Wallet Card Wednesday - 12 (Arizona trip)

I missed last week's wallet card post but all of this week's post is from my trip to Arizona. They aren't all wallet card shots, and I'll have to do a separate post later on the Musical Instrument Museum. Sadly, I missed the baseball card exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum since I didn't remember that it wasn't open on Monday or Tuesday. I left it too late.

We'll start off with a nice stop at the Philadelphia airport.

I really seem to only get Pinkberry when I go to San Diego each year for Comic-Con. Seeing it at the Philadelphia airport, I had to get some.

I actually flew to Phoenix out of Albany (we'll get to that later), having to scrape the ice off of my windows before making the five hour drive. Do you know what was really nice about my trip?

View from backyard patio on my first morning in Arizona

Oh, yeah! This is much nicer than having to scrape the car off. Oh, warmth, how I enjoyed you. (I type as I look out the window at the snow falling today in Ottawa. Ugh.)

I don't really talk too much about basketball but part of the reason that I visited my mom that late in March was so that I could go see the Celtics play the Suns. I enjoyed the game. At the half they honored the 1976 Sunderella Suns.

Most of the players from the team were there. Sorry the picture isn't as clear as it could be. I don't think that I get the most out of the camera on my Blackberry.

Here is a free throw shot, and the final score. There were a lot of Celtic fans, and empty seats in the arena.

I enjoyed the game, and received a nice surprise when I left the arena.




From the back of the box, the 1976 Phoenix Suns team consisted of:

Alvan Adams
Dennis Awtrey
Mike Bantom
Keith Erickson
Nate Hawthorne
Gar Heard
Phil Lumpkin
Curtis Perry
Pat Riley
Fred Saunders
John Shumate
Ricky Sobers
Dick Van Arsdale
Paul Westphal
John Wetzel

To me, Pat Riley was notable in his absence. It was fun to hear the other players interviewed at half-time. Gar Heard was great.

Shortly after meeting Corky from Pack War, I went to see a Cactus League ballgame.

After watching the White Sox at the Rockies, I have now seen eight different teams play at four different stadiums in my four March visits to Phoenix to see my mom.

You can't make it out, but John Danks is pitching

Again, the highlight to me was the weather, but in the bottom of the third, the Rockies went back-to-back-to-back off of Danks. (Blackmon, Story and Gonzalez hitting the dingers.)

Final score

As you can see, the three dingers didn't hold up. I think there were seven HRs for the game. The ball was flying!

Now the reason that I flew from Albany was so that I could go to a concert on the way home. I try to see Straight No Chaser every good chance I get. I love their music, and they are great guys. They were playing in Albany on Wednesday, March 30.

Checking out the Palace Theatre in Albany, NY

I spent a few hours walking around Albany, going over a pedestrian bridge down to a view of the Hudson River.

In walking around downtown, I thought this building was pretty interesting.

The "John Eagan, Blacksmith" was what caught my eye. Looking for some history of the building, I found out that it was built in 1849, and the R.B. Wing building was built in 1914. It is nice to come across stuff like that while taking a walk.

I had a great time at the concert, saying hi to the guys after the show at their customary autograph signing as I usually do. I highly recommend their shows if you get a chance to see them, and stick around and say hi to them, they're great guys!

One of these things is not like the other...

After posing for this photo, I hopped in the car for the ride home, arriving around 3:30 am. It was a long day, but a great way to finish a trip.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 11

Okay, this week's wallet card post isn't the greatest...

The first photo that I wanted to have was my wallet card enjoying St. Patrick's Day last week, but it turned into a bust for me when the manager of my curling club asked me if I would go in there at night to see if the bartender was being overwhelmed and needed any help. And if she did, to jump in and help her.

