Wrapping Things Up

Time flies when you're having fun.  This summer was pretty awesome.  Busy, but awesome.

It was only the third summer in my twenty-eight years of teaching that I didn't work and there's a good chance I won't be teaching summer school again.  As much as I enjoy the extra paychecks, I enjoyed the free time to focus on other things a wee bit more.

Last summer, I read two of Alan Gratz's books.  This summer, I read one more:

Allies by Alan Gratz

Gratz is popular among young adult readers interested in historical fiction.  This particular book looks at the events of D-Day from the three different perspectives.  It was a really enjoyable read that constantly had me looking up facts about that day.

Summer is also the perfect time to binge watch a favorite show from the past.  This year I decided to rewatch the 2004 version of Battlestar Galactica.  I already mentioned this a few weeks ago, but I look forward to showing off my celebrity crush whenever I can:

2016 Baseball Card Breakdown

Pretty Girls Custom #1

Ten years ago, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown produced a set of custom cards featuring nine pretty ladies.  He held a contest where the winner would receive a complete set.  As a bonus, the winner would get to pick a lady to be included in the set.  I won and chose Grace Park.

I also went on several short trips this summer.  Here are some wallet card shots I took to document those road trips:

Carnelian Bay, Lake Tahoe

Back in July, my brothers and I took a trip up to Lake Tahoe to visit my mother.  It was a gorgeous day and we were surprised that there weren't more people up there escaping the Central Valley heat.

When we got back to Sacramento, we stopped off at Whitey's Jolly Kone:

This place was packed, but the fresh peach milkshake was delicious.

Later in the month, my friend and I headed back to our regular vacation spot:

Pismo Beach

If this looks familiar, it's because we've stayed there three or four times since Christmas.

Morro Bay

I was hoping to get a good shot of Morro Rock, but the fog was rolling in when we were there for lunch.  We actually planned to drive down again, but we scrapped that idea and started going into our classrooms.

Speaking of classrooms, one of my co-workers gave me a bunch of San Francisco Giants stadium giveaways:

I only kept a few of the items, which I might show off in a future post when I decide where to display them.  The rest were offered up to other teachers.

Alright... let's wrap up the final post of my summer break with seventeen new Gwynns that Rod (aka Padrographs) sent me:

2012 Panini Cooperstown High Praise #10

2013 Pinnacle Clear Vision #CV68

2015 Finest Generations #FG-36

2015 Stadium Club #265

2019 Topps 1984 All-Stars #84AS-TG

2019 Topps Gallery #197

2019 Topps A&G Gold Mini #77

2020 Topps Decade of Dominance #DOD-11

2021 Topps Update Cards That Never Were #CNW-12

2022 Topps Chrome Silver Pack Mojo #T87C-36

2023 Chrome Platinum Anniversary Green Wave #442 (#'d 25/99)

2024 Topps Big League #TBL-18

It's not often I receive a Gwynn card serial numbered to 99 in a care package.  Rod ended up sending me a few.

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome #T90C-58

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome Aqua Refractor #T90C-58 (#'d 050/199)

2025 Topps 1990 Silver Pack Chrome Green Refractor #T90C-58 (#'d 21/99)

2025 Topps Call to the Hall Blue #CTH-21 (#'d 005/150)

2025 Topps Call to the Hall Green #CTH-21 (#'d 21/99)

Thank you Rod for all of these new additions to my Gwynn PC.  I still have one more post covering some of the other items you sent.  That should be published next weekend.

And thank you to all of you who took the time to read this post.  Some of you might be wondering when I'll be shipping out my care packages.  I haven't forgotten about them.  I just haven't finished building them.  Every time I remind myself to work on them, I get distracted.  But I'm giving myself through Labor Day weekend to build them.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Road Trip Recap

Back in December, my best friend surprised me with a trip down to Pismo.  Well we went back down again, only this time it was more of a planned vacation.

However before I dive into our trip, here's your obligatory baseball card:

2017 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autograph #FFA-RK

Rusty is arguably known best for having one of the greatest names in hobby history.  But today he's featured in this post, because he grew up in a Central Coast town called Paso Robles, which happened to be our first stop on our road trip.

After taking a potty break, walking Tashi, and grabbing a refreshing acai bowl at The Neighborhood, we continued south on 101 to Pismo.

We stayed at the SeaCrest Oceanfront Hotel which offers some amazing coastal views of the Pacific Ocean.

The next day we woke up and headed about an hour southeast down to a little town in the Santa Ynez Valley called Solvang, which is known as the Danish Capital of America.

Wallet Card @ Ostrichland USA

We stopped off at Ostrichland USA to see and feed the ostriches.  I didn't realize how tall and cute they are in person.

Afterwards we headed into town to eat aebleskivers:

Wallet Card @ Solvang

The trip was filled with delicious food, gorgeous scenery, great company, and perfect weather.  Temperatures ranged from the low 70's during the day to high 50's in the early evening.

Here's the view from our patio:

That's me lounging with my computer catching up and commenting on all of your blog posts.  Life truly doesn't get much better than this.  Unfortunately that was only about an hour before we packed up and headed back home.

Thank you Jen for inviting me along with you, your mom, and Tashi!

My Spring Break has been non-stop since Saturday.  One of the first things I did was walk around the De Anza Flea Market, where I found a set of cards that I have wanted for decades.  I'm hoping to write a recap of my finds either today or tomorrow, but we'll have to see.

I have a pair of lunch dates, a few chores that need to be taken care of, and taxes that need to be filed.  Plus I'm suppose to meet my buddy's son-in-law to sell my car this evening, but I have to get it smogged before.  Today and tomorrow are going to be a little crazy.

Until I write again...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Whirlwind of a Week

This past week has been filled with surprises of all varieties that are best broken down into the following categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good:  Surprise Road Trip

Last Sunday my friend invited me to join her and her mom down in Pismo Beach for a short vacation along the Central Coast of California.  My lower back was feeling good for the first time in weeks, so I couldn't pass up this opportunity.

We spent a total of three days and two nights there and the weather was perfect for walking on the beach, doing a little shopping, eating delicious meals, and hanging out by the fire pit.

Here are a few photographs from our trip:

Tashi & Me

Wallet Card @ the Fire Pit

In a few days, it'll be eleven years since Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown inspired collectors to pick a card in their collection that they enjoy and start carrying it around in their wallets.  I don't go on too many vacations, but when I do... I'll pull it out.  

Wallet Card @ the Beach

In honor of Gavin, I made sure to take a photo of my wallet card in the wet sand.  He usually takes things a step further by allowing his card to take a dip in the water, but mine isn't quite ready to swim.

Another thing I like to do when writing about trips is research famous athletes who were raised in the area.  Unfortunately Pismo Beach's population isn't very high, so I couldn't find any notable athletes that I was familiar with from the area.

Ribeye @ Jocko's

However on Monday night, my friend took us out for a delicious ribeye steak at a restaurant in the small town of Nipomo.

2019 Topps Clear Travel #CP-53

Jeff McNeil went to high school in Nipomo and ironically, the New York Mets traded him to the Sacramento A's on the day of our dinner.

The next day we woke up, packed, ate a yummy breakfast then rushed back to the Bay Area in an effort to beat the rain, wind, and predicted flooding.  Thankfully we got home safe and sound, but this was going to be just a quick stop for me.

The Bad:  Under the Weather

My brother met me at my house and the next morning we drove to Roseville and spent Christmas with our brother's family.  We lucked out and avoided any holiday traffic, because we left at 5am.  But we did hit some rain which made it hard to see the roads at times.  Thankfully, my bro got us there in one piece.

Christmas Eve was pretty relaxing.  We watched some movies and ate a delicious miso salmon dinner.  However, I started to feel a little congested.

We all woke up early on Christmas morning, ate fried rice for breakfast, and opened presents.  At around 10am, my head was throbbing so bad from the nasal congestion that I took some Mucinex and laid down.  I kept hoping I'd feel better, but by the afternoon I had quarantined myself from the everyone.

It rained off and on throughout Christmas Day.  There's a creek that runs behind my brother's property that was slowly rising.  It peaked sometime around 9pm and ended up flooding half of the backyard, but thankfully the water had receded by the next morning.

The Ugly:  Worst Headache in Years

The day after Christmas, we came home.  I loaded up on over the counter cold meds, orange juice, and chicken noodle soup and hoped the road to recovery would begin.  It didn't.

Friday and Saturday were rough.  Every time I coughed, I'd feel a sharp pain in my head.  My main sources of relief were sleeping and taking hot showers.  Fortunately, I woke up this morning feeling a little better.  I still have a cough with phlegm, but the headache is tolerable.

I'm planning on resting one more day to help my body fight whatever it is I'm dealing with.  

Hopefully I'll finally ship out the holiday care packages I've been putting together either tomorrow or Tuesday.

In the meantime, I wanted to recap the highlights from my 2025 Topps Holiday Advent Calendar.  Several other bloggers have covered the day by day contents of their calendars, so I figured I'd just show my favorites...

2025 Topps Holiday Buyback: 1997 Topps #410

The two buybacks were the main reason I purchased one of these advent calendars.  To pull one of my all-time favorite baseball player was a dream come true.

The other card I was really hoping to pull was a Nick Kurtz rookie:

2025 Topps Holiday #H40

The Green Plaid parallels pair perfectly with any of the A's players.  I was fortunate to pull one:

2025 Topps Holiday Green Plaid #H32

It seems like The Nice List inserts were a hit with collectors.  I don't love them or hate them.  I just wish Topps made them a little tougher to pull.

2025 Topps Holiday Making The Nice List #MNL-2

Overall I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed this product's design.  My buddy opened a couple of blasters and told me I could have his duplicates.  If I have a reasonable percentage of the set, I might just purchase a blaster and attempt to build it.

Well that's about all the energy I can muster right now for a blog post.  I hope all of you are enjoying your holidays.  As soon as I can ship out all of those care packages (hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday), I will write another post.

Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!