Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Ugly Does It

Coming home from a hard day at work I was thrilled to see two more artelopes had arrived home. Of the remaining four that were still waiting to find their way home. Two were sent with the hopes of getting a business card, and two more were for pocket schedules. Ironically the two that came home today were the business card request kind. Not fairing to well with the teams I've been needing updated cards for I wouldn't let myself get to excited as these two have been historically bad for me.


Not exactly my best looking artelope as I went with the tire tracks look. Akron has undergone a name change this year from the Aeros to the Rubber Ducks. I should have known last year when the team finally sent me a card that something strange was happening. More than anything I'm thrilled that I was able to land a business card from the team before making this switch.


Even though this wasn't the return I had hoped for some good did come out of this.I like the look of this schedule, and will use it for inspiration when I write the team later this season. Maybe some better artwork next time will help deliver the results I'm looking for.


Keeping with the theme for this post, you will notice that this wasn't my best work either. I decided to keep it simple again by just jazzing up the teams name a bit. This is how the teams name is written on things only usually they add a bee that honestly I didn't think I could pull off. Luckily for me the missing bee didn't matter as the team sent the business card I was hoping for.


Burlington has changed affiliations to the Angels since I originally added their business card. Finally getting a new card to add into the binder is very cool. The two schedules the team sent are good looking too.

Who would think that all these sweet schedules would come from such ugly looking envelopes? Makes me wonder if I should start doing more ugly drawing since the teams seem to send better looking schedules when I do.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Artelopes- Going Three For Four

Before getting these four returns on Monday I had eight requests that were sent out either last Monday or earlier. Three of the four returned were sent to get schedules for the collection. The fourth had the specific reason of trying to update the business card collection. With that in mind why not get the business card request failure out of the way first.


The Jethawks have changed their affiliation to the Astros since I added their card into the collection. Sadly what came was five schedules that will go directly into the trade stack.


My next request was made strictly for the pocket schedules. A business card would have been nice, but far as I know they haven't made any changes to the cards I currently have.


The Dash didn't disappoint when it came to schedules as they sent eight. The return envelope was bursting so wide it's a miracle that everything came in sealed.


The third return was courtesy of the Midland RockHounds.


This year was an exiting year for us schedule collectors when it comes to Midland. For the past few years the team was issuing a brochure that had a small schedule you could cut out of it. The concept made getting a schedule a tough chore so seeing the team back to regular style schedules is awesome.


Closing out this set of returns is the favorite artelope I did in this set. The Asheville Tourists are one of the affiliates of the Colorado Rockies so writing them is always a top priority when it comes to sending out requests.


The lower left hand corner is supposed to be a bat hitting a ball. Was trying to incorporate some of the fun things associated with the night theme used by the team. I don't think it turned out too bad in the end.


Sunday, April 27, 2014

Tell Em The Cat Sent Ya!


If you've read The Prowling Cat for any length of time you know that I don't pimp contests very often. While I have participated in a contest or two that have you do a post about the contest on your blog. For some reason its just been a rare occasion that I actually take the time to pimp another bloggers contest. Well today rare is happening times two!


First up is the great blogger Fuji who runs one of the coolest blogs going 'The Chronicles of Fuji' is having a contest. This isn't just any contest though, Fuji is celebrating his 1000th post, and wants to go big. How big you ask?

Fuji will be giving away 1000 cards in total to four lucky winners. One of the best parts about this contest is Fuji wants you to do three things that I honestly believe two of them you should already be doing. He wants you to leave a comment on every post between last nights post, and June 7th. With the stuff Fuji puts out in every post this should be real easy.

The third, and final way to get entries is to pimp his contest. Not a hard thing to do either as the Fuji is worth it. So head on over to 'The Chronicles of Fuji', and congratulate the man on his 1000th post at the very least.


The second blogger holding a contest is Tony who runs the blog 'Off Hiatus Baseball Cards'. Tony is celebrating his 100th post for his blog. While I would love to give him the big build up that I just gave to Fuji I can't. Not that I don't think Tony doesn't write awesome stuff or anything. The truth is I haven't been reading Tony's stuff so I can't honestly say. What I will say is that I have added his blog to my blog reading list.

Tony is a Brewers fan from what I can tell, and adding another blog to the reading that shares the view from a new team is always exciting to me. I look forward to reading what Tony has to say in the future not only about his team the Brewers, but cards or any other collectibles he enjoys. If you are interested in either entering Tony's contest, or just congratulating him on his 100th post head on over to this post on his blog Post #100: This is it, so let's get it out of the way.

