Savvy Loot Box and other items

 Today's blog has a lot of photos partly because I made a trip to my local second hand store, Savvy Seconds yesterday, and partly because I'm working on cleaning up older files on my computer.  While there is no cards to show today, I think there is some interesting card related finds to show off.  To be honest I'm not sure if I've shown some of the older pictures before, and if I have I'm sorry.  I usually delete the photos after I post a blog but sometimes I forget, and I've only been doing it the last year or two.  I still have stuff from 2017 I planned to blog about that I still hope to get to one day.  That being said, I also deleted some photos of stuff to show just because I'm not sure when or how I would blog about it so maybe at a future date.  So with all that out of the way, let's take a look at yesterday's haul.

Before I start let me refresh your memory since I do these so sporadically.  The Savvy Loot Box is a feature I started because instead of spending 20 bucks or more on a mystery box online, I could just buy interesting stuff in person that I want and not be disappointed getting something I don't want.  95% of the time the total comes in under 5 bucks and its usually some sort of media items like movies or music.  I sometimes find other random items as well, and they tend to be more interesting to some readers.

Okay, let's dive in.

My first stop is usually the VHS section and surprisingly it was almost wiped out.  The store is hyping a big event in a couple weeks and are adding shelving so I'm curious what's going on, but also surprised the vhs section is so bare.  The books were also a bit thin as well, so maybe they got rid of some and are expecting more and waiting to restock.  At any rate, I found a few tapes.  The price is 10 cents each and I usually buy 5 or 10 when I buy any.  This time is no different and I have a couple more to show in a second.

I own Field of Dreams on VHS and hope to get it on Blu Ray at some point or even 4K (holding off on that until I have a 4K TV and likely not getting a new TV until I need to or at least until ATSC 3.0 TV's are more readily available and channels in my area are broadcasting with it.  However I've decided to start getting VHS tapes of movies I had growing up, and this was one of them.  At some point I'll show off my collection all at once and describe my memories of them.  That was an easy first grab.  Beyond that, since the selection was bare, not a lot caught my eye.  I'm not saying this was best of the best, but this is the stuff I though I could watch at least once and not something I'll find on streaming much.  I liked Family Circus comics, but honestly their cartoon videos are awful, but hey, 10 cents maybe I can upload it to Youtube if someone else hasn't already.  The All Saints one I might have put back if something was better, but I like some of their music in the late 90's and its something I doubt I'd ever find again, so oddball works for me.  I like tigers, so that VHS should be fun.  Not much more to add about that.  The last two are concerts one of which I thought played at a local church once.  I know I've heard the name Chosen Few before, and since at worst it was in Branson, its related to Missouri, so that works for me.  The last one I thought was a band I've heard of but I'm not sure.  Again, its something different and since the selection was lacking, I figured why not.

I got excited finding used blank tapes.  It adds more mystery to the find and I guess factoring in the Loot Box angle, its makes it even more of a mystery.  At worst, I'm out 10 cents a tape.  This morning I tried out the tapes and was pleasantly surprised.  The Disney shows as I figured were taped off the Disney Channel and was aimed at little kids, I think one show I saw was Under The Umbrella Tree.  It had some commercials or Disney advertisements on it, so I can mine some of that out.  A couple weeks ago I uploaded similar stuff to Youtube and actually got a lot of views I wasn't expecting, so finding more Disney content will be a plus.  The best part is that this is from around 1992 or 1993, and so the older the content I believe the better the views will be.  The downside is the tape is showing signs of wear so the top part of the video has lines in it, but I still think I can make some decent uploads from it.

The other tape had me a bit more intrigued.  The writing looks like a kid wrote it, and I assumed it was something off the Cartoon Network or Boomerang.  I loved Boomerang in the early 2000's when Flintstones, Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo and all the other classic cartoons were on it.  Since I don't have it anymore I don't keep up, but pretty sure they started showing newer stuff.  I'd rather they stick to the classics.  Anyways as I popped this in I noticed how rough the tape itself felt.  I'm use to smooth looking tapes but have found some like this before.  Anyways I popped it in and sure enough it was on the Flintstones.  At first glance it appeared the commercials had been cut out and quite wonderfully might I say.  The shows were intact and hardly any commercial had been taped.

