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2/6/1999 Antiques Roadshow11:20 a.m. Stephen is definitely sick today. He was running a fever of between 100 and 101 degs. yesterday afternoon and again this morning when he woke up. He doesn't want to do anything; he just wants to be held. Daniel, fortunately, has recovered except for a slight cough. He'd already seemed much better last night with no more fever, so Tab and I have decided to let Stephanie take him to the play this afternoon, as originally planned, and then keep him overnight. I'm glad Daniel will be going away. He'll get more rest there, for one thing. He always sleeps longer at Stephanie's house than here because when he's home he wants to be up and doing whatever his brothers are doing. Also he is a cranky convalescent, and I don't have the patience right now to deal with him. This morning he has made up for his day and a half of inactivity by picking fights with his younger brothers. 2:30 p.m. The twins are sleeping, and I am taking a quick break from my work on Peretti. From my workstation I can see the TV, and I'm currently watching Antiques Roadshow on PBS. Tab and I love this show. It's thrilling to watch as someone discovers a vase she purchased for a few dollars at a flea market is a piece of Tiffany art glass worth thousands of dollars. The most amazing story we saw was last season when a woman who brought in a wooden card table she bought 30 years ago for $25 dollars and learned it was over two hundred years old and worth at least $200,000 to $300,000. This year they had a follow-up to the story with footage from the Sotheby's auction: the table fetched over $490,000! Some people bring in family heirlooms that have been passed down through the generations. Often these folks don't know much about the items they possess, so it is interesting for them to learn something about the history of the items from the appraiser in addition to finding out the monetary value. Occasionally appraisers have to break the bad news to an owner that the object he or she thought might be valuable is actually a fake. The stories I like best are the ones like the lady with the card table: someone buys something at a flea market not because she thinks it might be valuable but simply because she loves it. Finding out later that the object is worth hundreds or thousands of dollars comes as an amazing surprise to the owner and to us.
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