Here's some pictures from the last few days.

On Thursday I took the afternoon off to join Meg and Hazel in visiting Henry's school for his first play. Henry played a mole. It was great to see his classroom and classmates again.

Hazel is definitely ready for this school stuff. She was right at home.

We were sent home early on Friday because the coming big snowstorm. I had one enjoyable lunch, fiddling with my miniatures and watching the kids play very nicely together. They assembled these two storage containers as boats, each with a steering wheel, seat, motor and storage area. They had fun deciding what food to take and deciding where they were going to have their pretend picnic. I could have watched them play like this for hours. Henry went shirtless for most of the day; I'm not sure why.

Inspired by the snow outside on Saturday Henry built this snow scene.

I saw one report that said we had 27 inches of snow and another that said 30 inches in our town, but I measured something like 26 inches. It was tough to measure this one accurately because the drifts were insane.

At some point the kids came out to "help" me shovel the driveway.

Henry and I built this Lego model of our house on Sunday afternoon. We are both very proud of it!

Well it has taken a lot longer to get started up on my next hobby, to a point I can blog regularly about it anyway and so I've gotten out of the habit of blogging regularly. Lots is still going on with us, however. We're still very busy, not sleeping much, getting through various colds and seeing delightful progress by the kids. Yesterday Meg showed me something Hazel colored during the day. It was amazing! Her coloring is about Henry's level. The way she holds the pencil is impressive. I thought Henry had colored what Meg showed me.

Here are some pictures I found on the camera today.

Hazel loves to dress herself. Often one of the first things she says to me in the morning is, "Put clothes on?" Henry has gotten a lot better about outerwear. He now regularly puts on his own coat and zips it up.

Meg made the kids this snowplow one day.

The kids made snow ice cream with Meg one day while I was at work.

For Meg's birthday we went to Pump-It-Up ... we also went out to eat at Meg's favorite restaurant.

The blurry image on the left is Hazel.

Lately we've had some very good potty training moments with Hazel. We went out for dinner on Friday night - no diapers - no problems. I also took the kids to Sturbridge Village on Saturday and we had no issues. She's coming along! Meg tells me she is even interested in my underwear and has asked her, "Dad wear underwear at work?" and "What color underwear Dad wear at work?"

The potty excitement has increased their interest in the digestive system. After explaining to the kids that the body takes out the good stuff and puts out the rest Meg was asked by Henry, "Is the cookie in my butt then?"

A couple weeks ago I thought I'd continue searching halves this year or at least until I finished a pile of half dollar wrapper boxes I have. I didn't last as long as either. I decided this weekend to retire completely. The halves haven't been producing as well as they used to and more importantly I want to use the time for other purposes.

16,000 halves turned up four 90% silver halves (4 x 1964), five 40% silver halves (1966, 4 x 1968D), three proof halves (2 x 1984S, 2002S) and one Bermuda 50¢. The 1966 40% silver half was the last silver half I found.

2012 Books

My goal for 2012 was the same as it has been for a few years now, to read two books a month or twenty-four books by the end of the year. I came up one short this year, but still read quite a bit. The book marked in gray I've only gotten part of the way through. (I'll probably finish that one in 2013 sometime.)

Disaster/Shipwreck

I strayed a bit from just shipwrecks to stories about big disasters (not modern ones). I've got a big list of similar books to read. The best of these was probably Ship Ablaze.

The Johnstown Flood – David McCullough

Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum – Edward T. O’Donnell

The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic – David W. Shaw

Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History – Alan Huffman

Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mine Disaster of 1917 – Michael Punke

In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874 – Elizabeth M. Sharpe

WWII

Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi – Neal Bascomb

Escape from Davao – John D. Lukacs

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II – Mitchell Zuckoff

The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II – George A. Freeman

Adventure/Exploration

My greatest love is still adventure/exploration books, sometimes there is more adventure/danger and sometimes there is more exploration.

The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire – Joe Jackson

A Furnace Afloat: The Wreck of the Hornet and the Harrowing 4,300 mile Voyage of Its Survivors – Joe Jackson

The Ice Master : The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk – Jennifer Niven

The Ice Balloon: S.A. Andre and the Heroic Age of Artic Exploration – Alec Wilkinson

The Life and Times of John Manjiro – Donald R. Bernard

Drifting Towards the Southeast: The Story of Five Japanese Castaways - John Manjiro

Nakahama Manjiro’s Hyosen Kiryaku (A Companion Book) – Nakahama Manjiro

The Voyage of the Challenger – Eric Linklater

A Labyrinth of Kingdoms: 10,000 Miles through Islamic Africa – Steve Kemper

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe – Laurence Bergreen

Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504 – Laurence Bergreen

Colonial Wars

To assist with my next big project and because I want to learn more about them I'll probably be reading a lot of books about all the different Colonial Wars this year. I'm sure a good portion of them will be thin, 48 page, Osprey uniform books. (I only count them in fractional way, they take up reading time, but it doesn't take me long to read them through.)