*Keith Morrison voiceover* THAT IS UNTIL ONE PIECE OF COMMERCIAL MADE THE WHOLE CASE UNRAVEL

They missed a clip by about half of a second of a commercial, and thank goodness.  If they hadn't I might have just discarded the whole tape without looking.  What they let slip made my eye get big and I knew I had work to do.  It turns out the tape isn't from Boomerang or Cartoon Network.  Not even from the early 2000's.  It's not from TBS in the 90's when they would show the same shows (Turner liked these shows and I don't blame them, well, never got into Tom & Jerry but still).  Anyways, it turns out these are taped off network TV from the 1980's.  I'm pinpointing the exact year, but I know its from either 1984 or 1985.  Just from half of a second of a commercial I pinned it down to the years of 1982-1985.  Pretty amazing I think.  The clincher was this- the tape is from KOMU my local NBC station from Columbia, MO.  I uploaded a video of their commercials from 1994 earlier, but this might be better.  The reason I knew the timeframe was because in August of 1982, KOMU switched affiliates from NBC to ABC.  By the first day of 1986, they returned to NBC, so about 3 and a half years they were ABC and the sliver of a commercial showed the ABC logo and it made me excited.  I rewound the tape and eventually I found some commercials, and oh my goodness, I'm in heaven.  I don't want to spoil much because I do plan on uploading it in the next few months (commercial videos on Youtube get me good traffic), and I'm excited to see what all is on the tape.  I have another post I'll do soon with more tape watching so that should be fun too.  All I'll say is this tape has commercials appealing to 80s kids and also some local ones too.  I can't wait.

So ten VHS tapes for a buck.... and!!!! Well, that's it.  Like I said they are working on something and not a lot else was there that interested me.  There were a couple CD's I passed on but mainly because I already own them.  One was from a band I'm friends with called The Follow.  If its still there next time I might pick it up just because, but first I'll look to make sure I do have it.  I purged a lot of CD's a few years ago and with moving stuff I may have misplaced it.  In any event I have all the songs on my computer so its not like I do need it.  The other CD was kind of two CD's in one.  It was a Gram Parsons double CD but on one disc.  GP and Grievous Angel were both really good albums, so good that I already own that as well.  I think I bought it in a previous trip years ago.  After I watched the film Grand Theft Parsons, I really started listening to Gram Parsons music and reading more about him.  I'm glad I did, I think his catalog of music is one of a few that I could listen to without hardly skipping a song.  Before my next trip I'll also double check to see if I still have my copy, but pretty sure I saw it a couple months ago.

So for a buck I did good.  But then I went and looked in the free box.  This time there was no tapes, but I didn't walk away empty handed. 

Looks like I have new toys to display.  The Captain America one I get to display with another free one I picked up earlier this year (and will show below).  I never watched any of the Marvel movies, and I figure I will one day, but then again I don't know the last superhero movie I watched.  It might have been The Dark Knight, and that was what ten years ago.  I've never been into comic movies but I don't hate them either.  I figure I'll get in a kick to watch them at some point, and maybe I'll even get a trial to Disney Plus or try it for a month.

Next is Lola Bunny, from I presume Space Jam.  I might be mistaken, but I think I have one similar of the Tasmanian Devil but I have no idea where its at.  All the more reason I need to organize stuff better.  Lastly in the box was an 8GB flash drive.  After I got home I thought better then to stick it into my computer to see if anything was on it or even use it.  I've heard stories of people using them as killswitches and frying computers.  So unless I have a useless computer at some point, which I hope I don't, I will hold onto it but not try it out.  I have tried some in the past I found but never just sitting in a free box.  Either way it works and maybe one day I'll find out whats on it or use it, or I saved someone else from frying their computer, so I didn't exactly lose out.

I had to go to other places on this trip so despite paying a buck for stuff, I still did alright.  The other places I went to didn't get me anything of interest to show, but I decided to show off a few more things I've picked up at Savvy the last year or so and never shown off.  I mean why not.  First we'll look at more free stuff.

I don't know a lot about him, but I know he is Groot.  He will look nice next to Captain America.  I thought I posted these already but I guess not.  Oh well.  The first four pics are all from a trip this year, all in one trip.  The fry girl one I kind of liked best.  The Minion one is missing a piece but I still grabbed it.  The Snoopy ones I got only because I thought two of them would look nice as bookends of some sort and so far they do on the display I have.  I'm about to rearrange my shelves so maybe in a future post I will show all this off how I got it to look.