I am the club's emergency backup bartender, so that is what I am still around to do, but as it turned out she had it well in control and the rush of heavy drinkers we thought might occur didn't. I had fun talking with the bartender and keeping her company for a couple of hours, but I didn't go out and enjoy some Guinness and sing songs like I planned. And no wallet card celebrating...instead I will celebrate St. Patrick Day's by posting a picture of a purchase from a St. Patrick's Day game two years ago:

Different sport, right city

I've been complaining about the weather, and was so happy last week to see Spring showing up. Well, last night, after trivia, I went out to my car and it was covered with a bunch of wet snow that was still falling.

I cursed, and then figured that I would pull out my wallet card and take a picture. I didn't look at it until today...

Crap! A lousy photo. You'd think that with digital photos I would have looked at it first but I wanted to get out of the snow and get home, and just looked at it when I was getting this post ready. Oops.

The card is covering the back left tail light of my car, and you can see a little bit of snow above it, but it doesn't show the rest of what I wanted to complain about. Oh, well.

Anyway, on Friday morning I will be driving to Albany, NY in order to fly to Phoenix under the pretense of seeing my mother over Easter. I *should* get sun and warmth there!

Really, I am planning on attending a few different sports related events in the Phoenix area - I want to go to the Celtics/Suns game on Saturday night, at least one Cactus League game (probably to see Tony's Brewers because I like the Maryvale park), and want to go to the art gallery since I heard there was a baseball card display going on there. I'll be sure to post some of what I'm doing here.

Looking around the office for something interesting to photograph, I found something my boss brought back after attending a meeting or reception a couple of weeks back.

I used to love the Pink Panther cartoons so I gladly took the stuffed Pink Panther that she brought me. Do kids today even know the Pink Panther? And how many of you are humming Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme right now?

Here, I'll help:

That's it for this week. I hope that next week's wallet card photos will be a bit more exciting.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 10

I've been watching a lot of other bloggers posting about beer recently, and as much as I enjoy beer and expect to have a Guinness or two tomorrow, I thought that I would post a different picture with my wallet card.

These are just a few bottles that were sitting outside of my liquor cabinet. I probably have another four or five bottles in the cabinet at various stages of consumption. The unopened bottles are just waiting for an occasion to open them, or some time when I feel like opening one.

The 18 year old Glenlivet is one of my favorites, and one that a couple of my friends that don't really like scotch actually like. This is just my latest bottle to enjoy.

The Cardhu was a gift from a friend. It has been years since I've had Cardhu but I always enjoyed it many years ago before the distillery stopped producing it as a single malt for a while.

After talking with an uncle I found out that Glen Ord used to be our family scotch. I guess the first distillers were MacLennans working for the MacKenzies of Ord. I used to buy bottles of it (and had a few regular hangouts buy it for their bar) but eventually the distiller stopped selling it in bottles and started using it in blended scotches. A friend found that James MacArthur selection of Glen Ord for me a couple of years ago. It is being saved for a good occasion.

The bottle of Drumguish was brought back for me by a friend visiting the Maritimes where he said it was pretty inexpensive. I hadn't tried it before and was happy to give it a try.

From drink to food

Nate's Deli has been around Ottawa since 1959. This location just opened a year or so ago, and is right behind the building that I work in. Very dangerous having such good smoked meat that close by. So tasty.

And on to music

Yesterday at lunch I went into a nearby store and "Stray Cat Strut" was playing. The young cashier was singing along and I made sure to make a comment to her about the great music. She laughed and said that she loved the Stray Cats. I asked her if she had heard the Brian Setzer Orchestra version of "Rock This Town". She hadn't. So last night I dug out this CD to listen to it, and then brought it to her store to lend it to her today. It had been a while since I had listened to the CD, and I forgot how much I enjoyed it. I foresee that it will spend a while in the car being played after I get it back.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 9

I've been complaining for weeks about the great weather that I've been experiencing, so my wallet card will show what today's seven-day forecast is showing.


Hush, those of you in the South. I'm thrilled with this above freezing temperature!

Yes! Perhaps this is the start of Spring! (Yeah, I know, I shouldn't say anything like this or I'll wind up seeing another big dump of snow.)

