My Maria

Brigitte Helm appeared in over 30 films, and yet, her first picture, Metropolis, has been, and always will be, what she is best remembered for.

I'm not sure if it's because the character(s) of Maria/Maschinenmensch are just that enduring, or if it's because all of the fact that all of her films were made in Germany, and aside from Metropolis, very few of them have been seen outside of her native country.

The films communist theme has never resonated with me in the least, but it's groundbreaking special effects and often striking visuals, as well as it's early influence on the science fiction genre, do.

Like a lot of actors and actresses from here era, she made a lot of films in a relatively short amount of time, 37 in eight years to be exact (she would also appear in a short film, which was her final film, many years later). Unlike a lot of other performers from her era though, she wasn't enamored with acting (most of which stemmed from dealing with Fritz Lang during the making of Metropolis), and was able to leave the film industry on her own terms. After retiring in 1935, she married a Jewish industrialist, and if you know your German history, you'll not be surprised to hear that this didn't sit well with the ruling Nazi party. Ultimately, she and her husband moved to Switzerland, where they had a couple of children and led out the rest of their lives [Please note that this is just the Cliff's notes version of her career/life. Things were considerably more complicated, and for those interested, a lot more detailed information can be found elsewhere]

I myself have only seen a handful of her films, but even so, those have been enough to warrant my acquiring a small collection (if it could even be called that) of her cards over the last few years or so. I will never attempt to collect all of her cards, but do have a small want list of particular items that I'd like to get at some point -- one of which I was able to do so just in the last couple of months.

Given how many were made, there are very few German tobacco cards that can actually be considered "rare", this 1936 Aurelia Sultan Filmsterne definitely isn't one of them, and yet, it's still taken me a few years to find a decent copy. Between price, condition, and just seeing it before someone else buys it, I have had no luck in trying to find one. It hasn't helped too that they usually come up from a German seller, and once you factor in the shipping charge, it just isn't cost effective to buy it -- or at least it isn't for me. A few months ago though, a seller that I've bought from on more than one occasion (who is located in the U.S.) , and would highly recommend, bwcards, added a bunch of these to their store, and for less than $2 (that's including tax and free shipping) I was finally able to get one.

Like a lot of German tobacco sets, these were made by more than one company. I know that set was made by at least one other company, but beyond that I don't know anything else. I'm not trying to build any tobacco card "rainbows", so I will not be trying to find copies from any of the other products, one is enough. It's interesting to note too the photos for this set came from the famous German postcard/photograph producer, Ross Verlag, one of who's photos I just led off my previous post with. 

Some of you said last weekend that you'd be up for some non-sport card posts, well, it looks like I'm going to put that sentiment to the test this week, as this will be the first of three consecutive non-sport posts, all planned for the upcoming week. If I can actually finish the other two, these alone will equal my blogging output for the last three months. I'm still looking to regain some blogging rhythm, and am hoping that these will do the trick.

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, look at this guy...

I almost stepped on this fellow (eastern box turtle) while raking leaves yesterday, he was that well camouflaged amongst the buildup. He was a nice guy, and I would've liked to spend more time with him, but he was not in a very safe location, so I moved him to what was hopefully a better spot. If I'm lucky, we'll meet again someday :)

New blog, and some other things

Hey all, it's been awhile, huh? Like most of my past absences, I didn't mean to stay away for so long, it just happened.

My want to blog has been strong in recent weeks, but after not "writing" for over two months, I found myself having trouble trying to get back into the swing of things. I think I've got it down again now, so you're gonna be stuck with me until next year's inevitable disappearance.

I'd like to think I've been busy to doing big things during my sabbatical, but that's probably subjective, so I'll just say that I've been doing some stuff, one such bit of stuff being to get everything in place to launch a whole new blog -- which I just did yesterday by the way.