Last year at some point in the free box was a VCR.  I might have even blogged about it, but I still have the photo, so here it is again.  The VCR works fine and I use it as a backup in case I ever need it.  I had a stretch where I had no VCR's, so having a second one really helps.

The box of cords were in the same trip, and also free.  To be honest I have no use for any of the cords, and they are currently in storage, but it was a mystery what was in there and that enough intrigued me.  Also when it rains all the items in the free area get hit, so at worst I saved them from getting damaged.  Maybe I will put 50 cents on the box and sell them at a garage sale, but there might be a cord I need one day.

I have more, but these are more VHS tapes and they were again a dime each.

I was quite happy to find the first two Back to the Future movies even though I never owned them on VHS.  In fact I never owned them on any media.  I will one day, but just haven't yet.  I was equally happy to find To Grandmother's House We Go with the Olsen twins, but man rewatching it recently made me not enjoy it as much.  Still glad I have it, but I doubt I'll watch it more than once every couple of years around Christmas time.

I'm speeding through this because there's a lot of pics and I'm a bit tired of writing, so sorry for less commentary.  The Huck Finn movie I got because I was thinking of a different version of Huck Finn, but still glad I got this for a couple reasons I'll explain in a bit.  The Hot Wheels one I got because it was an oddball movie, same with the Branson one.  The Branson one had a lot singing on it, which was nice, but also kind of dragged on.  I'm not sure how the cat book snuck in there, and not sure where its even at right now.  The blank tape was an unopened tape which I have no plans of opening but remember that brand from childhood, so it was nice to see one like it and it will display next to my other ones.  The next three are Wayne Lammers VHS tapes that is basically local history.  I think I've mentioned the church one before, but one day soon I hope to check these out and convert them to a disc and even upload them to Youtube.  If not the full movies, at least clips of it.  It also reminds me I have some home video footage my dad took I need to edit and upload at some point, might do that on my secondary Youtube channel.  The Man of the House tape was a copy of the Disney movie with Chevy Chase and it was recorded off the Disney Channel.  If you've seen the Youtube video I have of Disney promos from 1996, that was what else was on the tape.  Not much else besides those ads, the movie, and a random episode of The Torklesons, but still a fun tape to find.

After I got home and realized the Huck Finn movie wasn't what I thought it was, I wasn't bummed.  I'm positive I watched this version before and I liked it well enough, so I'm happy with it.  After I took a picture of it, I noticed this sticker on the bottom.  It was a former rental tape.  To top it off it was from a video store that is very hard to find info about online.  Aardvark Video was a local video store we had in the late 80's and early 90's.  It was one I was quite fond of and the place I loved renting Nintendo games.  At some point ownership changed hands and it became a Movie Gallery.  Another fine video store, but it didn't feel like a local store to me, more of a chain.  So finding this tape made me very excited.  On another trip I found a couple more from Aardvark, but not from my local store, one about 40 miles away.  Not uncommon but still cool to find.

Next is a card game I've yet to play called Where's The Beef from the 80's.  As a former Wendy's working, Wendy's items catch my eye, and though I didn't work there then, I still knew I had to have this.  Without knowing I ever worked there, one of my nieces loves Wendy's though wasn't too impressed when I busted out my old nametag and hat one day.  She was also bored with the video I showed her from my Wendy's day I uploaded to Youtube.  It was a corporate video, and to be honest it was very boring.

Next is a couple magazines I forgot about until I saw the pictures.  I like tigers and my mom like elephants so a dime a piece was well worth it.  I couldn't pass them up.  Lastly is a t-shirt with advertising on the back.  They have started to sell bags of shirts for a buck and while none are really that great, its fun to see the mystery of whats in them and at worst we can use them as rags, so its not a total waste.  I like shirts with advertising, so this one caught my eye.  Normally the bags have about 12-15 shirts, and we've got about 5-6 so far but only about 2-3 we like, so a lot of rags.  We haven't bought any as of late.

So before I wrap it up, I have a couple more pics these are stuff my mom had I wanted to show off.

Oops, forgot about the Diamond magazine.  Maybe I showed it before, but I've already forgotten about it.  I have it tucked away and maybe one day I'll revisit it.  Oh well.

A scan is missing so I guess blogger wants me to wrap it up.  Here is an egg my dad had in some sort of case for a long time.  My mom opened the case and noticed it had a tiny crack.  Upon further inspection it was just an empty eggshell that pretty much disintegrated upon touching.  So good thing I have the picture.

