Night Owl Cards

We received the diagnosis on my mom last Wednesday. She has ALS. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Lou Gehrig's Disease. We already knew that she had it. We've known since January. Before that we thought she might have Alzheimer's, or a nerve disease, whose complicated name I once had memorized but so much has transpired since that there's only room for knowledge of what can help my mom right now. It's taken so long to get to this diagnosis because for so many years, my mom was in perfect health, a literal walking example of how to behave physically and mentally when you're in your 70s. My siblings and I now believe -- with the benefit of hindsight -- that she probably had this disease for two or three years already and either didn't realize it or kept it hid (we have found indications that she knew something was wrong). So, even though it feels like it took forever for a diagnosis to be made, many others have said, "it happened so quickly ....

I know everyone has seen Topps Series 2 by now. But have you seen it out of one of those cereal boxes? I haven't. On the blogs anyway. I found these standing up like toy soldiers at Target today. I naturally picked the Jackie Robinson box. I have no idea who is on the other boxes, because all I saw was Jackie and my mind was made up. Everything about the cereal boxes is the same as Series I. A total of 55 cards, plus one legends chrome refractor . One Turkey Red, one Legends of the Game, one Toppstown . All for $9.99. Off we go: 1. #573- Adam Wainwright, Cardinals 2. #490 - Joba Chamberlain, Yankees 3. #439 - Ryan Spilborghs , Rockies. (Do you think the dude on the cell phone is telling the person on the other end, "Hey, check me out in Series 2?") 4. #397 - Carlos Ruiz, Phillies 5. #353 - Derek Jeter , Yankees (You've all seen it. The guy doesn't need any more face time). 6. #527 - Jason Isringhausen , Cardinals 7. #629 - Lyle Overbay , Blue Jays 8. #...

It's the day before the card show, and, yeah, for me, this is as close as it comes to being a kid on Christmas Eve. The card show I'm going to comes around three times a year and it's a fairly good-sized one. I try to hit each of the shows, although travel can be iffy around here in January so sometimes I skip that one. During the last show, I picked up 74 cards. Two-thirds of them were new cards and one-third were upgrades. That's about average for me when I go to shows of this size. I thought I'd display some highlights of what I purchased the last time. (Warning: I'm a vintage guy. Although I plan to expand my horizons with tomorrow's show, everything until this point has been vintage, vintage, vintage. So, if you like only the latest and greatest, you'll have to dazzle yourself with something shiny until I'm done). 1956 Topps, Karl Spooner. I love the 1956 set. I have about a third of it, but I'm lacking just about every major star in the se...