Decisions... Decisions....

Well, it's that time of the year again. I have a Christmas gift card and Christmas cash. Now, I just need to decide what to spend it on. The first thing that popped in to my head was to buy a Nintendo Wii. Now, I'm not a huge gamer, but a few months back, I was at my friend Keith's house, and he has a Wii. We played Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and it was bad as a MoFo! That would be my primary reason for getting the Wii. Not only could I play alone, but I could connect over the Internet and play against Keith, and others who have it. Also, Wii has the Wii Fit games that you can use to get exercise & burn calories. However, as I understand it, the Wii does not play BluRay, like Xbox and PS3 do. I believe Xbox and PS3 will also stream Netflix movies. But PS3 is also $100 more expensive. There also remains the option of simply getting a BluRay player, and bag the whole idea of a game system. Or I could go another direction entirely. So, I pose the question to you, the audience. Which way do I go? Thoughts, please?

City of Brotherly Love

Well, I had something exciting happen this weekend. We were in Jersey for Thanksgiving and Chrissy's Aunt Fran's 90th (!) birthday party. The original plan had been to head home late Saturday night, hopefully after the traffic had eased. However, at the party, we were talking to Chrissy's cousin Joe, who lives in Winchester, VA. Joe shares Eagles season tickets with a friend of his, and had been planning on taking his brother Mike, who was at the party too, to the Eagles/Skins game on Sunday. Unfortunately (for him), Mike had a flight leaving out early in the morning. Joe's wife, much like mine, would go with him and enjoy the game, but would rather him go with another real fan who will enjoy the game. After a little discussion, he asked if I wanted to go to the game! I'm sure he would rather have gone with an Eagles fan, but at least this way, he didn't have to find a sitter for the kids.

Fortunately for me, we had brought laundry to do, so I had one of my Redskins jersey's. And, of course, I had my Skins hat. So, steeling myself for plenty of ribbing, I met up with Joe and we headed to the Linc. I wasn't overly fearing for my safety for two reasons: 1) I'm not the type to come back at drunken idiots yelling at me. I'll just let it lie. 2) What were they going to say that I didn't already know? "Redskins suck"? I'd just shrug and say, "And?..." While I certainly think we have potential to play much better than we have, we are currently 3-8.

So we head to the park and look around for a parking spot. On our 3rd side street, we finally find a spot and pull in. There are two guys sitting in lawn chairs enjoying some pre-game beverages. Of all the possible spots on all the streets and all the fans milling about, guess what? One Eagles fan and one Skins fan! So we chatted with them as we ate the Wawa hoagies we picked up on the way in. Once we were done eating and pontificating, we headed to the stadium. As many people as we passed, I was surprised not to hear any comments until I was about a block from the stadium, when a police officer directing traffic shook his head ruefully, sighed and said, "I know you can't help it." This brought me to attention of another fan who called out, "Here's an asshole!" After that, I made it the rest of the way to the stadium relatively unscathed. A few times, I hears "Redskins... mumble mumble..." muttered under someone's breath behind me.

Before the game, Joe showed me around the stadium a bit. A little mini-tour. It is a very nice stadium. A lot more character to it than FedEx Field. There was HeadHouse Plaza, an area where various vendors hocked their wares while a band played on stage. In addition, there was an Interactive Zone with activities for kids, including Play 60 activities. I even saw a few Skins fans milling about, though not nearly as many as there were Eagles fans at FedEx four weeks ago. Inside, next to the pro shop, there was a hall of fame area that had names on the walls of past players, glass towers showing notable past players, photo collages showing key moments from each decade. In the South corner of the field was the Miller Lite Phlite Deck, where a band played at halftime.