Okay one pic and I'll wrap it up.

This Pac-Man has been in our family for as long as I remember and I was so glad to see it again.  I now have it on display on my shelf.  It doesn't move like it use to, but still does work somewhat.  With that Craig Robinson Pizza Hut commercial on with Pac-Man all the time I figured why not bust it out.  Plus not to spoil much, but that Flintstones tape I showed at the beginning may or may not have something Pac-Man related on it.

So with all that, I get to show off some stuff and also clean up my files some.  So now with a bunch of files I can delete those and maybe go back to 2017 and show off some cards soon.  Or maybe make another trip and post more VHS tapes.   Let's hope for the former before the latter.  Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

Hanging Tuff

 So last week I planned on a few more posts and writing more often, but then I saw I didn't have a lot of exciting stuff to show.  I have been showing a lot of movies and such and while its what I'm doing a lot of lately, with as few posts as I do, its like 90% of the last year of posts and I wanted something different.  So I had to dive into some other folders and I found a few things card related, so I figured it was time to clean up and show them off.

 

 Not the order I wanted, but oh well.  I was surprised on an October trip to Savvy Seconds, my local second hand store to find these old magazines.  I don't know why but I preferred Tuff Stuff to Beckett growing up, though I didn't buy either all too much.  I guess the reason was Beckett was usually a different magazine for each sport, and Tuff Stuff covered all the sports in one magazine.  This wasn't the first time I found some price guides there and I can't remember if these also contained cards like the others did.  I'm pretty sure they did, including some comic cards.  I don't have pictures, but maybe in a future post I will show them.  Until then, this is the best I got.  I paid 10 cents each for these, so I think I did pretty well.

This also cost a dime, and it was something that was unique.  Its for a comic book store I guess to either order or give a heads up of new comics coming out.  This I know featured cards, maybe the comic cards I mentioned earlier.  I don't think I've removed any from the magazines yet, which is why I haven't scanned them or even took photos.  Maybe I will try to scan some of the pages at a future date.

Aside from magazines, I also got a folder.

I haven't seen these folders in almost two decades or more, but I really wanted to get a few of them.  I don't know what I will use them for, but I always liked the look of them and wanted to get some.  I remember growing up I had a Will Clark one, but no longer have it.  I've seen some on Ebay, but usually too much for me.  For a dime this was an easy purchase.

Next is not card related, but figured I would show it.  I paid a dollar for it, and haven't used it much, but I am still glad I bought it.

So a selfie stick wasn't something I had on my radar, especially since I don't have a phone to use for it.  However I was hoping my digital camera would work on it, and it does.  I can use it to take different angle of photos, and also when I film video like parades, I can take it from a higher spot to get a better view.  Again, since I haven't gotten out much in the last year, I haven't had a chance to use it, but it will get some use soon I bet.

Not much more for today, but I did find something in the free bin that I thought I'd show.

Free is free and I actually was thinking about getting one of these one time, but I'd rather have an external one.  I have a few floppy discs and curious what if anything is on them.  I haven't had the chance to check this out yet (not sure if I have all the stuff for it), but I think after I finish a few other projects, I might work on it.  I have a desktop I could try it out on.  Its funny how big floppies were and how little space they held.  Today you can get 1TB of info on a flash drive or a sd card.  It's also cheap enough to get a few to have on hand.  Its great to have on hand when keeping track of your collection.  Phones today also have enough space to do the same thing.

All in all another good trip, and I think I might have even got cards on that day.  I haven't scanned in a while, but hope to do it soon and I'll have some card posts.  Until then, posts like these will have to do.  Thanks everyone for reading and I hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'm watching Death Wish on Pluto and hope to find 2 and 3 on there or streaming somewhere as well, then I have a package I got today to check out.  Not card related but I'm excited about it.  Anyways, it should be a fun weekend.

Gifted

 Falling behind on blogging sucks for many reasons, one of the biggest is showing off new items you've acquired.  As I was looking at some folders earlier I realized I never showed off my Christmas gifts and more recently my birthday gifts.  So better late than never I guess.  I didn't get any cards, but that was fine because I haven't been working on cards much lately and hopefully the middle part of the year I'll have time to go through my collection and start working on it again.  However I did get a random mix of other items, some even sports related, and I think you might enjoy them.  I know I did.  So let's dig in and since I have the most recent stuff more handy, I'll show off my birthday gifts first.