While at both of these blogs Tell Em The Cat Sent Ya!

Saturday, April 26, 2014

On A Losing Streak

Going into all the events when the month started, and continuing with a trip today. I haven't been doing very well in my stops at Goodwill lately. While the trips have been limited to only three this month due to everything going on. My takes from these trips has been a big old goose egg.

(Most consecutive losses for a pitcher)

To be fair though its not that I haven't seen some things I considered buying. I have just been much pickier while I wait on finishing up the future hobby room. 

(Most consecutive losing seasons for a team 18 from 1993-2010)

Something in me doesn't want to spend money on an item, and then wonder what I'm going to do with it. I'd like to know when I buy a frame, or something that it will work with the new room. Don't get me wrong on all this. If the right bobblehead or other shelf item that caught my eye came along. That item would be making the trip home, and finding room on some sort of shelf. Sadly though that hasn't happened for awhile. Hopefully in the near future I can get the room completed, and then my luck will turn around. 
(1899 Cleveland Spiders. Most losses by a team in one season)

Who knows maybe finishing the room will slow down what I buy even more.  Either way I enjoy the hunt that going into Goodwill, yard sales, and swap meets. So all this wont slow me down in the slightest. It will just mean the posts about these journeys will be harder to come by.
 

Friday, April 25, 2014

Cards, and Cars

One of the things we weren't looking very forward to when it came to the wreck was getting a new car. In the old car we knew what we had, and all its good, and bad. Owning it for almost four years we knew its history. Saying that, I can't say I was bummed that it was deemed a total loss. While I would rather the accident never happen. Being rid of that car is the best thing that came out of this whole ordeal. There were some things about that car I hated with a passion, and now will never have to deal with again.

Now for some good news. Last week we got a new car, and couldn't be more thrilled with what we got. While it is only one week old we have already fallen in love with it. I feel better in the car, and enjoy driving it much more. Hopefully as the newness goes away we still feel the same way about it as we will be owning it for many years to come. I say this with conviction as we both have histories of owning our cars until either the wheels fall off or in the case of our last one something bad happens to the car.

What all this has done is given me a chance to show off some cards I have always wanted to show, but didn't know what to write.


The dealership wasn't where we got the new car if you are wondering. When the Bandits were playing Robberson Ford was the big sponsor for the team. They would do ticket giveaways to games, and all sorts of other events for the team.

In one of those strange things that you just can't explain in life. During 1993, and 1994 when Bend had a short season Northwest League team called the Bend Rockies. The girlfriend I had at the time would make the two hour drive when the team had a Saturday game. We would stay the night at the KOA in town, and go to a game quite often. In 1995 we broke up, and I moved to Bend with some roommates. During the years of 1995 through 1997 which were the years the Bandits existed. I saw maybe one game despite living less then two miles away from the stadium. Its amazing how when I actually lived in town I never seemed to think about the fact we had a team in town. Now I'm back to two hours away, and Bend has a team in the local college wood bat league. How the times have changed.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Promotion Cards- Taco Time

As collectors we all know that some of the most fun items to add into our collections are the hard to find regional cards. Those cards that you either have to search the bay for countless hours to find, or have a connection who lives in the area the cards are from. As we all know the 90's had a countless number of those sets. Despite this some are still exciting when you find them.

While I live in the Northwest this Taco Time card from 1994 fits into that category. Not really a card, but more of a postcard. These came out during my collecting time where cards were going to make me rich. With that running through my mind I made it a top priority to pick up cards I thought would be even more rare. So when I came across this baby I thought it fit right into that rare category, and bought one. Not having any sort of a clue on its value, and personally not really caring. Whenever I come across this card I can't help but smile as it just seems like a cool card to me.


What you can't see in the scan is that the card has a glossy gold color. That glossy gold is what makes this card so cool in my opinion. The back isn't near as cool as the front, but gets the job done I guess.


From looking at the scan you can tell this was a promotional sample. What I have no idea on is if this ended up being a set made by Taco Time. What I do know is that during this time frame Taco Time did put out a set of Seattle Supersonics cards with the same idea. If they did put out a Mariners set it would be a great set to have with guys like Junior, Piniella, and Johnson anchoring it.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Working On My Motivation

There has been one thing that has hit me the hardest since the wife's wreck. That thing is my motivation to do things. The day all this happened my daughter, and myself were working on finishing up the painting in the dining room. Both of us were in full force paint mode, and I had sent the wife to get touch up foam brushes to we could get the corner spots.


