Milly didn’t sleep well last night. She was up for a little while around 6:00 but we ended up getting her back to sleep again. She woke up again around 9:00, which was surprising to me and Amanda. It was nice to be able to sleep in a little more.
We both had sore throats, and since we both had them I don’t think it’s a cold. Maybe it’s being around the horses and the hay, I don’t know.
Mom and Dad made a breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. We all ate and hung out for a bit before I took off to Duke by myself. Dad was going to go, but he’s got a bit of a cold and the forecast says rain, so he didn’t want to stand, sick, in the rain for a few hours. Amanda was going to the basketball game, but she isn’t a fan of football and didn’t want to go to that (and stand in the rain doing so). I knew there wouldn’t be time to go from Duke back to Rougemont and back to Duke again between games and we were making plans on how to work that out when Dad said he’d take her.
In the hang out time in between breakfast and my departure, Milly rolled over for the first time. She can roll from her stomach to her back and from her back to her side.
I met up with Seth Holloman, Randal Kennedy, Matt Tedder and a few other guys from the Duke board before we walked over to Wallace Wade. They were handing out Duke hand towels, which I got three of. It rained off and on pretty much the whole game except for during halftime and when the game was over, of course. I had a great time though, and Duke beat Maryland 17-13. It should have been a higher score, but Thad Lewis fumbled the football on the two yard line, which sucked. Duke got it back shortly after that though, and could have probably scored again but they took consecutive knees to run the clock out.
After the game we all headed back over to the parking lot, where Aunt Reggie dropped Amanda off. She’d been over to the house and doesn’t live too far from Duke, so she volunteered to take her to save Dad the trip. Erin, Adam, Andra, Josh and Addison were all at the house too, so between all of them and my parents, Milly had plenty of people to watch after her. Well, not that Addison could really help, being only seven months older, but still. Jackson, in case you’re wondering, stayed in Gastonia with his other grandmother so he could go to two birthday parties.
Amanda and I made our way over to Cameron Indoor Stadium along with everyone else. We picked up a pizza, Cracker Jacks and some water there for $14 (as I hadn’t had any sustenance save a couple doughnuts and a few cans of beer since breakfast) and headed off to our seats. We were only one row from the very back, but in Cameron even the nosebleed seats aren’t nosebleed seats. We happened to sit next to another guy from the Duke board.
The game was a lot of fun. Amanda really enjoyed her first trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium. Duke blew Pfeiffer out, as expected. The final score was 129-70. There was a lot of good in it. Freshman Ryan Kelly scored the second most points (behind Kyle Singler) and Mason Plumlee had a one handed dunk from just about the free throw line. Ridiculous. Harrison Barnes looked like he was having a great time, too. The Cameron Crazies made a life-sized cardboard cutout of him in a Duke uniform along with a few banners, but the cutout got taken away. There were a few chants too, like “Harrison Barnes (point at Barnes), this is home (point at the floor)!”
So that was my day of Duke. I really enjoyed it, and Amanda enjoyed her first Duke game.
Back home, Amanda and I hung out with the family after taking a peek at our sleeping baby. Mom freaked out because the soles of my feet were brown and she thought they were going to rub off on the carpet. When Rainbows get wet that just happens. So talked and hung out and watched some Kentucky football then parents and Addison went to bed. The rest of us played MarioKart on the Wii for a bit. I got beat once, by Erin. I was just about to overtake her at the end of the final lap when a red shell hit me. Dangit.
Zach Dotsey