The first card is from my friend Jason and his family.  Jason always gets me great gifts and this year was no exception, even the card is awesome.  I think photoshop hats on animals is the new thing for cards as I've seen 4-5 cards like that including the one with the cats on the last scan, which my sister got me.  I've always liked cats, so I liked that card as well.  The middle two cards my mom got me.  I enjoy them very much too, even though I did point out I believe I gave her the Mizzou card.  We laughed about that, so it was all good.  Whenever I get a card for my birthday or holiday, I usually display them for a while.  At Christmas I worked on a project I'll show later, and it makes me appreciate the cards and the people who sent them more.

Moving on to the gifts, the first item I guess wasn't technically a birthday gift, but still a gift nonetheless.  One I initially declined at first.  A couple weeks prior, my sister told me that my brother in law got a PS5 and they had an extra PS4.  She offered it to me if I wanted.  On the surface I really did kind of want it, but at first I declined.  My sister and brother in law have given my mom and I a lot in the past year and I didn't want them to give me something that they could at least make a little money on.  After we talked though, I thought about it more, and I did kind of want it.  I have an Xbox 360, but I think its on its last legs.  I don't game a lot, but when I get in moods, I do like to play for a while.  So when she called back a couple days later I asked if they still had it, and they did.  She brought it down about a week after my birthday, and so I've been testing it out often since then.  I found a couple free games to download, one a pinball game which I enjoy, the other is a game somewhat like Sim City called Big City Stories or something.  It's fun but reminds me of those old games of Facebook where you accumulate stuff and after a while of inactivity it maxes out and you don't get anymore stuff until you log back in.  For instance, I make in game money and energy even when I don't play, but once it maxes out I don't make anymore until I use some of it.  So I have to check back in every few hours.  Its still a fun game though.

As for other games, well, I told Jason I was getting a PS4, and well, I should have kept my mouth shut, lol.  Thankfully I didn't and he found what he could get me.

One trip to Gamestop later and I had some games.  I enjoy sports games more than shooting games (though I do enjoy them from time to time also), so all three of these were a nice way to break in the system for me.  I haven't played them all that much (reason why in a minute), but I have played them some.  I'm not someone that needs the newest version of a sports game to enjoy it, so even though they aren't current year, they are still good.  Madden 18 has Patrick Mahomes as a rookie, so that's all I need.  I've only played some of the storyline in the game so far and no actual games, but I'm sure it won't be too different from the last Madden game I had which was Madden 25 which came out in 2013 I think.

The NBA game I've played a little of a game or two, but I haven't explored it much yet.  It's about 3 years newer than the last one I had for the 360, and while I'm not great at that one, I think with time I'll get better at it.

As for the MLB game, this will be 6 or 7 years newer than the last one I had, mainly because Xbox didn't have a MLB game (at least a good one) since that time.  MLB The Show is exclusive to the Playstation, and this version is perfect.  The team that won the World Series the year prior was the Kansas City Royals, and the collecting aspect of the Ultimate Team or whatever is called is based off the 2016 Topps cards, one of my favorite most recent sets.  I played one game while it taught me, and I won 34-0.  I think I learned it pretty quickly.  Salvador Perez was 5 for 6 with 4 home runs.  I'm sure soon enough I'll get back to playing it, especially once the MLB season begins.

He also managed to get a couple brand new games, and I've been enjoying them too.  One thing about the PS4 I didn't realize is the games and updates take up a lot of space.  I thought it would be just for the action games, but even with 5-6 games on the system, the 500GB hard drive is near half full.  I don't think it will ever get full at least not for a while because there aren't too many games I see myself getting anytime soon, but still it took a while for updates and installing the games, so I did each one first so it took a day or two to fully start enjoying all I could do.  Plus I had to remember my Playstation account which for some reason I did have already.  Maybe one day I'll do PS Now or one of their other subscription services, but I'm good for now.

Soccer can be a fun game, especially if you take the time to learn the controls and not get frustrated.  I will admit I haven't spent much time on this game yet.  This game is about 12 years newer than my last soccer game, and I think it might be a steep learning curve, but on the bright side, there are a ton of teams to choose from.  I will likely stick to MLS, but in the last few years I have rooted for Manchester City on and off, so it will be fun playing as a European League team.  I think it said it had over 170 teams on it.  No wonder the game and update take up a lot of space.  All I played was while it was installing (which is a nice feature), so soon I should try more of it out.

