Trade with The Diamond King, '90's cards, and my garden

I have been doing a lot of trading lately. So much so that I'm afraid my wife might get on to me if I keep getting stuff in the mail. I recently did a trade with Kevin of The Diamond King. Kevin collects just about all of the Diamond King inserts/sets, and has a nice Mark McGwire collection. I went through my A's and Cardinals binders and found a good number of McGwire's on his want list, and found a few other various cards I thought he could use, and sent them out. I got his cards today, and let me tell you, they did not disappoint. 

Kevin gave me some really nice new Tigers cards. I love the 2 '01 Bowman Chrome Refractors. The Adam Pettyjohn is a Gold one. The Willie Hernandez autograph is really cool to me because I have been going to Tigers spring training and fantasy camp games for the past 25 years, and I think I had managed to get an autograph from just about every star player from the '84 team besides Hernandez. The Novoa Blue Donruss Champions card was one of his Diamond 9 giveaways, and I was happy to land it. I saw him pitch in 2004 and 2005. He was a big dude.

He also sent a bunch of Rays to add to my Rays binder. Probably half of the cards were refractors/parallels, and that's totally ok with me. I've always loved Toby Hall because of how fan friendly he was, and he would've gladly signed the Donruss Champions card pictured here had I had it when Toby was still playing. The Nick Green is my 3rd version of the '05 Topps card of him, with the other 2 being the base and Chrome versions. I wonder how close I would be to completing a rainbow? The Chris Archer is another Refractor. I'm really happy with the Brandon Guyer autograph. Brandon has always brought me luck. When I drove to Texas with my dad to go to my 2nd youngest sisters wedding, I had just started talking to this girl online. I had mentioned to her that we were driving through Montgomery, AL (where I had lived), and I was going to stop at my favorite baseball card shop. The shop had a 3-4 foot banner of Ken Griffey, Jr.'s '91 Upper Deck card, and I told the girl that I was going to take a picture by it. I went into the shop, got a pack of '11 Topps Pro Debut, took the picture, and went back in the car. The girl wanted to see the picture of me with the Griffey, so I sent it to her, and opened the Pro Debut pack. I pulled a Brandon Guyer card, and was happy, since he was a Ray. Fast forward to February of the next year, and I was engaged to the girl, and I got Brandon to sign the card at Rays fanfest. It wasn't too much longer, and I saw Brandon's MLB debut, and saw his first HR. Then, in 2016, I'm married to the girl, she is pregnant with our son, and we are watching the '16 World Series, and who is on the Indians but Brandon Guyer. That guy will always bring back good memories of me and my wife. 

Kevin really helped out my Favorite Player binder as well. I have a smattering of new Andruw Jones cards, including some early Upper Deck inserts, a few acetate-ish cards, and  a bat card featuring the Netherlands flag (awesome!!!). The Blyleven card is the oldest one I have besides his rookie, and I love the way the green on the Huff card makes it pop. 

The last picture includes the rest of the Chipper cards (continued from the last picture, some cool Big Papi cards (including 2 #d ones), a Heritage Chrome Scherzer, and a few other cards for smaller projects I have going. I appreciate Kevin paying attention to the smaller details on my Wantlist. It's always nice to get some new season/postseason highlight cards, a new Topps Gold card, and a card to put into my rookie binder. Much thanks to Kevin for the awsome trade package. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I did. 

Speaking of the awesome girl I married, she recently had a resident at her job talk about how he had a bunch of baseball cards he didn't need anymore. Karen let him know that I collect, and a member of the residents' family dropped some ziploc bags in her office filled with cards. After disinfecting and letting them sit for a day or so, I finally got to open the up, and was surprised to find that it was more than the '87 Topps, '88 Donruss, and '90 Topps that I was expecting. 

Aparently the guy had a lot of the sets that I didn't buy from '93-'97. There were a few junk wax cards, but I didn't think I saw very many dupes at all. These were all of the Tigers, and I don't think I will have more than 2 or 3 of these cards when I put them in my binders. 

There weren't any Rays in the box, but that's ok. I got some Tigers commons that I didn't have before. I also found a few guys in my PC, as well as some cool random cards. 

There were a ton of '94 UD Fun Pack cards. They had a ton of fun inserts that popped open and stuff. There was one of my PC guy Brent Gates. The oldest card in there was a '74 Topps Frank Tanana rookie. Wish I would've had that 2 months ago. My oldest sister got to meet him at this conference she was speaking at. She got a ball signed for me, but I would've loved to get the rookie signed. Also in the bags were early cards of Carlos Delgado and Vladdy. Back in '93 those Studio Heritage cards were a big pull. I don't know what the '95 Score Pudge card is. It has a rainbow sheen and the words 'Guaranteed Right, Guaranteed Scarce' on it. The back looks like a normal '95 Score card without the stats. Might be a promo or something. The '96 Topps Shannon Stewart is missing gold foil, and the Sorrento and Wells cards are Press Proofs. It was totally awesome to get such a good collection of cards instead of the normal sets you see that you already basically have the set of. If you need any cards to finish off your '94 Ted Williams set Night Owl, there were a good amount (and some inserts). Let me know what you need (I can probably finish off your '88 Fleer set once our LCS reopens).

I've posted before that I like to plant things. I don't always have time to take care and water them, but I like to plant some low-maintenance stuff and see what happens. I've been doing a little more planting and watering now that Kyler is here at the house with the day cares closed. On my days off with him, more often than not, if it is early enough we will water the plants in the back yard. We got a good amount of rain in the last 2-3 days, so stuff is finally starting to grow. Here is a sample of some stuff I have growing. 

The little green shoots are called '4-O-clocks'. They bloom around 4:00 each day. They have been starting to finally come up, and my coworker says they shoot up like weeds.

I have 2 milkweed plants, and I got a ton of seeds from them last year. I have been planting them, and I think pretty soon I'll put them somewhere in the 2 6 by 6 boxes I have in our front and back yard. There may be a sunfower or marigold in there, too.

This is the 6 by 6 box in the front yard. I built it, and placed it around the stump of a tree we had cut down. There are a few snapdragons in it, a milkweed plant, some morning glories, 1 or 2 sunflowers, and 2 gladiolas. I'll have to get a picture of the whole box, but you can see the snapdragon in this one.

Here is the box in the back. If it were a baseball diamond, at 2nd base, 3rd, and home, you have pineapples, a milkweed at 1st, and 3 gladiolas by the pitchers mound. There are other random things in it starting to pop up, including wildflowers, sunflowers, and 2 potato plants.

Lastly, this is the one I'm most proud of. About 3 years ago, I planted a pineapple top by the side of our house in the back yard. I water it every once in a while, but really just left it alone, and it finally started blossoming about 2 months ago. The pineapple is about the size of a pine cone, and it should be ready to pick by the end of the year. They are supposed to grow them faster after they get the first one grown, so with 2 of the plants in the back box being about a year behind this one, it won't be too long, and I can just go outside and pick a pineapple whenever I want.
So that's kind of what I've been doing for fun while not being able to go out. I thought about going in my garage with my digital piano and maybe recording a video or two of me doing some original songs. Perhaps if I get enough interest, I might do that. Are you doing any random hobbies with everything the way it is now?
I should have a few more trade packages coming in the next few weeks, including one from a guy who emailed me about Tigers customs. He has every Topps/Bowman Tigers card from 1949-1988, and offered to send me some Tigers dupes (possibly even a '52 Topps Tiger). He has an Instagram at BrewingCards, so check him out, he has some NICEEEE stuff. Thanks to everyone who has traded with me lately.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy