Christmas Card in August: 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen Jon Singleton Relic

I've been out of town for a few days, visiting with my wife's family in Utah. I didn't do much related to baseball cards or blogging down there, although I did manage to get that UFC post written up while I was away. I managed to pick up a LEGO kit I really wanted at the LEGO Store. The LEGO Store is a big thing for us to visit when we find ourselves in Utah, as Idaho doesn't have one. It helps that there is a Godiva shop Boutique just down the hall from the LEGO Store, so there is chocolate for my wife also. She actually likes LEGO kits quite a bit, too. I got a Star Wars set, the Imperial Shuttle Tydirium. My boys got some new Ninjago Airjitzu guys who plug into plastic capsules that can be launched into the air and over the fence into the neighbor's yard.

The last couple of days were pretty miserable as the in-laws have a cat and I am extremely allergic to cats. They left the cat outside for a couple of weeks before I came down, but if there is a trace of cat anywhere I will find it and basically be out of commission until I get away from it. I spent most of the last two days holed up in our room with the lights off, popping allergy medicine and blowing my nose. I am still pretty sick, and I probably won't be back to normal for another couple of days. It didn't help that when we came home my wife looked up and saw that our ceiling fan was hanging out of the ceiling. The guy who installed it had used some questionable techniques and the screws holding it up had ripped through the housing. So instead of taking the day to recuperate I found myself among the dust and insulation in the attic reinstalling the fan. On the plus side the fan now hangs straight and doesn't wobble.

In card-related news, I got a pretty cool item from 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen in the mail. I am not usually a huge Gypsy Queen fan, but the framed relics and autographs are usually done pretty well. This is the Gold parallel of the mini framed relic card, so it is numbered out of # / 25. This card features a nice red piece of fabric and is numbered # 12 / 25, making it a Christmas card.

As predicted, the Astros' moves around the trade deadline pushed Singleton back down to AAA. He wasn't playing great during his stint with the Astros, but he had some useful at-bats and it seemed like he was improving a little during his last few games. His struggles have been good for people like me who want to buy his cards, but it can be hard wanting to chase cards of a guy who may never pull it all together. I honestly would like to start an Evan Gattis or Carlos Correa player collection, but that would probably mean dropping one of my current player collections. It's hard to let go of a collection that you've put a lot into. Unless Singleton has a sudden change in his stats that forces a move back up out of AAA, he probably won't have as many cards in 2016 as he has in 2014 and 2015, and maybe then I will make a change in focus. We'll see, Ideally he can get things turned around and play his way into some more at-bats for the Astros.

Now that I'm home I have a couple of prizes from my contest that I need to get mailed out. I haven't forgotten, I promise. I just held my contest at a really inconvenient time.