The main reason I haven't played many of the games is because of WWE 2K20.  When it was released it was panned by almost everyone.  Even today not many have nice things to say about it.  However I have enjoyed it very much.  It is the newest WWE game (aside for the cartoony one I think called Battleground) and the newest one I have since WWE 2K12, though I did play 2K16 when it came out.  I am still learning this game, but have already downloaded some good community creations of wrestlers not in the game (still hope someone makes a better version of Shotzi Blackheart and figure out a couple more AEW guys to get), and even created and uploaded a couple of my own (I made a couple from scratch, one called Mr. Nightmare, and another a female called Reaper).  Most of my time has been spent on the storyline mode which I'm about halfway through.  It's starting to get a bit tougher, but I think I can beat it.  I never really care about beating games as long as I enjoy them, so even if I don't I can still do the Universe mode, which I will start once I learn a few more things.  It took about 4 days to figure out how to kick out of pin attempts.  I'm sure the game still has bugs, but I haven't had any trouble with it so far, and that's good enough for me.

Overall I'm still learning all the games and the PS4, but the only drawback so far has been its made me want to put off stuff I should be working one.  For now at least I'm balancing stuff pretty good (hey I even managed to do more blogs this month than I have all year).  It also allows me to let my 360 rest for a while.  I'll still play it because sometimes I need my Saints Row fix (at least until I get GTA 5 on PS4).  I'm so happy I got the system and the games, I can't think everyone enough.

That wasn't all Jason gave me though.  He is a bargain hunter, and I only wish I could find the kind of deals he does.  You would think 5 games was more than enough, but it wasn't, though I'm not complaining.

He got me a couple movies that I had seen at Dollar Tree but didn't grab.  I haven't had the chance to check them out yet, but my goal this year is to start watching more movies and also converting them to my computer, so I hope to check them out soon.  He also got me something to enjoy while watching the movies.

I chuckled when I saw he got me these.  I've always enjoyed Cracker Jack and I mentioned the reason I laughed was because a couple months prior my mom and I did this:

My mom and I have been working on puzzles a lot this last year.  This might be one of my favorites we've done.  The last couple she has mostly worked on alone (it takes away from my PS4 time, lol).  Though I plan on working on a few more as we are a little stockpiled on them right now.

Speaking of puzzles, Jason also managed to get me some puzzles back during Christmas.  I have to remember everything he got me because it was quite a bit so I hope I don't forget it.

These are an interesting concept for puzzles.  The idea is you get an app for your phone and you listen to relaxing music while working on the puzzle.  It also gives you and approximate time to take to finish it, which it didn't take that long at all.  I didn't do the app but just working on the puzzles were relaxing.  They were very nice puzzles, and I preferred listening to my own music while working on them (can't remember what I listened to, might have been Switchfoot).

In addition he also got me more stuff.

The two postcards are from the 70's not long after the Stadiums were built.  I believe he got them from the seller that had the photos from the stadium I posted last year.  He also gave me more photos too, but I didn't take pictures or scan them yet.  Maybe at some point I will.

The cardboard sign intrigued me, I asked if it was from the stadium, and he told me it was.  Not from Kansas City though, it was the sign for the visitor's locker room at Cleveland, which I believe was Municipal Stadium, which was demolished in 1996 after the Indians moved to Jacobs Field.  I need to find a nice place to hang it, for now its on my overcrowded shelf.  Hopefully I work on that later today.

I may not have took pictures of everything he gave, I know he also got my mom a box of chocolates as well.

I may have forgot to photograph other gifts I got too, that is one of the drawbacks of stockpiling and not doing regular blogs.  I do have a couple more gifts to show, then I think I'll show some Christmas stuff to wrap it up and to clean up my folders some.

So for Christmas I got this Blu Ray movie.  It was at the Dollar Tree and I picked it out, but my mom and I each grabbed a couple items so we'd have something to exchange at Christmas.  What I didn't know though is when I wasn't looking, she also slipped in this magnet as well.  It caught me off guard and it almost made me cry.  She knows I don't give out a lot of hugs, but I felt a nice big hug was warranted.

So overall I think I've gotten some great gifts the last couple of months.  I mentioned at the beginning a project I worked on at Christmas, and I'll show that and a couple more Christmas photos before I wrap things up...WRAP... THINGS UP!

