Get To Know Your Blogger: Favorite Dinosaur

*coffee is brewed, poured and now being sipped as today's post begins*

I have done some fun posts on here before, at least I hope you guys thought they were fun, but nothing like today's post and new series.

It's time to reveal some things about your favorite coffee card blogger. Well, I believe I am the only coffee card blogger but that doesn't mean I am still not your favorite one.

This series will hopefully answer some of your burning questions such as who is my favorite DC Comic Super Hero? Who is my favorite singer? What Is My favorite snack? Which Ice Cream Do I Enjoy The Most? Which video games do I enjoy? And other hot topics including today's topic, Who Is My Favorite Dinosaur?

*takes a sip before moving on with today's post*

I have always been mesmerized by dinosaurs since childhood. Sometimes I would "go back in time" on my bed time machine to see them. Even though they were either stuffed or those hard figures you would find at the dollar store, I would still spend a lot of my time that way. Other times I would watch dinosaur related shows/movies such as Jurassic Park, Dinosaurs, any documentary on them along with Land Of The Lost (90's version). I also believe my passion for dinosaurs is what led me to liking Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

I know I wasn't also alone in being a dinosaur fan when I was a child, or even now as an adult, and I also know that everyone who is a fan of dinosaurs has a favorite.

Mine, well, that's easy. I like who I consider the "king of the dinosaurs" in the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

*takes a Gigantic coffee sip*

 

Weighing up anywhere between 4.5 to 8.4 metric tons and over 40 ft long, the T-Rex was one of the largest land carnivores of all time. I would guess along with his morning meal, his coffee consumption would be pretty intense.

The T-Rex was also fast and could take down their prey like no other. He was pretty much invincible so whatever he wanted, he got. Sounds like a someone's ex-wife.

*takes another sip, stomach is starting to growl like a T-Rex's wondering what carnivorous breakfast I could make*

As for why I like him, he just seems like the coolest of all dinosaurs. Big, ferocious, feared, short armed (well that's the least liked feature), and just his appearance alone ranks him to the top. Also, all of his traits are the opposite of mine. I would probably be more Hippodraco, except the being small part as I am 6ft 2in. But the more quiet, wimpier type of dinosaur.

*takes a sip before closing*

I hope to hear which dinosaur and why it is your favorite. Whether you share it in comments, on your own blog (please tag this blog along with that post) or on Twitter. I am curious to hear!

*takes a sip, Coffee Card Blogger Out!*

Puck Ya!

 

In my finale post of my mail day from Grady M, I could have made this into a month long series from everything he sent, I wanted to show off my favorite cards from the box packed full of goodies.

First up, a hockey card set I actually like a lot. These Dazzlers inserts are from Upper Deck flagship Hockey for this year and they look amazing. This set brings me back to the 90's with the design and flair and tempts me to chase it. 

However, there are 4 different versions with Blue, Green, Orange and Pink and each set comes with 100 cards.

Below I got a taste of a few different ones,

But I at least got a few to kick off a "maybe later on side project chase".

Also, speaking of 90's...

How 90's are these?!! The facial expressions get me as well. I really like these but don't expect to chase them like I may the Dazzlers. I wouldn't complain though if a few fell into my hands though.

And the final piece of my Grady M mail day were these Mosaics. As everyone knows, I love this stuff and Grady had plenty of shiny to send my way:

My eyes are too distracted to continue this post.

But, I gotta finish it up.

Thanks again to Grady for the mail day. Those mail days you send always brighten me up and gives me plenty to do between sorting and taking pictures to share my treasure. I have got to continue to dig for you and hopefully before this posts I would have hit you back.

A Community Effort

 *the aroma of coffee fills the kitchen and hits me. My mouth begins to water so I dig out a mug, creamer and then fill the cup. I sit down to the computer with a stack of cards next to it which only means one thing, it's time for Cards Over Coffee*

Running a Sugar House operation is a year round job that requires a lot of attention to detail and a lot of hard physical work.

First, you go to the woods in the fall to make sure none of the sap lines, the tubing that runs from the maple trees to the sugar house. haven't been taken down by trees or animals or have any leaks from animals chewing on them. If they do, you make some minor repairs. 

