Zach Dotsey

Milly once again did the whole “wake up at 4:00, eat then bawl my eyes out because I don’t want to go back to sleep for a few hours” thing this morning.  She did finally settle down eventually.  She’s beautiful, but particularly so when she’s peaceful.  Or when she’s smiling.  She smiled a lot today.  From my office I could hear Amanda having a lot of fun with Milly today.  She even read to her, which will have been the first time besides Leviticus chapter 7 that she’s been read to.  It was Horton Hatches an Egg, and we intend to read to her more often now.  Amanda also had Milly upstairs in the nursery on the little baby gym mat thing.  There’s a mini boppy that goes along with it and Milly kept pushing herself up and over it, like she’s trying to crawl already!

In another baby note, congratulations to Evan and Jenny Vetter on the early arrival of their first kid, Charlie!

Work today… I’ve still got this one big thing I’m trying to get knocked out and I thought I’d be able to devote most of my day to it, but I had so many little things keep coming up that I had to take care of.  It was a little frustrating, to be honest.

Melissa Davis sent us a pizza for lunch.  She was going to bring Penelope over but she’s apparently been really fussy the past few days, so Melissa didn’t want to go out with her.  The pizza was good though.  On a semi-related food note, Kevin had to cancel getting together this evening as well.

Amanda bathed the Millster tonight (while I took out the kitty litter- I let her pick which she wanted to do) then we decided to try putting her in the crib in the nursery (as opposed to the cradle in our room).  Amanda’s finally been reading up in Baby Wise and decided to let Milly cry it out a little when we first put her down, but after 40 minutes we figured she needed some consoling, so I swaddled her, rocked her and rubbed her head a little and got her to calm down.  After that she was out.

In the meantime Amanda and I were watching President Obama’s news conference about health care, then we watched Wipeout.  If the health care thing goes through and turns out to be a good thing, I was thinking about how different things might be for Milly when she’s old enough to care about health insurance.

Zach Dotsey

Work was a a little busy, particularly in the morning.  I’m still a little surprised how busy we’re staying considering all the doom and gloom about the economy.  Over the past few weeks we’ve had a few people cut back on services, but we’ve also had people expand on some and we’ve gotten a few full new websites and major updates in the works.

My mom called to say that she had sent my birth certificate and other such documents that I’ll need to get my passport so I can go to Costa Rica.  I called the post office to see what I need to do about having lost my old passport, but they never called back.

Amanda and I caught up on some TV tonight.  We were going to watch our usual Monday night lineup, but President Obama had a news conference that trumped everything in the 8:00 hour.  Amanda and I watched a little of it and got giggly over it because we couldn’t help but think of what a good impersonation Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live does of our current president.

I convinced Amanda to stay up and watch Heroes.  I’m enjoying the whole on the run from the government thing they’ve got going on.  The last couple episodes have felt like season finales.

Zach Dotsey

For some time now Amanda’s been able to feel a fluttering, ticklish feeling in her stomach that she’s pretty sure is baby movement.  Recently she said she could feel a weight in her stomach to the point that she feels it shift about when she turns over.  Amanda told me today that last night she felt an actual kick or lunch!  More on that in a sec.

I talked to my mom today.  I’d called her to tell her that we’d named the baby, but as it turns out she was about to call me to talk to me about my sister Erin Dotsey’s birthday, which is in a couple weeks.  While I was talking to her she mentioned that my dad was going to go to Lexington, Kentucky to visit my grandparents in a few weeks because his older brother, Tom Dotsey, was going at the same time.

She also took that time to update me on my grandparents.  Pap (Andy Dotsey) has been in and out of a nursing home.  His legs aren’t doing well and Baba (Jane Dotsey) isn’t best equipped to take care of him.  Aunt Terry moved back to Florida, Uncle Bernie has been there to help out some, but he lives several hours away, and Uncle Steve has helped as he can, but he can only do so much.  So Pap went to a nursing home, didn’t like it, came back and then went back to it.  That sucks.  I hate it for both him and Baba.

Erin called me a little bit after my mom did.  Mom had thought they were changing the date of the birthday celebration, but Erin called to tell me she was keeping it like it originally was.

Aside from those things, today featured the inauguration of Barack Obama and snow fell here in Wilmington.  After work Amanda and I watched a few DVRed shows then she went to the office to watch American Idol while I watched the much more important Duke game.  It was nice of her not to ask me to watch the game in the office, since we had both remarked how terrible games look on large TVs with a standard (non-HD) signal.

