Yesterday Henry's doctor appointment went well. Meg says he behaved OK and that he recovered from his one shot very quickly. He weighed in at 25 1/2 pounds and is now 32 inches tall.

His vocabulary continues to amaze me. Last night I got him to say "turtle" and recently I saw him identify a "boy" in a book and a "triangle" in his toys. He probably can understand over a hundred words by now.



Late last night, late for me anyway, I finished reading another book, White Gold: The Extraordinary Story of Thomas Pellow and North Africa's One Million European Slaves, by Giles Milton. The book follows an English boy who is captured by Barbary pirates in the early 18th century while working on an English boat in the Mediterranean Sea. He's taken to Morocco. There he is sold into slavery and along with thousands of other Europeans forced to build the palace of Moulay Ismail. Eventually, after torture, he "converts" to Islam. His conversion allows him more freedom. A wife is assigned to him, he has one daugter and he is given command of a military unit. After several failed escape attempts and the death of his family, he escapes to England in 1738. Two years later he writes a journal about his experience. Like the other work by Milton I read, Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan this book uses many sources contemporary to a narrative to flesh out the life of an obscure figure caught in a broader historical moment. I think this book did this in a more effective manner than the other book. It took me a while to read it because of all of the other stuff I've been doing, but I did find the book enjoyable. I'll definitely read Milton's other books.

I also searched one box of pennies. 2,500 pennies yielded ten Wheats, eighteen Canadians and one Bermuda 1¢. The Wheats were:

1917, 1928, 1940, 1942, 1946, 1947, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1958D

Found: 4 pennies (at Costco)