Bernie and his younger three came too: Alex, Harper and Hank.  We got to spend a good bit of time with them.  I say younger, but Alex is 17 now.  Yeesh.  And they’re all such great kids, too.

There was a big get together at the Quinn house today to celebrate the 4th of July, and Baba was able to go to it.  The Quinns only live one street over from her, but she doesn’t get around the best and Dad drove her over there.  There was food and swimming and babies (Milly and Addison) in floaties that their Mum Mum bought them.  One thing that was cool to see was Jackson playing with a kid his age that he hadn’t met before.  There were a lot of people there, some I knew, some I didn’t.  All the Quinn girls were there.  Becky’s got kid #2 on the way.

Milly ate all kinds of food.  She particularly loved the deviled eggs, which is most definitely something she got from her mom.  She also enjoyed potato salad, cookies and cupcakes on top of having her first drink from a straw.  Kind of.  It was a juice box and I think she was getting the juice more by squeezing the box then from sucking it through the straw.  But whatevs.

There was a bit of a conundrum with going to a fireworks show.  Amanda wanted to go just to do something, but there was nobody to watch Milly.  I mean, Baba was going to be home, but she couldn’t get upstairs on the off chance that she’d need to get to Milly.  Adam and Renee volunteered to stay, and Adam even insisted on it, but by then I think Amanda was fine with not going.  On top of that, hers pants were still drying and as bad as the bugs have been biting and considering that we’d be out in a field, wearing shorts wouldn’t have been a good idea.

After Andra, Josh and Jackson left with our car, Amanda and I put Milly down.  She didn’t want to go down at first so I walked her around a little bit and even took her out front when she indicated that she wanted to go out there.  She saw her first fireworks over the treetops out there.  I don’t think she knew quite what to make of them.

Adam, Renee, Amanda and I played Puerto Rico.  Amanda won, yet again.

Zach Dotsey

Adam and Renee there when we got back. Mom and Dad, staying in hotel, showed up and took kids for a short walk.

Went to downtown parade (Milly’s first parade), bumped into Pat and Peggy Paine and Charlie Bowsher. Pat and Peggy’s niece said Milly was prettiest baby she ever saw.

Milly, who hadn’t napped, got fussy so we left with Adam and Renee. Put her down when we got to Baba’s and she stayed down until 5:30.

Spent time hanging out on the porch with Adam and Renee and Dobja. Went in and talked to Baba. A friend of hers stopped by with flowers and potato salad.

Everyone else eventually came home with chicken, green beans and baked beans. Mom fed Milly chicken (Milly’s first chicken) and she liked it. Shelby came over.

Milly and Addison kind of played together in the den.

Mom and Dad offered to take all the kids so we could all go out. Amanda did better with it than I thought she would. Really hope Milly didn’t keep everyone up all night.

Took a while getting out the door, but we all (Amanda, Erin, Adam, Andra, Josh, Renee and I) stopped by Shelby’s apartment then went downtown to a bar called Richmon’s. Downtown crowded for fireworks, but ended as we were parking at about 10.

Bartender wasn’t very good, but music and company were. Had such a fun time.

Amanda, Adam, Renee and I left about 1:30. Gas light was on in the car but didn’t pass any stations on the way back to Baba’s so we dropped off Adam and Renee then went to the closest gas station we knew. Closed and didn’t take cards at the pump. Mandy (GPS) told us another gas station; also didn’t take credit cards. Crazy!

Finally found one that did. Nervous about making it because of stupidly long light cycles.

Zach Dotsey

The spread for Milly's first birthday party

Actually, most of the family members who came showed up a little early.  My crew arrived at about a quarter of, and I was shocked to see Aunt Robbie with them.  I remembered after talking to her that she had planned on being around a little before Milly’s party, but she was supposed to have gone back before today.  It was really great to see her.  Not that seeing Mom, Dad, Erin and Aunt Reggie (who all rode together) wasn’t great, but I totally didn’t expect Aunt Robbie.

Amanda’s dad, Phil, came early and helped go get some thing.  Adam and Renee came, and Michael and Jenn, the whole Frazelle quartet, Amanda’s grandparents and David and Oxana all came.  As far as friends go, we had the Warkentiens plus Nick’s sister’s boyfriend; Charles, Deanna and their girls from across the street; Bonnie (also from across the street) made an appearance, then we had the Nowaks, the Clarks and the Boscaljons.  I got a call from Seth saying that Gavin was being pretty fussy so they and Dana didn’t make it.  I think (I hope!) I listed everybody.