Duke was playing NC State, which should have been a pretty easy game.  Duke started off on a 10-1 run, but in that time they struggled to put even the most open of shots through the hoop.  The Wolfpack struggled with that too, but they started heating up before the Blue Devils did and ended up with a four point lead at the half.

Fortunately Gerald Henderson decided to take over the game in the second half and Duke finished on a 27-5 run.  they shot, I think, 21 or 29% in the first half and 76% in the second.  The final score was 73-56.  The game had been close only a few minutes before the end.

This Duke team seems to have a tendency to play up or down to their competition.  If they could just put to halves of a game together offensively they’re definitely going to make a splash in the tournament this year.  And if Gerald Henderson, Kyle Singler and Jon Scheyer can all three have just an average game at the same time, they’ll be scary.

Hats off to David McClure for this game too.  He played great defense and did all those intangible things that make him such a good but quiet player.  He even had a three pointer and a dunk this game!  Greg Paulus continued to show some return to form, hitting a few baskets to keep them in the game in the first, not to mention an uncharacteristic drive to the basket.

So, back to the kicking baby.  After the game Amanda felt a couple kicks while she was lying on the couch.  I put my hand on her stomach and eventually felt two kicks!  It was like someone was jabbing a finger from inside Amanda.  That was it, just a couple quick little jabs.  I told Amanda that Milly was excited because Duke had won.  I was elated to feel that though.  Amanda has been wishing she could share that with me.

I told Adam about the kicks later and he said, “Lil Milly’s milling about.”  I thought that was a cute phrase and told him I’d use it and give him credit for it.  He said I could take credit since I’m the dad, but I pointed out that he’s the uncle.

We put new sheets on the bed tonight.  Amanda’s parents gave us some new 1000 thread count sheets for Christmas and we decided tonight would be a good time to flip the mattress (well, turn it around anyway, since it’s a pillow-top) as well.  Those sheets feel so nice.  We’re spoiled.  I think all but one set of sheets we have for our bed are 1000 thread count.

Zach Dotsey
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Whatever you think about Barack Obama, however you feel about his policies and ideas, you have to admire what the election of Barack Obama says about how far America has come.  Plenty of people have written about the significance of electing a black (okay, half-black, whatever- the point is that he’s not white) man to the highest post in the land, and they’ve done so far better than I ever will, so I’ll just post some pictures from today’s inauguration below.  I’m happy for my country and hopeful that our government and politics will indeed change.

The only thing that I think marred the day was the booing and jeering of President Bush when he made his appearance.  I get that he wasn’t popular, and I wasn’t happy with him myself, but I was really hoping the crowd would show some decorum, not sing “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye!”  Too much to ask for, I know.

Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, called her and asked if she was watching the inauguration.  Amanda told her she was at work and Karen told her it was an historic moment.  Amanda’s not big on history or historic moments, and she was working anyway, so it’s not like she could just ditch work to go camp out in front of a TV.  When Amanda told me all this she said she hopes Milly inherits my appreciation for history.

I was talking to Jason Revill about it too.  He said it was nice to have a positive historical moment for people our age.  Our parents had the Moon Landing.  All we’ve had are the Challenger Explosion and September 11th.  I would say President Obama’s inauguration was definitely a positive historical milestone for us.

One disturbing thing I read is that a tattoo parlor in Washington DC was giving free Obama logo tats for people who got another tattoo worth $200 or more.  I’m against political stickers on cars, nevermind permanent marks on your body showing support for a man who will be in office for only 4-8 years.  I mean, yeah most people are hopeful about his term, but what if Obama turns out to suck as president?

Anyway, I look forward to seeing what happens.  There are some things Obama has talked about doing that I’m not in favor of, but there are things he’s talked about doing that I think are a good step in the right direction for our contry as well.  Should be an interesting time.

Zach Dotsey

So far so good for today, as far as Amanda and the baby go.  No spotting, except for what she was already told yesterday might be leftover from yesterday.  Amanda did talk to Carolina Health though.  They didn’t seem too concerned, but did move our next appointment from the 30th to the 22nd.  She’ll have one of those exams, which isn’t the most comfortable thing to be in the room for (especially given that the doctor she’ll have is a guy) but then we’ll also get another ultrasound.  It’s what they call the full anatomy ultrasound, so I guess they’ll be checking for all the arms and legs and fingers and toes.

