Peggy and Earl Lemons, Amanda’s grandparents, invited us out to lunch at the mall, as is their custom when they’re in town, usually to visit one doctor or another.  It was practically a family reunion today.  It was Peggy and Earl, me and Amanda, Michael, Anna, Hannah and Kirsten.

I got back home and worked and worked.  Then Amanda came home and made egg and cheese sandwiches.  I played a game of Catan with Michael, Burf and a computer and I did awful.  Michael won that one.  Amanda wanted to play so Michael started up another game with just him, Burf and Amanda.  Burf dropped out pretty early (which got his slot replaced with a computer player) and Amanda won.  It was the first time she won on the Xbox, so I was proud of her.

I was about to add Nick Warkentien’s blog to my blogroll on here and saw this at the top of it:

1+1=3

The day has arrived!  Amy is pregnant!

I’m gonna be a Dad!!!

So I called him up and Nick answered the phone and all I said was, “I find out on a BLOG?”  He just kind of laughed, so I congratulated them.  he said they just found out late yesterday and he’s been on the phone constantly.

Everybody is pregnant.  Nick and Amy are having a baby, Andra and Josh, Missy and Eric, Matt and Melissa.  Paul and Kim and Seth and Dana have little babies.

Zach Dotsey

Woke up, let the dogs out went upstairs.  Woke up again a bit later to hear it absolutely pouring outside.  Let the dogs in and they were drenched, walking around shaking all over the place.

Grabbed some food for breakfast from the grocery store.

Rained off and on all day, mostly in heavy downpours.  Went for a short walk but it was really hot and muggy.

Amanda wanted Chick-Fil-A so we went there for early dinner/late lunch.

I played GTA IV while Amanda rested on couch.

Picked up chips and beer.  Seth Holloman, who I met a couple weeks ago, and his wife, Dana, came over.  We sat around and socialized a bit then played Rock Band.  Seth’s versions of Simple Man, Roxanne and Creep were something to behold.

Zach Dotsey

Today is TDK Day, so I went and picked up tickets for the 8:30 show of Batman: The Dark Knight (TDK, got it>?) today.  Six of them.  They were for me and Amanda, Adam and Renee and Nick and Amy.  Movie tickets are expensive these days.

Amanda let me know today that Anna’s premonition from a couple weeks ago was in fact not a premonition.  So I guess there’s no possibility of finishing my and my dad’s birthday number sequence.

We went to Nick and Amy’s for dinner tonight.  They skewered a bunch of things- apples, ham, pineapple and zucchini.  I’ve never eaten zucchini before today and in fact I had to spell check it to make sure I spelled it right.  But it wasn’t bad.  I mean, there wasn’t much taste to it, but it definitely wasn’t bad.  (Although it wasn’t as good as the meat and fruits.)  I’ve been trying to open myself up to some healthier foods of late.

We left the Warkentiens and headed over to Mayfaire Cinemas.  Actually I think it’s called Regal Cinemas now or something, but it’s still Mayfaire Cinemas to everyone.  Nick hadn’t changed or anything from work so they followed a little bit after us.  Adam and Renee were already at Mayfaire, although Renee was buying stuff from Victoria’s Secret.  Nothing too exciting, Adam said.

We got in the theater itself and had a hard time finding six spots together.  We got one guy to scoot down a couple seats, which was nice of him since he was trying to sit in the middle, an obsession I can relate to.  That gave us four spots and there were two open seats in the row in front of us, so I stood in front of them until Nick and Amy showed up.

There was a trailer for The Watchmen.  The Watchmen is the most critically acclaimed comic book of all time.  If I didn’t know this, the trailer would have told me so.  I told Nick before the lights dimmed that there was supposed to be a Watchmen trailer and told him it was more of a noire crime story without a whole lot of real far out there sci-fi type of stuff in it, that it was down to earth.  Of course the trailer had a bunch of scenes with Dr. Manhattan in them, and he’s the main thing really that is far out there and supernatural.  After the trailer Nick leaned back and said, “Down to earth, huh?”

So, The Dark Knight.  Yeah, it was awesome.  Amanda talked about it all the way home.

