Juice

This morning Henry showed me a new word he learned ... "juice!" It's an old favorite of mine so I'm surprised it took him this long to learn it. For the most part his strict clear liquids only policy (self enforced with the exception of milk) has been good. Things have changed now I guess. Is soda next?

Yesterday he finally got his H1N1 shot. We had to have him get it at the allergist since Henry's allergic to eggs. It took a long time since we had to do a bunch of tests to see that it'd be OK. The regular flu shot was not OK. Later while Henry napped I went to his cousin Evan's Thanksgiving pagaent. Evan was a pilgrim. I also got to see Evan's classroom. I was very glad I went I had been wanting to see the school for myself for sometime.

The coins I searched this week treated me pretty well.

3,360 quarters turned up four Canadians, two US nickels and one Barbados 25¢. In them was also a new US quarter for me, the 2009P Virgin Islands.

5,800 dimes yielded one silver Rosie (1959), thirteen Canadians, two UK 5 pence, two Panama 10¢, seven US pennies and one Bermuda 10¢. One of the UK 5 pence was a new one for me the 2008.

1,840 nickels had eight Canadians (2 Ni). One of the Canadians was a 1952 steel variety and one of the US nickels was a key date, 1949S.

7,400 pennies turned up fifty-two Wheats, forty-seven Canadians, three US dime, one Greek 1 Drachma and one Euro 2¢ (Spain, 2005). I got quite a few older Wheats, they were:

1917, 1920(3), 1925, 1934(2), 1937D, 1938, 1940, 1940D, 1941(2), 1941D, 1942(3), 1944(2), 1945(3), 1946(6), 1946D, 1947, 1949D, 1950D, 1950S, 1951D(2), 1952(3), 1952D, 1953, 1953D, 1955, 1956D(2), 1957, 1957D, 1958D(3)

Found: 10 pennies (7 outside Sovereign Bank, 3 at my nephew's school), 1 dime (in Stop & Shop)

This weekend was pretty busy for us. Meg wasn't feeling well, but we still fit quite a bit in. We had Henry's aunt and uncle over on Friday and into Saturday. In the morning we had a fun man time going to Target for some errands, visiting the botanical gardens and finally spending time in a park. Today Henry and I went to church and then to my parents. While we were there Henry said, "Nana" and some word for Grandpa that I can't remember, but was definitely unique.

8,000 halves turned up some pretty good stuff this weekend. In them I found seventeen 90% silver halves (1942, 3 x 1944, 1945, 1945, 1951S, 1952, 1962D, 7 x 1964, 1964D), fifteen 40% silver halves (1966, 10 x 1967, 4 x 1968D) and one proof half (2001S).

Found: 8 pennies (6 at Stop & Shop), 1 dime (at Stop & Shop)

Recently I purchased a Blu-ray player. I had been wanting to better understand the places I've been reading about because of my exploration book craze and figured that since Meg and I won't be traveling much anytime soon watching documentaries was the best I could do. I find the player slow and really confusing to use, but the video quality is amazing. I've never seen my 50 inch HDTV look so good. It looks even better than over the air, broadcast HDTV. So far I've watched two documentary series from Netflix (for just $4 more a month you can rent Blu-ray disks from them). Last night I finished the second of them.



The first one I watched was the BBC's The Story of India presented by Michael Woods. The visuals in that series are really good. Michael Wood is easy to listen to and has a lot of enthusiasm. My only problem with the series it that it relied too much on modern images to tell a historical story. I definitely enjoy seeing how history is still alive in modern life, but this series over does it a bit. A similar one disc BBC documentary on a journey down the Ganges River looks equally as impressive.



The second series I watched (Meg did too) was Expedition Africa. I didn't see this reality show when it first ran on the History Channel and I'm glad I didn't because this way I got to see it in all its HDTV glory. The series was made for someone just like me. It's eight 50 minute episodes that trace the journey of Stanley's famous search for Livingstone in East Africa. Four modern explorers and about two dozen locals take the journey (unfortunately none of the locals are profiled in anywhere near as comprehensive a manner as the four Americans). The gear they used was modern and instead of ninth months they took thirty days (a obviously sponsored Subaru takes them through half of the territory). The bickering that goes on in the group is the standard reality show fare, but the scenery is flat out amazing. I can't wait to read more about East African exploration after seeing these disks! I hope similar series are made about other historical journeys, maybe an Amazon expedition or an Arctic expedition could be chosen.