Despite it being an all baseball blog, mostly of the older variety, it's going to be a very niche blog, and I'm not expecting there to be much interest in it. With that in mind, I'm not gonna ask you to follow it, retweet it, or anything else of that nature. I figure if you want to check it out you will, and if you don't, you won't. Either way is cool with me. I've always maintained that this blog, the one that you're currently reading, was not created just for my own enjoyment, but the new one was. I fully plan to be writing just for the sake of writing on that one; if anyone actually comes around, well, that'll just be a bonus.

I will add though, that if anyone does go on over, it's been some time since I had to try and figure out how to create a layout, and with the 'new' Blogger in place, it seems to be a little harder than the last time I did so. Many tweaks will still be necessary, but it's up and running, and doesn't look too terribly bad. That's all that I really cared about to begin with.

It feels a little weird to start a new blog at a time when my old one is just hanging on by a thread, but the subject matter of the new one will be of much more interest to me than what I've been doing around here for at least the last year or so. I'm hoping that the passion for the new one will rub off on this one, possibly inspiring better posts for those who choose to just read this one. Time will tell though. At the very least, you can expect a few changes around here in the coming months. Of course, I have said that before, so maybe take that last part with two grains of salt :)

In other news...

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I finally took Newspapers.com up on their free-trial offer last week, and all I can say is, wow, that is some site! I didn't think that it was possible for me to enjoy something on the internet as much as I enjoyed that site. Apparently I was wrong though, as I thoroughly enjoyed that site, spending upwards of a couple of hours on it each day throughout my trials duration. 

I was able to get a lot of research done for the new blog, as well as some material for another blog I'll be starting in the very near future. That's right, I'll be trying to juggle three blogs by summer's end. I would've had that one up and running by now too, but the perfect name that I came up with for it, is already taken (by someone who's only blogged once in the last three years 😡), and I haven't been able to come up with another name since. I put all my eggs in that basket!

I won't be able to afford a full-time subscription to the Newspapers.com, but am gonna try to swing a few months worth here and there; I've only just scratched the sites surface. Also, I think I'm going through withdrawal, I got really used to having access to that site, really quick.

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I also went to Chattanooga last week for the first time. It was a long drive (about an hour and fifty minutes each way). I had been wanting to check out the McKay's there for quite some time... it was nowhere near as good as the one in Knoxville... and I probably won't be going back. I managed to find one book, and two DVD's for myself. And one book, and one DVD for my mom. No post coming. I took a few pictures on my way there, while driving (don't do that kids), most of which didn't turn out so good, but a few weren't too bad:

I don't remember exactly where these were on the way, and the windshield was a tad dirty, but as I said, they don't look too bad.

I got a brief glimpse of the Sequoya Nuclear Plant, and was hoping that the highway would turn back that way for me to try and get a picture, but it ended up going the other way. Still a neat sight though.

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It's been a few years since I last saw a Luna Moth (whenever the last time I posted a picture on here of one was), so it was pretty cool to spot this one a few weeks back. She (I don't know it's sex, but I'm gonna call her a she) wasn't the biggest one that I've seen, but was still a good 4" long, and wasn't showing any signs of decay yet (they only live for like a week, and will often be spotted clinging to things with parts of their wings rotting away -- it's both sad and gross at the same time).

In other nature news:

We have had a LOT of black snakes around the house this spring/summer, which isn't a bad thing, as they keep the rodents at bay. I don't normally take pictures of them, but this one was right under the laundry room door. Thankfully I always look before I step out. It was kind of funny too, after he ( this one was a "he" to me) saw me, he hid his head under the piece of creek driftwood at the top of the photo, like maybe I wouldn't notice the rest of his two and half foot body if I couldn't see his head :)

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Card collectors lamenting over not being able to find unopened retail product has been a daily occurrence for over a year now. I don't get it, but the Walmart that I go to never ran out of cards, and always has boxes out for whoever. I couldn't tell you what those boxes (and packs) are, because I never go in for a closer look, but they are there. My problem has been that the store rarely ever gets any of the cool new toys in, and when they do, they're gone almost as fast as they're put out. Imagine my surprise then when I actually found this Berserker Predator from Lanard's semi new-ish Alien/Predator line last month. The Alien figures look like poo, but from what I had seen online, I knew I'd want the Predator figures if I ever found any in person. This was the only one that was on the peg, but it was the one that I wanted the most, so if I was meant to only ever find one, I'm glad that it was this one.

