The 20 Mark coin arrived a while back and I was really happy with how the coin looked in hand. I’d been a little concerned about unattractive marks on an MS62, but I was very happy with the look of this one. There’s a significant number of scratches on the high points but nothing I consider too distracting or detracting from the look of the coin when I look at it in person (pictures can always be a bit hit or miss with how good or bad they make a coin look under high magnification).

As it happened, on the same day this arrived I also got a little tin miniature I’d ordered that is a knight painted up as a German knight. So, a German coin and a German knight (shipped from a mini painter in Russia that sells these things at very reasonable prices for the level of quality he delivers). Interesting and fun timing.

I also (finally) doubled up on a trip to the post office - I had to mail a box for work and I finally made myself take my 10G coins, packed in a box with some CWT for grading and mail them to NGC. I'm looking forward to seeing all of those 10G coins back in their new matching holders.

Getting myself to actually mail that off and thinking about it has been a surprising source of anxiety for me, which is probably what kept me putting it off for so long. The idea of handing over a box with thousands of dollars of old coins that I've been building / searching for over 12+ years made me nervous - even more so after what happened the last time I sent a big submission to NGC. The box ended up getting soaked and nearly destroyed and it was delivered to NGC being held together with shrink wrap. NGC called me when they got it asking me if I even wanted them to open it and continue with the grading, it had been mistreated so badly. That was over 10 years ago and I don't think I will ever forget that call. But the box is being shipped as registered mail now so I'm hoping it'll be treated better this time.

We are currently in the middle of the 2nd week of Sam's 3 week intensive therapy sessions where he has 4, 4-hour PT sessions a week and he has to wear a cast for 2 weeks to force him to work with his right arm more. He's tired and exhausted and so is Shandy. I'm taking Ben to preschool and picking him up instead of her so Ben’s getting less Mom-time so he's more needy and my day /schedule is far more fractured and chaotic than it normally is. It's not easy, but we did manage to squeeze in a lot of celebrating of Ben’s 5th birthday the last week or so.

He's been spoiled quite thoroughly with tons of presents from all the family, and now he's about to get Easter. Tons of new Beyblades for his collection and he is thrilled!

I think I took the shot below about a week ago, he's been given like 4 more since then and there are 2 that had been missing for a couple of weeks at the time I took this and I have no idea where they got to. I think we're up to having 3 that are AWOL and I'm getting him a case to hopefully keep better track of them and lose fewer of them - not that it harshes his game to misplace one with this many to play with... Please don't think he's loved or spoiled though.