I don't know how Matt is doing after going to his Dropkick Murphys concert, if he was in a mosh pit, and how his hearing is doing today...  (Okay, just looked at his comments to his blog post and it sounds like it was loud and he didn't do the mosh pit.)  ...but yesterday I took it a bit easier than he did, and I'm sure my show ended earlier and my ears are probably in a bit better shape than his.

"One singular sensation, every little step she takes..."

I've always enjoyed musicals, and had seen the movie version of "A Chorus Line", but until last night had not seen a stage performance of the show. A friend had an extra ticket and gave me a call to see if I wanted to go. Sure!

Another good production put on by Orpheus. As one might expect from the show, there was some amazing dancing - something that I don't think I would be able to do.

In today's last photo I thought that I would show off a piece of art that I have hanging in my office.


Alpha Flight, Volume 4, Issue 1, Page 17
Pencils: Dale Eaglesham; Inker: Andrew Hennessy

I own a handful of pages of original comic art but only have two hanging in my office at work.

Wait, why would I have any comic art at work?

Well, if you look at the art you can see the Alpha Flight jet flying over the Ottawa River to land in a hanger underneath the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament Buildings.

Shortly after I started working in the Centre Block many years ago, I went looking to try to find Department H's secret HQ. I couldn't find it. Then when I saw this issue of Alpha Flight I knew that I would like to get some comic art that showed my workplace. I was then lucky enough to be able to buy two pages of art from Dale Eaglesham at the Ottawa Comiccon a couple of years ago.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 8

It has been two weeks since Ottawa had their cold snap followed by its record setting one-day snowfall. As mentioned before, I had a water pipe break in my house.

Well, the landlord sent a plumber by to repair the pipe (successfully), but they did open up quite a few holes throughout the house to find the leak. Sadly, they haven't fixed everything yet as witnessed by this week's first wallet card photo.



From what I gather, our house was in the best shape of the seven or eight in the neighbourhood that had pipes break. Perhaps we are last on the list to repair...  It doesn't really bother me right now, but eventually I'll call them to speed them along.

Leaving work yesterday there was a storm warning in effect. The snow started late, but they were calling for about a foot of snow.  Here is what I woke up to.

Thankfully, we only got about a third of what they were calling for. (My Tucson is on the street, over my roommate's car on the driveway.) I'm really ready for winter to end.

Go ahead, call me a bad Canadian. I'm okay with that. I'm so looking forward to visiting my mother in Arizona in a few weeks.

Today is about -9, -18 with the wind (that would be 16 and 1 for you Americans). The wind is nasty. And I decided to walk to a local mall for lunch to feed an addiction.

I absolutely love both chocolate and mint - I have a real sweet tooth - and found these mint M&Ms over Christmas. Sadly, they disappeared from the stores just afterwards. Luckily a local specialty candy store next to the mall where I went for lunch still has them in stock. Mmmmmm.

The walk was okay when the wind was at my back. Walking back to the office was not pleasant since I stupidly forgot my tuque and scarf in my office. And how does this Canadian go around town in winter?

My clothing is a great ice-breaker as everyone loves telling me how bad my team is. I'm glad they enlighten me because I don't think that I know that already.

I bought the jacket last year at the Browns Fan Fest that I attended. The tuque and scarf were gifts from friends over the last couple of years. I think my friends might wonder just how much of a billboard for the team I can become.

Actually, what is surprising is how many people don't recognize the Brownie on my jacket. I often get asked what it is.

Anyway, you readers in the south, I am very jealous of your warm weather, and your exhibition baseball going on. I am watching the Baseball Network with longing as they show the various spring training sites. I really can't wait to get to Arizona.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 7

Last week, after fighting through the Ottawa weather, I took a four day trip to a game convention in the Boston area.

I drove with a friend, stopping at my post office box in Ogdensburg, and then traveling down to Syracuse, and heading towards Albany. My friend is a big Vancouver Canucks fan, and on the way wanted to stop into Utica to see if he could buy any Utica Comets gear.