Everybody is raving about Heath Ledger’s Joker and talking about posthumous Oscar nominations and the like.  I’m not one to give out Oscar nods, but his performance was outstanding.  All the little ticks and nuances, the way he shifted gears from sort of sing song to guttural.  He was a chaotic psycho.  I loved Jack Nicholson’s Joker (of course, I loved Batman and saw it eight or so times in the theater when I was about ten years old), but this Joker was on a whole ‘nother level.

I also really liked the psychology of the flick.  Batman, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Dent were all fighting for the same thing, but they all went about it different ways.  I really liked the relationship between Batman and Dent- both wanted to be the other and thought the other more important and both were willing to give themselves up because they saw the other as the more important symbol of hope for Gotham City.

I dug what the Joker did in the final act of the film too, trying to (and in part succeeding to) corrupt the hopes of Gotham and spreading anarchy in the form of terrible social experiments.

Zach Dotsey

I went out today to pick up meds for all the kids.  (That would be flea and tick and heartworm medicine for our two dogs and cat.)  I called Michael on the way out since his new place is over by the vet, but I’m guessing he was already at work.  I was going to see if he wanted to grab a bite to eat.  Amanda and I are a bit short on money right now, but we’ve got these Chick-Fil-A calendars with a coupon on the bottom of each month, and for this month you get a free eight piece pack of nuggets with the purchase of a Sprite.

I didn’t eat with Michael, but I went ahead and went by Chick-Fil-A anyway but I asked if I could sub the Sprite for a milkshake.  What can I say, they make great milkshakes.  I knew I’d have to pay a little more, but I was fine with that.  I think I ended up not paying more though, because all they charged me was $1.30.  The guy behind the counter was getting instructions from the manager, but it was crowded of course, being lunch time, so I think something got lost in the shuffle.

The milkshake was yummy.

After work Amanda and I headed over to the Frazelle house, stopping to pick up some salad for dinner.  Anna Hawkins, Amanda’s cousin (well, her mom’s cousin’s kid, which would make them, what, second cousins?) was staying with Anna and Barry for a few days so we wanted to get by to see her.  The original plan was to just meet up for ice cream at Boombalatti’s, but I wanted to see about surfing and Amanda, surprise surprise, was fine with hanging out on the beach.

I walked out with the board, but there ended up not really being anything worth surfing so I took the board back while Amanda hung out with Anna, Hannah, Kirsten and Anna Hawkins.  Barry had just gotten home shortly before Amanda and I had gone out to the beach, so I talked to him for a bit then we went on out.  We ran into Hannah on the way out.  She was heading in and was going to go see Batman: The Dark Knight a little later with some friends.  (I’d love to go to the midnight show too, but Amanda wants to see it too but wouldn’t function tomorrow if she went to a midnight showing.)  Anna and Amanda went in shortly after we got out there to work on dinner (spaghetti and salad) and Kirsten and Anna Hawkins, who were playing in the sand, went in a few minutes after them.  Barry and I just stood out there and talked about all sorts of things- kids, God, the church.  A random guy came up to us and told us he wanted us to know that God loved us, so we talked to him for a few minutes.

Kirsten eventually came out and told us that dinner was ready so we all headed back in.  We ate and talked and had a good time with the Frazelles as we always do.  After dinner we went to Boombalatti’s.  Amanda and I shared a small waffle cone with four scoops of ice cream.  As we were about to pay Barry told us that they’d invited us out and that they’d pay for it.  They’d already given us dinner (that would be twice in one week now I think), but he insisted.

After we ate Amanda and I came home and unwound.  She watched Project Runway.  I played with Harvey a bit and got him wound up.  He was very playful, but he used his mouth a bit in his playing, so I had to calm him down.  He was obviously having fun though.  I also noticed that his claws had gotten pretty sharp so I trimmed his and Bruce’s.  When I finished with Harvey’s claws I stood up and Bruce thought I was coming for him so he ran away and hid behind the kitchen table until he saw that I was giving Harvey treats for letting me clip him.  Bruce was easy to catch after that, and while he didn’t enjoy the process he was much better about getting his nails clipped this than he usually is.  I don’t know if it’s how I was holding him or if he’s just more used to it now or if he was expecting a treat afterwards.  I suspect the latter.

