A Surprise At Every Corner

I DID IT!  I finally updated my want lists for my Royals cards, and my Royals checklist on TCDB is up to date.  Aside from the few Royals cards I've gotten in the last couple weeks I haven't scanned yet, but that's less than 20.  This is a major accomplishment over a year in the making.  As it stands, I am now updating my other cards and soon will start working on my Mizzou collection (from scratch, just like the Royals).  I honestly didn't think I'd get it done this quick.  What a pleasant surprise.

Speaking of surprises, I decided to take a trek to the capital city of Missouri on Tuesday.  Jefferson City isn't real far away, but it isn't a place I have a huge need to visit too often.  In fact I haven't been in almost a year to the day, and that was only to see the Royals Caravan which it appears won't happen this year.  On Tuesday however, I decided to visit the Capital Mall.  I haven't been there in about 15 years so besides forgetting the layout, most of the stores were likely different than last time I went.  This is a pitiful excuse of a mall, and I knew this going in, but it was somewhere different to check out, so why not.  Here is a non scale Paint version of the mall, with some points of emphasis.

The blanks spaces weren't empty, they were either places I didn't check out/forgot/ or didn't care about.  I walked in on the right side of the food court.  The food court had about 4 options, and flanked an arcade and some kids games. I wasn't hungry, and moved on.  I went left first, and considered the candy store but passed.  My mom went with me I should mention, so I didn't go alone.  I mention that because the next two stores were more for her than me.  We went to a shoe store near the Sears wing and then thought about going to Sears but passed.  I messed up over there because Sears might have been behind (above) where I showed it, I think it had another wing.  Oh well.  We stopped at a Kitchen store and my mom got a few things, I settled on a container of Chives that cost a buck.  I never understood why chives were expensive, so for a buck I jumped on it.  At this point I figured this would be the highlight of the mall.  We walked some more, and found a meeting room inside the mall, I think the mall had like 20 stores if that, so there was plenty of room for meetings.  Currently the mall is attempting a redevelopment, but I'm not sure it will help any. A better option might be a complete demolition and rebuild.  As it stands the majority of foot traffic is mall walkers.  Older people at that (I'd find out why shortly).  So, we ventured on, and I saw some jerseys in a store.  Then I saw a sign "STORE CLOSING EVERYTHING 50% OFF!".  Now I got excited. In fantasy land, I'd get a couple Royals jersey, maybe a St. Louis Blues jersey, and a bunch of other random stuff.  In reality I knew I was a cheapskate and would likely never sniff the jerseys.  While I was in there a customer did buy a Blues jersey, and got it for under $100 which I thought was a great deal, but still too much for what I'd offer.  Knowing I would pass on jerseys, I looked at other things.  I thought about a Kansas Jayhawks football for laughs, Maybe a Maty Mauk or DGB Mizzou jersey would be thrown in for free with orders (no luck), and a plethora of other various items I passed up on.  I found out the store (Pro Image) announced this store was closing just after Christmas and started sales then.  Just this week it hit 50% off, and the store is still really full.  Their last day is Feb. 11th I think they said (maybe the 8th), so there is an outside shot I might go back to see if they discount more. In the end my mom actually bought more than I did, but I did get a few things.  FIrst some cards, which I'll show tomorrow, but also some non-cardboard sports goodies.

While $13 still seemed high for me to get a Royals World Champions shirt (that's my level of cheapness, mixed with not being too keen on the design), this button was a much better option at only a buck fifty.  I've wanted something to signify KC winning the crown, and this is perfect.  Maybe I should have gotten two, but one is enough for now.  If I go back, I might get another.

While $13 for a shirt was too much, this one was $5 after markdown.  They had another design I liked better but it wasn't my size.  It said "I don't always hate, but when I do, its the Jayhawks" or something to that effect.  They had a lot of these, and while we don't play Kansas anymore, I still am shocked I've never seen either shirt before.

Besides the cards I'll show next time, I got one final item.  This one I almost passed on, but I have wanted one for a while, so at a price of $10, I think it was a good deal.

While a wish of mine is to get a mini football helmet of either Mizzou or the Chiefs, a Royals mini-helmet is still a nice grab.  They had a good amount of mini helmet's but this was the last Royals one with no Mizzou or Chiefs.  They did have the Sun Devils, and Illinois.  For being a sports store in Mid-Missouri, they sure did have a lot on non-Missouri items.  Maybe that's why they are closing.  How many Colin Kaepernick jerseys can one store have?

A side view of the helmet.  For now it will stay in the case.  At some point if I get a chance for someone to sign it, I might.  However, I haven't decided though who would get the chance.  I don't really want a one year guy signing it, but if I ran into George Brett, it would soon have a signature.  It will take a special player for me to get it signed I know that much.  If I go back and its say 90% off, I might grab a couple random mini football helmets, maybe I would be more willing to get them signed.