Utica Memorial Auditorium



Sorry, no wallet card on this photo, but this was taken from inside my car in the parking lot.

We went up to the box office, and they told us that the gift shop was open, and we just needed to head inside.

So, here is the view upon walking in. We hope to go back sometime to actually see a game there.

In the meantime, we heard sounds from the ice.

It wasn't a practice, but there were kids being given instruction. It was nice to see the inside of the rink. My friend ended up buying a really cool blanket, and a t-shirt.

Moving on to the convention in Mansfield, MA, I only took one photo there.

Maybe I should have added some paper as a background to the card.



You can barely make out the wallet card in the face of the cut-out of Amiri, Pathfinder's iconic Barbarian. (The character art is by Wayne Reynolds.) It might not have been the most thought out idea, but I'll blame that to not thinking straight during a weekend of gaming. I had a lot of fun.

I should have taken a picture of Foxboro stadium, as I came across it on my trip. One night we decided to leave the convention early and go see Deadpool. Looking online, we saw the closest movie theater was in Foxboro, and pulling into the parking lot we saw that it was right behind an end-zone of the stadium. It wasn't a sight that I expected to see this trip. (Oh, and Deadpool was lots of fun. I will have to see it again.)

Last week's house troubles carried through a little to my trip. I received a text from one of my roommates that the temporary fix on the furnace broke down and that he had to call the landlord. It was quickly fixed.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 6 (Nightmare!)

Just a quick wallet card post today, but first the nightmare!

As many of you may have also experienced, Ottawa had a cold spell over the weekend with temperatures getting down to -20 and -40 with the windchill added in. What comes about with weather that cold? Well, a lot of collectors' nightmare: burst water pipes!

Sunday afternoon, while watching tv in my living room, I heard a strange sound, and then what sounded like the shower running upstairs. Since a roommate had just gone upstairs, I thought that might be what was going on, but no, he wasn't taking a mid-afternoon shower. I just happened to look into the kitchen, and saw a puddle expanding on the floor!

Immediately, I called to my two roommates and we stood around confused, wondering what to do! (Hah, you probably thought I was going to say that we leapt into action!) Well, we figured that we should go turn off the water, so one of them went downstairs to do that. Another grabbed the mop as I started moving things on the floor that the water hadn't gotten to.

When I had a minute, I looked into the room next door - the den where I keep my card collection (among other things). OH, NO! Puddle coming from one corner of the room! I quickly grabbed some towels and threw them on the ground, soaking up the puddle, and forming a barrier that no water should get through.

I quickly went to work moving everything out of that corner of the room. I lost some card supplies, and a bunch of gaming notes for past campaigns of Pathfinder games that I've played, but I didn't see any ruined cards. Now, the cards nearest the water were traders and doubles and now they've been moved to other areas of the house so I don't know what is where. I guess I have to spend more time organizing and sorting. What fun!

My wallet card decided to look at some of the results.

Garage door - under the kitchen

Overhang from den, beside kitchen, above front door

When the plumber showed up, and saw water coming from the garage, from the overhang, and in the kitchen, he thought there was more than one pipe that burst. After he opened up a few holes in the ceiling of the front lobby, he determined that the pipes ran from the basement, out over the front door into the overhang, and up into the kitchen and the rest of the house.

As it turns out, this pipe in the wall between the kitchen and den was the only one that burst. However, we have many more holes throughout the house that they looked into that have yet to be repaired.

Of course, after our freezing weekend with the excitement of the burst pipe, yesterday Ottawa set a record for a single day snowfall since they started accurate recording dating back to the 1930s. We had somewhere in the neighbourhood of a foot and a half of snow yesterday.

Sorry, I didn't pull out the wallet card for this one. I just took this picture from my kitchen window to show my sister where my roommates parked their cars. The back car is angled with the back end out towards the street. Where's my car? At a grocery store a 15 minute walk (through the snow, uphill both ways!) away where I found a plowed lot.

Both roommates got out fine this morning, although we didn't have any doubts that the Jeep would get out.