He'll be coming out of the package at some point, but for now I've just been enjoying him like this on my desk.

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A few of my blogging friends have been kind enough to send me a few packages in the last couple of months, and I received an order from the Baseball Card Store not too long ago. There's been a few purchases from eBay as well, and some TCDB trades, so I've got no shortage of material in the weeks to come. Hopefully there'll still be a few people around to see it.

Time to head further south

               
As of Friday morning, it was supposed to be partly sunny and fifty degrees on Sunday afternoon. Nothing had changed by Friday night. Saturday morning however was a completely different story. By then the weather people were saying that some surprise snowstorm would be arriving by Saturday night, and would continue into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Oh, and that high of 50° was now going to be dropped to a balmy 32° (it only made it to 30°). I really hate weather people!

I was really looking forward to that 50°, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. I couldn't be out doing what I had planned on doing in the afternoon, but did go out and wander around a bit, took some pictures too, pictures that you're now going to be subjected to. 

Apologies in advance for my attempting to get artsy with a few of them.

I transplanted this sapling last spring, it was already having some trouble, but it looks like this storm put the final nail in it's coffin. At least as far as casualties go, it could've been much worse, usually is around here.

We've had a lot of snow this winter, this storm producing the most so far. The power was out pretty much all day too, of course that's why a generator is an absolute must around these parts, all it takes is a violent sneeze for the grid to go down. Supposedly we're going to get a few fifty degree days this week, but more snow is being predicted for later in the week, and you know something... I'm really getting tired of snow!

I hadn't been dreaming of a white Christmas

When I got up Christmas morning it was 16° with a real feel of 3° outside, making it our coldest morning of the year. And if that wasn't bad enough, it had done this during the night/wee hours of the morning:

At 18/10°, Christmas day became the coldest day of the year, The real feel never got above single digits. It wasn't cool. Or I guess technically it was cool, but it wasn't cool. 

It snowed it a bit more during the day, even though it wasn't supposed to be doing so. I don't know about the weather people in your area, but the so called "forecasters" here, haven't been doing their job so well as of late (or really all year for that matter). 

Knowing ahead of time that it was at least going to be colder than normal on Christmas, my mom and I's now annual Christmas hike had to be taken two days earlier when it was a slightly more comfortable 54° out. [I mention it every year, but for those that don't know, or don't remember, my mom's birthday is on Christmas. A few years ago she suggested going for an impromptu hike on that day, and not being one to deny a birthday request, or need much persuasion to go wander around in the woods, we did; and it's sort of been a tradition ever since]

I didn't take a lot of pictures this year, but did have a nice time nonetheless. Well, save for a pitbull that was briefly pushing my patience to it's utmost extreme. It was obviously someone's pet, but I'm not  huge fan of dogs in general (incident when I was young), especially when they're being aggressive, and pet or not, this one was walking that very thin line between just being annoying and being a threat. 

As I said, the day itself was pretty good, but Wednesday night was a whole 'nother matter. The coming cold front met up with the "warm" air that was already here, which produced big winds all night, and dumping rain the next day. Before eventually turning into snow. I didn't get a lot of sleep Wednesday night (I think I might have a slight case of PTSD from the big storm earlier this year), but at least no trees came down this time, branches yes, trees no.

Despite the snow, and cold, Christmas day itself wasn't too bad. I spent most of the day doing small projects around the house, even completing a few.

And even though I'm long past the asking for anything on Christmas age, I still got a few things, two of which did fit in with the blogs normal content, so...

My mom did really well with this one! Horror magazines are always a welcome sight, Eerie being one of the more desirable for me. It's also a SPECIAL CHRISTMAS ISSUE, so that seemed rather appropriate for the day.

I don't own a coffee table, but am still partial to certain coffee table books.