January through February, your time is spent doing the same thing with more in-depth repairs while also tapping the trees for sap. Tapping requires you drilling a hole in the tree and attaching the spout which is already hooked onto the tubing that you put together ahead of time. This is probably the hardest step as you are in snow shoes in 2 feet of snow some years. Best way to describe walking in 2 feet of snow is picturing yourself as one of those cartoon characters with concrete on your feet.

*takes a sip remembering the cold winter days of trudging around through the woods*

Once the tapping is accomplished, you wait until the temperatures are freezing, 32 degrees or less, at night and warm during the day,33 degrees and up, so the sap will run like it did in the two tanks pictured above. That day was a big sap run day. It's usually about mid March or so before the temps here go high enough for the sap to run.

Once you have the sap, then comes the sap boiling process. The sap is drained from the two tanks into the main tank which has a fire furnace that heats up the tank and brings the sap to a boil. You need to also keep feeding the fire with wood planks to keep it going. During a sugar season, you end up using a lot of wood planks. Sometimes even all of the ones in the sugar house and more.

 

Once the sap gets to a certain temperature, you need to be keeping track of it as you go, you can draw it off as maple syrup. Then it gets filtered and packed into containers ready to sell or for your own personal use.

When the official "sugaring" season comes to a close, it's all about cleaning everything from the tanks to the tubing in the woods and pulling out the spouts from the trees. Very time consuming part of the process, but needed as everything gets corroded.

The summer months are spent cutting up wood planks and stacking the sugar house full again for the next year. Like I said, a year round job.

I am also cutting a lot of the steps down for this post or this post would literally be Syrup Over Coffee and not include any cards. Speaking of syrup over coffee, in my State a lot of sugar makers use maple syrup for sweetener in their coffee. I have tried it and am not a fan personally.

This long grueling and hard working process is what my 74 year old Father-in-Law goes through every year. Fortunately for him though, he has a big family and all of us try our best to pitch in when we can and when he needs us to.

In the hobby, it would be comparable to building a big memorabilia card set. It takes a lot of work that sometimes needs some helping hands to complete it.

This is exactly what I went through recently when building the 2020 Donruss Rookie Holiday Sweater set.

*takes a sip, continues on*

Back in the fall, which is the start of my Christmas season, I came to realize my fondness of Christmas had never really transpired over to card collecting. As fast as I realized it, the magic of the Christmas took over and I began to become obsessed with adding "Christmas Cards" to my collection. Anything with Santa like the early Pro Set ones, Topps Holiday Short Prints and parallels, Bowman Holiday, Ugly Sweater cards and even Donruss Holiday. That's when I had also discovered the 2020 Donruss Holiday Rookie Sweaters.

At first, it was fun just having the one or two I had acquired but soon I found myself adding a few more and that's when I became addicted and thought to myself that maybe a set chase was on its way.

I began to give up some fairly decent cards early on in my chase to land them through trades. I was RAK'd a few. I bought a couple. I was given a birthday eBay gift card from @CardpocalypseNC which landed me one of the last ones I needed and my sister in law even helped out. It was a complete community effort. Not to mention all of the tags on Twitter from followers knowing I was chasing this set which led me to some of my needs.

*takes a sip before the reveal*

I didn't tell too many about finally finishing up this project, I think only one person actually, so for many of you, here is the big reveal.

There are 42 cards in this memorabilia set. It's by far the biggest memorabilia card set I have ever chased and probably ever will again.

So let's check out my hard worked community efforted set,

And there is all 42. The multicolored swatch ones really catch my eye the most.

  

And here is all 42 cropped together. I must have been holding a mug of coffee while cropping this disastrous picture or possibly dumped some in my crotch or maybe had a lil something-something extra in my cup. Well, if I drank.

*takes another sip*

I am also working on the 2020 Donruss Rookie Sweater Dual Sweater set which I am half way done with.

 

Here are four out of the eight. Fortunately I already got one of the two big ones with Justin Herbert. I think this is achievable but it may take some time. Once again, couldn't have even done this without some community help.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

When everyone comes together to help, it's amazing some of the things you can accomplish. Whether its something as small as 42 card memorabilia set, something larger such as maple sugaring, or even tackling worldly issues such as hunger, when everyone does their part, you can accomplish anything.

Now time for another cup of afternoon coffee.

