Amanda and I got up and went to Port City Community Church, where a new series was started today.  Mike Ashcraft. our preacher, always seems uncomfortable when talking about money, which is what our new series deals with.  He does a good job though, I think.

After church we helped out at Grow Zone, which we haven’t done in over a month.  We’re always scheduled the second and third Sundays of the month, but in December I was sick one week, which was the same week we had our pregnancy scare and Amanda didn’t sleep the night before so she didn’t even go to church, and the fourth Sunday was right after Christmas, and the church took that week off.  (For the staff and volunteers to not have to worry about things and spend some time with their families.)  Anyway, it was nice to get back to it.  A few of the my three-year-olds, though not remembering my name yet, are remembering me.

There’s always a lunch of volunteers between the 10:30 and 12:30 services and during that time Amanda and I talked a bit with Karen Anderson.  We know her because she noticed that we knew just about all the same people on Facebook, so she thought we should know each other.  We’ve talked to her a number of times since then.

After we left church we went to look at some baby stuff around Mayfaire.  Lars Boscaljon had texted me while we were still doing Grow Zone and again while we were doing that, and it turns out that the surf report looked decent today.  Amanda took me by Anna and Barry Frazelles’ house and hung out to talk to Anna for a few minutes.  Before she left, her brother, Michael Mercer (who was coming by to do some stuff for his passport), came by, as did Lars.  Along with Barry, we all headed out for the water.

I had a lot of fun surfing today.  There were some decent sets, the waves weren’t too rough and it was easy to get back out.  I’m getting better at turning, but I still want to be able to take off at an angle.  Barry commented on my ability to catch waves, putting in the extra couple double-armed strokes to try to get a little more power right before hopping up.  I got several fun waves where I was able to drop in on the wave, which is always a fun feeling.  Michael and Lars caught some too.  Barry, of course, was catching them left and right.

While we were out there Barry said I should hit Amanda’s grandparents up for some money to start a college fund for the baby then use the money to go to Costa Rica with him and Michael.  I can’t do that, of course, but if anybody’s got about $1000 bucks lying around I’d be way more than happy to go.

Lars dropped me back off at the house where I nailed in the board that had come off the fence that enabled Bruce to come and go from the backyard as he pleased.  I went around and put some nails in some other ones as well.  Picking up the nails, checking Facebook and registering for some more baby stuff online was the list of things Amanda accomplished today.  She did feel like having cheesesteak though, so she went to the store and got some steak, cheese and hoagies.  Nick and Amy came by to eat and to watch Burn After Reading, which I really enjoyed.  By the end you could really tell it was a Cohen Brothers film.

There was a big game on at 8:00 tonight: Carolina versus Wake Forest, the number three team versus the number four.  We missed the first twenty or so minutes of it, but I was okay with that, especially considering that the outcome was Carolina starting off the ACC 0-2!  Yes, the unbeatable, indomitable, gonna-be-undefeated Tar Heels have yet to win a conference game, and I couldn’t be happier about it.  The Demon Deacons lead almost the entire game, but it got close at the end, with a final score of 92-89.  Jeff Teague, the Wake Forest point guard, was nigh unstoppable, while Carolina’s usual stars, Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson, didn’t have their best games.  In fact, only Danny Green seemed to really bother showing up to play.

For me, personally, it was a great way to end the night.  I know this doesn’t mean the Tar Heels are down for the count or that they won’t make any noise come March, but it feels so good that they’ve been exposed, that they’ve been shown they’re not as tough as everyone said they are.  I hope it shakes their confidence some while at the same time emboldening all their opponents from here on out.  A lot of the message board fans are pretty upset at Hansbrough (for not passing out of double teams and for taking a step-back three towards the end of the game) and Roy Williams (for being a not-so-good in-game coach).

Zach Dotsey