It was a pretty good crowd.  When my family got here Milly had just gotten up and was a little upset by all the commotion, so she went upstairs with the ladies and they put her hair in pigtails and got her dressed.  She wore a little pink tutu that Amanda had picked out special for the day and a shirt she decorated with puffy paint.

Milly's first birthday cupcake

After a little mingling we dove into the cupcakes, or at least Milly did.  Actually, she didn’t even dive in like we thought she would.  Amanda made a giant cupcake just for Milly and put lots of cream cheese icing on it, but she mostly just daintily picked at it with her thumb and forefinger for a while.  Eventually she started open-palming it.  Amanda put a speck of icing on Milly’s nose and Erin gave her two little pink dots on her cheeks.  She looked a little like a clown.

When she’d had enough cupcake  I went to rinse her off in the sink, but it was too difficult so we just ended up stripping her down to her diaper and she and Eli got in the pool.  I was amazed at how much moisture a diaper can soak up.

We never got around to the finger painting, but maybe we will next year.  Or something.  We did move on to the presents though, and I think Milly has already learned how awesome birthdays can be.  I’m not going to list everything she got and who she got them from because I’m terrible at remembering that sort of thing and I know some things will be left out, but she did get quite a bit- lots of new toys and clothes.  Andra, who wasn’t able to make it, even sent something via Mom and Dad.

Milly's first birthday presents

Milly wasn’t really that into opening the presents herself, but she did enjoy playing with them as we opened them, as did Eli, Kenzie and Kimber.  When we brought out the gift from my parents, which was in the largest box, she did take the opportunity to climb on it.  She got up on the box all by herself and sat on it.  I’m telling you, that child is a climbing fool.

Everyone trickled out after the gifts were all opened, with the exception of David and Oxana who were staying with us tonight.  David wanted to treat us to dinner, so we made arrangements to meet Adam and Renee at Elijah’s.  We went early so we wouldn’t have to worry about a crowd or Milly’s feeding schedule.  We sat outside where it wasn’t too hot, ate some good food, drank a few drinks, went for a short walk on the river after dinner and just had a really nice time hanging out with my cousin and his wife.  It’s been a long time since I’ve had real quality time with Dave.

David and Oxana rode in the back on the way to and from Elijah’s and fed Milly on the way there.  It was funny listening to them interact with her.  Milly had a good time at Elijah’s too.  She ate pretty much the whole time, whether it was pieces of a cornbread muffin, fruits or mashed potatoes.  She didn’t drink much of her bottle in her last feeding of the night later on.

Adam and Renee came over to our place after dinner and after David read Goodnight, Moon to Milly and we put her to bed, we all played a game of Puerto Rico.  It’s a five-player game so Adam and Renee were on a team together.  Amanda beat me by one point but Oxana, in her Puerto Rico debut, killed it while Adanee or Renadam came in fourth with David in last.  Poor guy kept getting screwed when it came time to ship goods.

Zach Dotsey

Uncle Roy came in last night and hadn’t gotten a chance to see Milly, but he did get to this morning.

Mom made a breakfast of eggs, biscuits and bacon.  It was yummers.

Elmo, one of my parents’ dogs, was found injured this morning.  Amanda called Banfield, who said that they could look at her but if her leg was broken or anything like that they’d end up passing her off to the emergency vet, so Dad, Josh and I carried her out to the car and Mom took her to the vet.  The shame of it is that my mom had gotten a later flight to Rochester for today to be around the family more, and she ended up leaving us for a chunk of time and not being able to see anybody off.

Erin called when we were almost back home and told me that Elmo’s knee had been blown out, and that it was likely just from running around.  I think surgery was mentioned, but the best option seems to be to just let it heal.

Amanda, Milly and I left after Milly’s lunchtime feeding.  After loading up the car just about to capacity we took off back to Wilmington.  Aside from Erin, who was taking Mom back to the airport later, we were the last to leave.  I wish we got to see my parents more.  I’ve got to say, everybody did a good job of splitting time with the babies.  I can’t wait for Addie and Milly to get to the age where they can really play and interact.

The drive home seemed to go by pretty fast.  Amanda and I chatted a lot, but honestly I couldn’t really tell you what we talked about now.  It was just… pleasant.  Milly continued her record of traveling well.

