Catching up

Things have been a little crazy over the past month or so, and I just really haven't had energy to do many posts, so this is kind of a catch-up post for me. 

So my wife Karen  had the surgery, and I have been trying to help do all of the things that she normally does, and I tell you what, she does a ton, because I am barely treading water. So far, we are just kind of waiting. The pressure in her head was high before the surgery, causing bad headaches, nausea, and affecting her vision. After the surgery to put the lumbar shunt in, we expected her pressure to be low, basically giving her headaches that get some relief by lying down and drinking caffeine to help produce more cerebral spinal fluid (csf). The low pressure also gives the nausea, and kind of tugs at the top of her spine and head. Since csf was drained during the surgery and the new shunt is draining fluid, we kind of expected the low pressure headaches. We just don't know if they are ones that will go away (meaning the shunt is draining the right amout of csf) or if they are permanent (meaning the shunt is draining too much). Not sure what the options are if it is overdraining, but I guess we still don't know how long we will have to wait before we know for sure. One of her incisions became infected, but she got 2 antibiotic shots and it seems to be doing better. Karen is a little worried about a hard spot by one of the incisions, thinking the bottom of the shunt isn't where it's supposed to be (which has happened before and would mean another surgery to re-place it), but I think we are just going to wait until her follow up appointment and see what the x-ray says). 

With all that being said, Karen is finally at a point to where she can lift our son and it's a little easier for me, so I don't have to worry about doing so much when I get off work. 

Almost 2 weeks ago, my stepdad got tickets to a Detroit Tigers spring training game in Lakeland, and I was able to take my son Kyler to his first game at Joker Marchant Stadium, a ballpark I have probably been to 100 games at. I really wanted to get an autograph and to try to get Kyler a ball. 

All week, the forecast looked like it was going to rain, and it ended up raining a little the day before, but the rain brought out some terrible cold and wind. I don't think it got above 55 that day, but despite the cold, I was on cloud 9 because I was off work, I was at a ballgame, and I got to take my son. 

We got to the game around 11 when the gates opened. I went out to RF to try to get autographs, and just missed a few pitchers. I had made customs of the whole 40-man roster and non-roster invitee guys who I didn't have cards of, and somehow, the one guy who was still signing when I got there was someone I didn't have. I recognized a guy that graphed with me back when I lived in Lakeland, and man, 10 years can make people age. I consider myself pretty lucky to only be balding a little.

I decided to venture out to LF to try to catch a ball in batting practice. The whole game worked out great because the Tigers were playing a local college teams, so the game was pretty empty, and I didn't have to make a decision on which side to try to get autographs at. During BP, a number of balls were hit near us, but we didn't get any, but a little kid who caught a few was nice enough to give Kyler one. I would've loved for Kyler to get one from a player, but it was refreshingly nice to see the generosity of strangers who love baseball. Here's his first ball.

After getting the ball, we walked over to RF to try to get autographs, and I was able to get Derek Hill to sign a Bowman card I had. Kyler wasn't with me because he was having fun walking up and down the stairs in the aisles. One day I am going to get him to 'graph with me. I guess while I was getting the autograph, an usher saw him with my stepdad and they got talking and mentioned that it was his first game at Joker Marchant, and she happened to have a ball and gave it to him, so he got 2 baseballs at the game. Once I got home, I searched his backpack for the 2nd ball, and I don't know what happened to it. The first one was in my glove, but I don't know what happened to the second one, unless it is in my car somewhere. No big deal. I have the first one. Here are some pictures from the game. 

We left after a few innings because it was so cold, and went to visit my mom at her job for a little bit, and then made the trip back to DeLand. It took close to 3 hours instead of 1 1/2 because of traffic, but nothing could get me down after the great day we had. 

Kyler has kind of been getting interested in baseball lately. he loves to go outside and hit a ball off of his t-ball set, and we have a pair of those velcro gloves with the tennis ball, and he enjoys throwing to me with that. Here he is with the t-ball set. 

Recently, I got a package from Fuji with some really cool Rays hits. I never knew Greg Vaughn had a Rays jersey card, so I'm happy to add it to my collection. With the 2 Alex Cobb autograph cards, I think I now have 4. Might have to add him to my PC. Thanks for the cards, Fuji.

I also recieved a surprise package from Rod, who does the Padrographs blog.

There were a ton of Rays cards from the last few years. I'm excited for the Green Bowman Shaffer card. I have a good number of jersey/numbered/refractor cards of him, so he could be another canidate to add to my PC. The Heritage cards got me close to completing the Rays set from last year. Once I get all of these checklists done, I really need to update my Rays and Tigers want lists.
A while back, I had made some customs of the 1995 San Diego Padres replacement players for Rod. The list of players I had came from a book which listed the replacement players. Keith Olbermann owned a copy of the book, and I e-mailed another blogger who knows Keith, and through his help, Keith scanned all of the book, and was able to get the images to me. The book must've been hard to come by, and I cannot find very much at all about it online, so I was happy to get the scans of the book. It listed (what I thought was) all of the position players and a starting pitching rotation of every team.
A few days ago while I was searching for a list of Reds replacement players in those emails, I found a file that was put on BBRef that was sent to me that I was unable to open back when I recieved the email. I tried opening it, and found a gold mine. It had an Excel spreadsheet of replacement players for every team. What was different about this list was that it was compiled by a fan who had gone through box scores in newspapers, and ultimately it had many more names of replacement players than what was listed in the book I had the scans of. I quickly took screenshots of the file, and now have (what I think is) a complete list of every replacement player. So apparently, the Padres set I sent Rod is incomplete, and I will try to get the missing Padres guys done at some point this year. It also gives me hope for eventually making a complete replacement player set in the '95 Topps design.

I have been going pretty hard core at checklists today, finishing the 1999 Topps Traded set, and starting on 2000. Just 20 more Traded sets to go, which I think can be accomplished sometime by the end of the year. I'm excited to finish the checklists and start getting customs going again. It will also be exciting to try to make a complete list of sunset cards of popular players.

I'm hoping the next few months bring some good things with my collection and with my life, and I have a feeling they will.

Thanks for taking the time to read my latest post.
-Jeremy