It's hard for me to write currently, because it's that time of year again - report card time. Thankfully, this year I only have twenty reports to write, and the expectations for how much to write are less than at my old school. But finding the proper motivation is still a necessity, and it usually means that all other writing activities get pushed to the wayside.

But I'm still opening cards, as it provides a bit of a welcome distraction. And in those packs, I'm still finding interesting things to talk about. For example:

Another year, another uniform for J.J. Putz. After six years of remarkable stability with the Mariners, this marks his fourth team in as many seasons. He'll probably get traded at the deadline or something like that.


Oh great - so how many copies of this card do I need now to complete all my collections?
(The answer, by the way, is four)


The Kimball minis checklist for Series 2 was full of great players for me to collect. Unfortunately, I kept pulling cards of people like Gary Carter. I've never really liked Gary Carter - there's something about him that rubbed me the wrong way, and I can tell you exactly what it is - that bubble-headed perm of his. I don't care that he no longer has it - the point is, he did. I feel the same way about Don Sutton and latter-day episodes of The Brady Bunch when Mike Brady traded in his respectable businessman cut for a swinging '70s perm.

Anyway, the Luis Aparicio is the first Kimball card on my personal checklist that I've pulled. All the rest will be available, and revealed in my Series 2 box break wrap-up post, due early next week.

On a final note, I won a new scanner/printer/copier at the school's fundraiser charity auction. The good news is, it's now a lot easier and less aggravating for me to scan cards. It's literally pushing one button and then changing file names to make my organisational format. So I don't feel dread in having to scan a big pack of cards, and should have a lot more illustrations soon.