After we got home and unloaded the car I went back out to pick up MarioKart for the Wii, but it was sold out at Best Buy, where I have a gift card (thanks, Dain!).  I decided to go ahead and look at GameStop across the street.  They didn’t have it either, but I considered buying a few used games because they had them on a buy two get one free special.  I didn’t end up getting anything though- I’ve got enough games to play.

After I got home and we got Milly to bed Amanda and I played a good bit of Wii Fit.  Hopefully we’ll keep up with it and it will do us both some good.  After Amanda went to bed I played a bit of Wario Land Shake it!, which is a fun little side-scroller.

Tomorrow marks the return to work.  I’ve already got plenty to do, from the number of emails that I’ve read over the past couple days.  I thought about going ahead and getting started on some of it, but I decided I owe myself a little time.

Zach Dotsey

This was the first time a number of people had met Milly and of course she was a hit.  She did really well, too, being passed around and held so much.  She didn’t get fussy until almost 3:00, which was the time we were planning on leaving anyway.  We got to the Rouge at about 4:00, just in time to feed her.  I called my friend, Jason Revill, on the way and talked to him about him and his parents stopping by, but he was sick and his parents were in Burlington I believe.  He’ll meet Milly one of these days.

My baby sister arrived with her family not too long after we got to my parents’ house.  Amanda and I gave Jackson his birthday present, a pack of Legos that came with instructions to make two different jets or a boat.  Jackson and I worked on that with a small break when I put Milly down for a nap.

We opened presents a little bit after that.  Aunt Reggie came with a guy she’s seeing.  I can’t recall his name at the moment.  Richy maybe?  Milly was up before we finished opening presents so she got to do some of that.  She still wouldn’t rip open the wrapping paper by herself, but she would grip it and I’d pull the box so it would sort of tear.  Jackson didn’t mind helping her open her presents.  He was really sweet with her, picking her up and playing with her and all.  He even told me that she’s a really pretty baby.

Renee, Adam’s former fiancee, was there.  I guess she’d driven from Charlotte to Wilmington then to Rougemont with him.  It was nice to see her.

Later on, after the presents had all been opened (we got a GPS and money, as well as a juicer in the Chinese Christmas/White Christmas/whatever part) we played a few games of Wits & Wagers and Scattergories.  I almost won the last game of the former and I did win the latter.

Zach Dotsey

We got up this morning and spent a little bit of leisurely time doing nothing before getting ready to go to Richlands for our first baby shower.  My brother, Adam Dotsey, and Renee Sikes, who was in town, followed us there.  They could have ridden with us, of course, but then we would have had very little space for carrying back baby shower gifts.

We got to Amanda’s parents’ house around noon and hung out for a bit.  Karen Mercer, Amanda’s mom, hadn’t gotten in yet, but her dad, Phil Mercer, had come back from a fishing trip to Portsmouth Island.  My mom showed up with my sisters, Erin Dotsey and Andra Sawyer, along with Andra’s daughter, Addison Sawyer, and my aunt, Robbie Horner, who was a special surprise guest, having traveled all the way down from Wilmington, Delaware.  My dad and Jackson, Andra’s son, were fishing at the lake in Roxboro.  I had talked to Jackson (and my dad) earlier in the day and he was very excited.

We ate sandwiches for lunch, provided by Amanda’s mom, Karen Mercer, then had a birthday cake for Adam since nobody had really been around or had had a chance to give him anything for his birthday yet.  Amanda and I gave him some new sandals when he and Renee got to our house earlier.

After a bit we went to the baby shower, which was held at Richlands First Baptist Church, which Amanda’s parents attend.  Karen’s friends, the Yo Yos, put the whole shindig together, which was a really nice thing of them to do.  We, or I should say Milly, got all kinds of things: two strollers, two handmade blankets, seventeen receiving blankets, onesies, outfits, a tub… all kinds of things.  I really can’t recall them all right now.

After the shower we went ahead and took a couple of the doubled things back to Babies R Us, since there’s one in nearby Jacksonville but not one in Wilmington.  We somehow managed to pack everything up in the car and headed on home.

We got back home just in time to see the end of the Michigan State-UConn Final Four game in which the Spartans won.  I was glad to see the Huskies lose, but since I figured (rightly, I’ll go ahead and say) that Carolina would beat Villanova and am pretty sure that UConn is a tougher matchup for the Heels, I’m a little apprehensive about Monday night’s NCAA Championship game.  No, I’ll be honest, I have very little faith that Michigan State can pull off a win.

