Zach Dotsey

There was an earthquake early this morning off the coast of Chile, an 8.8 with a whole lot of aftershocks which  has killed, last I saw, over 200 people.  On top of that it was reported that a tsunami from it was heading towards Hawaii, but I don’t think anything came of that.

In my own life, Amanda got up with Milly this morning, which was nice.  She fed her then put her i n bed with me after she ate.  My baby was in a good mood.

A little later we, along with the Lambeths, ate a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage then went over to the Frazelles’.  Ben mentioned wanting to see them, plus he and Jessica wanted to take Graelyn out to see the beach.  I don’t know if the girls were off their schedules or what, but Milly and Graelyn took turns being fussy, Milly more so.  Since Milly was being so fussy (and Graelyn wasn’t at that point), Amanda, Milly and I stayed in the house while the Lambeths went to get a few pictures.  It was also cold and there are giant pipes running the length of the beach since they’re pumping sand to one spot to replenish it.

Anyway, we hung out with Anna, Barry and Kirsten (Hannah made an appearance as well) then headed on back to the house after stopping to pick up some steaks for dinner.  We also got some cake in celebration of my impending birthday.

We gave Milly and Graelyn a bath together, which was fun.  We used Milly’s bathtub thing and put Graelyn in the seat part with Milly in the deeper part.  They both love baths and seemed to have fun in there.

Milly, as I think I’ve mentioned lately, has been really distracted while being fed lately.  Everyone else was busy getting dinner ready while I was trying to keep Milly entertained (as I said, the babies were very fussy today) and since Amanda, Ben and Jessica had talked about Veggie Tales earlier, I thought I’d pull up some Veggie Tales videos on YouTube for Milly to see what she thought.  Well, it held her attention, and she drank all her formula while watching them.  I suppose it’s the dawn of the electronic nanny era in our household.  I’m a little ashamed to admit that.

Dinner was great.  Ben fixed the steak and we also had green beans and salad.  Amanda’s salad is always good, but it seemed even better than usual tonight, and Ben’s steak was just outstanding.  After that we ate some very yummy cake and sat around talking insurance and politics for a bit before settling into watching District 9, which Ben got from the Redbox at Lowe’s Food.  I don’t think anyone else liked it as much as I did, but I’ve been wanting to see it since before it was in the theaters and I was not disappointed in the least.  I thought it was really, really good.

Harvey was very smelly tonight.  I don’t know what the deal was, but he smelled like fish.  He did yesterday too, but Amanda was able to wipe him down with some Nature’s Miracle to take care of it, but that didn’t work tonight so I ended up giving him a bath.  He smells much better now.

I think the plan is to forgo church tomorrow morning.  As I understand it’s mostly going to be sort of a call for volunteers, and since Amanda and I together volunteer three out of four weeks a month and Ben and Jessica will be leaving, not to mention that we were up later than usual tonight and it will probably be stressful getting the babies all ready on time, I think we’re just going to get up and go grab some breakfast.

It was Upset Day in college hoops.  First, Kentucky got beat by Tennessee then Kansas got beat by Oklahoma State, so the top two teams in the nation, both with only one previous loss, both lost in the same day.  Georgetown, ranked 11, was beaten by unranked Notre Dame and Texas A&M beat Texas.  That one wasn’t a huge upset as they were ranked 21 and 22, but Texas was #1 earlier in the season and I think started out at #2.  In the ACC, Carolina finally got a win, this one coming at the expense of Wake Forest on their own court, which has to be embarrassing this year.  That irritated me because the Tar Heels were tied with NC State for last place in the ACC, but then NC State finally got another win (over Miami), so the Heels are still at the bottom, but now it’s a three-way tie between the Heels, the Wolfpack and the Hurricanes.  Of the three though, the Heels have the worst overall record, so that’s nice consolation.

Zach Dotsey

It was almost 70 degrees, but once you stepped out onto the beach you could tell it was a few degrees cooler on the sand.  Surfers could be seen up and down the strand, some walking back down the beach to counteract the drift as they headed back out to the frigid water, some sitting on their boards taking a break.  Of course still more were out past the breakers, waiting for a wave to catch, but it wasn’t as crowded as you’d think, thanks in large part to the water temperature.

Barry and I headed down shore a little.  I guess it was the temperature difference causing a fog, but everything in the distance was hazy.  There was a dredging ship off the south end of the island that looked like a castle rising out of the mist.

Today was the first day I have worn a hood while surfing, and it was the first time I wore my own gloves (which I picked up on the way to Anna and Barry’s).  All that along with my 4-3 wetsuit kept me pretty warm.  In fact, I was expecting to get cold at some point, but with the hood, even when I ducked a few waves I never felt like it was anywhere near unbearable out in the water.  The last time I went out surfing was probably a couple months ago and I was definitely out of shape.  The water was choppy and I had to fight to get out so I didn’t do a whole lot, but I caught a few waves.  The main thing was that I got out there, which will hopefully scratch my surfing itch for a little while.

