Zach Dotsey

Wow, we actually had a pretty good night of sleep last night!

Milly Dotsey in her first trip to the mall

Today’s Milly’s First was Milly’s first trip to the mall.  Any time Amanda’s grandparents are in town they treat us to a meal at the food court, so that’s what we were there for.  Michael was there too, along with all the ladies Frazelle.  After we ate the women all went to The Loft while Michael and I wandered around in between there and whichever video game store is across the way from it.  Earl, Amanda’s grandfather, walked through there with us.  We told him we were going to buy him a Wii.

After work I planned on going surfing, but I talked to Barry on the way out to Wrightsville Beach and he said unless I had a boat I wasn’t going to be doing anything out there, so I turned around and went back home.

So here’s something.  Farah Fawcett, who has been struggling with cancer for some time, died today.  It’s sad, but it wasn’t a huge surprise.  Amanda and I were in the office looking at something or other when we heard some talk about someone dying on the TV in the living room.  Figuring they were talking about Farah Fawcett, news which had been out already today, we didn’t think anything of it.  When we got to the living room we saw images of Michael Jackson.  We both were thinking, “No way,” so we rewound the TV until we passed something that read: Michael Jackson 1958-2009.  Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, is dead.  It’s so out of nowhere that it’s pretty mind blowing.

Much has been and will be said about all the influence Michael Jackson had on pop culture and music.  He was about to go on a concert tour, and who knows how that would have gone.  I’ve always said it would have been better for his legacy if he’d died earlier, before all the strange diseases/surgery and the questions about his character had arisen.  Despite all that, people are mourning his passing in droves.  It’s really just hard to believe.

Moving on, Amanda and I watched a little bit of the NBA Draft tonight.  We just wanted to see where Gerald Henderson went, and we happened to turn it on just before he got drafted at #12 to the Charlotte Bobcats.  I’m mixed on that because the Bobcats are such a Tar Heel team that I don’t root for them (as much as I root or don’t root for any other NBA team, really), but I really enjoyed watching Gerald Henderson and really hope he does well.

Seemingly as a joke, Tyler Hansbrough was taken by the Pacer in the very next pick.  What I did like about it was that his highlight reel showed a flop, a tremendous travel and his weird sissy fist pump celebratory dance.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda called me just after 8:00 those morning to tell me I should come to her office.  If I wouldn’t have had to battle cross-town traffic at 8 AM I might have done it.  Her co-workers had stayed an hour after she left yesterday and gift wrapped literally everything in her cubicle.  The computer monitor, the phone, a breast cancer ribbon, pens, folders, her chair- you name it.  Pretty impressive feat.  They did it because her birthday is tomorrow.

Though it’s no big surprise, Gerald Henderson has hired an agent, meaning he’s ineligible to come back to play his senior year at Duke.  Though I’d have really loved for him to come back, I hope he tears up the NBA.

Well now, after a few weeks of pretty hard work, the load wasn’t as bad today and it started to pay off.  Yes, May is going to be a good month.

I did quite a bit of running around this afternoon.  I had to pick up and deposit my paycheck, I dropped off the mortgage check, picked up some stuff Erin had left at Sam’s house when she stayed with her (Sam and Dickie don’t live far from here) and stopped by La Casa Warkentien to check on Gipper’s food supply.  I didn’t find a Gipper, but I found exidence of one.  His food (though there was still plenty left) was eaten and he’d used the litter box.  It wasn’t overpowering yet, the litter box, so I left that for Nick and Amy for when they get home.

Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, came to stay with us for the weekend.  Phil, Amanda’s dad, is at Portsmouth Island and will not be returning until either late tomorrow or Sunday.  Plus, Barry Frazelle is getting back from helping teach dentistry in Africa late tomorrow too, so we’re going to do Mother’s Day here in Wilmington instead of Beulaville so he can take it easy.  Plus, Amanda wants to go to Raleigh tomorrow.  I wasn’t too keen on spending all day traveling just to shop, though I gladly would have since it’s Amanda’s birthday.  Karen decided she’d go with Amanda, so they’re planning on leaving around 9:00.

I’ve been trying to call my parents for the past couple days, but I can’t seem to get in touch with them at all.  I was going to let them know we were going to be in Raleigh to see about meeting for lunch, but oh well.  I chatted on Facebook with my cousin, Jeff Cherryholmes, and he mentioned that he was going to be in town and that he and my dad were going golfing, so I doubt the timing would have worked out anyway.