I haven't started reading it yet, but did skim through the pages. This book is loaded with images of expensive books that I will never own, and hopefully the content will be able to live up to the pictures.

I wasn't feeling very Christmas-y this year, but all-in-all the holiday season turned out to be better than I expected. Given the less than stellar year we've had, I hope that all of you reading this were able to say the same!

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Outgoing mail // Making friends in unlikely places

First off, I'm happy to report that Operation: Send Out Free Stuff, is fully underway, as all but three claims from last Friday's post were mailed out yesterday morning. Of the three that weren't sent, one will be added to a larger package, and the other two are destined for our neighbor to the North. I thought I had a few more of those Canada global stamps, but apparently I didn't, so those two envelopes will have to wait until Friday or Saturday, when I will be in the vicinity of a post office again. Thanks again to everyone who participated.

Despite it still being a little early to do so, I ventured out into the woods this past Sunday to do some bottle hunting, and after having not done so for over six months, I gotta say... it was really nice!

Tick season has passed, and with the weather starting to cool off (much faster than I would like), snakes (of the venomous variety) are becoming less of a threat, but running in to them is still a possibility, especially in areas where they can soak up sun. Knowing the risk, I decided to, well, risk it anyway. The urge to get back out there was just too much.

I didn't get too crazy though, I just went to an area that I know very well, it's one that I've been to many times over the last couple of years. The creek was relatively low (to my knees or less), so to minimize the chance of encountering any unfriendly serpents, I traveled via the water for most of the way, only going on land to go around some deep pools.

I'm sure that most of you already know this, but you really can't go anywhere on this planet without encountering human refuse, and this area is no different. Of course this is an area the floods multiple times a year, which is part of the reason that it's such a good spot to look for bottles (the sediment is always being stirred up), but it also makes for a garbage catch-all. Since I'm all too familiar with this fact, I always bring a couple of plastic grocery bags with me, and try to pick up as much trash as possible. It was while venturing up on land to pick up a plastic Gatorade bottle, that I encountered the fellow above [Note: I didn't turn this cutie over to see what sex they were, but for the sake of ease, will continue to refer to them as 'him'].

This is an Eastern Box Turtle, they are not rare, and supposedly are quite common in Tennessee, but this guy just so happens to be the first living one that I've seen. I've found probably half a dozen empty, and often sun bleached, shells over the last five years or so, but up until Sunday, hadn't been fortunate enough to find one with it's occupant still inside.

My encountering him was just fluke too, if I hadn't gone ashore to get that bottle, then decided to look around for any other garbage, more specifically on the other side of a pile of branches/logs (flood pile), I wouldn't have seen him, cause that's where he was, basking in the sun on the other side of that pile.

This angle makes him look like he's only got one eye, but I can assure you that both were present.

I've encountered a number of other turtles/tortoises in recent years, but as mentioned, I hadn't seen one of these, and because of that, I never looked into the peculiars of their species; but now have.

Apparently the species is now listed as 'vulnerable', as are quite a few other turtle species around the world. The Eastern Box turtles are very slow, which makes it very difficult for them to successfully cross roads, and also makes them susceptible to farming equipment as well. They're a slow breeding species too, only laying 1-9 eggs a year (when they can find a mate), and with so few eggs, the odds of babies reaching adulthood is drastically reduced. But like most vulnerable and endangered species around the world these days, the biggest threat is China, yeah that China, the one who's systematically raping the planet, and either ignoring, or paying off, any and all opposition.

For all intensive purposes, China has wiped out their entire turtle population, and is now doing the same to everyone else's. Although for once the biggest threat isn't coming from a bunch of limp-d*cked businessmen attempting to regain their 'vigor' through the consumption of an endangered species, no, instead it's China's booming exotic pet trade that's behind the decline. There are poachers around the world who are looking to satisfy China's need for exotic animals, and unfortunately the U.S. is no exception. We've got quite the black market here, and one of their biggest "sellers" is turtles. Seeing as how very few people care about such things, this problem is likely to continue to get worse, and will probably continue to go unchecked (for the most part) until it's too late. [Note: Normally I'd apologize to anyone who's 'offended' by my anti-Chinese rhetoric, but this one instance where I won't, as this is one of the few things that gets under my skin, and I honestly don't give two sh*ts about the people who are bothered by it]

I hadn't planned on ever mentioning it here, but since I'm talking about turtles, I might as well tell one other quick story as well.

