Top Ten Things I've Been Doing When Not Blogging...

It's almost the end of August, and this post that you've decided to read is the eighth post I've written this month.  And for anyone that is still making his or her way to this blog, I apologize for the lack of posts.  Between vacation (the pictures are still on the front page), and work, and adjusting to the kids going to TWO schools (my daughter is now in middle school...sigh...), the blog has taken a bit of a backseat to life. 

It happens to the best of us.  I can use the season that my NL Chicago team has been having as the reason why I've lacked any kind of motivation to follow what's been happening in both MLB and the Hobby.  I knew that this wasn't going to be the year, but until that good run in the first half of August, it's been a bitter pill to swallow watching them play this year.  But by the time I create my post for the End of the Year All-Star Teams, even with as poorly as they've been playing, there will most likely be more than one Cub named to the team.  Chicago Bias?  Perhaps.  But I've been doing some analyzing of stats going into September, and compared to players in similar positions, the Cubs will not be a team with one player being named.  That team on the other side haven't been much to hoot and holler about either.  But there is still a month to play, so anything goes.

So I thought that now is a good time to review what it is exactly I've been up to so I can justify not writing as much as I said I would.  Here is a Top Ten List, from the home office in Des Plaines, IL:

• 10.  Mowing my lawn.  I know that the weather has been crazy lately in the east coast, but here in the suburbs of Chicago, we've had record heat, record rains, and my lawn has experienced record growth.  I only have time to mow the lawn on the weekends (so don't get on me about during the week). But when I'm free to mow, it rains.  The ground becomes too wet, and my lawn mower (bless it's little engine) clogs and dies when the ground/grass is wet.  Then, when I have other things to do, the sun is out, the ground/grass is dry, and I'm not home to mow.
• 9.  Vacation.  Did I mention that I went to the Dells of Wisconsin? And did I also mention that pictures are most likely on the first page of this blog?
• 8.  Work. It's been busy.  And I won't get into that here.  I am grateful for the job I have and this is not the place to discuss it.
• 7.  Housework.  I'm actually starting to take time and clean up the table that's been full of cards, boxes, penny sleeves, top loaders, books, team bags, magazines, and other things that my better half calls "junk."  Then again, she has her craft supplies, beautician supplies, and other supplies all over the place too.  Add my kids toys, video games (Zelda is still being played...will get to that shortly), and the house has that "lived-in" look.  I wouldn't consider this house a disaster area (it certainly isn't going to make an appearance on "Hoarders"), but at least we have a place for us and our belongings.
• 6.  Meeting the neighbors.  We've had new neighbors since last fall, and we never got around to introducing ourselves to them until these last two months.  And I think we've spoken to them more in the last three days than we have in the last nine months.  They're really nice.  And they make killer barbecue.
• 5.  Video Games.  We've finally completed The Legend of Zelda:  The Wind Waker and are now playing it again, just for kicks, the Gallery (take pictures of EVERYBODY, and some guy makes statues), and we're just going around looking for Triforce pieces.  We're even doing things this second time around that we didn't do before.  So it's been a bit more fun to explore the game.  But it's been taking a lot of time out of the day.  And now that the kids are back in school, the rule of "No Video Games until the Weekend" is back and being enforced.
• 4.  Delivering Doughnuts.  I may have mentioned before that my family just bought an established doughnut shop back in June.  And while I'm not an actual employee of the place, I did get conned into helping my dad deliver the fried/baked goodies to gas stations and supermarkets.  I say "conned" because the phone call I got said "accompany dad to a delivery in (name of town here)."  What I thought was going to be a three hour trip turned into a nine hour run all over the western suburbs.  I thank my dad for the trip...I don't get to hang out with him enough...but I had a few choice words for my brother (the guy that thought I would make a good navigator).
• 3.  Rediscovering cards that are NOT in my official collection.  The number on the sidebar includes cards I have in my binders on my bookshelfs of completed sets and inserts.  If I were to add all the other cards in my collection, we'd be just shy of 100,000 cards.  This fall and off-season, I plan on getting back into the trading business.  Whether it's on the good old Topps Message Boards (which by the way, I just found out that although the boards as I knew are gone, the eTopps boards that replaced them now has its own non eTopps Baseball Message Board.  This seems to be where all the guys and gals from the old place are now hanging out.  I've visited, not yet posted anything.  But it's starting to feel like home), or on other blogs (yes, I'm going to start looking into the want lists of other bloggers to see if I have anything they need in exchange for what I want.  The Hobby Blogging Community as a group is very generous when it comes to trading.  And I realized that many of the new blogs (which you can find on the Sports Card Blogroll), trade with each other.  They don't put a certain Topps Baseball Card Blog on their sidebar (okay Ego, that's enough), so I figure introduce myself and who knows.
• 2.  Twitter.  If I'm not blogging, you can find me on the 140 character or less posting site (@bdj610 if you want to follow me). 
• 1.  Getting Ready for 2011 Topps Update Series and 2012 Topps!!!  You've seen the sell sheets. Let the hype begin.

I did have things to say about my trip to the National, the upcoming 2012 Topps product, more of the now almost-out-of-time 2011 Topps Archives Project, the Topps 300 site, and more.  I even want to get my 2010 All-Star Game simulation in soon.  Maybe even do the 2011 Topps card back tributes again.  And maybe fire up the Randomizer again.

Or maybe all that can wait until September (kidding...am I???)

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama