Hidden Trails Corn Maze

http://www.hiddentrailscornmaze.com/index.html

Google Maps, if you're suddenly inclined to take a trip to West Salem.

(Kinda wondering if I can finagle a way to get down there--juggling my and Silvy's work schedules = massive PitA)

The 2011 Major League Baseball Postseason Thread

(I guess it's more or less okay that the bleedin' NFL gets a 'season-long' thread; their teams don't play enough games to take up an entire calendar month, whereas the greatest sport in the world gives you plenty of opportunity to catch a game here and there at a price that isn't made of HOLY SCRAP and ARE YOU NUTS.)

So. Playoffs. Which haven't even been fully set in stone yet, and there's only one damn regular season day to go. There is still no 'x' to be found in front of any team's name in the standings. The Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves have been busy falling apart, giving up what at points had been pretty damn good leads in their respective Wild Card races to the Tampa Bay Rays and the suddenly-resurgent-and-team-I-hate-most Saint Louis Cardinals. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Phillies (hated-second-most) decided to take their time and coast their way to the 100-win mark--why not, they've known they'd be sticking around after season's end for awhile now, why not half-ass their way through the end of the season. All of the AL Division Leaders are just sort of waiting patiently for the season to end...

...and last night, the thrice-damned Los Angeles Dodgers blew a very nice lead in specTACular fashion in the bottom of the tenth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks, giving up a first-pitch grand slam to ensure that homefield advantage for the Milwaukee Brewers is left up in the air until today. USELESS. SLAGGING. DODGERS.

(What a thing to hear. Seriously. Silverwynde and I are heading home from Miller Park last night after catching Prince Fielder's first three-home-run game, listening to Brewers Extra Innings on WTMJ and keeping abreast of the LAD/ARI game via the host's updates. Hollering 'Go Dodgers!' when LAD put up five runs in the top of the tenth. and reacting less happily when, after two outs, ARI loaded the bases (what the HELL, Hawksworth?!)...even less so when a run was walked in...and, um, poorly...very poorly...when the inital report came that Ryan Roberts bashed that walkoff grand slam. The host thought it might've been a prank at first; then ESPN updated for him. Thaaat suuucked haaard.)

So Lyn and I (and anyone else who cares about the National League) are still waiting to find out how the NLDS is gonna get going. Right now, she and I are hoping that Atlanta hangs onto the Wild Card for dear life and SOMEHOW beats the Phillies while the Cardinals lose today...in part because if the pair of 'em remain tied, I don't think much of the Braves' chances of winning the one-game playoff that would ensue, and in part because I know that Milwaukee can kick the crap out of the team that Atlanta has lately become. (So, yeah, ATL has to stop sucking for a moment, just a moment...hoo, boy.) I'm pretty confident that the Brewers can make the Pirates walk the plank again tonight and lock it up, but I said something a bit similar on Monday and, well...bleah. Nevertheless, I'm confident. So that win will give the Brewers the homefield advantage for the NLDS. But there's still the chance that they lose, and the Diamondbacks win, well, pfft, there goes THAT.

I just don't wanna see it wind up being STL/PHI and MIL/ARI for the NLDS. The two teams Milwaukeeans and Wisconsites-who-don't-spend-all-their-time-humping-themselves-to-death-over-the-Packers hate most in the playoffs...that's just heartburn waiting to happen.

As to the ALDS...honestly, I've been somewhat apathetic to the American League since the Brewers left it, merely maintaining an intense loathing for the New York Yankees because, well, EVERYONE should. (Helps, as regards that intense loathing, that they swept the Brew Crew in interleague this year.) In short, I think perhaps I'd like to see the Rays take the Wild Card, smack the Texas Rangers around, and then take all the time they need to put down whoever comes out of the Yankees/Tigers mess...maybe I'd take the Tigers instead. Tossup. I just don't wanna see NYY, BOS, or TEX in the World Series, whoEVER the NL Champ is. (Hell, as regards the AL, I think I'm actually more interested in seeing how many firings will have happened in the Minnesota Twins organization after all the dust settles. Houston, too. Hundred-loss seasons are just not something you should expect a lot of people to survive, jobwise, y'know.)

Your turn. Thoughts? Notions? Related reasons you've thrown a boot at your television?

(Also continuing to pull for Ryan Braun taking the batting crown. 'Bout time the Crew had a batting champ.)

(...huh. Wow. I built a wall.)

EnterPlay's DOTM Dog Tags out

Enter-Play’s first Transformers offering has been out for at least a week. The TF:DOTM Dog Tags are available, so far, in loose and blister-carded single packs, though there’s another sort of packout due at some point—a little more on that in a moment. So far, I’ve only seen the blister-carded single packs at ShopKo, the loose at Walmart in a small hangerbox (never actually hung for some reason), both in their collectible cards sections. $3.99 at ShopKo; Walmart drops a penny, where they come 24 packs to a box.
There are 22 tags available in these packs. 15 are standard silver finish epoxy, 5 are gold finish epoxy chases at 1:10 odds, and there are 2 Special Etched Silver Tone chases, listed on the pack with odds of finding 'em at 1:48 packs, though I’ve gotten one per hangerbox after finding three unmolested boxes at three different Walmarts and none in a couple missing only one pack. Sneaky chase collector around here, I’m willing to bet, versus circumstances that only mimic a one-per-box scenario—it’s possible to dig out the packs with silver tags because they are noticeably heavier than the rest.
The checklist shows two more silver tags that will apparently only be found in the other product packout, a $7.99 'Premium 2-Tag Hang Tag'.
There are also a dozen decals and a dozen FunTat tattoo cards to trade/collect/stick all over your younger siblings.

(Still waiting on their movie-trilogy-plus-G1 card set—Oc-to-berrrrrr...)

TFCC Mag #38 Arriving

--Side Burn "will ship in the late spring, probably right after BotCon."
--Cheetor and Ramjet preorders start this month
--Interview with Morgan Lofting
--MTMTE profiles for Outback and Ironhide
--Kre-O Q&A with Jonathan Berkowitz
--Comics (well, duh)

(...and a 3pg interview with Michael Bay. Again, nothing earthshattering, not even, in my opinion, what I'd call 'informative'.)

(Sorry, Pete; don't think it all falls on you, though. Maybe others'll get mileage variance out of it.)

I need British help with Panini UK!

Title sez it all, doesn't it. I've got the Animated/ROTF sticker album Panini released and included with the UK Transformers ROTF comic, and I'm missing stickers that I'd like to acquire for it. Panini UK has a website from which a customer can order missing stickers, but they won't take orders from the US (no, not even from a dwork who still has his US-released baseball and football albums from the late 80s/early 90s, ha). Obviously, I have a list ready, and I have no problem with paying the cost of the orders, the cost to ship them to me, and a little extra for your trouble (or, wow, this sucks, so I could acquire Generations toys that Hasbro UK thinks YOU DON'T WANT); I just need someone to receive them for me and then send them across the Atlantic to me.

So...anybody there in the UK wanna give a fellow collector an assist? Shoot me a PM and we'll go from there.

(I'd've just bought a full box of stickers at BotCon and called it good, but nobody had 'em like I had found with the G1/Armada album...)