So I updated the site today. If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new banner summing up what we’ve been doing and how much Bruce has been helping us, although in all fairness, he did get paint on one of his ears twice. We attributed that to his attempt at helping us paint.

I also updated the image separating the sections over onthe right. There was a line with a flower design on it, which has now become a line with a stylized ZD at the end of it.

Today was a return to work. Amanda’s day was kind of rough. My day was so-so. It wasn’t much harder than some days, but it wasn’t the easiest either. At least I didn’t feel like I was drowning today, although I probably should have.

I took care of quite a bit of business before heading up to Independence Mall. On a side note, it seems like whenever you’re giving directions to someone who isn’t from Wilmington and you ask them if they know where the mall is, they ask which one and sometimes follow it up with something to the effect of: “There are so many of them.” So many of them? Last time I checked, one didn’t equal a plural quantity. There are a number of shopping centers, folks, but Wilmington, North Carolina currently houses but one mall.

Anyway, my boss, Scott Hendrix, and Otis Johnson, our sales guy, were meeting up at Bear Rock Cafe. I had mentioned to Scott that I was meeting some people at the mall for lunch, so I might be heading up there to work. As it was, I was getting enough done that I didn’t feel like leaving, so I didn’t until I got a message from Otis asking if I was coming. I decided to head on up there and meet with them for a few minutes before having lunch. Scott was on the phone with Josh for the entire time I was there, but I did get to spend some quality time with Otis. We discussed some sales tickets and he informed me of a nice Jeep someone he knows and trusts has for sale. I told him to find out what he could about it and let me know, although since we have yet to make a house payment and don’t know how we’ll be coping with that, it’s more of an inquiry at this point.

At noon I left Bear Rock and walked over to the food court to meet Amanda’s grandparents, Earl and Peggy Lemons, and her aunt (their daughter) Anna Frazelle. Amanda showed up shortly after and we all got something to eat. Earl insisted on paying. I got Sbarro’s, Anna got a pretzel and the rest of Chick-Fil-A. We sat around and ate for a bit until after Amanda had to elave to go back to work. Anna eventually went shopping for a present for Kirsten, my cousin-in-law, and Peggy and Earl went to see Anna’s husband, Barry, for a dental appointment. I went home and got back to work.

Amanda had to do a bit of running around for work and was going to get home late, so I phoned in an order to Buffalo Wild Wings and picked it up, Bruce in tow. By the time I got home she’d just gotten out of the shower so we watched some CSI and ate our dinner. The second CSI we watched was the first part of a two-part season finale and for some reason, only the first part got recorded, which sucked.

One thing that I did that was a little different today was to follow the advice of Mike Ashcraft, our preacher. The series at church right now is about rhythm and rest. At 5:45 (I worked a little late today) I turned in from work and went to sit in the papasan. I closed my eyes and concentrated on relaxing; breathing deeply, making each part of my body relax starting with my toes all the way up to my head. I planned to do this for fifteen minutes. I got as far as my arms and the next thing I knew it was 6:00. It felt nice. I think I’ve found a spot for a hammock which would be a great thing to help me in this exercise.