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 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

Seth and I talked a lot a couple days ago, as we spent about five hours in a car driving back and forth from Wilmington and Durham in the span of nine hours.  One of the things he mentioned was that his wife, Dana, enjoyed playing games, so I invited them over to check out Puerto Rico.  Amy Warkentien was working tonight, but you can play with up to five players so we invited Nick over as well.

Nick and Eli showed up around 6:00 and the Hollomans arrived, sans Gavin, who was staying with his grandparents, around 7:30.  They’d have been earlier but they had a bit of a time with Gavin.  Anyway, they brought some pizza from Elizabeth’s (thanks, Mr. Holloman!) and after the babies went to bed we introduced them to the wonder that is the game of Puerto Rico, which I’m still not going to bother trying to explain on here.

Seth picked up on the game pretty quickly.  Dana ended up getting it too, but it took her a little bit longer.  Despite that, she tied Nick for first place in Victory Points, although Nick ended up winning because he had more money left over.  Amanda was after them then Seth and I tied for last, though Seth was true last because I had more dubloons.

Seth definitely seemed to like it, and I think Dana did too.

Work was, as it has been and continues to be, ridiculously busy.  Despite that I took an extended lunch break and we (Amanda, Milly and I) took a trip to see the Kays.  Specifically, we went to go meet Felix James Kay, who was born last week and was just about the same size and weight as Milly, though he didn’t cook quite as long as she did.  He definitely looks more like his momma, Mia (get it- Mama Mia!) at this point.

He’s so tiny!  It’s funny what a big kid seeing such a new baby makes Milly seem like, when really she’s still so young and (relatively, of course) unadvanced.

Speaking of advances, I realized yesterday that Milly has two teeth coming in, not just the one.  And yeah, it continues to play havoc on her eating and sleep schedule.  Much fun.

The nation, including a great swath of North Carolina, is supposed to get a bunch of snow tomorrow or something.  Not happening here in Wilmington, though we should get some cold and some rain, which will probably result in some cold rain.

Zach Dotsey

I had a dream last night that Amanda, Milly and I walked out to our usual spot at Wrightsville Beach, and when we got out there I saw nice large, rolling waves that looked easy to get out to and catch, but there were very few people out in the water.  It was warm out, but the water was still chilly.  Overjoyed, I ran back to the Frazelle house to get my wetsuit on and grab my board.  I told Barry and we headed on out for a session.

I’ve really been missing surfing lately.  There hasn’t been much out there and the water’s so cold right now anyway.  I’ve been thinking of Nosara, Costa Rica a lot too.

As we usually do when Karen comes to visit, we had breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel.  On the way there Karen sat in the back and played with Milly.  She was laughing, which is always so great to hear.  It’s the best.

Michael and Jenn joined us, and afterwards they came over to our place.  Michael had burned his hand pretty badly at work on Tuesday (though work did nothing about it) and he, Jenn and Karen stopped by a drug store on the way over to pick up some salve and bandages for it.

We played some MarioKart and I did pretty well, though I haven’t unlocked some of their usual cars and characters yet and they’re used to playing with a regular controller, not the Wii-mote.  I’ve been assured that the two of them are much better playing as they’re accustomed, which I’m sure is true.

Amanda and Karen took off to go shopping or some such and the rest of us stayed to watch Carolina defend the Dean Dome against Georgia Tech.  Jenn didn’t care at all about it and Michael has hardly watched any games this season, but he was still pulling for his Heels.  I, of course, was not. My prediction though, given my luck and the fact that the game was at Carolina, was that the Yellow Jackets, after beating Duke and losing to Virginia (who is supposed to be towards the bottom of the ACC but actually has the best conference record so far), would lose.

Georgia Tech got out to a 20 point lead and they were up 16 at the half.  I never felt comfortable though, and Carolina took the lead with just a few minutes to go.  They swapped lead changed a few times, but Carolina did end up losing.  Amanda got back home just before the end and we were pretty happy about it, though we tried not to flaunt our joy until Michael left.

My mom called to see how things were going and how Milly is doing.  She was stuck in Rochester this weekend.

A little while later Amanda, Milly and I went to have dinner and a game with the Warkentiens.  Milly was off and on fussy but didn’t want to take a nap.  But then, she hadn’t napped much today, so I can understand her being cranky.  We put the kids down around 8:00 then played a game of Puerto Rico.  I changed my strategy but still came in third place, though I was surprised by even that.  (Thanks for losing to me, Nick.)  Amanda absolutely crushed it for the win.  The game was fun, of course, but we imposed a rule where the Governor (which is a position that switches every goes) had to speak in some kind of accent.  We all had a lot of fun with that, too.

When we got Milly up to leave through the time we put her back down in her own crib, she was in a very happy mood.  I almost don’t want to put her back to sleep when she’s like that.

Zach Dotsey