Site and Collection Update for January 30th/31st, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen...boys and girls of all ages...yesterday/today is quite the milestone for my collection. After seeing it at the 2003 Caniac Carnival (while waiting in line for an autograph from you-know-who ;) ) and then seeking it for a little over three years, I am finally in possession of...

A 2000-01 CAROLINA HURRICANES SEASON TICKET HOLDERS PARTY SOUVENIR LITHOGRAPH!!!

No, it's not the limited edition that is autographed by the artist, but who cares. The "regular version" of this sucker was hard to find...which is really not too surprising, considering that it is the absolute first in the series of lithographs the Carolina Hurricanes have given to their season ticket holders for each season, at least up through last season. Unfortunately, unless there's news about season ticket holders getting their 2006-07 lithos via the USPS or UPS or Fed-Ex, the "tradition" looks to quite possibly end with the 2005-06 season, the last featured player being Eric Staal.

Within three-four hours of getting the litho, I had it framed and hung in my bedroom/office area. It is truly a thing of beauty...the picture of it that was on the Canes' official website...




...did/does not do it justice. Pictures of the litho have to be seen to be believed.

Those pictures will come sometime before the end of this upcoming weekend. If there is anything I'm going to try my darndest to be better about, it will be having more pictures of my collection on my site.

A November 1986 issue of the Hockey Digest with an article about Francis and his maturing as a player and captain with the Hartford Whalers also arrived today. That made for a read that was far more amusing than the former Whale's performance against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight.

Thank goodness AND KAS91269 @ the Score Boards Canes Message Board for the litho...I honestly cannot thank KAS enough for his wonderful help in my finally obtaining what I can very safely call the crown jewel of my Ron Francis collection thus far. :D

Current Music: "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel

Site Update For January 29th, 2007

Very quiet day overall...just got rid of the 13Pens.com links on the main page, since the site seems to have gone defunct. Very unfortunate, since that was the best Pittsburgh Penguin collection I've seen online. Hopefully, the site owner is working on a new site of sorts...

Quite thankfully, the WhalerMania section of WhalersHockey.com is still very much alive and well...and a favorite of mine to boot. Such a favorite that it is easily the main influence behind the Dieci site itself.

Anyways, speaking of a Penguins collection earlier, future collection updates will involve some Pens goodies...particularly a couple of books, and one that I never thought I'd find, until a fateful evening I happened to be perusing Amazon.com. Won't reveal what they are just yet...need to give you extremely rare visitors a reason to return. ;)

Oh, and BTW, also speaking of links, if you have a hockey collection display site you want linked here and/or at the Dieci site, just respond here or via e-mail. :)

Current Music: "Let My Love Open the Door" by Pete Townshend

Trading Post For January 28th-February 3rd, 2007

Here it is...the very first trading "forum" post.

If you have an item or a card featuring Ron Francis that I don't have, please respond here. OR, better yet, e-mail me here. (Remove the Monty Python quote.)

Thank ya very much in advance. :)

Current Music: "Take The Time" by Dream Theater

Willkommen. Bienvenue. Welcome. C'mon In.

Ah...the initial, grand opening post. I always find these hard to do.

As the title states, welcome to what will be basically my communications center for all who visit my Ron Francis collection website and/or those who just happen to be fans of Ronnie and his quite outstanding career in hockeydom.

The idea for this here place came to me just a couple of days ago, when I was musing to myself that I really do more blogging than message boarding these days. And apart from e-mail, that makes communicating about collecting and potential item/card trades rather limited. So, I thought "Why not a blog that can serve as not only an updates and news page (which I've been wanting to do for my Dieci site for sometime), but also a trading forum?". Henceforth this here place.

Chose today (January 28th) for the Grand Opening because it is, very appropriately enough, the anniversary of the Carolina Hurricanes' Ron Francis Night, where they retired Ron's trademark #10 and had it ascend towards the rafters of the RBC Center.

Speaking of that #10, "Dieci" is, simply enough, the Italian word for "ten", since Ronnie is of Italian descent, like a good number of Sault Ste. Marie's denizens.

I hope, as always to meet some new people through this place, and of course, pick myself up a few more additions to my ever expanding collection. ;)

Current Music: "Motherland" - Fullmetal Alchemist's Third Closing Theme