My mom who is a huge Packers fan found quite a few items, and stocked up.  She even mentioned she should get a hat, but couldn't decide which one.  If we go back and its cheaper, I might grab a hat or two.  They had World Champs hats, but again, I didn't like the design vs. the price.  I might also get a Blues hat.  Not sure why as I'm not big on hockey, but I don't really have any Blues wear aside for a stovetop hat that is beat up and not really wearable.

So after we left there, we headed to the last wing the Dillards wing.  No desire to go to Dillards, but just look at storfronts, I figured out why so many elderly folks walked the mall.  Inside the mall in addition to a conference room, is a senior center.   It was lunchtime and it was packed.  I really hope this mall gets some more stores soon.  Nothing against the elderly, but man, this mall needs a more diverse clientele.

Having just come from a sports store I passed on another, one called Hibbetts.  I have one nearby if I need something from there, so I was good.  I did go to one more store in the mall though.  One I forgot relocated there recently.  SLACKERS!

Slackers is a CD/DVD/video game/comic book/pop culture store.  I guess like FYE but to me much cooler.  The buy and sell and this one had a decent amount of NES games for sale.  That wasn't the reason I love Slackers though.  Slackers has a shelf of CD's in a 5 for $5 bin.  Well they did.  Now its called "Pay what you want".  You show them what you got and make an offer, if they think its a decent deal, they will accept it.  I got 7 CD's and planned to offer 7 bucks, but for some reason I said $5 and they took it.  So that was a win.  The reason I love it is because you can find 2-3 good/decent CD's in the bin and then get 2-3 more of unknown bands to try out.  They might suck or they might rock, either way the good/decent ones are worth the 5 bucks.  I've found bands I'd never hear of otherwise in the bins before like Treehouse, Spinaround, Fleshies, and some others.  I also find some good Christian artists in there too because I guess Christian artists don't sell well, or are traded in often.

Let's start with a Christian CD I got.

Buck is a ska band from the late 90's early 2000's.  I have one of their songs on a CD somewhere, which is on this CD too.  It's called "Why Won't Josh Dance"  and its fairly catchy and not really a Christian song, just a fun song.  Though I had the song, I figured I'd like the other songs on it and worth essentially a buck.  People may laugh at me paying a buck for a used CD, but there are all spotless, and instead of paying 99 cents on iTunes for one song, I'm getting a whole album.  So I think this way works better.

Next is another Christian band, and a band I like, but an album I never heard of.

As years went by, it seemed The Elms went more of the "Christians in a band" versus "Christian Band" route, but they still made solid music.  You gotta love it when some kid writes their name on the CD to mark their territory, lol.  I opened it up to see what year this came out, and its possible this is their first CD, it said 1998.  I also saw something else inside.  It had a bible verse written in it.  So it got me wondering.... wait a minute,  MAL wasn't the kids name.... MAL is Malcom!  This is an autographed CD!  You can't beat that for a buck (or less since I got 7 for 5).

I passed a couple really great CD's up, but only because I had them already.  One was the Daredevil soundtrack, which I still play on occasion, and has songs from 12 Stones, Evanescene, Nickelback (hey, it was a good song), and others.  The other CD is by one of my favorite bands of all time.  The Benjamin Gate was an early 2000's Christian Rock band that had an amazing sound, but disbanded in a short amount of time.  I could probably write a whole blog on them, and one day if out of ideas I might, but not today.

First off I'd never pay 5.99 for this CD even if new, but under a buck, sure.  Evan and Jaron was another turn of the 21st century band comprised of brothers.  They had a minor hit with "Crazy For This Girl" but stopped making music a short time later.  A few years later Jaron (don't ask me which one that is) traded in pop music for country and had a couple songs on the charts.  I liked their sound from this CD, so for a buck it was a safe bet. Crazy For This Girl is on this CD so for a buck I got that song, and a few more.

Before I show the big CD (at least to me), let me show you the CD's I went out on a limb on.  99% of the time they are bands I never heard of, so no buzz and no hype for them, I pick them on album cover/overall design, band name, album title, and song titles.  If something pops out, it get picked up.  If I have more than 2-3 I decide what to try and which to put back.

Pick #1:

Devilhead is an interesting name (especially since I just had two Christian albums in my hand), but more intriguing is the album title.  YOUR ICE CREAM'S DIRTY!  That stood out to me.  The album cover seemed cheesy, and the back had a I'd guess a 3-4 year old dressed as the devil.  With zero expectations I picked it up.

