State of the Mistress

As you may have expected, things got crazy when this happened.  I returned to blogging and had a strong run through Christmas, then hit a wall.

I ended up getting really sick between Christmas and New Years. Add to that having a newborn in the house and I'm just now getting back to "normal". I'm sad I missed out on posting through the remainder of the college football season. I still have 4 boxes of Sweet Spot cards to show off.

Since I'm experiencing a newborn and the corresponding sleep deprivation, I'm overly emotional on things related to me and underly give-a-shit on things not related to me, so it should be a fun year.  I'm finding it harder and harder to bite my tongue these days.  Somebody somewhere that does something stupid is going to make me lose it...I can just feel it.  I'll probably be using Twitter to vent some things.

Here's my mini recap of the bowl season: VT sucked just a little less than Rutgers in overtime to save a winning season. Notre Dame was not the best team in the country, and was miles behind Alabama, but they deserved the spot in the NC game, even more so than Alabama. Recap complete.

Here's my thoughts on the baseball HOF vote: All sportswriters are wastes of oxygen and should be castrated. Just kidding, Night Owl.  The real problem is that the effects of steroids on hitting and pitching are hugely exaggerated...almost as much as the untaintedness

Anyway...

I've had a lot of time to think about cards, and not a lot of time to play with them.  I've come to the conclusion that I have a problem.  I have a spending problem.  I'm determined to curb that problem.  As a result of that problem, I have way too many cards.  It's time to downsize.   I haven't exactly figured out what that means, yet, but I'm getting there.  Ironically, I also plan on adding some sets to my want list.  I plan on giving some stuff away, selling some stuff, and trading some stuff.  Most importantly, I'm planning on buying less stuff...until A&G comes out...which I can't resist. 

This past year, I've really been happy with how my personal collection has grown.  I've picked up several Scott Sizemore on the cheap since he's been injured.  I need to start showing them off.  For example, I recently snagged this card:

#04/10

which completed my All But the 1/1s Rainbow.  I now have 108 Sizemores, consisting of 79% of his non-1/1 cards and one printing plate.    If he returns to the A's lineup this year, I should have a new batch of cards to chase.

My other supercollection, Bryan Randall, is up to 21 cards, which isn't bad since he only has 48 cards including 19 1/1s.  Hopefully I'll grab a couple more this year.  In general VT collecting,  I want to add more Hokies to my list of autographs.

Here's the list of milestones I plan to hit in 2013:

David Wright - 275 cards - I'm currently at 264 cards, so I should be able to get this one, no problem.  My hopeful goal is 300 cards including an auto.

BJ Upton - 225 cards - I'm currently at 219 cards.  With him joining the Braves, I'm sure he'll have enough new card releases to satisfy this one.  My hopeful goal is 250 cards.

Justin Upton - 150 cards - I'm currently at 140 cards. My hopeful goal is 150 with an auto.

Justin Verlander - 175 cards - I'm currently at 172 cards, but he keeps getting harder and harder to collect.  My hopeful goal is 200 cards.  I've briefly considered selling my Verlander collection, but I think I would regret it.

Ryan Zimmerman - 200 cards - I'm at 197, so this should be the first milestone to drop.  My hopeful goal is 225.

Michael Cuddyer - 75 cards - I'm at 75 cards, so...done.  I doubt I'll hit 100, but I'd like to.

Mark Reynolds - 55 cards - I'm at 53, so I'll get this one most likely, but he's not my top priority, so I doubt I'll get to 75.

Those milestones would put me at 1155 cards for the 7 players, so I'll set 1200 cards as a goal.

As for VT cards, I have around 335 cards of 42 different players, so I'd like to increase those numbers to closer to 400 and 50.

As usual, I plan on having a couple contests this year.  I will also try to update my banner at some point.  My current one is nearly 9 months old. 

I just passed 100,000 page views, so maybe I'll get to 150,000 by the end of this year. 

Here are some of the funnier search terms that have brought folks to my site:
"naughty word"
"detailed plans for house in uehara"
"rhode island italian american hall of fame"
"obey" - okay, so that one is more badass than funny.

There have been 1575 comments left on the blog.  Let's get 2000 before 2014 rolls around. 

This is my 890th post...so I should hit 1,000 in a few months.

Anyway, you're probably tired of this post by now.  I know I am.