Once I got out for good I sat and waited for Barry for a while before deciding to just head on in.  There weren’t many surfers out anymore and I figured (rightly) that I must have missed him on his way in.  As I was going to wash off my board I ran into Michael,  guy I’ve done Grow Zone with before, and talked to him for a minute or two.

Before all that Amanda, Milly and I went to church then picked up some bagel sandwiches from Atlanta Bread.  Back home we watched a bit of TV (The Soup and 30 Rock) before Barry texted me about the waves.  After we got back we put Milly down for a nap then watched Saturday Night Live while Amanda heated up some leftover white chili to eat.

We started watching Fringe, but I fell asleep.  I was actually planning on taking a nap before Barry texted me.  I caught most of the episode though, and it was a weird one.  It wasn’t weird in the way that Fringe deals with supernatural things, but in that it was listed as a new episode but obviously was out of continuity.  We guessed it was just an episode they taped but never got around to airing.

Once that was done and Milly was put to bed Amanda and I watched Duke take on Wake Forest.  It was a very physical game with foul trouble all around.  The point differential stayed around four for the most part with the Blue Devils taking an eight point lead off a Jon Scheyer three pointer just before the half.  Wake fought back, but Duke ended up going off in the second half once again and the final score was 90-70.

There was a controversial call about halfway through the second half.  Mason Plumlee was going up for a fast break dunk and was fouled pretty hard by Wake’s Ish Smith and ended up hurt for a few minutes.  While I think the foul was out of control, I don’t think it was an intentional foul, which is what it was ruled, even after review.  Duke was already starting a run at that point, but as my brother-in-law pointed out multiple times via text throughout the rest of the game, it was at a debatably crucial point.  Duke was already starting to gain momentum and that helped, but it didn’t help to the tune of 20 points.

Jon Scheyer was kept to single digits (nine), but Kyle Singler had 21, Nolan Smith had 20 and Miles and Mason Plumlee combined for 30 (19 coming from Miles!).  Duke also only hit four of 13 threes.  What’s promising about this and the last game is that Duke is no longer a team that “lives by the three and dies by the three.”  Once they do start hitting them again though, man, they’ll be deadly because of another great thing shown in this game: Duke can score in the post.  The third big point that I am really excited about it just how tough this Duke team is.  The Demon Deacons were very physical.  Mason got hurt and Kyle got fouled once and landed on his face.  6′4″. 190 pound Andre Dawkins went up to block and foul the very physical 7′0″ 230 pound Chas McFarland.  It’s a tough team that does not back down.

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

We ended up watching  just the first episode of Arrested Development last night, which is about what I expected we’d make it through.  The first DVD actually had an extended pilot episode and the regular one after it.  Since I had told the DVD to play all, I saw the extended pilot and a few minutes of the show that actually aired and noticed a few differences even in the little I saw.  It was mostly just a line here and a line there.

Since I fell asleep earlier than I usually do I woke up a few minutes early.  Amanda usually gets up first on Sundays, but since I was already awake I figured I’d go ahead and get up and let her sleep in a little bit.

Milly wore her pigtails today, which were a huge hit.

When we dropped Milly off t Grow Zone at church, we asked if we should move her up to the next level yet since she’s getting up and trying to crawl, but we were told to hold off for now.  After the service, Amanda and I helped out in  Grow Zone ourselves.  Nothing big to report on that from today.  I was in a full room, but it was pretty incident-free.

Amanda and I left the little camera at Anna and Barry’s last weekend and they brought it to the movie yesterday, but we forgot to get it from them, so after church we headed towards Wrightsville Beach.  We called ahead to see if they’d want to meet us for brunch, but we didn’t get ahold of them and ended up eating at Panera, where we also fed Milly.  A lady who worked there was smitten with Milly and talked to us for a while.  We also saw Kaitlyn Boscaljon’s parents while we were at Panera.  We’d met her mom, but not her dad.  He seems like a really laid back and nice guy.

We got up with the Frazelles after that and headed on over.  We got our camera, changed a couple diapers and hung out for a while.  We ended up watching a Nickelodeon gameshow called Brain Surge.  Why?  I don’t know.  Nick was on and the show came on and nobody bothered to change it.  While we were there Amanda took out one of Milly’s hairbands to fix her pigtail, but she wasn’t very cooperative in letting us put it back in.  I went ahead and took the other one out, and that child’s hair, the only way I can describe it is that I said that I thought it looked like Helena Bonham Carter’s hair in most of her Tim Burton movie roles.

