Have a blessed Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in Green Bay this year. No snow (though it was a possibility). We saw about 30 wild turkeys on the way to church this morning - we think that they might have been celebrating their survival. We watched the Green Bay Packers beat up on the Detroit Lions. During the game, my sister Tina and her friend Bob stopped up to visit. After the game we had the big Thanksgiving dinner. While we recovered for the rest of the day we watched TV for the most part.

Day before Thanksgiving

We made it up to Green Bay (finally) to celebrate Thanksgiving. Kris helped make the stuffing.

Thanksgiving approaches

Long time no write. I have been busy with a grant proposal and other things, and outdoors in November is not what I consider especially photogenic. It has been very rainy lately - in fact for over the last 300 days over half the days have had measurable amounts of precipitation. The record corn crops in the area are having a hard time drying out. It was not raining when we drove north to Naperville yesterday to get fingerprinted (again) for immigration/adoption paperwork. We left at about 5:30 am, and we got fingerprinted at about 9 am (an hour ahead of the 10 am appointment). Afterward we stopped at IKEA. On the way back we stopped at a state park with a lock along the old I&M Canal. Note the lock doors have been replaced with concrete.

Karen and Kris rang bells at a mall this afternoon.

Elsewhere in history, last weekend was the 100th anniversary of the Cherry Mine disaster. I read Tintori's interesting book "Trapped" about the event a few years ago. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1909_Cherry_Mine_disaster for more details.

Tonight we watched a recording of the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special and I took a couple shots of some of my favorite scenes. Thanksgiving - one of my favorite days of the year - approaches.

H1N1

This weekend my parents visited. It was fun, but I had what I thought was a cold all weekend. Last night I had a fever, too. I visited a doctor today and tested positive for Influenza A. Since I had seasonal flu shot this year (and it is thought that the seasonal flu has not really hit the area yet) we think it might have been a brush with H1N1. I was given permission to return to work on Tuesday as long as my fever does not come back. Neither my parents, Karen, nor Kris have any sign of getting it, thankfully. Interestingly, today Peoria County FINALLY had its first H1N1 vaccine clinic. We want to get Kris vaccinated as soon as possible and we hope that the immunity sticks before she gets it from me. The clinic was a ways north of town and we had to wait 2.5 hours, but she got the nasal vaccine. Karen was not in any risk group so she could not get a vaccine, and even though I am asthmatic, my fever was too recent to be vaccinated. Karen was interviewed live for the 5 pm news while we were there.