Karen brought the things she’d bought with our Babies R Us gift cards and so far I’ve gone as far as setting up the (no assembly required) high chair.  I also discovered that our Jeep stroller, which is for use on the beach, has an iPod hookup on it!  How freakin’ cool is that?

I picked up some Subway for dinner for the three of us (though Karen paid for most of it) and we ate.  Amanda and Karen then did something upstairs in the nursery- I think Karen was drawing a tree, while I played a little bit of Medieval 2: Total War before we all watched an episode of House.

I have a busy day ahead of me, I think.  I need to mow the lawn, then I want to get in some surfing, and I should probably get a cake for Amanda for when she and Karen get back home.  Painting the nursery some would also be a good idea.

Zach Dotsey

Sigh.

Missouri beat Memphis tonight.  That was nice.  I don’t have anything personal against Memphis, but they play in the weak Conference USA and the program seems a little shady.

And then there was the Duke and Villanova game.  Amanda went to bed before it because tipoff was after 10:00, but Lars came over and watched it with me.

I don’t have too much to say about it.  Most people thought it was going to be a good, tough matchup.  The Blue Devils scored the first five points but then Nova went on an 11-0 run.  Duke was down by three points at the half, which wasn’t bad considering that they were shooting under 30% and Gerald Henderson hadn’t even scored a field goal yet.  The second half started and Duke forced a turnover and scored a basket, which was promising.  And that was the closest they got for the rest of the game.  It ended up an embarrassing 77-54.  The Wildcats were playing good defense, but Duke couldn’t even get wide open shots to go in.

What sucks the most is not the loss.  I can live with a Sweet 16 loss.  What sucks is that that was the end of the college basketball careers of Greg Paulus, Dave McClure, Marty Pocius and, in all likelihood, Gerald Henderson.  I just hate that they went out on a game like that.  A close, hard-fought game would have been easier to take, but this was just hard to watch.

I will say that the season itself was a pretty good one, even though it didn’t end well.  Thirty wins, the ACC Championship, advancing to the Sweet 16 and the excitement and success of the late season lineup change all made for a satisfying and overall pretty successful season.

Oh well.  The season is over for the Duke Blue Devils and now my favorite team is Gonzaga (since they’re playing Carolina tomorrow night).  It’s ABC2 (Anyone But Carolina/Connecticut, but particularly the first of those) from here on out.

Zach Dotsey

This morning’s soccer portrait shoot went pretty well I think.  It was set up by Taylor and Esther Hutchens, who have started a photography company.  Also helping out were Justin Hauenstein and Elliot Clark on cameras and Melissa Nicholson, a girl named Dallas and a friend of Taylor’s named Blake.  Basically, three stations were set up with a goal underneath a tent.  We would do individual pictures then team pictures.  Really, it all flowed pretty well.  The only concern I really had was with the lighting and exposure.  Even though we had the tents we were shooting towards the sun.

After I got home I took a nap on the couch while Amanda went to Target to get a body pillow.  She’s been needing a little extra support in her sleep and had been using one of my pillows (I tend to sleep with three).  After she came home (and I woke up) we watched some NCAA Tournament basketball and her parents, Karen and Phil Mercer, came over, mainly to explain to Michael this program they’d set him (and us) up in.  When they first got here though, Karen, Phil and Amanda went to Barnes & Noble.  Amanda picked up two Baby Wise books and Karen bought The Cat in the Hat.

Michael came over and we went over all the stuff then turned on the Carolina-LSU game while we ate BBQ dinner.  LSU hung with the Heels pretty well until the second half.  Ty Lawson played despite all the hooplah about his injured toe.  He played much better in the second half so most people think he was given something for it during the half.  That’s all well and good, but if he was given something just to get past the pain then he could easily reinjure  it (if it’s as bad as Roy Williams would have us believe).  Of course, if they’d have lost without Lawson, it wouldn’t matter too much how much he rested it (assuming the injury wouldn’t have hurt his pro chances).

After that was the Duke-Texas game.  Lars (Mike) Boscaljon came over for that and Karen and Phil took off a little bit into the game.  Seth Holloman had invited me over to his place to watch the game, and Amanda had been invited out to a ladies’ night by Lorin Van Zandt, but our company stayed a little late for either of us to head out.  Michael ended up staying for the whole Duke game, though he complained loudly when they won.  It was a tight game and I guess he really wanted to see them lose it.  I thought I hated Carolina more than he hates Duke because he generally doesn’t get worked up about a close Duke win, but I guess it’s different being in the NCAA Tournament.

What a game it was!  I don’t think I can even give justice to it in a quick recap so I’m not going to bother, but Jon Scheyer made one of the headiest plays ever by tossing an out of bounds save behind his back and well down the court.  Elliot Williams and one of the Texas players were right on it, but the Texas player pushed Williams out of the way and fouled out.  Williams missed his foul shots but Dave McClure tipped the ball out to Gerald Henderson who was then fouled and put the game away.  It was awesome.

So Duke is back in the Sweet 16 after a two year hiatus.  I think it’s such a big thing for this team, really gives them some confidence.  Everyone was so used to Duke getting to the Sweet 16 that people were really getting down on the program because they missed it the last two years.  Well you know what?  Duke’s in it, baby.

There was also a very close game between Gonzaga and Western Kentucky.  I was going for Gonzaga and they did pull it out.

Zach Dotsey

Can’t get into my email. Tried *********,*********, *********, ****. Noneworked. I knew what yours most likely was, so I’m using that…

Anyways..Mama just left so I’m all alone now. We went out to the beach for a bit today. It was a bit chilly. Sure you’re not having that problem there. We didn’t walk long. I guess Bruce’s foot was bothering him b/c he kept lagging behind. Mama bought me that bathing suit from Target. Not the green one…didn’t look so good, but the blue and purple one. She bought all three pieces so I can go pregger-bikini or pregger-tankini depending on my mood. (Oh and tell Michael we replaced his litter. The kind he had doesn’t clump at all. Made his whole apt. smell like kitty poo. So today Mama bought him the same kind we use and dumped the other out. Hopefully things will smell a lot fresher in there tomorrow.)

So, I’m pretty sure Bruce misses you. He made me tear up a little bit this morning. He went thru his usual morning routine. Went outside to go peepee and ate. Then he followed me upstairs and he went over to the bed for me to put him in it. (He didn’t sleep with me the last couple of nights since Mama was here.) So, I put him in bed and he crawled under the covers next to the lump made up of pillows on your side of the bed. He didn’t even lay down. He crawled right back out and looked to your side and then looked at me. It was like he was asking, “Where’s Daddy?”. I had
a tender heart to heart with him about how you’d be gone all week and then went to shower all teary-eyed.

Crap! Mama went with me to buy dogfood and I forgot about it in the trunk. Guess I’ll have to go get Dave to drag it in the house for me. Grrr! And I just dropped a gold fish down my shirt! (Made you smile huh? Knew you’d like that little tidbit.)

Back on track… church was good. Brian talked today. Guess Mike was out of town. He did a good job though.

I talk to Nick for a few minutes after the service. He said that they may call me about dinner later since I’m all alone. That will be nice. To get out of the house instead of sitting here watching TV all by my lonesome.

Oh TV- that reminds me- Duke/Carolina game. Crap…please don’t hate me. It’s recording now. Duke up by 1 about 6:30 left in the first half. 31-30. Henderson just dunked! Carolina missed there shot. Henderson was fouled. Made both free throws (33-30). Oh no…PICK-POCKET PAULUS WITH A STEAL!- but they didn’t make the shot.

Ohhh…Danny Green called for a travel! OK…that’s enough commentary for now…last update Duke up 3 with under 4:00 to go in the first half (35-32).

OK I just lied…Singler has 15 pts so far!- Ellington was fouled and missed BOTH free throws!…and another turnover by Green! Duke missed. Now 35-34. Nope…make that 37-36 (1:35 to go)

So anyway, Harvey freaked me out pretty bad last night. He was barking- angrily. I was scared to (another shot by Schier!) look out the window by the porch so I went into the guest room and looked out that window. Ladybug was out there. Hopefully that was what he was barking out. Hope he doesn’t do that anymore this week.

Dag on it Thomas..fouled Lawson with 7.2 left in half. But…Lawson missed! Duke up at the half 39-38. Maybe I’ll email you back later with the final score. For now I’ll just say that I love you and I miss you like crazy! Milly’s been moving around a lot today. Think maybe she’s feeling around, trying to find her Daddy. I hope you had a fun first day surfing.
Be careful and have fun!

We all love and miss you!

Amanda, Milly, Bruce, Harvey,Cogg & Gotham (I better go feed him…)

Amanda called to say she saw some flurries, probably about like the ones I saw yesterday.