Weather like this makes me want to get away, and I am leaving town tomorrow for the weekend. However, I'm not heading to a sunshine state, I'm off to Mansfield, MA for a gaming convention, TotalCon.

Does anyone know any good card stores in the Mansfield or Boston area, or along the highways between Syracuse and Boston? If so, leave a comment below. I'd like to see if they have any Browns cards that need a good home.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 5

The first two photos this week are a result of a local card show that I went to before the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Here my wallet card poses with a Cleveland Browns pennant that I was given as a gift by one of the dealers. I have traded and given him Packers that he needs for his collection, and he keeps hoping to find more Browns for me. I know I've still got plenty more Packers for him.

I believe that I have a pennant just like this one in a box somewhere in my house.

People with sharp eyes may find cards heading their way from my purchases at the show in the next picture.

Where's Wallet Card?

I'll be keeping the Browns and Mets cards that I needed, and four non-sport sets in the picture. All of the Topps baseball look-a-likes are O Pee Chee cards.

The non-sport sets that I'm keeping are a 1993 Demolition Man set (loved Sandra Bullock in it!), and three sets from 1995, Coors Brewing, Santa From Around the World, and Hershey's Trading Cards. Each set cost me a whole dollar.

The big pile of Star Wars cards in the middle were rescued for a whole two dollars.

Not saying no to prices like that is what is building the clutter of cards that I have at home. I've really got to send more out, and have started doing so from Canada instead of waiting until I cross over to my PO Box again.

The last wallet card photo comes as a result of Monday's hockey game.

I didn't take the extra few seconds to put the stick in his hands for the photo.

Marc Methot bobble-head night! Who knew? Anyone collect these, or want it, or should I just give it to one of my friends' kids?

One last photo:



 

I've collected comic books most of my life. Right now I am in a real collecting lull, and am collecting very few titles. But one way to get me to buy a comic book is to tell me that Jimmy Palmiotti is involved with it.

I love Jimmy's writing, and Amanda Conner's artwork, almost as much as I love Jimmy and Amanda themselves! They are great people that I am always happy to run across at a convention.

My wallet card is checking out the how their latest Kickstarter is doing, and seeing that they are closing in on their target. If you have any interest in comics, please check out the Kickstarter and see if this story interests you and fund it if it does.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1397702842/hype-by-palmiotti-gray-pina-nocera

Thanks!

Wallet Card Wednesday - 4 ... Ummm, wait a second!

Looking back, I see that I skipped Wallet Card Wednesday - 3. I mean, really, how can I be expected to keep track of such a long running feature?  Sigh.

Time for my wallet card to expose yet another of my hobbies:

I've been playing, and helping to run Pathfinder Society games since Paizo launched Season 0 of their Pathfinder organized play campaign at GenCon in 2009. I will be heading down to TotalCon in Mansfield, MA in a couple of weeks to play!

Last week, people commented on my carrots. I was good last week, and let myself have a cheat night last night at trivia:



Mmmm, deep fried ice cream! And why choose one flavor topping when the server will give them all to you? And yes, I know, ice cream in Canada in February?!? What can I say? I like ice cream any time of the year.

Of course, the ice part isn't always my favorite as my wallet card peeks out at me as I try to leave for work this morning:



How many more weeks of winter? At least there was a very light dusting of snow underneath the top layer of ice brought by the freezing rain. It made it easier to scrape off.

Weather like this makes me want to start planning my March Cactus League getaway trip.

Wallet Card Wednesday - 4

A few more wallet card photos to throw out there.

Tenor clef? Really? Haven't had to deal with that before!

Pulled out my wallet card as I was practicing in advance of my weekly choral group rehearsal. This is our group's first time singing this song - a song that I have heard many times played on bagpipes, but wasn't aware that there were words to. I should have known...

 

Anyway, from early rehearsals, it sounds like a nice arrangement and I'm sure we'll have it nailed down well before our spring concert season.