*coffee card blogger out*

Breakin' Wax:2020 Absolute Football Blaster Box (Surprised Solid Pull!!)

 

Every blaster box of 2020 Absolute football comes with 8 packs of 8 cards in each. Each blaster that flippers don't get ahold of go for $20.

The base card design is okay. I chose to put Watson as my best Absolute base when I opened this in December when taking pictures. So ignore it now if you must.

Decent rookie card find.

Best rookie card find.

Another decent rookie card.

So far, so good on this box.

Green parallels....par good.

Not very good on this one. Nobody will take Russ' spot on that roster.

And holy moly good. Stunning card and a shocker for this break! This made the break!

More Jordan Love. I always pull this guy.

The GOAT. I hate to admit it but after he led the Bucs to the Super Bowl he is the man and proved it.

A couple other decent guys in inserts.

It was already a top notch break before the hit and I was happy as it was.

But landing another top pick relic card just sealed the deal. 

By far my best blaster break all of 2020 and it helped cheer up a time when I was dealing with kidney stones and kidney stone surgeries.

Positive Start

*takes a sip of fresh brew, smiles, feeling great the way the week started*

This has been a great start to the week. First, I got an email saying my next shipment from Burbank Sport Cards Beckett Marketplace has shipped. I can't wait to show that off. Then I was chosen for a couple surprise mail days from my Monday RAK thread on Twitter and yesterday.....

 

I went into Walgreens to pick up a prescription and walked out with my first shot of Pfizer Covid Vaccine. How does that work, you may ask? Well after walking back to the pharmacy, I saw a sign that said Covid Vaccines were now available so even though I was scheduled for one on Saturday, I checked in and they had an appointment right then and there so I took it. I didn't blink an eye or think twice about doing so.

I know it's only the first shot, but it felt like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when I walked out of Walgreens. And today, I have a minor sore shoulder from the shot, but overall, I feel great. My mood has changed as well. I can't wait until the second shot is done in three weeks so the overall worry weight will be completely lifted. The second shot is the one that gets you.

*lifts the mug and is thankful to be right handed since the left arm is where the shot was given. Takes a sip, then continues on*

Another thing that made this a great start to the week was a surprise in the mail from @JohnHollod. I knew something was coming, but had no idea what it was.

When I opened it though, I was amazed.

*takes a sip before the reveal*

I have been a long time follower of Johns and really enjoy seeing his Super Collection of Paul O'Neill that he tweets a new card of on a daily basis. John and I also have a common ground in love of 90's inserts.

So I wasn't a bit surprised when I saw a few in this package. It also was no surprise to find them as Yankees either since he is a fan like myself.

*takes another sip*

The first card I found was this 2000 Upper Deck Yankees Legends Pride Of The Pinstripes.

I know this isn't a 90's insert, but the early 2000's inserts up to 2003 were just as astonishing.

Up next, Topps Gold Label. This product pleases your eyes and makes you appreciate what the 90's brought.

Then there were the Matrix parallels from 1997 Stadium Club. These parallels fell 1:12 packs in probably what was my favorite Stadium Club design of the 90's and maybe all time. 

The last card in the package wasn't from the 90's, but was a player from the 90's and was also a jaw dropper.

This Tiki Barber was a card that John spotted in a Twitter stack sale and knew that I would enjoy so he grabbed it. He wasn't wrong, this is one of the coolest Tiki Barber cards I own.

It's also numbered to 50 and guess what, game worn. Remember those days? I do.

Thank you John for this nice surprise. I really appreciate our friendship and of course our passion for 90's cards.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

 

I am hopeful that rest of the week goes as well as the first two days have. If not, I can always turn to extra coffee. That's my version of alcohol since I don't drink.

*finishes up cup, Coffee Card Blogger out!*

Player Highlights:Barry Sanders

You can't mention Barry Sanders without mention Highlights.

I can't think of a single word to use to describe what it was like growing up watching him. All I can say was that I was blessed to had done so. He is the GOAT and we will never, ever see another Barry.

In my mail day from Wes, there was plenty of Barry to show off.

Here is today's Player Highlights and I will let the cards do the talking.

 

How was that for a gallery?

And that wasn't them all. So it was like a sneak peek.

Not sure I will do more from this series or not. The first one was not at all popular in terms of views and comments so I may find another avenue to post these.