No, I am not ready for some football, thanks for asking

When I turned the TV on this afternoon, the first play of the NFL season that I saw was the quarterback for my Buffalo Bills enjoying his initial taste of Orchard Park grass. Patriots were ahead 10-0. The Bills proceeded to lose in typically heartbreaking fashion.

I am not ready for football. Haven't been for years. Wrote about that a few times. But, Hank Williams Jr. wannabes, you keep asking me if I'm ready. So here is why I am not, in the ever popular reverse top-10 format:

10. Chris Berman
9. They took away the Oilers
8. "The National Football League"
7. Military and war references
6. My Bills
5. For the 900th time, I do not want to watch your "all-new" TV show
4. One of those horrible commercials is going to invade my brain, latch on, and game-day-bucket-go-boom me until I drive over a cliff on Super Bowl Sunday
3. The NFL is fully invested in shortening the lifespan of its players
2. Criminals everywhere
1. IT'S STILL BASEBALL SEASON

It took me 90 seconds to come up with that list. I didn't even cover pregame shows, fantasy team conversations, Football Night In America, the NFL's complete inability to dress itself or blackout rules.

So let us turn to more pleasant activity. I have a couple of blog matters to address, most actually related to baseball -- you know, that sport that plays 146 more times than the sport that is currently yelling at you from your TV.

First, some links.

There are a couple of blogs that I thought had disappeared a long time ago that have recently re-emerged. The first you may know about already. The Troll has returned and he's collecting cards. One of the finer developments of the past week if you ask me.

The second is Project Phillies, who last posted FOUR years ago before returning. If that isn't incentive to never clear anyone from your blog roll. I actually traded with Amy once. It was on that post that a relative of former player Steve Brye contacted me and berated me for telling everyone how Brye was the favorite player of my brother's stuffed lion. (OK, actually she thought it was delightful).

Also, you may have heard that I won a contest the other day. I landed a nice group of minis. Some of them will fall under my Allen & Ginter frankenset interests. A couple others will fit with other collecting interests. But others will be up for trade. So if you're collecting any of these many insert sets and see a card you need, let me know.

And, finally, proof that I do still send packages and that they bring delight to 2-year-old girls.

OK, onto the next segment -- blurry pictures.

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned how I sort and store my cards. People seemed to be interested -- so interested that they asked for pictures of my sorting methods.

I decided to appease them even though I know all it's going to do is bring disappointment. I am not a picture taker. It's someone else's equipment. I don't know how to operate it. My phone is for calling and texting only. The sun got in my eyes. The cat ate my homework. I thought that was pizza. Your sister does it all the time. Excuses, excuses and more excuses.

But you've been sufficiently warned.

Here is the card desk that I mentioned in that post:

I am aware from how I wrote the post that some people think that everything is neatly compartmentalized. Cards on the left are incoming, cards on the right are outgoing and cards in the middle are for future posts.

Now that you see it, you know that it's more of a card blob. But trust me, I know what's what. (Also trust me, the stuff on the left is way, way cool. And the stuff on the right is cool, too ... to somebody).

You can also see the shelves above that are remarkably neat, just because I finished adding cards to binders just a couple of weeks ago.

That's our dog Dodger in the photo at top. He actually moves in real life. Frequently. And relentlessly. I did not put the tea pourer, or whatever the hell it is, on top of the desk. Everything I have in the house is decorated by someone else not named me.

OK, let's go to the card room.

Again, I apologize about the blurry. But if you want a photo blog go get artsy somewhere else.

You probably get the gist of the colorfulness of the stacks in the middle. Those are my glorious '75 Topps minis, the loves of my cardboard life. And behind them is the complete set of 2011 Lineage '75 minis. I really need them in binders!!!

The binders in the front are for my 1979, 1980, 1972, 1976 and 1978 Topps sets (yes, they're not in order). All are complete except for the '72s. I have them stacked horizontally because I've been told it does less damage to cards. But it's a pain when you're looking for a specific binder.

You can see the boxes down below. Those are for the cards "not good enough" for binders. There are other boxes you can't see.

That's a better look and -- hey, it's in focus!

The binders on the far right are the beginnings of my Dodgers binders. The other binders are for sets. Some are conveniently marked with a card from that set, some are not (the two white binders contain complete 2009 OPC and 1988 Score sets). Again, the binders aren't stacked in order.

There are your friendly next-door 2013 Topps cards. Look at all the retro! Retro. Retro. Retro. Get an idea, Topps.

Underneath the desk are boxes and more binders. The giant box of Dodger dupes is under there, too. Cackling.

Back to blurry.

Those binders on the floor all contain Dodgers. I started going with more colorful binders so I wouldn't confuse them anymore. Some of these binders I've had since I was a teenager (you just can't find quality workmanship like that anymore).

The book on top is the Team Baseball Card Checklist from the early 1990s. You can find a non-blurry picture of it and a proper ode to it in a previous post that I did, but I can't find it right now. I'll link it later, if I remember.

I forgot to mention in the sort-and-store post that I have a few cards on a shelf. They're basically "just in case" cards for trades. The only one you can really see is the Dodgers stack. Those are pretty good cards there, so I've got to get them to people some day! (Other packages hopefully on the move Friday).

The autographed photos there I've shown previously. The only one I'm confident is legitimate is the Orel Hershiser photo that Zach of Autographed Cards got me. Still very cool. Possibly even more cool than the bobbleheads of "The Infield" on the far right.

Final picture. At right is a framed uncut page of a PCL set from 2009 (I think). Lot of guys playing in the majors today on that page -- Posey, Morrison, Bumgarner, Frieri, Smoak, Arencibia, etc.

At left is a bulletin board with a bunch of my press passes from back when I was covering events every week. It's rather packed.

Oh, and there's a nice coconut-scented Little Trees air-freshener in the middle there.

I tell ya, this card room has everything.

And it's probably where I am right now.

Cause I'm still not ready.