Milly hadn’t really napped all day, so when we got home, since she was asleep, I left her in her car seat and just carried that up to the nursery, where she slept for half an hour or so before her 4:00 feeding.

We watched an episode of Scrubs and a Saturday Night Live from right before Christmas.  After those we watched Virginia Tech not seal the deal against the Tar Heels.  Ugh.  Kansas, the #1 team in the nation and one of three remaining undefeated teams, will be #1 no more after tonight.  They lost to Tennessee today, which was somewhat surprising given that Tennessee had suspended some of their good players for weapons and drug possession and recently.  There were a number of upsets this week, but of course the biggest and best was still College of Charleston over Carolina.

Zach Dotsey

I nodded off during the second half of the game last night, but not because it was boring.  Duke took Gonzaga to the old proverbial woodshed and ended up winning 76-41.

Amanda hasn’t been feeling the absolute best the past few days, so last we decided to play by ear which church service we’d go to today.  Harvey ended up deciding for us though, as he was whining from about 7:30 on this morning.  I don’t know if it was because he wanted to go outside, though I let him out at 4:00 when I woke up from falling asleep on the couch last night, or if it was because he’s used to having breakfast at 6:30 when Amanda gets up during the week or what.  It was obnoxious, but since he’d woken us up Amanda and I decided to go ahead and get ready for church.

After church Amanda and I ran by the house to get another bottle for Milly, let the dogs out and grab a coupon (which we forgot to use) then headed back on out to meet my brother, Adam, at Sam’s Club.  Originally we were going to get something for our dad from our mom for Christmas, but my mom told me not to worry about it this morning so he just tagged along to buy some things.

When we left there Amanda, Milly and I went over to Anna and Barry’s.  Hannah got to change her first Milly diaper (it was wet with a small bit of easy-to-clean attached) while I watched a good bit of Terminator Salvation before Anna went with us to take a few pictures on the beach.  The wind was cold and Milly started fussing after a little bit, so we weren’t out there long.

From there we made a stop to pick up a few Christmas presents, so we’re all done with that now except for my shopping for Amanda.  I think I know what I’m going to get her now, my original and much more exciting gift idea having been basically nixed.

We were pretty beat once we got home.  We had things to put up and bottles to clean, not to mention a baby to feed again.  Milly had virtually not napped at all today and ended up sleeping from the time she finished her 4:00 feeding (about 4:30) until about 7:00.  Amanda and I watched TV and messed around on the computer in the meantime.  Hopefully the late nap won’t mes up Milly’s sleep for tonight.

Brittany Murphy was found dead of cardiac arrest today.  It’s been a while since she’s been in anything and there was a Saturday Night Live bit on the Weekend Update segment making fun of her getting fired from a movie recently.  It was from last week’s SNL and we watched it after the news had broke but before we found out about it (from an off-hand comment my friend Jason Revill made on his wall).  Dying from cardiac arrest at the age of 32 makes one jump tp conclusions as to the cause of death.

Zach Dotsey

Church was just amazing today.  Mike Ashcraft wrapped up a series on an in-depth look at Jesus and at the end a guy came out and painted two pictures.  It’s better to show it than to describe it, and you have to see him paint the pictures, so I’ll wait until there’s video available of it and post it here then.

After we got back from church Amanda fixed us some bagels for breakfast.  Amanda set a cup of apple juice down as she sat down to eat, but Harvey knocked it over.  We put him outside and cleaned it up, then Amanda poured herself another cup of apple juice, and as she was sitting down to eat, she knocked that one over too.  I was talking to Barry right after it happened and he suggested we make her drink from a sippy cup.

After lunch we went over to the Frazelle house.  Of course, it wasn’t that simple.  Milly was fussy, which may have to do with not having pooped in two days now.  She slept a lot, too, so if she doesn’t go by tomorrow morning I’ll probably call the pediatrician.  Anyway, on top of that Amanda had to run back into the house because she forgot… something, I can’t remember what, and then as we started going she realized that she’d left her sunglasses, which she’d want since she was going to walk on the beach with Anna.

We hung out for a bit then Barry and I went out surfing.  I am so woefully out of shape.  I mean, I felt like I was just starting out once I finally got out past the breakers.  Paddling is not a muscle action that’s very commonly used in everyday life.

I scared myself a bit on the first wave I tried to catch.  I should mention first that as we were leaving the house, Amanda and I recounted what a terrible week we’ve had with illnesses and such and I said I hope nothing happened while I was out surfing.  So, the first wave I went for I wiped out on, which isn’t any big deal, but I got rolled around a bit under the water and my leash wrapped itself around both of my legs while I was still in water that was over my head.  I felt a moment of panic, but the leach pretty much unwrapped itself and I was fine, of course.  I went on to catch a few pretty good waves.  It was fun, but a bit crowded as time went on.  I think Barry and I were out there about an hour.  I really enjoyed getting out in the water and told Amanda (mainly because of how noobish I felt from not being able to paddle like I could before) to make sure not to let me go so long without surfing again.