Don't think for a second either that I blame myself for all this. Quite the opposite in fact. If I would have gone for them myself odds are the daughter would have went to. The passenger side of the car was destroyed, and she would have been in that spot. Even with this happening we believe all of us were being looked out for as things could have been much worse than they are.

The plan for that day though was to complete the dining room. From there we were going to texture paint the daughter's future bedroom that same day. Then the following day paint the complete room, and possibly start the process of laying down the wood flooring she wants. By now her room was to be completed, and me maybe in the new hobby room getting things organized the way I want them.


Instead the dining room took almost another full week to complete, and her room sits without anything being touched. I will call it what it is, a total lack of motivation on my part to do much of anything. All this has hit me in other things as well. I've had a few chances to post here on the blog, and just sat here reading other blogs, and cruising the internet instead.

This isn't a sad story though, actually I'm hoping it is far from that. On Friday I got off early to take care of some car related things as our car was totaled in the wreck. Afterwards with the help of the stepson we went car shopping, and purchased a new car. He went to college, and earned a degree to be a car mechanic. Due to this he knew to ask all the questions we would have never imagined. The bummer is the exact car we bought wasn't there as the wife wanted a bright blue car. Things like car color means nothing to me, but it was vital to her so we decide to wait.


 It's tough being down to one car, and that car 15 years old with a ton of miles on it. In the back of your mind you can't help, but wonder if the car might break down at any second. Thus leaving us totally screwed, and without any transportation. So getting this new car takes a huge burden off the shoulders. It kills the wife though as she can't drive it, and only gets to sit in it for her appointments.

We didn't have to wait for long as with the relief of the car things being gone. I started to try, and work on the daughters future bedroom. That went south in a hurry as we got the call that our car came in on the truck, and would be ready in an hour. Many phone calls later I had a ride, and went to get the car. Sadly we never did get back to working on the room though.


The good news is that on Sunday I motivated myself to draw out seven new artelopes, and will be sending them out today. Throw in this post that who knows if it really interests anyone, but for some reason I just have to do. While odds are I won't be back to the almost a post every day or two days I was doing. Mondays are the huge errands day, and that list is insane since the accident. Gone is Monday doing a small errand, and then hitting Goodwill, and/or a card shop possibly. On Tuesday through Friday I pull ten hour work days, and then take the wife to appointments followed by house stuff.

Who knows how often posts will get done. What I do know is things are starting to line up which is a good thing. My motivation is obviously starting to return along with all that. Hopefully I can keep running with it, and get things done.


((Not sure if anyone noticed or not. All the cards shown in this post are of players who have been benched for lack of hustle during their career. Wanted to keep some form of theme for the post, and thought that seemed like a cool one. I don't own any of these cards either, and got them from an internet search.))

Sunday, April 20, 2014

It's Going To Be Lexington, Wait For It... Legends!!

Thought up this idea for this post during the week when this artelope return came in. With what was my daughter, and mine favorite show ending. One last tribute seems like the thing to do. First as usual is the envelope that was sent.


If it looks fairly familiar it is because the thing looks really similar to last years request.


What can I say? The day this artelope was done I had done five others, and started to run out of ideas. Throw in that sometimes my limited art ability shows through which limits what I can draw on these. The good news is as usual the Legends took really good care of me.


While the request included the usual for business cards as I just like to do things this way. You never know when a team has changed their design. The main reason for this request though was for the pocket schedule. Lexington delivered with what is a decent looking schedule. You don't always have to go all crazy to put out a decent schedule. Sometimes something as simple as a ball, jersey, or in this case a hat gets the job done.

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Artelopes Keep On Coming

Here I am with the last two returns I have gotten from the artelopes. After these two I have only two more remaining in the wild waiting to come home. Sounds like I need to create more as schedules are starting to pop up everywhere it seems.


Charlotte got a brand new logo with season which is the reason for this request. I like the new look, and was really excited about adding a business card of this new look. Throw in that the team has been really good to me in the past, and this was going to be a grand slam. Problem was I didn't know that the team has a new stadium to go along with the logo.This means the team still hasn't gotten any business cards.


Not a huge loss as I will make another attempt later, and hopefully cross Charlotte off the updated cards need list.


As you can tell the Bees looks wording seems a little strange. The idea was to try, and make the lettering look kind of like a honeycomb. With my limited art ability it didn't turn out like I wanted, but didn't turn out that bad either.

Salt Lake is another of those teams that is so good to me. Each year they send a few business cards, and a good amount of schedules. This year was no different as you can see below.