Quick review:  Um.... I won't buy another one from them.  This really shocked me.  I noticed as I was listening to it on the way home that the CD is from 1994 (not a shock with the album design), but it was a Seattle band that wasn't grunge.  In addition to horrible songs, somehow they got a record deal with Sony.   SONY!  I've heard better garage bands than this, and somehow they got a record deal.

I'm not complaining because it was a risk I know all too well on these blind picks.  Sometimes I give albums another try and they get better, so maybe it will be better next time.  It happened before with Fleshies, and now I randomly sing Meatball for no real reason.

Ok, so now Pick #2:

The Outpatience... hmm, interesting name. Interesting cover. Anxious Disease... decent title.  Song listings weren't spectacular, but one track stood out.  Smokin' Dope and Sippin' Tea... ok, its worth a shot.

Quick Review:  I didn't get a chance to hear much of this as I was almost home, and didn't get the chance to see more info on them (forgot record label if they had one, or year).  I actually really liked what I heard on this one.  Even Sippin' Tea was good. Lyrically it wasn't the best, but the music itself made up for it.  I'm glad I picked this one up.

I forgot to mention I picked this CD too.  8Stops7 had a good song called "Question Everything" and its on this album "In Moderation".  I believe it might even be on the Friends Soundtrack.  I heard the song in the late 90's and even included it on a CD I got made by Mountain Dew in the late 90s.  It was a deal where I think you entered codes and after so many you got to pick like 12 songs from a list and they would make a CD for you and send it to you.  I think I'll listen to this one a lot.

So one CD left.  Honestly if I didn't see this one early on I wouldn't have bought any of these. Not that I didn't want the others, but this CD was worth about 4 bucks, so the rest were cheap add ons in the first place.

A Life of Saturday's from Dexter Freebish.  Dexter Freebish was the first concert I went to at The Blue Note in Columbia back in 2001 or so.  Not my first concert, but first one at the Note.  Dexter opened for SR-71 at this show, and while waiting in line I actually got a t-shirt from a local radio station signed by one of the members of Dexter Freebish.  I never buy CD's by the bands at the shows, but 15 years later I've never held a CD from them in hand, so I saw this and knew I wanted it.  I have most of SR-71's stuff but Dexter wasn't around long, so this one is harder to find.  Their hits on the album include My Madonna, and Leaving Town. In fact Leaving Town is the first track.

I popped it in the CD player in the car on the way home and something wasn't right.  Leaving Town starts with a slow beat a softer song if you will.  This was really heavy.  I mean, it sounds nothing like Leaving Town or Dexter Freebish.  Uh-oh, crap... did I get the wrong CD in the case?

The answer was, yes indeed, the wrong CD was in the case.  The only CD I wanted wasn't what I got.  I was already heading home and couldn't head back to complain... except....

As it turns out, Diffuser was the first band that played that Dexter Freebish/SR-71 show!  Much like Freebish, Diffuser had minimal success and their only "hit" was on this album, called Karma.  Injury Loves Melody also happened to be a CD I have spent 15 years trying to find.  I believe I might have had it at one point, but I don't now... well I guess I do have it now, but still.  All I could do is laugh at this because if it was any other CD in that case, I would have been mad.  But it not only was a CD I was looking for, but an opening band for an opening band at the first Blue Note show I ever went to!  So in the end I'm still looking for A Life of Saturdays, but at least I have Diffuser's good album.

I know this is running long, but I have a couple more things to share.  After the mall, we went to Barnes and Noble since my mom likes the place.  She decided she didn't need more books, so we left and went to Dollar Tree. In addition to cards I'll show next time, we each bought.... books!  One each.  We left a bookstore empty handed but couple pass up books for a buck.  So what was my book?

I think I can spend a buck to read about Jim Abbott.  I really need to set aside time to read all these books I get.  Maybe I will do that now I got all my Royals stuff current.  I love how you can go to Dollar Tree and pay a buck for a book that still has a $23.40 price tag on it.

One final thing I bought was these.

Not that I needed these, but blue stickers (which I never seen at my Dollar Tree) that I can use on my Royals box so I went ahead and did it.

By this time it was getting close to schools letting out and the threat of heavier traffic, we made one more stop to grab a bite.  I conned my mom into stopping at Chick-Fil-A.  I love their food but haven't had it in about 2 years or more.  She never ate there, but I think after this trip she understands why I crave it so much.  People may say its just chicken, and I would probably want to punch them, but in all seriousness, I can't find a chicken that compares.  Eating Wendy's Spicy and Grilled Chicken for a decade makes them a threat, but Fil-A is still better.

So we headed home on a fun day, and I still have some cards to show.  I think this post is long enough, so I'll show them off next time.  Thanks for reading and have a great night.