Amanda went to bed and I played Catan with Michael.  Again, I should have won the first game.  I had nine points and one of the computer players went from seven points to ten in one turn.  I turned down the difficulty and Michael won the next one.  Seems on Hard I can almost win every time, but on easier settings Michael wins.  Oh well.

Zach Dotsey

Yesterday the weather report said that there’d be scattered showers.  Since our small group is, by default, meeting on the beach, I told everyone that they could just come to our house and, since Kyle had mentioned it the other day, play Rock Band.

Kristen e-mailed and apologized about not having been in touch lately and said they’d probably be gone until school starts back up- that they’re valuing their free time too much right now.  She came out and said they were just being selfish with their time.  I wrote her back and said I really hoped it didn’t turn into them not being in our small group, and if it did that they’d let me help them find another one.  We’ll see what happens.

Melissa e-mailed and said she and Elliot weren’t going to make it and that she’d be out of town the next couple weeks.

Justin e-mailed and said he and Lisa would be here, as did Kaitlyn for her and Mike.

We didn’t hear anything from Kyle and Lorin, but since they said on Sunday that they’d see us on Wednesday, we assumed they’d be coming.

So Amanda and I cleaned up this afternoon.  I vacuumed the floors and the steps and swept the front porch and the back patio and Amanda hosed everything down with vinegar and picked up.  I also moved the Xbox from the office to the living room.  There’s much more space to play in there, but it’s a bit of a pain to have to unhook everything and set it all back up in the other room.

6:30 rolled around and Mike and Kaitlyn showed up.  They ate their dinner while we watched Everybody Loves Raymond.  It was the one where Raymond got engraved toasters for everyone for Christmas and Frank and Marie exchanged it without having opened the box.  In it, Marie tells Frank she’s not just some trophy wife, which makes Frank posit: “What contest in Hell did I win?”

Anyhoo, we waited until about 7:00 and nobody else showed, so we all played Rock Band.  We didn’t think Kaitlyn would be too enthused about it, but she had fun.  We all had fun and rocked out for about an hour or so before they took off.  As they were leaving I saw a text from Lorin saying they had had some kind of car trouble but they were okay.  I called, since it seemed to imply that they were in an accident of some sort, but I didn’t get in touch with them.  Later in the night I also saw an e-mail from Justin.  They had decided not to go because Lisa has a pretty big time doctor appointment on Friday and they were trying to rest up and take it easy for that.  They still don’t know exactly what’s wrong with the poor girl.

After the Bocaljons left Amanda and I just watched a bit of TV before she went to bed.

Zach Dotsey

The lady I spoke to was very nice about it all of course.  I worked a bit late tonight in order to work up a couple of ideas to show them tomorrow in hopes that they’ll like one and decide to keep working with us.  I think the problem is that she wasn’t allowing for the mockup process, in which we show her an idea and she says what she likes or doesn’t like about it then we keep working on it.  I mean, the approved design has been done for probably a month now, and we’ve been waiting for them to either send us content or put it in themselves so we could fix it up nicely.  I just heard late last week that they decided they weren’t happy with the design and submitted a new one, which I only got any helpful feedback on today.

A note to anyone out there considering creating a website: if you have an idea of what you’d like to see, communicate it to your web designer.  We can’t read your minds.  Also, you can’t expect us to come up with all the pictures and text for your site unless you hire someone who is also a copywriter, and even then you’d better be prepared to spend some time with them so they’ll know what to write about your site.

Bah.  It wouldn’t bother me so much except that I felt we had a pretty good working relationship going on and Scott’s out of town, so even though I’ve gained an account while he was away it looks like one may be lost as well.

Ah well.  Amanda and I finished off the rest of some spaghetti we had recently for dinner and then she fixed us some green tea.  We watched an episode of The Soup Presents: Things Your Mother Won’t Let You Watch or some such.  They’ve had a lot of themed shows like that lately.  After that we watched Wipeout. Amanda went to bed shortly after then I played Catan with Michael.  It was another one I should have won, but he came back from behind and won.  I had nine points for a couple turns and on the turn when he won I had almost 20 cards, so if nothing else I could have traded them in and gotten whatever I wanted.  I wanted to kick something, but I did not.