I finished the penny drive pennies. 5,600 of them yielded twenty-six Wheats, fifty Canadians, one Bermuda 1¢ and one Bahamas 1¢. The Wheats were:

1939, 1941, 1942, 1944, 1944S, 1945, 1946(4), 1947, 1950D, 1953, 1955, 1956(5), 1957(2), 1957D(4), 1958D

Found: 1 penny (at the Tiger Mart)

Last night I worked my way through more of the penny drive pennies. 7,550 of them produced forty-eight Wheats (including one Steelie) and seventy-four Canadians. The Wheats were:

1913, 1915, 1924, 1936, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1941S, 1942, 1943, 1944(2), 1945(4), 1945D, 1946(5), 1947(3), 1949S, 1950(2), 1950D(2), 1951D(2), 1952, 1952D92), 1954D, 1955(3), 1956(2), 1956D, 1957(2), 1957D, 1958D(3)

Found: 2 pennies (1 at the doctor's office, 1 at Burger King), 2 dimes (at the doctor's office)

I did OK with last night's coins.

4,240 quarters produced one silver Washington (1964D), nine Canadians, one Dominican Republic 25 Centavos, one Bahamas 25¢, two US nickels and one US penny.

250 dimes had one silver Rosie (1964).

240 nickels had just a Bermuda 5¢.

3,900 pennies turned up twenty-one Wheats, thirty-five Canadians and one US dime. The Wheats were:

1929, 1935, 1936, 1938, 1944(4), 1945(2), 1945D, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1953(2), 1955D, 1956, 1956D, 1957D

Found: 4 pennies (2 at Home Depot, 1 at Costco, 1 at BJ's)

Last night I heard a lot of good words from Henry; "light" and "knock" are two I remember. He seems to be repeating words we say to him with greater frequency now. We had more good times chasing him around upstairs again too. He can sure get silly!

While picking up coins yesterday I got two 40% silver halves (1967, 1968D) that a teller saved for me. I didn't pick up too many coins, except for pennies.

920 quarters produced just one Canadian.

450 dimes turned up one silver Rosie (1962D) and four Canadians.

280 nickels had two Canadians.

8,050 pennies rounded up forty Wheats, fifty-nine Canadians, one Barbados 1¢, one Bahamas 1¢, one UK penny and one US dime. Most of these pennies came from one big box of pennies that was turned in because of a penny drive. I've got two other such boxes to search sometime this week. The Wheats were:

1937(2), 1940, 1944(9), 1944S, 1945(2), 1946(2), 1947, 1948(2), 1949, 1950D, 1951, 1951S, 1952, 1952D, 1953, 1953D, 1955, 1956D(4), 1957(3), 1957D(3), 1958D(2)

Found: 4 pennies (2 at Home Depot, 1 at McDonald's, 1 at Stop & Shop), 1 dime (at McDonald's)

OSV

Besides some terrible nap wake ups for Henry (lots of fussy, crying and writhing) and Meg not feeling so well we had a really good weekend. I had a lot of fun taking Henry around for rainy day errands on Saturday (the best thing we picked up was a free Thomas & Friends catalog). On Sunday we all went to local living history museum and had a great time. They have a terrific playroom there which I hadn't seen, lots of animals, plenty of gears and wheels and some historical stuff for Meg and I to look at. The setting of the village is 1830's New England and it just happens to fit perfectly with a book I'm reading.

Here are some pictures.



Above is a dinner plate Meg made for Henry last week.



Henry taking his stuffed pigs into the barn. The door is just his size.



Henry and Meg having a tea party.



Henry making a funny face in his costume.



Henry playing with the laundry line.



Henry and some other kids petting sheep.



Henry in the tub.

Found: 2 pennies (1 outside Old Navy and 1 inside Old Navy)

Henry in the vegetable garden.

I didn't do so well with my halves this week. 8,000 of them turned up just three 90% silver halves (1953D, 2 x 1964), nine 40% silver halves (3 x 1966, 1967, 2 x 1968D, 3 x 1969D) and sixteen proof halves (1971S, 1976S, 1977S, 1986S, 1989S, 1991S, 1992S, 1994S, 2 x 1999S, 2000S, 2002S, 2 x 2003S, 2 x 2005S).

Found: 2 pennies (both at the mall, one Henry picked up)