I got details on Julie Garst’s baby today, the one I mentioned yesterday.  Lucas Garst was born at 2:40 yesterday afternoon at a weight of seven pounds, two ounces. We came up with a new service today, which I think will be a hit.

Work wasn’t very busy overall today, so I spent a big chunk of time sending e-mails out to inform the clients of ours who I thought might find it useful.  It’s gotten a few bites so far, which is good.

I received a phone call from my sister, Erin Dotsey, today, telling me that she’d just had surgery to remove some cancerous growth from her cervix.  I was pretty surprised by that, since I didn’t know anything about it at all.  She said it was outpatient surgery and she wasn’t really worried about it, so that was good.  Our mom was with her and I guess had driven her to and from the hospital.  I’m glad she’s okay.

I spent a large portion of the afternoon running some errands, which I ran by Scott before doing.  I dropped off the prescription for Amanda’s pregnancy-friendly UTI antibiotics, picked up the leader notes from Port City Community Church for the Starting Point study we’re doing, got the meds for the dogs and cat, picked up a gift card from the mall, got a bag of dog food (which we ran out of this morning) then picked up the antibiotics.  Does that sound like much?  I don’t know if it sounds like much, but it was quite a trip.

Amanda watched a little TV after she got home then we watched Scrubs together and started to watch Law & Order SVU but she got pretty tired a little over halfway through and went to bed, so we didn’t get to watch tonight’s new episode of The Office.

Nick and Amy Warkentien stopped by on the way to their small group to drop some flowers off for Amanda that Amy had bought in light of our tough day yesterday.  I thought it was really, really sweet of them.  They stuck around to talked for a few minutes and were late getting to small group.

The Tar Heels beat the crap out of the Virginia Cavaliers tonight, as most people figured they would.  So much for an 0-3 ACC start.

President George Bush had his farewell speech tonight, as President-elect Barack Obama becomes President Barack Obama in a few days.

But the big story of the day involves a miraculous plane crash in New York.  I listened to it unfold as I was driving home from my errands then watched coverage of it on TV after I got home.

Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia headed for Charlotte, North Carolina, but geese were sucked into one or both of the engines and the pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, masterfully ditched the plane in the Hudson River.  Had a wing dipped into the water, the plane would have somersaulted and broken apart, killing who knows how many.  As it was, the plane landed in the water and boats came from all over to see to the passengers.  Out of the 155 people onbaord, none were harmed.

I was impressed not only with the pilot and the crew, who obviously managed the passengers well, but the passengers themselves, who waited on the wings of the plane to be rescued, as well as all the people who scrambled to help them.  The pilot checked the plane twice after everyone was out to make absolutely sure that nobody was left behind.  The man and his crew deserve all the accolades being lauded on them.

Zach Dotsey

So I could talk about my day, but there wasn’t really much to it.  After work Amanda and I picked up toilet paper and paper towels from Target before picking Lars up and heading to Justin and Lisa’s for small group, but that’s not the big news of the day.

America has elected its first black president.  (Okay, so Barack Obama’s mom was white, but that doesn’t really matter.)  Wow, my child will be born in a world where the idea of a black president isn’t only portrayed in movies.  How cool is that?.

Who would have thought even a couple years ago that a black man with foreign sounding names, Muslim names that sound like two of America’s biggest enemies in the past decade at that, would not only be a serious contender for the highest job in the land, but actually become President of the United States?

The more I think about it, the cooler it is.  I can’t even begin to imagine the pride African Americans feel right now, especially the ones who grew up during segregation.  How great of a role model must he be to everyone?  I still don’t think I’m very comfortable with some of his ideas and policies, but on the TV they were just talking about getting the transition ready, and I thought about Obama replacing President Bush.  What a breath of fresh air Obama will be.  He’s young, energetic, charismatic.

I know a lot will be made of the race benchmark here, but this is a moment that ranks up there with other iconic moments in history.  I was going to list a few, but most of them weren’t positive things

Obama’s grandmother died a couple days ago.  It’s too bad she couldn’t have held on a few more days to see this, her grandson’s finest moment, a milestone in the history of America.

He’s just come out now for the first time.  The lady in the voting line in front of me and Amanda was absolutely sure that if Obama were elected he’d be assassinated.  I just imagined that happening right now and how awful, how completely and utterly horrible that would be.  I hope to God that does not happen, not now and not at any point.  That would do awful things to this country.

