This week has been a bit of a blur- I can’t believe it’s almost Friday already.
You know one of the nice things about the summer? We go to the beach a lot, and going to the beach for us is cheap. Oh sure we have to drive there, which, with gas prices like they are is about $4.00, but we get to park for free. But let’s look at all the costs. Suntan lotion is about $3.00 a bottle unless you get expensive stuff and that will generally last all summer and then some usually. We already have beach chairs and blankets and a couple games. Maybe we’ll stop and pick up something to snack on while we’re out there and a big bottle of water, so you’re looking at another $3 or $4. Barry has about 800 surfboards, so if I haven’t even had to buy a board yet. He and Ben Lambeth both gave me spring suits, but I am thinking about picking up my own rash guard, which is only about $20. Then on the way home sometimes we’ll get a milkshake or Amanda will get a coffee.
So you’ve got a number of optional one-time fee things, then in recurring expenses you’re really only looking at gas. If all we did was go to the beach on weekends we’d be spending probably less than $15 in a weekend. It’s so great to live in Wilmington, NC.
So what did we do today? Well, I worked. Scott and I were on the phone for quite a while with one client in particular trying to shore up some design details to go live with a major overhaul of their site. I had a number of other little things to do, plus a few little things I haven’t had a chance to get to yet.
After work Amanda came home and took a shower. Then she kicked me out of the bathroom; something about my behavior I think. Before all that though Harvey was downstairs in his crate after having eaten and we just hadn’t let him out yet and Bruce was upstairs with us. He was in a playful mood and kept growling at Amanda and chasing her into the old office. Then she’d run at him and he’d run back after her. She got Celia, a blue stuffed plush dog and Bruce’s oldest toy, and threw her by the bed when he went to hide under there. When Amanda came close by he would run out and grab Celia and drag her towards the bed, but he’d drop her because I guess he’d realize that she was too big for him to easily take her under there with him. But as soon as Amanda would grab her and start to pull Celia away, Bruce would come out and try to save her.
It was really fun to see Bruce like that. He’s five years old and so he’s not as playful as he used to be, plus when we play with him and Harvey’s around Harvey tends to want to insert himself into the proceedings. I mean it’s fun to play with Harvey too, but it was nice to spend some quality time with Bruce.
After that we waited around a little while until Nick and Amy showed up and we drove all together over to On The Border for Amy’s 25th birthday dinner. A lot of the people from their small group, whom we’d met when we ate at Indochine with them, were there. We had a good time with everyone there. Turns out that a couple of them know Paul and Kim Ayars, who used to be in our small group. Nick and Amy had even played Settlers of Catan with them before, and Kim had won.
We got back home right around 10:00 and Amanda went to get ready for bed. I started trying to watch an episode of Robin Hood, but Amanda saw a report on TV about a cop who had beaten his K9 partner with video of him savagely kicking the poor dog. Some DA or someone wherever it took place wanted to reinstate the cop and pay him for his time away plus court fees. Amanda was really offended by it and went off on it for a few minutes then tried to go look up the video online to show me, but the internet wasn’t working on the laptop for some reason.
So I watched Robin Hood then came to the office to type about my day when I got a call from Michael, who wanted to play Catan on Xbox Live. He won the first game and I did terrible at it. I won the second game though. I didn’t get to expand much, but I got a lot of stone and wheat (ore and grain, sorry- that’s what it’s called in the real game, as opposed to our homemade one) and was able to trade those in for a lot of development cards.
Zach Dotsey