House cleaning

I hate to admit it, but a bout of depression got the better of me last week -- or rather, the low-level depression that I've been keeping at bay for most of the year decided to kick it up a notch, which, in case anybody was wondering, is why there weren't any new blog posts last week, I just didn't have the want to work on any.

And if that wasn't bad enough, I also got hit by a wave of home sickness, which is just stupid on so many different levels. a) After being gone for almost four years, you'd think I'd be past such things by now, b) Old people shouldn't be getting homesick, c) In my heart I know that everything here is better for me than it was back home, and dumbest reason of all, d) The Portland that I'm homesick for, hasn't existed for over twenty years! That's right, I'm longing for a city from another time... wonked up brain chemistry sure is fun, isn't it?

I'm gonna have to try and get over this pretty quick, or least pretend that I'm over it, because with Christmas coming up, as well as my mom's birthday, which is on Christmas, I'd prefer not to ruin her day with my mopiness.

Speaking of birthday's, oh, quick side note, today's post is going to be all over the place... kind of a cornucopia of crap if you will.

Anyway, birthday's... I had one back in July, and I never got around to photographing everything that I was given, so no post was ever done, but I do have a few pictures that have been sitting in a folder since then, including The Simpsons Rad Rollers above.

Does anyone remember Rad Rollers? Released in 1990 to very little fanfare, they wound up sitting in toy aisles -- most notably Kmart toy aisles -- across the country for over a decade, before finally being pulled from the shelves sometime in the early 2000's, in what can only be described as the retail equivalent of a mercy killing.

Even though I never played with them, or even knew anyone who did, I still have a strong affinity for them, if only because they are something from that era that I can still remember quite vividly. I want to say that there were around ten different sets made, ranging in subject matter from Batman to New Kids on the Block.

I already had the Dick Tracy and WWF sets, so The Simpsons was a welcome addition, someday I'll probably look for the rest, the keyword being "someday".

My mom had gone to the estate sale of a couple in Knoxville who had been selling on eBay for almost twenty years, which is where all of this year's presents came from. After seeing the pictures for the sale, I had planned on going too, at least until I realized that this was going to be one of those sales that would require a body to be lined up out front for hours in advance of the opening, which meant that I would've had to be getting up around 1am, drive an hour and a half, and then wait in line for another five hours... that's just too much for this particular fellow.

I have seen the Ronald McDonald figure many times over the years, but I had never seen any of the other characters from the 1976 Remco McDonaldland set before, a set by the way, that was the culmination of the McDonald's five year long ad campaign for it's McDonaldland universe.

This Hamburglar package has definitely seen better days, and even though I'm a dedicated package opener, I will be leaving this one unopened for the time being, as this one of those rare times where I get more enjoyment from the figure still being on card.

I've been showing a lot of California Raisins stuff as of late, so why not a pillow too? Oh, and I have mentioned lately that I'm still single... I just can't imagine why :)

Other birthday presents not shown: a Mr. Peanut promotional plush, a Snoopy wind chime, multiple Happy Meal toys from the early 90's, and a couple packs of cards that may or may not make it on to the blog at some later date.

A couple of months back I picked up this 2013 Golden Age Stanley Livingston auto on eBay for next to nothing, I guess there's not a lot of My Three Sons fans left out there, which is unfortunate, but I did need it for my set so I'm happy to have been able to get it for not very much money. And how great is that signature, it's like a f***ing piece of art!

This really isn't apropos, but it was super cute. Maybe a little over a month ago, before the cold weather started showing up, I went outside through the patio door and noticed that there was something dark on stuck to the side of the laundry room door, which is the only other door on the back of the house. Once I got little closer, it became obvious that it was a toad, maybe two inches in length, who was clinging to the part where the door meets the casing, about five feet up from the sill.

Oh, look his little eyes are closed! You can see the handle and deadbolt, so you can see how high he climbed. It was so difficult for me not to not pick him up, but I didn't want to wake him up, well, that and I didn't fancy the thought of getting peed on at that particular moment (toads pee a lot). We didn't need to use that door on that particular day, so he was able chill for the day, and as expected, he was gone the next morning.

Even with the depression kicking my butt all of last week, I still ended up going to Knoxville, which I was able to justify by telling myself that I was doing a good deed. You see, my mom was lamenting that she needed to go to Target to look for something, a something that wasn't on their website, and if you've ever tried to call a place like Target and ask them if they have something, well, let's just say that you'll never make that same mistake again.

The closest Target is in Knoxville, there's three of them there actually, two of which are about ten minutes apart, and one of those two is only about two miles from McKay's (next post) -- so knowing this, and knowing that my mom did not want to make the trip, I volunteered to go

I really dislike Target, but it's the only retail location that you can find figures from the recent Mego revival, so it's kind of a necessary evil, at least for me. I ended up finding the last figure that I wanted, as well as one that I didn't even know that I wanted...

... pretty cool, huh? Despite the fact that I really wanted them, these were not a good purchase at the time, what with me not technically having any money at the time. Thankfully the collecting gods smiled down on me the next day, by allowing two of my eBay items to sell.

Is anybody getting tired of seeing Classics parallels on here yet? I hope not, because I'm going to have more than a few in my COMC stash that's due to arrive today. These two came from eBay though, I bid on a few more from the same seller, but these were the only two that I won. The Mike Singletary was my first orange (#'d to /25), although Chris just sent me another one, which will be shown sometime in January. And I think the Chris Doleman is only my second blue (#'d to /10) now.

I went to the card show at the end of November, had to find some Secret Santa stuff you know, which I did, but I also found more than a few things for myself as well. I will be getting to that stuff in January, but in the meantime I thought I'd show my one non-sport purchase from that day.

Jim, everybody there's favorite seller, had a really nice looking stack of 1966 Topps Superman, about half of the set actually. He was asking for sixty something bucks for the whole stack, or $2 apiece for individuals. Not wanting to work on the set, I just went through and pulled out a few that I found visually appealing, and he ended up giving me an even better deal, as I got these six for $10.

Even though I don't want to work on the set, it's still kind of an interesting one, especially when you realize that Topps released this set in conjunction with the show's syndication, which was over ten year's after it's debut.

As nice as these cards are, they ended up scanning like hot garbage, putting them in a page only slightly improved the overall result.

Phew, that was one long post, I think I now need another week off! Just kidding, I'll be back on Wednesday.

Before I go though, one more random thing to mention. I don't know how often my fellow bloggers check their stats, namely the keyword search section, you know the part that tells you what phrases people are typing into search engines, which then ultimately leads them to enter your blog. Well, I try to check that part about once a week, but I usually end up forgetting to keep to that schedule, so I guess I should say that I end up checking it out every three or four weeks. Anyway, last week there was two main phrases that were bringing them in, the first one was "secret Santa scam"... WHAT? That's really not cool of Google to have my blog show up amongst those search results, but I guess there's nothing I can really do about it, other than to say that it is kind of sucky.

The other phrase used was "Satchel Paige bobblehead Portland", which is a little more interesting, but at least that one makes sense, since I did do a post with that particular bobblehead in it like two years ago -- makes me wonder why so many people would be looking for that bobblehead though, especially now? Okay, with that mentioned, I'm officially done for the day


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.