Amanda’s mom came to town to watch Milly for us this evening while Amanda and I went out with Anna and Barry. She dropped us off at Osteria Cicchetti then took Milly to Barnes & Noble then had dinner at Chick-Fil-A. Michael joined her at our place to play a game later.
Meanwhile, Amanda and I really enjoyed our night with Anna and Barry. They had gotten us tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld at the Durham Performing Arts Center for Christmas. Along with that they treated us to dinner at OC, which Amanda and I enjoyed immensely but will not visit often because we can’t afford it.
After dinner we had dessert at Boombalatti’s then stopped at Starbucks. I walked in with Barry, and near the counter I saw, of all people, Ben Farmer, the husband of one of Amanda’s best friends growing up, Amy (Brower) Farmer. Amy was there too, but I didn’t see her at first because she was talking to someone else with her back to me. I was so surprised because Amy and Ben live in Knightdale, near Raleigh.
It turned out that they were in town for the weekend visiting friends of theirs who were starting a church right down the road from our neighborhood. I had to steal Amy for a minute to get her to go knock on the car door to say hi to Amanda. I won’t soon forget Amanda’s jaw-dropped, brows-furrowed look of surprise.
We were on I-40 heading to Durham shortly after that. We got there in time to park, get to our seats, take some bathroom trips and chat for a couple minutes.
I can’t remember the guy’s name, but the guy who opened for Seinfeld was about as funny as the headliner himself. Jerry had us laughing the whole time we were there. Anna and Barry had taken us to see him in Fayetteville as our first anniversary present, and we enjoyed and appreciated the entertainment and the company as much tonight as we did then. The whole show was an hour and a half, but it felt like it was no more than 30, maybe 45 minutes.
Backing up to talk about the rest of the day, Nick and Eli came over for waffles this morning. Amy came when she got off work. Amanda, Nick and I played played two games of Dominion, which Nick won (the first one very convincingly, the second being much tighter), and Amy joined us for a game of San Juan, which I won. I was surprised at how much I won that one by; I wasn’t even sure I’d finish anywhere near the top.
Amanda did a good bit of cleaning up upstairs today. She cleaned the bathroom, put a bunch of clothes away and vacuumed upstairs. Milly and I went upstairs and watched Carolina play at Clemson. It was kind of a painful game to watch with little offensive flow. Clemson made a game of it towards the end by deciding to hit every three point shot they took in the last minute or so after not making a field goal for the previous five minutes. Carolina won by two. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went undefeated until they meet up with Duke again because Chris Singleton, FSU’s best player, broke his foot today and is out for the rest of the season. Maybe Maryland will surprise me (and them).
Zach Dotsey