Night Owl Cards

Tonight, when tiny costumed villains and princesses are just beginning to fill the streets of my neighborhood, I will leave the house -- and a few bowls of candy treats -- to go to work. When I arrive home again, long after the little kiddies are sound asleep, I will search out those bowls of sugar joy and arrive upon ... One single remaining piece of Laffy Taffy ... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO

(Did you know I'm holding a contest? Click on the previous post to enter. You only have until 3 p.m. Saturday). Every person has a childhood. If you're lucky, you look back on it fondly, even if you didn't think it was so fun at the time. I remember every difficult part of childhood, not getting what I wanted, bullies, being punished, yet I prefer to focus on the more pleasant moments because they are what made me. There were four teams central to my development as a baseball fan when I was growing up: the Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees and Mets. There were a few others floating around there more often than the others -- Phillies, Royals, Reds, Pirates, Orioles, Brewers -- but the basic four molded me. The Dodgers taught me who to root for and why. The Yankees taught me who to root against and why. The Red Sox taught me about family and how baseball is a bond that strengthens family. And the Mets taught me, possibly more than any of those other three, how to be a fan.

I found one of those pink slips in my mailbox earlier this week that said there was a package waiting for me. It took me a day to get down there, but this giant thing finally made it into the doorway. The box is from Rob, known as steelehere on this blog and on his old one that stopped operating some time ago. I've shown you some of the things he sent me in the last two posts. He said he needed to downsize and thought I might be able to use some of the items inside either for my own collection or trade material. Well, here's the thing. I just got back from another trip to the post office to send off a few card packages. It took me weeks to get those packages assembled, packaged and shipped. And there are stacks of trades behind that. I have a list of 20-25 people long. I really don't have the time for any more trades at this particular point. So I decided a contest might be the way to go. I took some things out of the box that will be good for some trades in proces