Back and catching up.

Whew! Hope everyone made it through the holidays in one piece. Things got pretty busy here. Lots going on in Rangers news as well. All the random happenings lead me to post this random Rangers card of Jim Sundberg. Sunny appears as a Diamond King on card 7 of the 1983 Donruss set.

So, my computer's power cord gave up the ghost on December 23rd. I looked into buying a replacement but the cost combined with the fact that my Dad was coming to visit and had an extra made me decide not to pull the trigger.

One of my brothers came in on the 24th and my in-laws were here for the day on the 25th. My family arrived on the 26th, with the new power cord. Trying to balance work and house guests ate up the 27th and 28th. The 29th and 30th were spent visiting with extended family and helping with a major project for my grandmother. The 31st I finally had time to sit down and briefly attempted to post. More visit time with my folks and a Strat-O-Matic game with my Dad squashed that. Back to work on the 1st. Most of the family left on the 2nd and my last brother hit the road on the 3rd. Then it was time to help Mrs. Spiff with the post-family cleanup and Christmas decoration packing. So, now you know my excuse for being gone so long. It was great to see everyone and we all had a pretty good time but it left little time for baseball cards.

In between I received a few more requests for the team lot giveaway and one for a trade. Getting the free lots together now and sent an email on the trade. Hopefully we can get a deal done.

While all that was going on, the Rangers signed Shin-Soo Choo to a seven year deal. I have to admit I am pretty leery about this. Prince Fielder's already locked in for the long term on a big deal. Hopefully the team won't end up with two monster contracts for aging players on their hands in a few years. If that happens the back stretch of the deals could be brutal.

Texas also continues to sign young prospects and inked Kensuke Tanaka to a minor league deal. This Tanaka is not the big news pitcher and only got a brief stint with San Fransico last season. He did well in Japan before that though and should give the Rangers extra outfield depth. Good to see the team still building for the future while trying to keep the current contention window open.