I’ll start out by saying that the fact that we lost Bruce a week ago today did not pass me by in the least.  Around 10:00 I was thinking about the things I was doing the week before: petting Bruce under the bed, carrying him to the car, handing him over to the vet then getting the news, calling Amanda with the news, breaking down in the back of the PetSmart parking lot.  It was tough.  To make matters worse, we went to Richlands again.  It was bad enough just going where we went last week, but Bruce’s absence was even more pronounced for me.

At any rate, I spent the morning doing what I did last night, which was working on ridding a website of malware.  It was kind of a big deal because the website is essentially inaccessible.  We were planning on leaving the house around 11, but we ended up leaving at 12.

Amanda and Milly were having much more fun.  Amanda baked a cake last night so she and Milly decorated it today.  As much as Milly’s enjoyed watching cake cooking videos it was like a dream come true for her.  She got to pick the type of cake, the color of the icing, and she decided to decorate it with M&M’s, which she put on all by herself.

So we went to Richlands.  I didn’t go see Bruce’s burial spot, but I did talk to Amanda about marking it.

Amanda’s grandparents got there not too long after we did, and I ended up interesting Earl in what an iPad can do by introducing him to woodworking videos on YouTube.    Milly was happy to take whoever walked into the house most recently and show them the room Nana made up for her.  She was very energetic today.

Anna and Barry arrived after a bit and we all ate chicken pot pie, sweet potatoes and of course cake with some ice cream.  We ate outside at a picnic table despite the fact that it’s December because, well, it’s December in North Carolina.

Barry and Anna left, then the Lemonses, then Amanda and I.  We let Milly stay there again so Karen wouldn’t have to worry about coming in the morning to watch her.

We came back, watched a little TV, Facetimed with Milly before she went to bed, played some cards.  Amanda and I took turns winning, but then I went on a pretty lucky streak.  I mean really lucky.  We were playing five card draw poker with the dealer naming wilds.  At one point I called aces wild and dealt myself four of them.  Then another time, when Amanda was dealing, I was thinking a number at her, fours or nines, I can’t remember, then she called that number, I looked at my hand and I had two or three of them.  Luck of the draw, as they say.

Zach Dotsey
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