I changed Milly at 5:30 then Amanda took care of her at 7:30.  I got up about an hour later and spent some time playing with her before going to work.  I guess at this point I should probably quit updating what time Milly gets up since she seems to be on schedule every day for waking up at 5:30 to let us know that her diaper is in need of change, maybe crying for a little bit around 6 or 6:30, then crying again somewhere between 7:30 and 8, at which time Amanda or I (usually Amanda) will go downstairs, prepare a bottle of formula then come back up, grab the Bug and take her downstairs to eat.

So until further notice, that’s what’s up.

Amanda and I went out for lunch today at Flaming Amy’s with Billy Supplee and Cyra Sherburn, two of her coworkers.  It started raining really hard on the way over there.  I mentioned to Amanda that this was Milly’s first hurricane weather.  Not that we’ve got a hurricane hitting here in Wilmington, but the weather is being influenced by it.  Actually, that might have been inaccurate.  I think what we had today was from a cold front from the west, which is part of what is pushing Hurricane Bill out to the east a little and keeping it off of land.

When we got to Flaming Amy’s I was about to set Milly in her car seat down on a table, but some other guy walked up and put his glass down just before I did.  I don’t know if the guy saw me or not, but he spent most of the time there with just one other guy at a table that seated six, relegating our group to pulling an extra chair up at the end of a booth since the car seat took up a good bit of space.  I was going to say something to the guy- it could be that he really didn’t see me, but we’d found our booth and I figured it was moot after the point.  The guys did later have a few other people with them.

Our time with Billy and Cyra was nice.  They spent a good portion of time updating Amanda of the office goings-on.

I worked a good bit after we got back.  Scott called me to let me know that he’d thought today or some day over the weekend was payday (it’s Monday) and that I could pick up my check early if I liked.  I ended up leaving the house around 4:00, but I didn’t realize the place closed early on Friday.  I just headed on over to Wrightsville Beach after that.

The water was glassy today.  I headed out with Barry, Hannah and Christian.  Anna walked out too, to go for a walk, and told me that Brian had had an accident with his board.  From all that I pieced together he hadn’t done anything wrong, but after he came up from a wave, the water had pulled on his board and after the wave passed it snapped back and hit him in the face.  It cut his eyelid and tear duct and, from what I hear, will require a little plastic surgery.

I didn’t have any incident nearly as rough as that today, although there was this one wave that I tried to duck and, well, I’m not sure exactly what happened.  I think either I got mostly through that one or another one came right after it and carried me off, tumbling me like a bunch of wet clothes in a dryer.  I said something to Hannah about it once I paddled back out.  She had been right next to me when I got carried away and told me that she had to admit that she’d had to laugh at me on that one.

It was a bit crowded out and some of the waves were pretty steep, but I caught a few.  The one I rode in was probably my best one.

On the way home I stopped by Wendy’s to get a little something to snack on and decided to fill up the gas.  I struck up a conversation with a guy sitting next to a bike outside the place.  After a little conversation he asked if I had a buck I could spare.  I checked to see if there was a dollar or some change in the car, but there wasn’t.  I didn’t mind him asking because we’d chit chatted a bit, and I started up the conversation, as opposed to him walking up to me and asking for change.  Since I didn’t have anything though, I asked if he’d like me to buy him a drink, to which he replied that he didn’t want any beer or anything, which made me feel even better about getting him something.  I told him I meant a water or a soda, and he asked if I’d mind getting him a Mountain Dew, and so I did.  I also got him a small bag of Doritos and a Mountain Dew for myself.  They were $1.50 for one, two for $2, so I thought why not?

I arrived home to a house full of Amanda, Milly, Cyra and Billy.  After Milly was put down we watched a little TV and ate chicken pot pie.  After that we watched I Love You, Man, which I really liked.  After the final scene I felt compelled to send my good buddy Jason Revill a text message saying, “I love you, man.”  A few minutes later he texted back, “And I you.”

After that Billy, Cyra and Amanda watched Old Greg on the TV while I fed Milly.  It’s a silly video, but Billy and I don’t find it nearly as funny as Amanda and Cyra do.  After feeding Milly we continued to watch YouTube videos until 2:00.  I can’t remember the last time Amanda stayed up that late.  (Amanda told me it was when Ben and Jessica were here.)

Zach Dotsey