Zach Dotsey

It was supposed to rain all day, but it was really very nice out.

Amanda woke up early this morning, sometime before 7:00, and couldn’t go back to sleep.  Ironically, Milly slept in and didn’t wake up until I got her up at almost 8:30.  Before that I went around the yard and took pictures of the banana spiders in our yard.

After everyone was up and moving around, Karen and Phil treated us to breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  A number of people commented on how pretty Milly is.

After breakfast the girls went shopping for Kirsten Frazelle’s birthday (which is Tuesday) then went to visit the Frazelles while Phil and I stopped by Home Depot to get a couple extra sections of railing for the front porch.  After that we spent most of the next few hours cutting and assembling the front porch.  Our front porch revitalization is well underway.

I’ll admit, Phil did most of the work.  We’ve got one side mostly up and I’ll work on putting the rest up, probably tomorrow.  It’s frustrating though because the screws that hold the brackets into the posts have to go through metal in the post, but they don’t seem to go through it very well.  Should be interesting.  At any rate, it will be a vast improvement.  The railing was pretty rotted and it generally took no more than two swings of a hammer to knock out any part of the railing.  In fact, every time we hit something it seems one or two carpenter bees would fall out of the railings.  They buzzed around looking for their homes, which Amanda said was kind of sad.  It was, I suppose.

While we were doing all that I kept tabs on the Duke game.  They were playing at Kansas, who is ranked 22.  Kansas beat the Blue Devils pretty soundly.  On top of that, Carolina beat ECU.  Ah well.

Karen and Phil took off to Ginger Cox’s wedding and Amanda and I took off a little later to go to the Frazelles’ for Kirsten’s birthday and dinner.  It was all of the Frazelles, us, Peggy and Earl Lemons and Barry’s parents, so a family thing.  Oh yeah, and Michael joined us right before it was time to eat.  Kirsten’s big present was tickets for her and Barry to see the Arctic Monkeys at The House of Blues.  In Houston, Texas.  Pretty cool.

Kirsten will also be officially done with school on Tuesday.  She’s decided to drop out of high school and will start taking classes at Cape Fear Community College.

Anyway, dinner, as it always is at la Casa Frazelle, was fun.  Milly behaved great, hardly crying at all.  We even put her down to sleep there at her regular time so we could hang out a little longer and watch YouTube videos of popping zits and she did great.  She even did fine when we brought her home and laid her back down in her crib.  I mean, seriously, we are blessed to have such an easy-going baby.

I finally got my Rainbows back today.  I’d left them at Anna and Barry’s last weekend.  Amanda was supposed to pick them up for me the first time she went over there with Karen, and while she did get them out of the beach stroller she forgot them in the living room.  I drove over there this evening without shoes because I was so looking forward to getting them back.  In the meantime, I’ve either worn jeans with boots or some cheapo floppers that I got for Costa Rica.  Definitely nice to get the real things back.

Zach Dotsey

Scott and I put the finishing touches on a sales newsletter I was working on Friday and sent it out today.  I’m pretty proud of it, but we haven’t had any responses yet.  It went out to right at 300 people and I’m hoping for at least a 1% return on it.  Other than that, work stressful at the end of the day and my father-in-law had drank my last beer while we were watching the Duke and Clemson football game on Saturday.

My baby sister, Andra Sawyer, called me on her way home from the hospital.  She couldn’t remember if she’d called me back this weekend or not (which she had).  She said Addison looks a lot like Jackson, and I told her that’s definitely not a bad thing.  My nephew is one good looking kid.  She was pulling up to her house, taking Addison home for the first time, as she hung up with me.

I talked to my mom later.  She and my dad are taking Jackson home to Rougemont for a bit, I guess to try to let Andra and Josh get settled with the new baby.  Her original plan was to stop by in Wilmington with him for a bit, but Josh is apparently uneasy with him being that far.  Nevermind the fact that we took him to Lexington, Kentucky for a week one summer when he was much younger.  Mom said she was working on it.

We had a small group coaching huddle at Polly and Dave Clawson’s to discuss some changes in the way small group ministry at Port City Church will go.  Nothing too major.

When we got home Amanda and I watched our Monday comedies, Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, but in backwards order.  Amanda went to bed after they went off and I watched my HBO shows: Entourage, True Blood and Deadwood.  I can’t believe the HBO season is almost over- just one show left for Entourage and True Blood.  Deadwood has been over for a few years and is being shown in order each week, so at least I’ve got that to look forward to.

Zach Dotsey

The above is Toast, by Parrish Stikeleather and Joey Connelley who both work with the e-media team at Port City Community Church.  I think they’re 19 and 17, respectively.  They’ve entered the Final Cut Film Festival for, what, the past three year?  And every year they win at least some sort of prize.  This film won best picture.

It should be explained that for the Final Cut Film Festival you only have I think 36 hours to make the movie, and to make sure you stick to that on the day you start they tell you a few things that have to be included in the film that you don’t know about ahead of time.  Parrish and Joey are both very talented.

Today was pretty uneventful.  No presidential elections, no new pregnancies, I didn’t even go outside but once to check the mail and bring the dumpster back from the road.  After Amanda got home she checked her Facebook and watched the above movie.

After that we hung out, watched some TV.  Amanda went to bed at about 8:30.  I finished watching Deadwood, in which Bullock’s nephew/adopted son gets trampled by a horse, and then I watched True Blood.  I think I might play some Bioshock after this, or maybe I’ll work on one of my various website projects.  That would probably be the wiser thing to do.

Now that I can’t go surfing after work I really need to find something active to do.  Maybe I’ll walk the dogs (or at least one of them) in the mornings.

