David Wells, 1997 Upper Deck #251

Over the course of his 21-year career, David Wells called a lot of different cities home. He switched teams 11 times and played for nine different teams: the Blue Jays (twice), Tigers, Reds, Orioles, Yankees (twice), White Sox, Padres (twice), Red Sox, and Dodgers. Whew! The above card highlights his series-tying win in Game Two of the 1996 ALCS, in which the O's beat the Yankees 5-3. The following season, "Boomer" jumped ship from Baltimore to New York as a free agent. You just couldn't tie this guy down.

Much like Wells, I've been on the move more than I cared to be over the past few years (of course, I stayed in Maryland through it all). Since June of 2008, I've packed up all of my belongings twice, going from Columbia to Silver Spring to Chase. Next month, I'll be doing it all again, but this will be the last move for a while...knock on wood.

Tonight I signed a contract to purchase my brother-in-law's rowhouse in Parkville, which means that I'm taking the leap into home ownership for the first time. It's an exciting and overwhelming thing, and there's still a lot to be done in the next few weeks: tons of loan paperwork, an appraisal and inspection, some cosmetic improvements to the walls and floors, some furniture shopping, and of course the actual act of moving in. But I'm thrilled to be near the Beltway (not too near), and consequently closer to work. Needless to say, I'm also relieved to be escaping from the "blogger living in his parents' basement" stereotype. I'm going home. My home.