of us really cared all that much, to be honest.  The Colts threw two key interceptions that cost them the game, letting the Saints win the Super Bowl in their first Super Bowl appearance, if I remember correctly.

The Super Bowl’s a big deal and all, but all day I was looking forward to the UMD-UNC game more.

Zach Dotsey

I started the morning going to pick up a check from the client I met with yesterday then Kevin Millard came over and we talked about a website idea of his, as well as going over his existing site a little.  Amanda left the house a few minutes before Kevin got here to do some running around and Milly was taking a nap.

I spent the vast majority of my day working on a design and I think it’s a pretty nice one.  The layout is simple, but I used a good bit of subtle gradient and some patterns in it.  I was working right up until dinner.

Milly was in a particularly good mood today.  She was very talkative.

The Warkentiens came over tonight for a pasta dinner.  After we ate and got Milly and Eli to bed we watched Fringe, and when that was just about over my brother, Adam Dotsey, came over.  We introduced him to Puerto Rico, which he picked up pretty quick.  At the end when everyone was announcing their scores I was optimistic about my chances for winning as I had a surprising lead over everyone else until Amy said her score.  So I came in second place.

Zach Dotsey