Triceps sore, so I didn’t go work out.

Talked to Baba for a bit today. Helped me with some family history. Asked how Pap was doing in the nursing home. Said some days he was a little confused.

Read what I could scrounge up of Watchmen. Could only find just over half the issues. What a great book!

Phil and Danny came by, had spaghetti dinner, talked about a marketing thing.

Watched the Duke vs. FSU game in the back while Amanda watched The Bachelor. He chose one then dumped her and chose the other.

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Duke won a tough game, trailed six at the half. Seniors started, Lance Thomas injured his ankle early. Foul trouble on the bigs. Singler had a great second half. Elliot Williams had a great game. Jon Scheyer had some key steals. End had laughable no-call foul when Williams got literally run over, a jump ball that should have been a foul, a silly flop that had Henderson laughing and a final second three pointer by Toney Douglas that I knew he’d hit ahead of time.

Zach Dotsey

Amanda told me that this morning, while she was lying in bed, Milly gave such a big kick that she could see the movement underneath the layers of covers and the shirt she was wearing.  My little baby girl’s getting strong!

We had a lot on our slate today, but we didn’t get much of it done.  Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, called and said that she was at Independence Mall here in Wilmington.  She and a bunch of her friends, they’re called the Yo Yos, were staying at a beach house for the weekend and they all decided to head to the mall.  Amanda and I had to go there so Amanda could exchange something anyway, so we met Karen there then we saw everyone else at lunch.  Michael, who lives two roads adjacent from Oleander, where the mall is, stopped by for some eating too, before he had to head off to work.

That ate up most of our discretionary time, but we did manage to stop by Hot Wax to look at neoprene tops.  Barry suggested I have one for Costa Rica, so I was getting one early for my birthday.  We’d called Surf City first, since I have a credit there, but they didn’t have any my size.  I saw one I liked at Hot Wax, but we decided on the way back into town (we had to let the dogs out for a bit and pick up our gifts for Nick and Amy Warkentien’s baby shower) to see what was at 17th Street too.  I ended up liking one at 17th Street the best- it’s a beavertail and front-zip neoprene top.  It just felt really comfortable and, like any good surfing apparel, made me feel like I looked like a super hero.

Before we left the house again, we decided to let Harvey stay out of his crate while we were gone.  He did good.  The only thing we found out of place was a seashell from the TV stand.

Nick and Amy’s baby shower was at Joel and Mia’s.  They were there, it being their house and all, along with Paul and Meagan Wicker along with their one-month-old baby Hannah, Tim and Jenni Cain and, eventually, Mike and Kirsten Paschal.  Amy’s brother, Andrew Cuthbert, showed up with his friend, also named Andrew, a little later.  They’d just driven in from Michigan.

We hung out there for a while then eventually went home to find out home undestroyed by Harvey.  I called Ed Castro to talk to him about our feelings on the group dynamic for the small group we had formed.  I basically told him that we felt that we were at an entirely different lifestage from the rest of the people in the group and that I thought that he’d make a really good group leader.  He told me that it was something he had felt called to do but that he’d never stepped up to do, and chalked my call up to a God Thing.  Amanda and I are going over to his and Tina’s house tomorrow to talk about it more in depth with them.

Amanda and I watched 30 Rock and The Soup before she went to bed.  I watched the Duke at Virginia Tech game on the DVR.  I already knew Duke had won because I kept up with it on my iPhone at the baby shower, but I had read about a lot of outrageously bad calls and no-calls, such as Gerald Henderson being slapped with a technical foul after being fouled on a dunk and Kyle Singler getting an intentional-looking elbow to the throat without so much as a regular foul being called on the guy who hit him.

The DVR cut off the game at about the three minute mark, so I missed another controversial call.  The ball was inbounded to Jon Scheyer and he was pressured, eventually having to take a time out.  Scheyer had a pretty blatant travel which was apparently pointed out and played over and over again, but no mention was ever made of the two Hokies fouling him to try to stop the clock, which also went uncalled, and nobody ever called out the refs for missing the incident with Singler earlier.  People say that it should have been a turnover and Va Tech could have tied it up, which may be the case, but they could also have called the fouls and put Duke ahead two more points.

Anyway, Duke had another hard-fought road win against a team that always plays them tough, so I’ll take it.  Gerald Henderson and Kyle Singler each had 21 points I think, Henderson getting all but two of his in the first half with I believe the opposite happening for Singler.

Zach Dotsey
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