Oh, I will be going to the Duke football game against NC State on Saturday.  Seth Holloman has an extra ticket and is driving up to Durham to catch the game with a few other people, so I’m looking forward to that.

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

After we got back to Stanton Pickens’ house last night we hung around and chatted a bit.  He and I had one more beer and he put Iron Man on his projector.  I was out before the Hummer blew up.  (That’s in the very first scene, for those who haven’t seen the movie.)  Amanda got about as far the Tony Stark getting captured.  She claims to have told me good night and I apparently responded, but I must have woken up just long enough to say that and fall back asleep.

I woke up a little after 7am on a giant bean bag chair (Amanda and I were on it when we started watching Iron Man) and went upstairs to Will’s room.  Will is Amanda’s other cousin, Stanton’s brother, but he’s in Boone for the weekend so Stanton told us that Amanda and I could crash in his room.

I don’t think I slept much from that point, but we got up and moving around I’d say somewhere around 9:30.  The four of us walked to a little place to eat right in the neighborhood called Citrus.  I mean the building the restaurant was in looked almost like just any other house in the beighborhood.  Sarah said it was cool, but it was probably why so many businesses had come and gone in that location.

We ate and I think Stanton was about to pay again, but after all he spent on us last night I told him he didn’t have to do that.  He did still gave us money towards the breakfast bill though.

We got back to their house and watched the beginning of Duke playing at Georgia Tech.  We took off not long after the start, but Duke ended up getting murdered, 27-0.  Ouch.  To make matters worse, Carolina beat 24th ranked Connecticut tonight.  They didn’t just beat them, they pretty much owned UConn, 38-12.  Good thing Duke’s got a bye next week so maybe they can refocus before people start thinking the 3-1 start of the season was a fluke.

Anyway, after we left Stanton’s we stopped by Southpoint Mall to do a little shopping for Andra’s baby shower, which is next weekend.  We walked around there for a while then got in the car and headed home, stopping only once to go to the bathroom (I had to pee a lot today, which I blame on the amount of alcohol consumed last night and the amount of fluids I drank subsequently to stay hydrated) and pick up some Smithfield’s BBQ to carry home for dinner.

There were a lot of people wearing UNC shirts at Southpoint today. I mean a lot. Amanda figured a lot of people had come to the area to go to the game tonight and were just spending time beforehand at the mall. I only saw one Duke shirt (and we were technically in Durham too!) but I attribute that to the fact that there was a Duke game on TV while we were there.

Once home we went across the street to Bonnie and Dave Narron’s to get Harvey and Bruce.  We talked to Bonnie (Dave was at a fishing tournament) for a few then came back home and vegged for the remainder.  We were just exhausted.

Zach Dotsey

Hurricane Ike hit Texas this morning and gas prices are up.  They’d been around $3.69 here in Wilmington, but I’ve heard that they’ve got up to as much as almost $5.00 in some places.

It used to be that every Saturday morning we’d have what Amanda would refer to as Brucey Cuddle Time.  It’s when we would wake up and laze about in bed and Bruce would sidle up between me and Amanda in expectation of some serious belly rubbage.  We haven’t had that much lately, I guess because he and Harvey generally both get up and start running around before we do, but this morning I’d already put Harvey outside to pee and he’d wanted to stay out while Bruce came back in, so when Amanda woke up we had some Brucey Cuddle Time.

After we did get up and moving around it was time for yard work.  We’d needed to pick up sticks and small yard debris since “Hurricane” Hanna and the grass needed mowing something fierce.  There were more sticks in the backyard so I started off in the front, which was a change from the usual and felt a little weird, while Amanda gathered the sticks together and put them next to the fire pit I’d gotten for her birthday.  She’s been wanting to do s’mores, but we didn’t end up doing them tonight.

After I finished mowing I plopped my sweaty ass down to watch Duke take on Navy.  Duke football isn’t on TV much and everyone’s very excited about the new season with new head coach David Cutcliffe.  The game was pretty good and Duke won 41-31.  It wouldn’t have been as close as that but Duke made a couple costly mistakes.  Still, it was a fun game to watch.

While I was watching the football game, Amanda went to Old Navy to get a birthday present for her cousin, Kirsten Frazelle (her birthday is next week but to my knowledge she doesn’t check out this website) and her brother, Michael Mercer, came over to ride with us to the beach.

Ahh, the beach.  Michael and I went with the expectation of surfing, but there was nothing.  We ended up going down past Crystal Pier (The Oceanic) because the waves looked a bit better there and we did have a little more success- we both caught one wave (which happened to be the same one).  We almost caught some others but it was really just not a good day for surfing.  One wave I tried to get up on even punched me in my manly area when it took me down.  Talk about a lack of respect.

For something to do we ended up paddling around the pier.  There’s a warning not to get within 500 feet of it, but we went out past and around it.  There was something kind of cool about that to me.  I’d never seen the pier from straight on, and while I’ve certainly paddled out past the pier before, there was something imposing about being right in front of it.  It just seemed forboding.

We left Wrightsville Beach and headed home, but Michael kept talking about how hungry he was so we ended up going to Papa Bella’s for dinner.  He wasn’t too satisfied with his pizza, but I liked mine just fine.  Amanda got a calzone.

Before he left, Michael challenged me to a game of College Hoops 2K7.  I played as the Duke Blue Devils and he played as the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and I actually won.  I was ahead pretty much the whole game but it was a nailbiter at the end.  Of course he pointed out that the Duke players were properly named whereas he had to guess who was who.  Oh well, I’ll take it.

Zach Dotsey
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