McCain made a very gracious concession speech about half an hour ago.  Obama just said some very kind words about McCain.  I’m glad that’s over.  I’m glad the election is over.  No more automated phone calls, no more junk mail telling me how to vote, not too much vitriol in commercials and on the news and talk radio.  Sean Hannity should be pretty entertaining to listen to over the next few days.

I’m all over the place, I know.  It’s kind of a big deal and I’ve got all kinds of thoughts going on in my head.

I hope Barack Obama can be the force of positive change everyone who voted for him thinks he can be.  I hope a Democratic majority won’t take the country too far left.

On another positive note, we’ll get to see more of Obama’s bodyman, Reggie Love.  Reggie Love played basketball and football for Duke.

Zach Dotsey

It’s a good thing Amanda and I didn’t waste much time this morning after we woke up.  We got up, ate cereal, took showers and, semi-arbitrarily, decided to go vote.  North Carolina is one of the states that allows early voting, which is a great idea.  What sucked, though, is that it took us literally about three and a half hours.  We got to the north campus of Cape Fear Community College at about a quarter after ten and didn’t leave until about ten ’til two.

Part of the problem is that I heard the news reported that this early voting station, a mere five minute drive from our house, has not been crowded, so I think that encouraged more people to vote there.

It wasn’t very exciting.  There were two somewhat obnoxious guys behind us for the first hour, maybe less, but they eventually bailed.  We talked to a lady in front of us a bit.  Other than that it was a bunch of standing and sometimes sitting on the floor.

To make things worse I forgot to charge my iPhone last night.  There was enough juice to take a couple pictures and for Amanda and I to use the internet to brush up on some of the candidates’ stances on issues (one of us actually changed who we decided to vote for) and to have a short phone conversation.  Nick and Amy Warkentien were going to a Polish festival and had invited us to go, but we didn’t make it out in time.

So who did we vote for?  It doesn’t matter, really.  I don’t feel like enough with change no matter who wins the election.  It’s historical either way though- a (half) black president or a female vice president.  I really wish I’d brushed up on the local candidates though.  I’m kind of embarrassed that I didn’t.

One thing I think they should do if they’re going to offer early voting is to let them voting stations stay open later.  They’re open from 9:00 to 4:00, which is great if you’re a college student or you don’t work.  They should be open during times that are convenient for more people, and I think they’d have a greater impact that way.

After serving our grueling duty for America Amanda and I went home, let Bruce and Harvey out for a bit and watched last night’s episode of The Soup before heading out to Wrightsville Beach.  Amanda and her aunt, Anna Frazelle, walked Bruce, Harvey and Scout.  I was going to go too, but Amanda’s brother, Michael Mercer, showed up right before they left and he and I were going to go with Barry Frazelle, their uncle, to look at wetsuits.

First we went to Surf City, where Michael and I both found suits that fit us perfectly- he a small and I a medium short.  We then went to Sweetwater to compare what they had there.  There were some less expensive wetsuits at Sweetwater, but Surf City was willing to match prices and deals.  Michael ended up buying the one he tried on earlier and I had them order me one of the same because they didn’t have it in my size.  I liked his better because it’s got a part that helps cover up the neck hole to keep from getting flushed as much.  I hate to copy him, but it’s a good deal and it’s exactly what I want as well.

Before we went back to Sweetwater to get Michael’s wetsuit (and booties) Barry took us to Vito’s Pizza and bought us each a beer for the hard shopping work we’d done.

Amanda and I left Anna and Barry’s shortly after we got back.  She was hungry and ready to go.  her original plan was to make some macaroni and cheese, but we had to stop and get some dog food (it ran out this morning) and she was too hungry to really wait.  Not wanting to be a man who starves his pregnant wife, we stopped at Atlanta Bread for some quick dinner, got the dog food and came on home.

We watched Fringe and an episode of Law & Order: SVU before Amanda went to bed.  I watched a Smallville and am about to go to bed soon.  We gain an hour of sleep by getting to set our clocks back, but I hate it because it will be dark after work so I won’t get to go surfing during the week so much anymore.

The Duke Blue Devils football team, as I read it, threw away a victory over Wake Forest today.  Apparently the special teams just melted down today, although the offense was doing well.  That’s okay- Coach Cut has already really improved this Blue Devils team and in subsequent years he’s only going to make it better and better.  They’re already markedly better than they have been in a long time.

Zach Dotsey