The lighting in the office is not great. But you get the idea of what I’m trying to show you here.

(Sunday Paper, Year VI, Issue 47)

Last week I told you about some of the cleaning and reorganizing I was doing.

It turned out great.

I joked on Twitter this week that it was a year too late - now the girls have a great space to do school from home…so that’s guaranteed to never happen again.

(It’s like the time I finally bought a nice pair of rain boots for recess duty - I was convinced it would never be wet and muddy outside again.)

Anyway, in order to create cleanliness, sometimes you have to make a big mess.

And that’s the state our house was (and in some respects still is) currently in.

So I’ve been moving things around to put away some of the stuff that came out of the bedroom and…well, I have a lot of stuff.

And some of it I love so much.

That’s what that picture shows. Some of the stuff I love that I’ve had to relocate. More on that in a minute.

For years - we’ve been in this house for more than 16 years, so pretty much for 16 years - I’ve had kind of free reign over the downstairs area. (I guess it’s what you would call a family room, but we never called it a family room. But it’s a family room - TV, couch, that sort of thing.)

And there are a lot of shelves. So that’s where I’ve kept lots of sports memorabilia over the years.

When the kids came along, I lost some of that space to toys and more toys and books and more books and also toys.

And now I’m losing more of the space…but I do have the office space, which I never did before.

SO…some of my prized sports possessions - well, not even prized, just some of my stuff (what a friend of mine and I affectionately refer to as our ‘crap’) - are going to have to be put away somewhere like the garage. But others can find new life on display in my office.

That’s what I’m doing with some of these little stadiums I used to collect. I guess I can’t even say I’d collect them. Every so often on my birthday or for a holiday my mom would gift me one of these and I love them so much. Maybe it’s because I like pretending I’m a giant and they are regular size ballparks.

But mostly it’s because I just love the real-life ballparks and because these are so detailed and remind me of the real thing, I like looking at them and thinking about baseball.

So I have a few of my favorites now in the office. Pictured above are Citi Field (it’s the only one that lights up!) and Shea Stadium and Fenway Park and Madison Square Garden. I also have PNC Park in the office now...and Camden Yards…and the Boston Garden. I need to see if the Danbury Mint (that’s what I think I remember the company that makes them was called) is still in business. I might have to add to my collection…although I do have a bunch that are not pictured that are still in the family room…………..for now.

But that’s not all. As I was moving stuff around I was reminded that I have this ad pictured below - someone got it for me from a radio station they may or may not have worked at years ago. (That radio station no longer even exists but I’ll keep names out of it in case there's a statute of limitations on this sort of thing. It’s a little different than taking a pen from work.)

It’s probably one of the coolest, underrated things I have.

And now it sits in my office…with some other nonsense belongings of mine that I love.

Notes

*Speaking of stuff I love - I’ve been thinking a lot about this time of year. I love it, as you may know. The chill in the air these recent mornings - but not super-windy and frigid - boy has that been great. I love the Thanksgiving weekend. Looking forward to next week.

*It’s also about time for the Super Mega Crossword in the Sunday New York Times. One of my favorite things about that special games edition they’ve done the past five or so years is that I am never sure when exactly it comes. So there’s an anticipation anytime between now (which it could very well be) or the first weekend in December (which I think is too late). I don’t remember it coming on Thanksgiving weekend but I guess that’s likely too. Last year it was actually a complete surprise to me. I forgot all about it.

*I’ve been trying to be a little more active on Twitter again. That kind of fell off a lot of this year. You can follow me there by clicking here. I also have the Facebook page, as you know. You can Like that here. I was thinking about a new project for the new year (as I do) - I might try Instagram more for that but I’ll let you know. You can find me there if you’d like…though maybe I’ll try creating a different account for what I have up my sleeve.

*I don’t think I told you last week - the lottery for the Team Framingham spots will be likely in early December. They need to determine how many bibs will be allotted to the cities and towns program before the bibs are given away. (Obviously, I guess.)

*I wonder if this fact will affect that decision: In a normal Boston Marathon year there are so many applicants with qualifying times that they have to draw a line somewhere to determine who will be accepted. It leads to frustration for these runners with excellent marathon times who don’t get the opportunity to run. (Another reason I am incredibly grateful I had the opportunity to do what so many far more qualified people are unable to do.) For 2022, though, to celebrate the return of the regular race (knock on wood), the BAA announced they would accept all qualifiers who applied. So it’ll be back to a pretty sizable field. We’ll see if there are 22 Team Framingham spots still available.

*I was reminded this week (look up Pepsi Turkeytron for the true inspiration) that for the first time that we’ve hosted Thanksgiving I have a portable TV that only needs internet access…so we can watch football anywhere we want during Thanksgiving dinner. So you’d better believe that TV is making its way upstairs on Thursday. That’s not at the top of my ‘thankful’ list this year…but it’s certainly on the list.

I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.