For some reason I can't explain, I like the whole Bees name, colors, and logos. There was a possibility of going down to Salt Lake this summer as part of our vacation. While there we planned on catching a game or two for the Bees. For reasons not related to last Saturday the Salt Lake thing died. Would have been a cool thing to do, but I can't say we are heartbroken around here.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Keeping The Cat Alive Through Artelopes

Before all this stuff went down I had some artelopes that were next in line for some sharing. Being still not too into writing about much I thought why not share these goodies.


Looking for a business card to update the collection here is what the Bison sent.


Six schedules, but sadly no business card.


The Travelers got a brand new logo for this upcoming season. The envelope was a form of that new logo.


Now this is more like it! The top ticket looking thing is the Travelers new business card. Glad to be able to cross the Travelers off the needs for business cards. Now if once more teams schedules come out the remaining teams treat me like the Travelers did.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Its Not All Bad

After the events of Saturday we have been in a form of total chaos. While far from being anywhere near what things were before Saturday. We have had so many questions that need to be answered, and got some answers today. Being we can't get too much into all that, and personally I'd rather talk baseball cards, business cards, and pocket schedules. So lets do that shall we?

Not long ago I got a return PWE from a fellow blogger that I sent a package of Braves to. While I probably could look up the e-mails we exchanged, I'm not going to lie. I just want to thank the sender for the cards, and show off what he sent.

 John sent a few Mariners with the coolest being this double play card of Greg Briley.


Its not very often that you see a player listed as an outfielder turning a double play on his card.

Rounding out the PWE was two more Mariners.


John, sorry I couldn't give you a better thank you for the cards.

On the good news side of things. Everything I had to do today was phone-call related so I got the dining-room completed finally. Its a couple days later than I had hoped, but rather than think negative. I'm thrilled to cross this off the list of things to do around the house.

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Wrecked!!

While I want to do a bigger post with tons of cool looking cards. This post will be neither one, and The Prowling Cat will remain that way for who knows how long. Going along with this life has gotten in the way of blogging, and personally my motivation right now.

Saturday around noon the wife was heading to the store to pick up some supplies for the dining room painting. Within three minutes of her leaving I got a panicked phone call with her crying, and unable to understand what she was saying. Another person came on the phone, and said I needed to get to a certain place, and now!

Driving to the scene an ambulance, and fire engine went rolling past the intersection directly in front of me. Deciding to follow them as off in the distance I could see the main road in town blocked off. As I got close there was our car sitting on the hood flipped over.

It seems a lady ran the stop sign, and t-boned the wife on the passengers door. The car fish tailed, and flipped over which is what I saw. The wife was able to come home that day after over four hours at the hospital doing x-rays, and other not so fun stuff. Today she was really hurting, and even had some new bruises, and aches reveal themselves.

All this leaves me where we are right now. My Monday is going to consist of dealing with tons of accident stuff. How long this continues is beyond me, but it will effect my blogging. All this has kind of destroyed my ability to focus on much of anything else, but everything that will be happening due to all this. Hopefully it goes much smoother than I think it will. I've always been a prepare for the worst case scenario, and when things go good thank God for making it happen that way.

Whenever possible I will be doing some blogging as this is kind of a form of escape. How often, and how good my writing is yet to be determined.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Followers

Right before going to bed on Thursday night an interesting event happened that put this crazy idea into my head. This wasn't just a one time event though as the concept for this post unknowingly to me revealed itself on Wednesday. That is the day the great blogger Night Owl ran a post about getting his four hundred follower. A feat that is mind-boggling, and honestly well deserved for a blogger that consistently puts out great stuff.


Thursday came, and a moment that was just wild in its timing. Just finished with the writing, and the posting of the Rockies artelopes posting. I started to do another quick run through blogs for any brand new posts of interest. Afterwards I realized that one of those blogs was not on my blog list, and should be. Fixing that oversight I went about adding another blog which is when this post was born. Seconds after adding that blog I was hit with an e-mail from the blogger asking if I could put him on my reading list. The timing just blew me away as like I said it was immediately after adding the blog. What all this did was get me to thinking about my blog reading habits.


The follower is one of those things that I am still kind of in the dark about. While I know how it works, and the purpose of the follower. The follower is a tool I used only a few times when I first started to blog. Just as fast I stopped following blogs as I don't use the tool. My means of reading blogs is done by a habit that I honestly need to work on.

Using the favorites list I go directly to the Sports Card Blogroll. From there I go down the list of most recent blog posts. Any post that interests me I go to, and continue working my way down the list. By doing this I get to enjoy the blogs who are on the list, and show up. What happens though is I am missing out on some equally great blogs that either don't show up when they post or aren't on the list at all. These blogs are why I need to change my habits.


