Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Paying it Forward, Fuji-Style!!

Wow!! I mean WOW!! Really!! WOWEY-Wow-WOW-WOW!!!

I've read a few posts about this pay-it-forward challenge, and though I wanted to get involved, I'd never thought that I'd be nudged into it through the recipient's side of the bubbler!! The basic premise follows the story line from the movie. If you haven't watched it, I highly recommend it, and the premise is, someone does something nice for you, you owe them one, right? wrong, in this case the doer of the nice deed requests that you pay it forward, do something nice for someone else, often for a complete stranger. In our case, the challenge is someone send you something hobby related that they know you like, and pass the challenge to pay it forward!
Fuji-san. I accept your challenge! Mission accomplished!

Now here's the good stuff:
a three pack of 4x6 Phillies:
My favorite 3rd Baseman






















some mini-Fleer Phils:








and a quad shot of Phillies jerseys!!





















and the challenge:

















Fuji, my holiday's so bright, I gotta find my shades!!
Thanks dude, you Rock!
thanks for reading.
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

Monday, November 26, 2012

Blaster-facts 7 and the hit!


The Cyber-Monday post:
here's pack 7, the final pack:

plus the hit:

nice pull for my Twins collection! And he wears the number 7! too cool!
If anybody needs any of these, excepting the Phillies and the hit, let me know.
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Blaster-facts 6


here's pack 6
A timeless Phillie for you, very nice!


thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Friday, November 23, 2012

A Black Friday Blaster-fact Pack


here's pack 4
I can remember seeing the Liberty Bell as a child, back when you could still touch it!

thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Blaster-facts, pack 3


Happy Thanksgiving everybody!


here's pack 3


thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Blaster-facts, pack 2


here's pack 2

I love those piece of history cards!
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Another round of Blaster mania!

This times, it's:
Upper Deck Artifacts. always good to start with a Phillie!
thanks for reading,
Have a GReat Holiday!
Dawgbones

Monday, November 19, 2012

Perhaps the dirtiest eBay find...

you be the judge?
Got this one the same day as the other Thome, but for a bit more.



$5.50 shipped which I still feel is a good deal for a dual swatch, grass-stained Jim Thome Traded relic.

thanks for reading,
Have a GReat Turkey day ahead!
Dawgbones

Sunday, November 18, 2012

eBay fishing...

Went a little eBay fishing the other night and look what I caght!

a very sweet Jim Thome 2003 Topps Gallery Game Used Bat Card



$4 shipped! And it turns out the seller is a neighbor too! Mailed from the same zip code.

thanks for reading.
Have a GReat (and short) work-week everybody!
Dawgbones

Saturday, November 17, 2012

"Woes" the second Lil' brown box

So, I get home Monday and there's a second Lil' brown box on my doorstop. This one had :
The New York Giants. Got this one from Sam's promo and give-away. Gonna give this one to a big Giants fan for Christmas.
Thanks for the contest Sam! I know my buddy is going to love this.
Thanks for reading.
Have a GReat weekend!
Dawgbones

Friday, November 16, 2012

"Woes" conclusion, part 2, the Lil' Brown bubbler...

So, here are some of the highlights from Ryan's 2nd attempt at an affordable group break. Which I think was very affordable, as well as a complete success!

The scanner just does not do justice to those first two cards! The Ruth is very nicely balanced with a muted fall leaves background, a semi-glossy black and white portrait of the babe in the middle, with a nice, shiny foil lettered foreground in the lower right corner. While Mr. October's Autumn Excellence card is all over shiny foiled goodness! And a few shiny Phillies never hurt any die-hard Phils fan at all!


The Buchanan card probably qualifies for the funniest card in the break. Wonder what's going through his mind?? Yep, that's a bat! while the look on Nomar 's face could go either way. "Man, I really CRUSHED that one!" or "Damn, that one went the WRONG WAY!"


and I really like both the Mag Moments cards and the Sports Illustrated World Series covers cards.

Thanks for a GReat group break there Ryan! Looking forward to any others you may put on in the future!
And that concludes the weekend from hell...                     ...or does it?

Thanks for reading.
Have a GReat weekend!
Dawgbones

Thursday, November 15, 2012

"Woes" conclusion, part 1, the Lil' Brown box...


After having survived the calamitous weekend that was! I finally got around to opening the Lil' brown box that was on my doorstop.

A Lil' while back, Ross, over at Sports Card Info, had a contest attached to a product review. I entered and was randomized a winner.

The product review was for the Lil' Teammates new line of football figure sets. It features a quarterback, running back, and lineman from most of your favorite NFL teams. As I am still boycotting my favorite team (the one featured in both Ross' and Sam's promo for the product) I chose the Vikings as my wife is from Minnesota, and her sister is a big fan of the home team.


I figured I might give them to my sister-in-law for Christmas, and even cleared a spot for them at work if I decided to be greedy, but they didn't stand a chance!


The first round of texts from my wife for the morning,

her:"Where did the little Vikings dudes go?"

me: "Here at work"

her: "R U keeping them?"

me: "Why?"

her: "Cause I want them..."

me: "What do you want them for?"

her: Because I wan them, I have been looking for them for a while. Couldn't ever find any and if I did they cost a fortune. Why? Did you give them away?"

me: "No." "Where you keeping them at the house?"

her: "I was going to open them and put them in the curio cabinet is all..."

me: "!!" (and thinking, so much for "keeping all the sports crap at your desk at work!")

me: "I can bring them back home..."


so, now they are wrapped and will be presented to her first thing Sunday morning as Sunday is her birthday!
Thanks for the neat contest Ross! I guess I figured out something to do with them after all!! And I'll post pictures of the other set that Sam random-ed me with when it arrives!