I think it was on a night back in June, where I was going down to check the mail kind of late, it was still light, but the mail was just being checked later than normal. Anyway, I was almost to the road when I noticed something that stood out considerably when compared to the gravel in the driveway. It was clearly a baby turtle, and from the angle it was at on the rocks, I thought it was dead, possibly run over by me earlier in the day. Thankfully my near-instant heartache over the possibility of having accidently run over a baby turtle was quickly alleviated when it started moving as I got closer.

There was no water in the direction that it was headed, and with darkness approaching, the odds were slim that it would survive the night, what with all of the four-footed buggers (raccoons, opossums, etc.) that come out of the woods at night. Heck, it was minor miracle that the baby hadn't already been picked off by a crow or blue jay. The nearest bit of water was the creek on the other side of the front yard, but at the time, that water was much too deep for this little thing, and I wasn't about to head into the woods right before dark, so there was really only one thing to do, find something to keep him (see, I did it again) overnight, and then find a spot to release him the next day.

I rarely throw anything away, so making a quick enclosure proved to be rather easy, I just grabbed an clear plastic vegetable drawer from an old refrigerator, went to the waterway in the backyard - which was dried up at the time - got some small pea gravel, a couple of bigger flat rocks, arranged them accordingly, and added water. It turned out to be a nice little setup for something that was thrown together in just a couple of minutes, it had everything a baby turtle could want (minus the freedom), a deeper spot to swim, and rocks that tapered up to a little land area. I didn't think to take any pictures at the time, but I've since cleaned everything and have it stored away just in case this ever happens again, and of course if it does, I will definitely take pictures.

After putting the baby in it's temporary enclosure, the only other thing to do was to try and find some food, especially since there was no way of knowing how long it had been traveling, or how long it had been since it last ate. The only thing that could be found on such short notice were some small wood grubs. Apparently those were acceptable though, as the baby ate a couple of them right away.

I fed the baby again in the morning, who at this point, wasn't too happy about it's enclosure, he was actively trying to swim through the wall. Seeing as how it was smack in the middle of snake and tick season, I wasn't too keen on going into the woods (I usually don't go in them during the summer), but the baby had to be put somewhere where the water wasn't too deep, and wasn't fast moving, and there's only one spot like that within walking distance, so I put on my knee boots, and set off around 9am to release him (it was a day off).

Like this past weekend, in an effort to minimize my chances of running into any snakes, I traveled mostly by water. It took about twenty minutes to get there, and when I did, the baby couldn't get out of the transport bucket quick enough, but before it could, I had to get one picture...

Now I ask you, how adorable is that? Size-wise, I'd say that he was smaller than a silver dollar, but was easily twice as active. I knew what kind of turtle this was at the time, but have since forgotten, and Google is proving to be of no help at all right now, so until I figure it out again, I'm just gonna say that it's a turtle, of the cute as a button variety. 

The same photo, but now zoomed in.

A few seconds after this picture was taken, he was gone, swam off towards, and then under some vegetation. I stayed for a minutes afterwards, long enough to see him come up once for air, and then I headed home. And I'm not going to lie, even though I don't own any pets, nor do I want to own any pets, I sure miss this little guy, even more so now that I'm thinking about him again.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Life after lockdown

Sunday's post covered my last purchases before the world went dark, and now that someone's turned on a light again (at least here in TN), I thought I'd "show off" my latest purchases.

One of the places that I've missed going to the most during the quarantine, was the local antique mall. For being out in the middle of nowhere, this place never ceases to amaze me with how much good stuff the vendors have, the prices aren't always great, but at least there's usually plenty of neat things to look at.

I think at this point it's now been back open for about a week and a half, and I went last week, so you can see that wasted little time in going back. I could tell that a number of vendors have been in since the reopening to restock and/or switch items out items from their booths, and even though I was told that plenty of people had been there shopping since it's reopening, there still seemed to be no shortage of fun things to look through, and in my case... to buy!

I have to admit one thing though real quick, my reason for going so soon wasn't entirely for myself, no, you see I forgot all about the rapidly approaching Mother's Day, and didn't have anything on hand, so trying to find something for mom was the primary goal on this particular day.

My favorite booth was among the many that had obviously been restocked since the reopening. There were a number of freshly opened early 90's boxes to select packs from, one of them being 1990-91 Skybox, which was rather fortuitous, as I've had the want to open some packs from this particular product since reading Roy's pack break last week. The twelve packs of series 1 came from one of those newly opened boxes, while the three packs of series 2 came from a box of misc. loose packs. At $0.69 apiece, I know that I overpaid, but I don't see card shows coming back anytime soon, and I don't want to buy a ridiculous priced box off of eBay right now, so my options are sort of limited for the time being.

The singles boxes that are also in this booth, had not been restocked, but I looked through them for what was probably the 20th time anyway. I ended up grabbing two more of old #12 himself. Did I need two more derpy faced Jordan's? No, not really, but again, no shows, and I felt like buying a couple of cards. At 39¢ (don't ask me how they came up with that price) each, these were about 29¢ too much, but I think that's still much less than the current going rate for this card.

Moving on to a different booth now. I found a small stack of Crazy magazine, and this one caught my attention. It's got a little bit of wear, but the $1.50 price tag was good, so here it is. Crazy isn't something that you all that often, so for anyone not familiar with the magazine, it was published by Marvel, and ran from the early 70's to sometime in the early 80's. And as you can probably tell from the cover, it was another MAD, Cracked, etc. satire magazine, although some of the jokes are little more adult-oriented than those of other parody magazines from the time.

Bottle collecting has become really big for me in recent years, and even though I enjoy finding them out in the wild more than buying them, I will occasionally break down and buy something, especially if it's something that I know I have no chance of finding on my own... like this NuGrape bottle!

I guess there is a chance that I could find one of these, but the odds of the applied (painted) label not being worn or washed off, are pretty low, especially if I were to find one in the creek.

This bottle dates to '48, and other than the inside needing a cleaning, is in pretty good shape overall. It's interesting too that I normally can't take a decent bottle pic to save my life, but these came out okay, I might've finally found the right place in the house to take bottle pics -- if so, this could be bad news for anyone reading, as that might mean more future bottle posts!

That'll do it for my purchases this time, not shown are the items that I found for my mom, and yes, I was successful in that pursuit as well. Although I'm pretty sure that had I not found anything, the 30'x1'x1' drainage ditch that I spent Sunday digging out for my mom's new garden, probably would've made up for the lack of trinkets.

Since this post was so short (at least by my rambling standards), how about a bonus round?

My short term memory isn't what it used to be, and doesn't seem to be getting any better, so anytime I'm out and around lots of stuff (antique malls, card shows, etc.), I tend to take a lot of pictures, this is usually done for items that I want to look into more when I get home, but sometimes it'll also be just for things that I don't want to forget -- things for reference if you will. Anyway, I always end up taking a bunch of pics at this antique mall, but don't ever share them on here, as they're for personal use only, but again, short post! So I'm breaking tradition and sharing a pair today.

I really don't need an Electric Football, but this one sure was tempting! It has all of it's pieces, and looks to be in unplayed condition. After checking the eBay, the price seemed to be relatively reasonable too, but still, I don't need it (I'm trying to convince myself of this, more than I am you).

This glass motor oil bottle was a beauty, and the spout was absolutely gorgeous, but for being a generic bottle (brand/company bottles are much more desirable), it was very overpriced ($50). I'm pretty sure that they think that the Duraglas name on the bottom is the name of the brand, it isn't, it was a glass making process, and didn't start being used until 1940, so the sellers date of 1926 is a bit off as well. Even being generic, and likely from the late 40's to early 50's (which was the tail end of the glass motor oil bottle era), I still would've been all over it had the price been more reasonable, say in the $15 range.

Okay, that's a little better length-wise, but how about a second bonus round?

I snapped this picture at a red light on my to the antique mall. It's hard to tell because of the vehicle in front of me, but this was like a big double trailer, being pulled by a smaller semi (I'm sure that those have a name, but I don't know what it is), and had at least a dozen llamas in it. The guys and/or gals that I could see were absolutely adorable, and since llama moving isn't something that I see everyday, I had to try and get a picture.

Third bonus round? I'm kidding, I think I'm good for today, especially since tomorrow's post is going to be picture heavy (and of the card variety), so until then...


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Recapping Christmas day: Goods and Woods

As is customary over the last couple of years, I thought I'd do quick recap of Christmas day. And I do mean quick, after Monday's crazy-long post, I told myself that I wouldn't do any more long one's for at least a week. Real quick though, since I brought up Monday's post, I just wanted to thank everyone for the positive feedback on that one, it's hard to tell how something like that is going to go over, so it was nice to see that it seemed to resonate with a few of you. Anyways, back to Christmas...

This Christmas was fairly standard (which is a good thing), for anyone new, my mom's birthday is on Christmas, so as per usual I try to make the day about her as much as possible. Over the last couple of years we've sort of fallen into a groove (that too is a good thing), presents in the morning, lunch, and then go for a hike in the afternoon. I've got pictures from two out of the three (I don't do food pics) to show, so I'll just go in order and start with the gifts.

This year's stocking stuffer! With as bonkers as people are over Prizm these days, especially Prizm rookies, it's hard to believe that she found a couple of discounted 2016-17 rack packs still in the wild just a couple of months ago. My mom knows a bit about Prizm's popularity, but upon me unwrapping them, it was still funny to hear her say "I wonder how much those would go for on eBay?". It did get me to thinking though, so I checked, the last couple have sold for between $25-30 apiece, that's a lot of money just for a rack pack. Since the risk to reward ratio is so small on these, and with me not being overly comfortable opening up a "$25" pack, I am seriously considering selling these, and then using the money to get her something. My mom has taken on quite a few projects in recent years, all of which usually require money, so fifty bucks could potentially go a long way towards one of those projects.

Ah, what would a Christmas be without Spawn? Sorry for the bad pic, but I was trying to hurry up. Not a bad selection though, as they were all new to me.

I mentioned that my mom has taken on a bunch of projects, but I have as well, and have quite a few other's in mind, I just don't have the right equipment/supplies to start yet. One of those things that I didn't have, but very much wanted, was a heat gun. I've obviously lamented aloud on more than one occasion about how much a decent heat gun would cost, and that I would just have to hope that I could find a used one for less money at some point, because she got me one, and not just any one, but one of the one's that I had been eyeing for quite some time.

I've mentioned in past year's posts that my mom has a habit of going overboard with the Christmas presents, even though I always tell her multiple times during the year that it's not necessary. Well, I'm happy to report that it only took 37 years, but she finally listened to my pleas, and didn't go crazy with the gifts this year! Any one of these three things would've been enough for me, but all three together made for a pretty solid batch of presents.

I can't remember who first suggested going for a hike on Christmas, but after doing so now for four consecutive years, I think I can safely refer to it as a Christmas tradition. I know that my mom looks forward to it, and honestly, so do I.

The weather has been absolutely fantastic here this week, mid 60's, and just under 70 degrees on Christmas, so it's definitely good weather for doing things outside. I've had the whole week off, this was my third excursion into the woods so far, and I'll be going out hiking/exploring again tomorrow.

I didn't take a lot of photos this year, and the one's that I did take were mostly creek shots.

All in all, it was another really solid Christmas, got a couple of neat things, got to go for 2 1/2 hour hike, and more importantly, I got to spend the whole day with my mom! Hopefully everyone reading this had just as wonderful of a day as I did :)


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.