Anyway, while I was watching basketball Amanda was sorting out all of the baby stuff (which I had carried inside and then upstairs).  She did a great job of getting it all organized for now.

Zach Dotsey

Ahh, those prices.  I often recall having bought a 400MB hard drive for I think just under $1/MB.  For those keeping track of all the conversions, there are about 1,000MB in 1GB.  And if you don’t know the abbreviations, in order of appearance here they are terrabytes, gigabytes and megabytes.

Remember yesterday how I got Time Warner Cable to give me a discount?  Well today I had to bargain a little with AT&T.  You see, a while back Amanda and I decided we were paying too much for her cell phone plan given how few minutes she uses and the price of the  lowest plan, so her parents were kind enough to put her on their family plan.  Now we just help them pay that and save a bit of money in the meantime.  The reason we had decided to go ahead and make the switch was because Amanda had gotten text messages and mail saying she was due for a phone upgrade, which we thought generally happens when your contract is up (so they can lock you into another one).

Well, what I found out today in the form of a $170 bill was that the upgrades and the contracts are on slightly different schedules, so we actually had a month left before her contract was up.  I called up AT&T to find this out, and I told them that had we known that, obviously we’d have waited the extra month.  I told the guy I was talking to that we had no complaints about the service and told him the reason we switched, then said that I’d be glad to pay the extra month, but not the $150 (plus taxes and such) cancelation fee.

The AT&T customer service rep was already working that out for me before I even suggested it, and it turned out to be an easy, no hassle process.  He said he hated to lose a customer for a reason like that, but understood.  I was very happy with my interaction with AT&T and the company’s understanding and willingness to accommodate an issue like this.

After work I went to help my brother, Adam Dotsey, move a few of the larger things out of his apartment and into his new one.  Renee Sikes’ parents were there to help pack up her stuff and were nice enough to cart Adam’s larger things to his place for him.  Adam and Renee seemed to be getting along just fine, so I don’t think their split was a particularly bad one.  I’m glad I won’t be there for the final good bye though.  I saw them say their farewells when she was heading off to France and he was moving out to San Diego.  I’ll admit, I was almost as teary as he was.  After four years though, even if this is for the best, I know it will be hard once the apartment door is shut for the final time and she’s driving off to Gastonia.

Well anyway.

On the way home from their apartment I picked up some hot dogs from Jeter’s Hotdogs for me and Nick Warkentien, who was going to be coming over to the house (Amy was working).  Amanda told me she’d had some cereal and didn’t care to have me pick anything up for her.  We all sat around and watched The Dog Whisperer for a bit, Amanda cut my hair, then we watched The Constant Gardener, which was pretty good.  When it was over I told Amanda not to go get herself killed on some hippie crusade.

I have a dilemma concerning tomorrow.  So a couple days ago, my Blue Devils played their worst game in twenty years and follow it up with a game against a Miami team that just beat Wake Forest by 25 points.  The game is at 1:30.  We’ll be in Raleigh, hanging out with my family away from TVs.  The way this game goes, most Duke fans feel, is going to say a lot about the rest of the season.  If they bounce back and win with a decent margin, things should be okay.  If they’re still shaken from the loss to Clemson and let that affect the game (ie. lose) then they’re probably not going to look too good when they host the Heels on Wednesday night either, which will result in a three-game losing streak and really affect the team’s confidence.

All that said, and knowing I won’t be able to watch the game, do I try to keep up with it online or do I just DVR it (which I’m going to do anyway) and watch it all without any idea of what has already happened?  I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to resist the temptation to follow along on the game thread on the message board.

That game will be the first one ever attended by my good friend and lifelong Duke fan, Jason Revill.  It’s hard to believe, considering that his mom works there and his brother has been given numerous tickets to go in the past.

Zach Dotsey

I talked to Bonnie Narron, our neighbor across the street, yesterday.  She told me that her husband Dave’s brother had been over to watch the Superbowl with them on Sunday then had a heart attack on I-40 the way home and died.  I had called her to follow up about the website we’re working on for them and was completely surprised to hear that.  They had been out of town the whole time, which is why we didn’t find out earlier.

I saw two e-mails that were sent at 2:00 and 2:30 this morning from Nick Warkentien.  His sister, Missy Warkentien, who is battling cancer, stopped breathing last night.  Their parents were on the way to the hospital when she started breathing again.  They had an idea that it had something to do with their house’s woodstove, so they stayed the night with some cousins.  I talked to Amy, Nick’s wife, today, and she said that apparently Missy’s got a collapsed lung.

