A Kitty Cat Surprise...

Well, my good friend Wicked Ortega beat me to the punch when he posted this
on Saturday afternoon, but I will carry on nonetheless.
The end results of our stories are similar, but mine begins differently and as you might suspect, is quite a bit longer…
The story begins a few months back when my wife requested a copy of Cat Osterman’s Allen and Ginter card. This was unusual because she is not typically a card collector. When we first started dating I gave her a few cards of guys with weird names, stuff you would see on the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame and such, but even though she is always down to rip wax with me, she doesn’t typically save the cards. Since Cat is her cousin, I figured it was a legitimate and non-suspicious request.
I placed the card in a sleeve and top loader, made sure I had an extra for my set (which I did) and gave it to her and completely forgot about it. This Saturday morning, after I returned from the Post Office with 2 TTM envelopes she told me she had a surprise gift for me. Her surprises are always awesome, but can range anywhere from a record, to a new pair of boxers, to a hobby box of cards to an evening out or to a surprise cruise. Either way they are always awesome. I was instructed to close my eyes and hold out my hands (this is the standard presentation for a surprise gift) and I followed the instructions without hesitation. When I opened my eyes I recognized the card that I had given her months prior, it was still in its top loader, but when I flipped it over I noticed that it was signed boldly across the front with her name, her number (not her phone #, her jersey number-8) and USA. SWEET! I purposely didn’t ask her how she got it, this way I could imagine her and her cousin autographing cards after an exhausting pillow fight, which is what I assume they do when they see each other. What else do beautiful women do when guys aren’t around to get in the way? I was a tiny bit jealous that it wasn’t personalized (like Alfredo’s) but I am not really into that and people generally spell my name wrong and that irritates me and I end up giving the card away to someone who spells their name in that fashion. Alfredo had touched on this in his post, too, but it bears repeating. Topps has completely dropped the ball in fulfilling Cat Osterman redemptions, in turn leaving a whole bunch of very disappointed customers and collectors. This becomes even less excusable knowing that she is most definitely capable of signing her name and she is doing so for free for multiple who are and aren’t of relation to her. If we can get cards signed, why can’t you Topps? I would really like an answer to that question…
Anyway, I got off track there for a second, but what I am trying to do is say thank you to my super awesome and amazing wife and her very cool cousin! Thank you ladies! This is officially Allen and Ginter autograph success number 9, the 9th of many more to come! Go Cat! Troll out.