Thanks for reading,
Have a GReat weekend!
Dawgbones

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

"Woes", part 2


   Thanks for the kind thoughts Fuji. All is good, and getting better. Went by my folks house last night to get my mom's winter clothes down out of the attic for her. My dad, though not out of the woods per say, is looking a lot more chipper.

   Back to last Thursday, the trip to the post office out of the way, my shirt exchanged, and making sure my parents didn't need anything at the hospital. I head home to relax, maybe put this day behind me, call my sisters and update them on dad, and feed my girls dinner.

   I manage to pull in my driveway about 15 minutes ahead of my wife. Check the mailbox, cool, a bright spot, or should I say brown, as in bubbler!!


   Yay, my group break stuff has arrived from Ryan's 2nd attempt. But wait, what's that? up by the front door? a little brown box?


   Now what has my wife ordered? No, it's addressed to me?! What the hell did I order? Nope, it hits me, that's the first package I'm expecting from the Party Animals company! You know, the makers of the Lil' Teammates sports figures. Too cool, a nice surprise for a semi-dreary afternoon!

   Pop into the house, let the girls out, fix their bowls, get them fed and good to go right before the wife get's home. She walks in, and heads for the back of the house to change. Wow, she must have had a rough day as well? Then I hear, "What the ...!!, Why is the bathroom floor wet?" Yep, water heater is busted and half flooded the laundry room and bathroom!!


   Okey dokey, brief moment of panic before my mechanical mind kicks into gear... Shut the inlet valve off... no more water going in... quick trip outside to the utility shed, cut the breaker off... water heater still has power??!! fricking previous homeowner moron labeled all the breakers, WRONG! OK, no problem, big ticket items in the house have dual breakers, first set wasn't it, second set... dryer's out now!! 3rd set?? there we go, that's the ticket! Apparently, they re-did some of the breakers when they built the stand alone garage out back, breaker 3, labeled "water" now needs to be labeled, "garage"!

   OK, things are safe, water has stopped leaking from the heater. Couple quick measurements  assessment of the piping to the heater and we are off to home depot to buy a new water heater. Buy the heater with the same dimensions as the old, buy a pan to put under it, buy the fittings I think I'm going to have to replace to get the new heater in, and we are headed back home.

   At home, pop a hose on the drain, then get the torch going, pop three joints loose, unscrew the inlet, outlet, and relief fittings and have the old water heater laying out by the curb inside of 20 minutes for the trash morning scavengers to come get. And that, promptly, is where the easy shit ended!



    We are now about 15 minutes past closing time for the home improvement stores, and my dumb ass should have bought more fittings then I needed, cause even though the old heater and new heater are the same dimensions, the pipes are off just far enough that nothing will go back in the way it came out! I spent another 3+ hours fighting with it before giving up for the night in utter frustration!


   Get out the laptop, send an email to the boss, I'm not coming in tomorrow, I'm "Joe the Plumber" for the day!

   Head to bed, up bright and early Friday morning, HD opens a 6, we are there at 6:30. Buy more than enough elbows, couplings, tubing, and other fittings that I should be able to get this thing done. stop by Starbucks, then head home for more battle! get things sized up, few more measurements, cut out a bit more pipe, get the new run sized up, fluxed, and ready for soldering. Ten minutes later, everything is soldered, ready for the leak test, go to open the valve, and the stem just keeps turning with little or no tension at all!! GREAT, should have bought a new valve while I was at it!! All right, the wife packs up everything we didn't use while I cut off the main water to the house so I can cut the old valve out, and we are off, headed back to HD for a new valve. She returns the stuff we didn't need while I go find the valve. Back home, 10 minutes later, new valve in, cut the water back on, open the valve, water immediately starts leaking out of the bonnet on the valve, no problem, quick turn with a wrench and water stops leaking from the bonnet, and starts leaking from the stem!! Another quick turn tightens the stem packing. By this time, the new heater is full and now leaking at both the inlet and outlet pipes!

   Crap, drain the tank down enough to empty the inlet/outlet pipes, un-solder the elbow joints so I can tighten the fittings. My wife convinces me they are tight and is afraid I might break them, so I re-solder the elbows, cut the water on. Cool inlet side, no leaks, outlet side, still leaking!! No problem, un-solder the elbow, and proceed to crank that puppy down until I can't physically turn it any more. Re-solder the elbow, cut the water on, and watch water begin spraying from the other side of the elbow joint!! REALLY??

   No problem, let's just replace that elbow and all will be good. Right? WRONG!! we took all the elbows back when we got the valve!! OK, ask the wife to run to the local hardware store (in my neighborhood), get me one elbow and I'll have this ready when you get back...

   Butter that one up, quick solder it in place, and... YAY!!! no leaks. Wire it up, cut the breaker on and... why am I hungry? why do I feel as though I haven't eaten in days? It's 3:30!! no wonder! Let's go eat and we should have hot water when we get back home.

next, the conlusion...
thanks for reading.
Have a GReat day!
Dawgbones