The step-father of one of my co-workers, Josh Gitlin, is struggling with cancer as well.

Lisa Hauenstein continues to suffer with her back.  She and her husband, Justin, went to see the closest doctor who might be able to do something for her today in Myrtle Beach.  I talked to Justin this evening and he said that the doctor is going to perform surgery on Lisa, and they’ve got her scheduled for next Wednesday.  They’ll be there Tuesday for some pre-op stuff and head home Thursday.  In all the bad things, this is a blessing as it’ll be a proactive step for them that should have some real results.  She’ll be out of work for, I think he said a week and a half or two and of course she won’t be able to do a whole lot for a while afterwards.  But they’re really hopeful that the surgery will set things right.

Finally, I alluded to it before but did not mention it, but my brother, Adam Dotsey and his fiancee Renee Sikes have broken up.  I don’t know any real specifics, but I do know that she’s moving back with her parents for now in Gastonia.  Again, I don’t really know any details, but I know it’s tough for him.

Amanda heard a little bit of noise downstairs this morning around 6:30 and, noticing Harvey wasn’t in bed, asked me to make sure he wasn’t nosing around in the presents.  After we came home from church a few weeks ago and discovering that he’d had his way with a few things that were lying around I thought her request was a sensible one.  It just turned to be my mom, who was already awake and moving around.  I ended up staying up and chatting with my parents.  Amanda eventually joined us and we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood with the dogs- Bruce, Harvey and Schatzi.  It was nice enough out that my dad was wearing shorts.  On Christmas Day!

By the time we got back Erin had woken up.  We were all sitting out on the porch, taking turns to take showers, when Adam and Renee arrived.  Amanda and Mom fixed a breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage and biscuits then we cleaned up and opened presents.

Money was a bit tight for everyone this year, so my side of the family decided to do the White Elephant, or whatever you want to call it, where everyone gets one present.  I ended up with a laptop pad from Adam and Renee.  Amanda actually opened it first, then Mom stole it from her and I stole it from Mom.

We all just sat around for a while after that, listening to Christmas music and just chatting away the day.  Around 1:00 I told everyone that we’d need to leave to Amanda’s parents’ house before too long.  I really didn’t want to kick everybody out and hope nobody felt that way, but it was getting on in the day.

Everybody packed up and said their goodbyes and we left the house around 2:00, stopping briefly by Nick and Amy Warkentien’s house to lay out some food for their cat, Gipper, and to clean out the litter box, or as I call it, to go Gipper hunting.  Still no sign of Gipper.  I again assume he’s alive as his litter box had plenty in it, but I looked all over for him and couldn’t find him at all.

Amanda and I called a few people on the way to Richlands to wish them a merry Christmas.  Among those people was my friend, Chris Reeves.  Chris and I had been playing phone tag for a while and I still hadn’t had a chance to tell him we’re having a kid.  I got through to him, but he was at his parents’ house and his reception was bad.  He called me back a few minutes later from his parents’ landline and we started talking, but then I lost my signal on the backroads.  I called him back, but I guess since it was on my work phone the business name came up on the caller ID and nobody answered.  Or maybe they were busy.  Anyway, I left a message and he called back a few minutes later and we finally got to talk for a bit.  I lost my signal yet again a few minutes later though, so when I got a chance I sent him a text message.

When we got to Amanda’s parents house in Richlands we unpacked our stuff then opened presents.  My big one was a PlayStation 3 Blu Ray player.  I was pretty proud of the gift we gave Michael.  We took this picture that Amanda took of him and blew it up large and made it blurry.  We then put it in a shadow box and printed out a smaller, clear version of it and added a quote that he likes to the bottom of it, then mounted the small picture on a few pieces of cardboard to make it look like it’s floating out from the rest of the picture.  I thought it looked really cool, and he was pretty impressed with it.  I was afraid he might not like it because it was a picture of himself, but it’s artsy and his back is to the camera anyway.

My favorite gift that I gave overall was a print by George Pocheptsov, a world-renowned local prodigy.  The print is called Surfer and Amanda’s talked about wanting it for months now to put in the nursery.  We both really like George Pochptsov’s style too, and she was surprised and happy to get it.  I’d gotten her grandfather, Earl Lemons, to make a frame for it.