The Anglo-Afghan Wars: 1839-1919 – Gregory Fremont-Barnes

North-West Frontier 1837-1947 – Robert Wilkinson-Latham

The British Army on Campaign (3): 1856-1881 – Michael Banthorp

Indian Infantry Regiments 1860-1914 – Michael Banthorp

Queen Victoria’s Enemies (3): India – Ian Knight

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a pretty good long weekend at our house. First up it was Christmas, Pt. II at my in-law's house. We had a nice day visiting everyone, exchanging gifts and eating on Saturday. I've got a year's supply of adventure/disaster books! On Sunday we visited some more relatives (not Henry's finest moment) and drove back home. At home we were greeted by nine inches of snow that had fallen on our driveway and walkways. We parked on the street, dashed inside holding the kids and began the cleanup. Using my father's old snow blower - now my new snow blower I made short work of the snow! That machine might be my best gift of the season. Already I've saved myself 3-4 hours from two storms.

On Monday we had a good time at Nana and Grandpa's showing off Henry's new plasma car thing and eating a special New Year's Eve dinner Meg made for us. Nobody stayed up for the new year in our house (although perhaps Hazel sort of did, because she's been sleeping so poorly for days). On New Year's Day we took the kids sledding at a local park with a small hill. We had a blast. Both Henry and Hazel did really well. This was their first time being sent off by themselves. So well I find it tough to believe. Henry tumbled over a few times, but laughed it off with no problems and carried his sled back to the top of the hill with no complaints. I had tons of fun pushing down hill with pushes of "100," than "110" and "111" (I'm not sure what unit of measure Henry used for these push strength requests). He and I even went down the hill a couple of times together. Hazel slid down in her little red sled kind of slowly, but fast enough for her and then waiting patiently for Meg and I to pull her back up. Hazel will definitely appreciate a new faster sled sometime soon. Henry told me he'll be ready for a bigger hill when he's five.

Here's some pictures.

Here's a small circuit Henry set up all by himself (with Hazel assisting).

I also don't want to forget several exchanges we had with the kids.

One morning I was trying to explain to Hazel that both Mommy and Daddy had two names. She told me, "Baby has two names." "Oh yeah," I said. "I show you." She then picked up her doll and showed me Baby's neck where it is etched, "Made in China."

While reading a new train book with Meg one night Henry asked what the stuffed buffalo heads were in the book. Meg said, "some buffalo heads." Henry said, "those buffalo heads are pretend. Little kids think they are real, but they're not."

I have decided to make some usual New Year's resolutions for myself. One, give up caffeine, and two, eat better. Hopefully those can last until Lent when I'll try to recommit myself to these promises. The biggest change for this year will be coins. I've decided to retire from coin roll hunting and pursue another hobby. It's been a good 5½ run. It was a difficult decision to make initially as there are some coins I wish I would've found. If only I could have found the 1938D Wheat penny! Once I got it in my head I wanted to spend time doing something else, however, it was tough to justify spending time going through so many rolls for not much gain. I actually feel quite relieved not to spend so much time picking up and getting rid of the coin and orchestrating everything in my head.

I'll probably sum things up in a blog post soon, but until then I did some quick spreadsheet calculations this morning and came up with the following numbers from my 5½ year search effort:

Total Coins: 11,483,793
Total Dollar Amount: $1,978,511.75
Total Weight*: 127,750.68 pounds or 63.875 tons

(* I ignored the small fraction of coins that weren't the standard clad weight coins and multiplied the total number of each denomination by the clad weight, except for pennies. For pennies I used a weight of 2.620, which factored in 20% of the older coin weight.)

8,000 half dollars produced ten 40% silver halves (1965, 2 x 1967, 5 x 1968D, 2 x 1969D) and six proof halves (1971S, 1973S, 1977S, 1978S, 2 x 1979S).

8,750 pennies turned up ninety-eight Wheats, one hundred ten Canadians, two Euro 2¢, one Bermuda 1¢, one Zambia 1¢, one Canadian dime, twenty-six US dimes and one US nickel.

1917S, 1929, 1929S, 1930, 1934, 1935, 1936(2), 1938, 1939(2)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! It's back to work for me, but the Christmas spirit continues on with our family, in our house. It was a good four days at home.

We started the weekend with a family trip to Bertucci's. The kids were pretty good there. We were there very early in a nice quiet corner. Hazel had a big bench to roam back and forth on. Henry made his usual three trips to the bathroom. I don't know what it is about that place, but I always spend half my time in the bathroom there because of Henry. Hazel insists on going every time too. She and I did have one cute moment in there when we dance together while Henry did his business (the music is louder in there, so she was moved).

On Saturday morning I took the kids to the Ecotarium. We had a good time there although I did have to drag Henry to the car because he was angry about not getting something at the gift store. "I don't want any Christmas presents!," he told me ... 'yeah right!' That afternoon Henry helped me cut up a big branch that fell from the mini ice storm we got earlier in the week. He had his plastic chainsaw and my bush cutting snips.

The next day after church Henry and I wrapped a big bunch of Christmas presents. He was very happy to sign his name on gift tag. I found it cute, but then realized that he viewed this tag as a magic tag that when put on a present meant the present was for him, not Evan or Liam! He was concerned I wasn't wrapping any of his presents and I told him that Meg and I would do so when he was sleeping. He left the room for about 5 minutes, went upstairs, came back down and said, "Did you wrap my gifts? ... I took a nap."

When Hazy got up from her nap Henry very willingly went with me to get a haircut. He was really excited to bring Hazel along. He got nervous when we thought we'd have to use a different stylist, but then our usual stylist came out from the back and all was well again. Henry did a great job and then it was Hazel's turn! Her first professional haircut. It was so cute. I wish I took pictures of it. She was very serious. It didn't take long at all, but towards the end of it she seemed to be enjoying it.

On Christmas Eve Meg found a good entertainment idea for us ... Pump It Up free jump time (as in no restrictions, not cash free)! Meg got an opportunity to cook multiple dishes for Christmas day while the kids tired me out (and stretched my arm out a bit) jumping like crazy in an assortment of bouncy houses and slides. I took them to a massively grocery store for supplies. I was proud of my patience in there, just a Dad, two kids and three carts (one adult sized and two kid sized). We were quite a sight! Very cute, I think. When we got home Meg astutely told me, "even simple dishes take a lot of work when you're doing three of them simultaneously." I don't doubt her. I wrapped more presents in the afternoon, this time without Henry.

For service we went to our own church. I got a promotion this year from sheep herder and "performed" as wise man #2. Greg played the part of an angel - with a speaking part. The donkey pooped, Meg managed Hazel for a full hour in the pews, it was a lot like last year. Afterwards we had dinner at Nicole's. The food was good, the kids were well-behaved and we put off opening presents to keep things more calm. When we got home the kids were put to bed quickly and Meg and I brought the Santa gifts downstairs. It doesn't take long to arrange the gifts around the tree, but I think those are ten great minutes to be a parent.

The kids were up pretty early on Christmas Day. The first few minutes of them downstairs were touch-and-go. Meg and I really don't understand all the anxieties, but they went away pretty quickly. Our presents were open in no time. Hazel opened Meg and my gifts as well as hers. I built a doll high chair for Hazel and Meg made us a breakfast treat. Before going to Nana and Grandpa's I built two Lego sets with Henry. It was a big a time thrill for me to be building new Lego sets with him. I'm sure I had more fun. It was a multiple "Lego-gasm!"

For dinner we went to my folks. There were a lot of people (Hazel pointed this out to us). I didn't get as much time to visit with some relatives I rarely see (this is a shout out to you, Aunt Carol) as I would have liked to, but the kids were pretty well behaved for most of it. Above all I became more scared of a video game system for our family than I was before. The boys got a Wii and brought it over at my request. It was addictive for all, but sure seemed complicated. I can't wait to hear how Nicole, Greg and the boys are mastering the system! We got home fairly early, but really tired. I "pushed" myself onward and made four more Lego sets. Evan would be proud of me.

I won't give out all the details just yet, but expect some big changes for this blog for 2013, including some local weather reports with detailed measurements as Meg got me a super gift I've been thinking about for years ... a home weather station! I'm pretty psyched.

We're all looking forward to more Christmas fun. Hopefully Meg and I can sneak out somehow and have a breakfast date or something similar.

8,000 halves turned up one 90% silver half dollar (1964), twenty-two 40% silver halves (1965, 3 x 1966, 14 x 1967, 4 x 1968D), one proof half (1978S) and one Dominican Republic 50¢.

6,440 quarters produced four Canadians, five US nickels, three US pennies, one Bermuda 25¢ and one US dime.

2,650 dimes rounded up four Canadians.

1,600 nickels yielded four Canadians (2 Ni), four US pennies and one Kenya 40¢ (1969).

A couple days ago it was my birthday. When I got home I got even better greeting that usual (the kids usually make a big deal of my arrival ... it is very nice). Hazel ran up to me and said, "Happy Birthday, for you!" while pointing at me and dancing a bit as if she were a Supreme. It was really cute. Henry came up to me and gave me a present he made, a drawing. That night Meg made me a special treat of ham, homemade mac-n-cheese and brussel sprouts. For dessert we had rice pudding.

The next night Meg and I went out to eat and my folks watched the kids. It tasted good and was relaxing!

400 half dollars had two 40% silver halves (1967, 1968D).

4,080 quarters turned up fifteen Canadians, two US nickels and one US penny.

4,300 dimes rounded up fifteen Canadians and one UK 5 pence.

1,440 nickels yielded thirteen Canadians (8 Ni), five US dimes and one US penny.

Overall those were some pretty lame-o coins I searched.