After doing the blogroll thing I move here to The Prowling Cat, and read the blogs on my list. This is where the biggest change in my reading habits needs to happen. Going down the blogs on my reading list should be where I start not end. Adding the blogs I enjoy the most, and then going to the blogroll after reading these blogs.

Hopefully I can get everything in order, and change my habit. I'd love to make the great stuff I'm missing less frequent.

If you have a blog that needs to be added here please let me know, and I will make it happen.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Rockies Style Artelopes

Trying to keep up with trades, and returns from the artelopes has been quite an adventure. Normally it wouldn't be, but as I've said many a time recently. We have still been doing the home improvement with the daughter helping me paint part of the dining room on Wednesday. With that out of the way I have a busy weekend coming with more painting, and getting the dining room finished up. Despite all this I have been getting back even more of the artelopes.

With the Rockies as my number one team in baseball. One of the things I try for each year is collect all the schedules from the Rockies, and their affiliates. Wanting to get an early start I sent out two Rockies related artelopes, and have already gotten the returns.


Not in a very creative mood, but wanting to get the Rockies before they started dropping in the usual variations that all MLB teams do. I sent out this fairly simple envelope, and got a decent return from the team.


Three hot off the presses March edition schedules. These were a little bit of a surprise as preliminary schedules from late last year were the only known schedules from the Rockies before I got these. What this means though is now I will need to find another collector to trade with for a preliminary schedule. No complaints though as it shouldn't be to hard.

My second return is a team I always look forward to writing.


The Drillers have been affiliated with Colorado since 2003. Starting my collection of their schedules that same year I have since added older schedules from their affiliation with the Rangers. Always good to me, and thus one of my favorites when baseball comes. Tulsa didn't disappoint as they did something that is very rare in my returns.


They dropped two different covers on me. Nothing is better than getting not just one schedule than you didn't know about, but two new schedules. Tulsa has a tendency to do a minimum two or three covers, and three sponsors per cover each season. With it being this early, and two covers already out I expect another one or two covers, and the usual sponsor stuff. These two have me excited about seeing all this when it starts to happen.

I have more returns coming in the next couple days, and a PWE from another blogger. Hopefully I can start coming up with some ideas after those as the whole house stuff has been frying my brain.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Stuffed

In a trend that I have become quite fond of since starting this blog. Duff who runs the blog Bleedin' Brown and Gold dropped another surprise on me. This surprise came in the form of a PWE, but not just any PWE. This thing was stuffed with all sorts of goodies that I honestly haven't even opened. I wanted to share the pure awesomeness of this thing as I got it.


Now that is an impressive sight. Contained within that blue painters tape are four hard card sleeves. While part of me wants to start with the hard case that you are looking at. Baseball season started on Monday, and so in honor of that we start with the baseball.


Not a bad way to start off a PWE if you ask me.  A nice looking schedule showing off two players that are either still with the team or was there last season.


Now that is a good looking schedule. For those that don't know I am a fan of arena football, and am pretty excited that Portland now has a team. While I'm not sure if I will get to hit any games this season it's still pretty cool. Originally I wanted to hit one or two games this year, but two things have now put that in jeopardy. A possible change in vacation plans that if it happens will change the sports funds by a ton. The second is right now I'm pretty excited about baseball season, and if it comes down to choosing odds are baseball will win. Throw in that I can do three baseball games minimum for what one arena football game would cost. When you look at it that way its almost a no-brainer on which one I should do.


As I go through this PWE I'm starting to get a little jealous of Duff. I'm seeing a trend here of all these sports going on that has to be brutal in trying to figure out what you want to watch. Throw in some basketball, and things could really get interesting. Wait....


I just remembered reading a post or two by Duff talking about going to an Energy game a few months back. While my memory gets the best of me sometimes I recall reading that he won some shorts at the game. I also remember him saying that it was in one word boooooriiiing. So I guess the Energy aren't much of a threat to take a chunk out of his sports watching budget. What I am thankful for is that he thought of me, and picked up a business card for my collection. The Energy were one of many NBADL team I was missing a card for.

Thank you so much for all the goodies Duff. Nothing is cooler to me than getting a potpourri of stuff like the PWE you dropped on me. Its things like this that makes blogging, fellow bloggers, and readers so cool. Be it baseball cards, business cards, pocket schedules, or whatever else you collect. To realize that while either at a sporting event, card show, or while running around town . A person thought about you when they saw those items, and picked them up especially for you is an awesome feeling.