The first two pictures are the projects I worked on.  When I was in school we had to do science projects and show them off during the science fair.  I'm sure many others had to do the same, but today I think the boards they use are either styrofoam or some kind of other material.  We used pieces of plywood and some hinges.  One of them is still in good shape and I want to use for a future project, but the other was in storage and has seen better days.  We had a bunch of old wrapping paper and I wanted to do something for Christmas.  I then had an idea of putting old Christmas cards on the boards that were made to look nicer with the wrapping paper.  We don't save every Christmas card, but still quite a few.  About 20 or so fit on one board and since we only had a few others I decided not to put them on another board.  Maybe next year I'll do it.  The other board still looked pretty so it was sort of a backdrop for the Christmas scenes around the house.  I think this is the most I've decorated in years, and I actually had fun doing it.  Next is a couple puzzles that we worked on around the holidays, and I hope we find more with a Christmas theme and we can do them the entire month of December next year.  I've always enjoyed doing puzzles, but the last couple years it has really calmed me down and I've enjoyed it much more.  That is unless they are hard to finish or the pieces are missing or small or even ones that don't really connect, then I lose interest.  Maybe that's why I haven't worked on the last two because the previous two frustrated me.  I'll jump in on the next one.

Next is a cardboard cat picture that we've had forever.  We had another one I think too but I'm not sure what happened to it.  We haven't displayed this one in years, but I liked seeing it hung on the closest door.  The deer sign I think we picked up at Dollar Tree last year.  Originally on our outside door, the peephole is usually covered so we hung it inside this year.

Next is something I was so happy to display.  My sister found the Kermit and I finally had the complete set of Muppet Babies and was proud to show them off.  Part of me want to display them the whole year, but I think it adds to the season just showing them off for a month or two.  It also makes me appreciate not only the stuffed toys more but also the journey to getting them.

The last picture is some solar things you place in windows and the move around.  The thing it they are really noisy, so we only display them away from the sun.  At certain points in the day they still get sunlight and move, and that's good enough.

The snowman is one of the oldest Christmas decorations I might have (aside from the cardboard cats and a couple other items).  I won it from my church in 2001 or so and have it on display every year.  Afterwards it is placed nicely in a bag in storage (at the apartment) until the next year.  It makes me think of all my church family whenever I look at it.

Next is a display of most of the rest of the Christmas decorations.  It is a bit jumbled together, but I think it looks good.  If you look on the left you will see Perry The Platypus as a snowman, which is a tree ornament.

Lastly is something I did this year for the first time.  While cleaning a couple months prior we found a book that had never been used and had cutouts in it.  My mom didn't want it, and I didn't have a desire to do anything with it, but decided to hold onto it.  Then around Thanksgiving I was bored, and aside from watching the 1970's classic Bad News Bears I needed something to do.  I remembered that book, and decided to put some of the village together.  I don't like messing with glue, so instead I use scotch tape to make most of the village.  I liked it so much that when we took everything down, I decided to keep most of it and will display it again next year.  It's sitting on one of my 5000 count card boxes, but next year it will likely be on a dry erase board I have to make it look like an icy snow setting.

So with that, this post comes to a close.  I enjoyed each and every gift I was given, and will likely be playing more of those games soon.  In the meantime, I'm also happy I cleared up some more files, and hope to post a little more often.  The biggest challenge is getting in the mood to do it, but the weather is starting to get better and usually when I'm more active my downtime I like to do stuff too, so maybe I will blog more.  I have some more Savvy Loot posts to do, and I even have some cards to show off too.  I was waiting on one to arrive, but I had to request a refund for it since it has been almost a month.  Luckily I got refunded without a hassle, but I'm still in pursuit of a Rafiki card from The Lion King (mainly because Robert Guillaume doesn't have a proper trading card).  I think I'll get it sooner than later.  Down the line I might request a shipment from COMC, and should have around 50 or so cards there too.  I should have other stuff to post too, and might even rant and rave or even bring back a couple old features as well.

At any rate thanks so much for reading and I hope everyone has a great week.  I hope to clean up the storage unit a bit and maybe even post some Youtube videos.  At the least work on some more VHS tapes.  The moldy ones in the last post I threw out, but I still found one that was okay and got some good commercials from.  If I get the chance I might even tackle some more cards too, we'll see.