As usual Amanda and I got up this morning and went to the 8:30 service at Port City Community Church. We were running a little behind, but we still made it. After church we did a bunch of running around for things we needed from Wal-Mart and PetSmart as well as a few Father’s Days gifts. I called my dad as we were leaving church.

We were supposed to get some food, as Amanda and I both were hungry, but we were running out of time since we were planning on getting to Beulaville by 1:00 for lunch with the Lemons family. (That’s Amanda’s mom’s family.) I did end up stopping at a store off the I-40 exit for Beulaville that we take to get a honey bun and some drinks. I accidentally got a low calorie Snapple Apple. I knew with one sip I’d gotten the wrong thing, because the taste was so completely watered down.

The Frazelles were already at the Lemons house before Amanda and I got there, which I’m pretty sure was a first, and the Mercers ran behind due to a long church sermon. The extended Lemons family was in full attendance; Karen, Phil and Michael Mercer and Anna, Barry, Hannah and Kirsten Frazelle, plus, of course, Amanda and myself, with our Chihuahua, Bruce and the Frazelle’s King Charles Spaniel, Scout. We mostly sat around and chatted or dozed after we ate the ham and biscuits and corn (the corn was really good) and potatos and apple fritters. It was a nice lunch. We discussed such things as Michael’s choice of majors now that he’s transferring to UNCW (marine biology), music, the fair tax and other things. Medical Marvel or one of those kinds of shows was on the TV the whole time we were there, so we took time now and then to remark on the things on the show, like kids born without stomachs and people who got cancer from the slightest exposure to the sun.

For Father’s Day 2006 we got Phil a shirt and a portable mini fridge (that you can plug into your car) and we got Earl a gift certificate to Lowes, for lack of anything else to get him. Amanda did get a card with Duke Blue Devils logo on it, just to be different, since he’s a NC State fan. The card she got her dad was a perfect one, as it talked about bats eating flies (or mosquitos, as Amanda penned in). Long story though. It’s one that should be told at some point, but not right now.

I can’t remember exactly what time we left, but it took us a while to actually go. This is a talkative family. Earl, my grandfather-in-law, gave us a butterfly house he’d made along with a saw he had replaced. It’d be nice to get a shop at some point and actually be somewhat handy with it.

When we got home Amanda and I watched The Interpretor after planting a bush we’d been given and watering the plants. It was an alright movie. I spent a lot of the time working on getting some wedding pictures finished up. I think I should totally and finally be done tonight or, depending on the time it takes to process and upload everything, tomorrow (assuming there too that I have time to do any of that with work being as busy as it has been and our goal of finishing all the painting before this weekend).

And that was Father’s Day 2006.

Zach Dotsey