We’ve got a busy few days planned.  Tomorrow we’re having small group at our house.  The weather called for rain so I decided to have everyone over to play Rock Band (which Kyle Van Zandt told me he’d been feeling like playing) and hanging out.  For Thursday we planned to have Seth Holloman and his wife, Dana, over.  Seth had told me that his wife recently discovered and fell in love with Rock Band, so we were going to have them over.  However, Anna called tonight and reminded us that Amanda’s young cousin Anna Hawkins Dulaney was in town and wanted to see if we wanted to meet up with them for some ice cream.  The only nights available for that are Wednesday and Thursday, so depending on timelines we might have to do some switching around.  We usually only get to see Anna Hawkins once a year at Amanda’s family’s beach weekend.  Then Friday I think we’re going to go see The Dark Knight with Nick and Amy and some others.

(Hey, you only have to ask once.)

Zach Dotsey
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I was going to go out and buy some bread so I could make a sandwich for lunch today, but Amanda happened to call me and tell me that she’d stopped by the grocery store this morning to get some lunch materials for herself and had gotten both bread and wraps.  She was going to bring the bread home.  Exciting story, no?

Other than that Amanda caught up on some of her Days of Our Lives episodes and I played Grand Theft Auto IV for quite a while.  After Amanda went to bed I watched Robin Hood and was about to start this past week’s Deadwood, but then saw on the DVR list that I hadn’t finished the last episode.  I’m glad I remembered that.  If you’ll recall, I kept trying to watch it the other night but kept falling asleep before I could see the end, and it turned out to be a pretty important ending.  Wild Bill Hickock was shot and killed.  Now everyone knows that Wild Bill was shot playing poker in Deadwood, and I expected it to happen in the show, but I didn’t expect it to happen so soon.  I really liked him.

I started watching the next episode, but I knew I was too tired so I found a good stopping point before trying to do what I did before.

Nick and Amy invited us over to watch Batman Begins in preparation for going to see The Dark Knight this weekend, but Amanda had had a rough day at work and didn’t feel like going out.

Zach Dotsey

Ate some cereal then mowed.  Usually lately Amanda and I have put the priority on getting to the beach on weekends.  We’ve done that a little too much this summer though, and we’ve got weeds in the front yard taller than my knees.

We did get to the beach though, and there were some big waves.  Mike "Lars" and Kaitlyn Boscaljon were out there already.  Mike ended up not going out in the water with his new (new to him, I mean) board.  He needed a longer one than the one he got, due to his height.  Anyway, I had a hard time getting out in the water too and had a couple nice big wipeouts.

Michael joined us on the beach.  Amanda and I had gone inside to the Frazelle house for a bit and went back out when he got there.

I went out again with Barry- he said he was impressed I took some of the waves I attempted.  I was able to ride one in, but I just didn’t have the energy to go back out.  Barry suggested I try a shorter board so I can get past the waves that keep breaking on me and preventing me from getting back out.

Amanda went for a walk with Anna leaving me and Michael to hang out.  We went in the water for a bit to let the waves beat us up then just sat and talked for a while until a girl went by, followed by a largish guy who was walking aggressively and hurling expletives at her.  We and a few other people took note.  I picked up my phone in case any authorities needed calling and sat up on my haunches.  Sometimes the girl would make a move toward the guy and he’d jump back as though she were trying to stick him with a hot poker.  As the guy got more and more aggressive I stood up, as did a guy a little to my left.  The girl finally sat down on the sand and hugged her knees and the other guy, who would later introduce himself to me as Randy, started walking over to I did too.

Randy, a Navajo, started talking to the guy and I asked the girl if everything was okay and if we needed to call someone.  The big guy, and by big I mean he was tall and stocky with a bit of a belly and a nerdish look, had a drink of some sort in his hand and kept taking his sunglasses on and putting them back on as Randy kept suggesting he leave the girl alone and walk away.  The way he was doing that along with the smirking grin emanated more hostility, so Michael walked up as well.