Milly was sleeping in the stroller by the beach access with Amanda and Anna sitting next to it after they finished their walk.  We all headed back to the Frazelle house then the girls took off on another walk, this time just on the street I think.  We all hung out for a little while until I got a call from Mike Paschal at church.  He said one of the evening camera ops was a no-show and asked if I could man it.  I checked with Amanda to see if we had anything going on then called Nick to see if he could give me a ride back home after the final service then told Paschal I could do it.

Amanda dropped me off then headed home.  It took me a minute to track down everyone I needed to know where I was needed and to get instructions, but I got it and all went well.  Well, it mostly went well.  Mike Ashcraft got sick early in the 6:00 service (which may be the bug we had or it may have been from a trip to Mexico I heard he just got back from) and they ended up playing a recording of the 4:00 service, but the end with the painting I think was just as powerful.  I didn’t see the 11:00 service, but at each of the services I did see, people were taking pictures of the paintings with digital cameras and camera phones afterwards.

After the service I talked to Paul and Meagan Wicker, whom I haven’t seen in a while.  Their daughter Hannah’s face has just about caught up with her cheeks.  (Amanda and I loved her huge cheeks!)  I also met one of the couples in Nick and Amy’s new small group.  Their little girl was saying, “lalalalalala” and was very friendly.  She’s eight months old.

Nick took me home, and when I got out I almost shook his hand, but I pulled it back and said it was just weird to do that with him.  Not that I have anything against shaking hands at all, but we hang out more than that.  Shaking hands is more of a polite greeting sort of thing, whereas we’re on a hugging basis with the Warkentiens.

Amanda’s stomach was bothering her when I got home, which sucks.  Hopefully she’s not getting sick again.  Speaking of that, Aunt Robbie called me and told me that what I had the other day wasn’t food poisoning, because she and Adam now have it.  The good news for them is that it does seem to just be a 24-hour bug.

We’ve figured out so far that Amanda got it first, then she gave it to her grandma, Anna, Kirsten and me.  I in turn gave it to Adam and AR.  I warned Nick, because he was with me the day I was sick.  Fortunately Milly doesn’t seem to have in.  In fact, as I mentioned previously, she seems to have the opposite problem.

Milly, by the way, was very talkative today at the Frazelles’ and when I got home.  I hated to put her to bed, she was being so happy and conversational.

Zach Dotsey

I don’t think he’s actually 39, since both of his daughters are older than that, but when I asked how old he was today, that’s what Amanda’s grandfather told me.  He spent his entire day, at least from 11:00 to about 7:45, working on my counter tops.  On his birthday!  I felt bad about that, but I’m so grateful to have family that cares that much.

I wasn’t able to help out for most of the day as I was working, but Amanda did help take the counter tops off after she got home from work and I did lend a hand here and there, especially after I finished working.

It was quite a job, and since you know I like to be detailed (read: bore you to death), I’ll try to explain it all.

As you may have already read, Peggy and Earl bought us a new stove, but it was an inch too wide for the space in our counter.  The width of the counter was connected by a backsplash and there were “walls” of the cabinets enclosing the area with something similar to particle board.  What Earl ended up doing was taking out the cabinet walls and disconnecting the counter tops.  He then cut about half an inch off either side of the front of the cabinets then cut the backsplash to create two separate sections of the counter and trimmed about half an inch off of those as well.

Writing it out, it doesn’t sound nearly as complex as it was.

So what else happened today?  Well, it rained incessantly from the remnants of Hurricane Ida.  I think it was a hurricane anyway.  There was flooding in some areas, but we were fine here.

A few Milly notes on the day.  First off, she had a poopy diaper upon waking up, which is a rarity.  She usually has a morning poo, but it’s almost always shortly after eating.  Today though, she had a second poo while she was eating.  So that was fun.

At one point I was doing some work and looked over to where I’d set her down in her swing.  I glanced over at her and saw that she was looking at me through the supports of the swing with a huge grin on her face.  I can’t tell you how sweet it was.

I’m in the process of installing Windows 7 right now on the laptop.  I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, so I’m looking forward to checking it out.  If I like it enough I’ll probably go ahead and hook the desktop up with it too.

Amanda, despite the vigor she displayed in assisting her grandfather earlier in the day, wasn’t feeling well this evening.  She even took a nap with Milly for a little bit, and Amanda’s not a napper.  She headed off to bed before Milly’s dinner was prepared at 7:30.  I hope she feels better in the morning.

A great white shark was seen about a mile off the coast of Wrightsville Beach.

Zach Dotsey