Back to work today.  We had a pretty full weekend, and it went by so fast.  Friday night we went to the volunteer appreciation party, Saturday we went to Durham and Sunday we were out at the beach.  It was a good weekend.

Not a whole lot to report today.  Scott is mostly feeling better and Tim will be back to work tomorrow afternoon.  Had a few good things that will hopefully make this a decent month for me.  It was still a busy day though.  It seemed that every time I closed one ticket the phone would ring again or another ticket would be opened up.

I did get to go to the gym today.  I tried not to push myself too much since I didn’t go at all last week, and I think I did good about that.  It’s nearly tomorrow now I’m not sore.  I kind of wish I had pushed myself more, because that ache after a workout lets you know you accomplished something.

When I got back Michael Mercer, Amanda’s brother, was there doing his laundry.  He and Amanda were playing a game of chess on the computer.  It was probably the longest chess game I’ve ever seen.  I think I went upstairs for about twenty minutes and when I came down they had lost a total of three pieces.  They both made a bunch of boneheaded moves, but Amanda’s at the end was what really made the biggest difference.  Amanda had a rook and her king.  Michael had his king, a knight and a pawn that was just about to get turned into a queen.  For some reason Amanda took the knight, which let her rook get taken by Michael’s king.  From there it was easy for Michael to corner Amanda into a loss.  He beat me a few days ago, but he just happened to get me in a bad position early in the game.  Luck.  Luck!

After Michael left Amanda and I watched The Pickup Artist.  It really is interesting watching these guys who are socially awkward learn to get some confidence.  In the middle of watching that Amanda called her friend Robin, who had sent her a MySpace message that she was going to be going to the beach this weekend.  She also took the opportunity to call back her friend, Amy Farmer, who had left us a message on Sunday.

After Amanda went to bed I paid the Time Warner bill.  Next to the mortgage and car payments that’s our biggest bill, I think.  Of course, it does encompass the phone, the internet and our HD cable package with HBO and a DVR.  I asked about a special they were advertising on TV, but I was told it was a lesser phone package, a lesser TV package and a slower internet connection.  However, since we were longtime customers in good standing, they were able to give us a bit of a discount, so I’m glad I asked.

Amanda told me after I got off the phone that Chris Mowbray was going to be moving.  I knew her as Chris Schoch in high school and she was Amanda’s boss when Amanda first started at Tribute, but she’d taken a step back at work when she had a baby, Dylan, a while back.  Dave got a job in Raleigh, so they’re going to be moving there.  I wish I’d made more of an effort to get together with them.  That’s always the way, isn’t it?  When we lived in Raleigh I didn’t see Chris Reeves or Kelia Hester or Ben Byrne nearly as much as I wish I had.

Zach Dotsey