Somehow Randy and I switched and I started talking to the guy.  He said he felt like an ass and understood where we were all coming from and that normally he’d be the one in our positions.  I told him it looked like he’d had too much to drink and that he should just walk in back down the beach and let things cool off.  He kept getting defensive and I think implied that everything was the girl’s fault, but I pointed out that he was the one he was aggressively stalking after this small chick and yelling f-bombs all at her.

By this time, Jon, a friend of Hannah’s who’d been out surfing, had joined our little group.  I figured that me and Randy could probably have taken the guy, but we’re both pretty small.  I think with the addition of Michael, thin though he may be, would have sufficed.  Jon is really thin but has a surfer’s broad shoulders, so I didn’t like the drunk guy’s chances at that point, should he have tried to do anything then.  Anna and Amanda had walked up before all was said and done, but neither of them is over 5’2" and they hardly weigh 200 pounds combined.  Not that I’d have expected them to do anything but call someone or run for more help, but Anna’s also got that back she broke and Amanda, though feisty at times, is particularly not strong.

It all diffused though.  The guy walked back down the beach and the girl walked back too.  They were talking again later, but Randy said it looked like they were okay.  (I could vaguely make out their forms, but with my eyesight seeing from public access 39 all the way to The Oceanic pier is a bit of a chore.)

So that’s how I became the self-proclaimed hero of Wrightsville Beach.  Not that I actually did anything, and I did end up following Randy’s lead, but I was about to the point of going over and starting a conversation myself.

Anna and Barry had invited me, Amanda and Michael to stay for dinner so we did.  While Anna was preparing it I looked up and was reading Chuck Norris facts from a website.  Some examples off the top of my head:

Chuck Norris counted to infinity.  Twice.

Chuck Norris doesn’t need a watch.  He decides what time it is.

Chuck Norris is so fast he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.

Chuck Norris invented the C-section when he roundhouse kicked his way out of his mother’s womb.

After dinner, which was very delish, thank you, Anna, we spent some time looking up YouTube videos.  Barry introduced us to the band MGMT and I borrowed the CD.

I forgot to mention that someone had used my rash guard this morning.  I had last used it on Wednesday and I washed it off and wrung it out and left it in the shower stall.  I forgot to tell Barry that I’d left it, so it stayed out there.  Well this morning not only was it wet from someone having used it, but it smelled funny, like someone had used it, and there were streaks of something down one side of it that looked like it might have been blood.  My own fault for leaving it of course, but it sucks that someone got or spilled something on my rash guard.  If anyone’s blood is going to be on that thing it should be my own.

I tried washing it by hand with Shout and then soap but it didn’t seem to do much.  Amanda went ahead and threw it in the washer with Michael’s clothes and made sure to not let it go in the dryer.

Barry told me from now on I could wring it out after washing it and hang it up inside the garage.

Michael came by after dinner to wash some clothes, which I hinted at.  Amanda went upstairs to bed while I dozed and watched some of the end of Disturbia with Michael.

Zach Dotsey
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We had a good time talking about all sorts of stuff.  It started with Duke basketball of course, but then it went to work and marriage and kids and church and all other kinds of stuff.  He and his wife just moved here about a couple months ago and she doesn’t really know anybody yet, so we were thinking we’d all get together sometime.  She apparently discovered the joy of Rock Band on a trip to visit her family back home, so perhaps we’ll play some of that.

I got home, and Michael came by too along with Amanda we played Settlers of Catan.  I won.

I decided to catch up on a little TV when Amanda went to bed.  I’ve got a Robin Hood and two Deadwoods to watch.

I forgot to mention- I got a text this afternoon from Michael bearing the message "Nanny alert."  One Tree Hill‘s Nanny Carrie, Torrey DeVitto, had come by the coffee shop again.  Michael had said last time she went there that he’d ask her out the next time, since he had nothing really to lose in so doing.  She made mention of a fiancee to Michael’s co-worker though, so he didn’t bother.  He said she’s super nice and very approachable though, very easy to talk to.

Zach Dotsey

"Hey, that’s not bad," Dotsey said, praising his nephew when shown the picture.

When asked to comment, Sawyer replied, "You yelled at me!  I’m telling Mommy."

Upon receiving Sawyer’s claim of harassment Sawyer’s mother, Andra Sawyer, 21, promptly sent this reporter to time out.