 

 

Some people may remember that I assisted Tony with his trade war with JBF. One of the items I sent along was an action figure of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister.

 

Here is my wallet card in front of a statue of Sir John A. to the east of the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

 

I expect statues and building in Ottawa will form a backdrop to many wallet cards in the future. I'll have to work on the lighting.

 

Snack time!

Trying to lose some holiday pounds I gained, and therefore snacking a bit healthier. The problem with it is that I eat way too many carrots. Watching the football games on Sunday, I went through a 2 lb. bag...and that wasn't the first time. Sigh. I guess it is better to finish a bag of carrots than to finish a big bag of chips.





Wallet Card Wednesday - 2

Time to see what I was up to this week with my wallet card.

First, my wallet card decided to look at a late Christmas present that I received.

You might ask, "Why a Xavier Cooper jersey?". I laughed when I got it because I instantly knew. My roommate who bought it for me is a big fan of the Washington State Cougars. During last year's draft he was so excited that the Browns drafted two of their players - Vince Mayle and Xavier Cooper.

There was no way he would switch his support from Dallas to Cleveland, but he was pulling for those two to succeed. (A funny thing is that after Mayle was released, he was signed by the Cowboys.) I appreciate the jersey since I enjoy jerseys of the guys in the trenches.

Xavier Cooper played the last 14 games of the season for the Browns. He had 1.5 sacks, 11 tackles and 8 assists over the season.

After watching football on Sunday, I needed to run an errand. My wallet card decided to check out the weather for me.



Good to see the car not moving as it looks like Kevin Mack is diving away from my snow covered car. There was a light snow still coming down that you can kind of see in the light at the top of the photo.

I've learned to hate snow, and often joke that I should try to move down and join my mom in Arizona, but then I would have to deal with all that immigration paperwork. And really, it snowing out isn't that bad, it is much better than when it is too cold outside to snow!

Lastly, in this week's photos, the wallet card decided to check out one of my winter activities.



Yes, I curl in the winter. And for years I have always curled wearing a Browns jersey. I've played in the odd out of town bonspiel over the years, and had people remember the jersey from previous years. I mean, really, how many Browns fans are there in the Ottawa area that like advertising that fact so openly all the time?

Wallet Card Wednesday - 1

I know that I've seen "Wallet Card Wednesday" used on a couple of different blogs so I'll borrow the name for use here.

A pretty simple week to start things off for my wallet card, mostly because I forgot that I wanted to take photos of it.

Here is my wallet card with a book that I received for Christmas and just started reading. I am about a third of the way through the book so far.

Football isn't a battle



I had previously read of the Harlem Hellfighters in a graphic novel by Max Brooks after hearing him speak of it at a panel at San Diego Comic-Con. I had a nice chat with him afterwards and he autographed the graphic novel for me.

My wallet card also accompanied me to trivia last night.

No football questions for me last night



Some of you may be familiar with Buzztime Trivia, or may remember it as NTN. I have been playing for many years now, and have a regular group that I play with locally every Tuesday night.

My regular bar pops up on the leaderboard fairly often on Tuesdays, it is "Broadway" in Nepean, ON. You can't quite make it out at this resolution, but my handle is Squire. And, yes, our bar still has the old consoles and not the tablets. It is always nice to play on the tablets when I travel.

When I went to Arizona for Christmas I looked up a bar that I often see on the leaderboard (a Tilted Kilt in Scottsdale) and went and joined its regular players for the big Tuesday night game. A fun time, even with one of the guys being a big Steelers fan.

-----

I have read online that the Browns have hired Hue Jackson as our new head coach. I really respect the job that he did as head coach of the Raiders a few years back and was puzzled when they let him go after he coached them to an 8-8 record. He has experience with chaotic situations and will hopefully help turn around the Browns.

I like the fact that the team hired a coach with previous NFL head coaching experience. Hopefully it will help cut back on some of the interesting decisions that an inexperienced coach brings. I hope that bringing in a coach like Hue Jackson will encourage Joe Thomas to stay with the team.