My wife and kids went a little All Star Game crazy for my birthday this year. No, they did not get me tickets to the game.

But they did get me some other All Star-themed merchandise.

Among the items - the cups you see at left.

Not pictured: the Matt Harvey baseball my oldest daughter insisted my wife buy at the Mets Team Store.

I have no need for a Matt Harvey baseball, but I like the way my soon-to-be-7-year-old daughter thinks: Daddy has been talking a lot about Matt Harvey. We should get him something related to this big interest of his.

This is a good sign for future gift-receiving by me.

But let me tell you a little bit about these cups.

The last thing I need these days is more souvenir cups.

I could open my own, um, souvenir stand I guess, with all the souvenir cups I have.

But the blue cup you see is a great cup. It's a sturdy plastic, and it's perfect for my smoothies. I got a clear one earlier this year with the regular All Star Game logo, and as you can see this one has the alternate ASG logo with an apple. I hadn't seen that logo before my trip to Citi Field last week.

The orange cup was a birthday gift. (Technically the blue cup wasn't a birthday gift, but my wife took me to the Mets game last week for my birthday, so I guess it falls into birthday gift territory.) The second-to-last thing I need these days is coffee cups - I have many of those too - but these kinds are useful.

3 out of 5 days a week during the school year I bring iced coffee to school. (I make a pot of hot coffee one day, then I throw the rest into a pitcher and put it in the fridge for about three days' worth of iced coffee. The fifth day I usually treat myself to a Dunkin' coffee.) I don't have many cups like this orange one with the straw - it's perfect for iced coffee. (I got one like it as a free gift somewhere but I dropped it and the lid doesn't fit exactly. So until I drop this orange one, this is a great addition.)

I used the orange one on Wednesday - it worked out perfectly.

There was one more All Star-themed gift. I'll fill you in on that next week.