I had hidden that present away and gave it to Amanda after all the other presents had been opened.  After I did that though, Karen Mercer, Amanda’s mom, went and got her own last present.  For a while now, Karen had been making payments on a limited Dr. Seuss print (at the same gallery where I got the George Pocheptsov print).  She had taken us and Michael to pick out which prints to get because she was planning on willing one to each of them.  Michael found the idea too morbid and didn’t pick one out.  Amanda, though, picked a print with Sam from Green Eggs and Ham.  Karen went upstairs and brought it down, still in its brown packaging paper, saying she found one more present for herself , and went on about wondering what it was.  We all (well, I know all of us but Amanda’s dad, Phil Mercer, knew anyway) what it was and we were like, “Yeah, yeah, just tear it open!” as Karen was gently removing the packaging paper, trying not to tear it.

After a moment she quickly wrapped it back up then laid it across my and Amanda’s laps, and told us Merry Christmas for the baby.  Amanda was just about in tears and I have to admit that it stung my eyes a little.  Amanda had teased Karen about going ahead and giving it to us because it would be great for the nursery.  Karen had indeed bought it for herself, but she decided to go ahead and give it to us for the baby.

Well, after all that we cleaned up a bit then loaded up in Karen’s van and headed over to Beulaville for dinner with Peggy and Earl again.  The Frazelles showed up with a Seinfeld trivia game that Hannah had gotten from her boyfriend, Christian Black.  I was pretty tired so I dozed when it wasn’t my and Karen’s turn.  I felt bad for her having me on her team.  After a little bit though, Dain Dulaney showed up with his kids, Tripp and Anna Hawkins, and Dain joined Karen’s team to lead them to a victory.  There was one question I knew the answer to that nobody else did, I’m proud to say.  The answer was “Biazrro”.

Dain and crew, by the way, were in town because, being from Charlotte, it was going to be a long drive for them to come to the family Christmas get-together tomorrow.  I think they went by Patsy and Bobby Greene’s (the kids’ grandparents) for the day then came on down.  They were leaving for a trip to New York from Charlotte the day after tomorrow.

After we got back to the Mercer house Michael and I spent some time playing Left 4 Dead, a zombie game for the Xbox 360 we had both gotten.  We also played Resistance 2, which he already had but I was given for the PS3.

Zach Dotsey

Adam and Renee came over right around 3:00.  I thought they were going to be late, but luck was with them and they made good time.  They followed us to church and we got there right at twenty after.  Since there were only two services at PC3 today, one at 4:00 and the other at 6:00, I knew it was going to be crowded and sure enough it filled up fast.  By about twenty til four they had to shut off the main auditorium and start filling up the other auditoriums.

One thing I thought was funny was when we first walked into the auditorium Adam looked around and remarked that given the number of cars outside he thought it would be larger.  I said not a word but merely pointed over my shoulder to the balcony, to which he replied, “Oh.”

The service was nice.  I’ve seen candlelight services before, of course, but I was pretty touched by this one.  Mike Ashcraft, the preacher, did a nice job of explaining the symbolism of it, and seeing the light spread from the front to the back and all the way up in the balconies was just moving.

After church Adam and Renee went to our house to wait for my parents and Erin to show up while Amanda and I ran off to Beulaville to have dinner and presents with Amanda’s mom’s side of the family.  We got to Amanda’s grandparents’ house at exactly 6:00 and beat Amanda’s dad plus the Frazelle crew there.

We ate then opened presents.  Anna had bought me a nice leather jacket from Express many many months ago and had fretted over it fitting me because it had been on clearance and if it didn’t fit me she wouldn’t be able to take it back.  It fit very nicely though, and, if I may say so, looks pretty good on me.  I also got some pants and pajama bottoms from Peggy and Earl.

We hung out a bit and got home around 9:30, 9:45.  My family, sans Andra and her crew, were there talking about old times and such.  Erin recounted a story from her trip down with Mom and Dad.  Erin had been very chatty, and at one point Mom told Erin to turn the light in the car on.  Erin complied, not questioning why she was being told to turn the light on.  Our mom then told her to open her book and read.  From what I can tell she didn’t say it with any malice, just very matter-of-factly.  We all thought it was pretty funny.

Adam and Renee eventually took off and we slowly drifted off to bed.  I stayed up and talked to Erin for a bit, which I enjoyed.

Zach Dotsey
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