After the tour, we headed toward our seats. Upper level, row 5. However, in our section, there is what I believe was an area for handicap seating, which took up the first four rows, and was lower than where our seats were. So, for all intents and purposes, we were in the front row of the upper level! Naturally, on the way there, I heard "asshole!" a couple more times, as well as "Redskins suck!" Once we made it to our seats, the people around us were very nice. The one exception being a Redskins fan two rows behind us. He was so annoying, I wanted to smack him, and we were rooting for the same team! He was much louder than I was, and repeatedly called for Philly players to get injured or killed. I'm all for healthy competition, and good-natured "insults" between fans, but he crossed the line. I don't want anyone (even Cowboys players or fans!) to get hurt or killed. I just want a good game, hopefully that the Redskins win. I did get a good game. Unfortunately, we lost 27-24. Not a huge surprise, but disappointing. On the way out, one Eagles fan in the row behind us even tapped me on the shoulder and said admiringly, "You guys played a tough game!" Guess that's about the most we're going to be able to hope for this season...

Letting Go and Moving On

I was looking at my sporadic blog, and at my earlier post about our new cat, Mister. I realized I hadn't posted a picture of him here. I had put some pictures of him on my Facebook, but not here. There may be some people who see this who don't see my Facebook, and vice versa. So in any case, this is Mister:









This segues nicely into the subject of my post. I've been struggling recently with letting go. I saw a comedian (I think) a while back talking about friends who have died, and how long you should wait before deleting them from your cell phone. Oh, wait. It was George Carlin. It was his last special on HBO before his passing. Interesting. Anyway, in a similar fashion, I don't know how soon is too soon to change my digital presence to reflect Buddy's passing. I have a picture of Buddy for my avatar on several different sites to which I regularly post. I have a pic of Buddy as the wallpaper on my phone. A few times, I have gone to change it, wanting to put a pic of Mister on there. But I always stop before I do. I feel like somehow I'm betraying Buddy's memory by doing so. I know that's completely irrational, and strictly an emotional reaction, but there it is. So, how soon is too soon?

Some Stats on Jason Campbell

Toward the beginning of the season, I had a discussion with another Redskins fan regarding Jason Campbell. Like many others, he stated that he thought Campbell needed to go. I disagreed, saying that the problem was the Offensive Line, not the Quarterback. We agreed that we would see who was right by mid-season. Now that we're into the 2nd half of the season, I went through some stats and put together an argument for my side as follows:

During the Kansas City game, when Campbell was benched at half, and Collins came in:

- Campbell was 9 for 16 for 89 yards. 1 sack, 1 INT, 0 TD. QB Rating 46.1
- Collins was 6 for 14 for 75 yards. 2 sacks, 0 INT, 0 TD. QB Rating 60.1

Last week against Atlanta:

- During the first half, the Offensive Line gave no protection. Campbell was sacked 5 times. Portis had 4 runs for 4 yards. Then, Portis went out with a concussion. Betts came in and had 4 runs for 14 yards The team had 1 FG. No TD.

- By all counts, Zorn and Bugel completely ripped the team for playing terribly (stating, among other things, "This is not Pop Warner football!"). During the 2nd half, the O-Line began blocking much better. At which point:
- Betts had 11 runs for 56 yards + 1 reception for 23 yards. Cartwright had 7 runs for 16 yards. The Line gave up no more sacks and team scored 2 TDs.

This week agains Denver, the O-Line blocked better than they have all year, and:

- Campbell went 17 for 26 for 193 yards. 1 TD, 0 INT.
- The Skins rushed for more yards than they had all season, and scored more points than they had since week 2 of last season.
- Campbell's QB rating for the Denver game was 100.3, which was better than the week 10 ratings for Joe Flacco (98.1), Payton Manning (97.4) and Donovan McNabb (93.7).
- Campbell's current QB rating for season is 87.9, which is better for the season than media darlings, such as Matt Ryan (78.8), Jay Cutler (76.0), Matt Cassel (75.3).

All of which is to say that I think Campbell is a good QB. I'm not saying he's Payton Manning or Tom Brady, he just needs an Offensive Line that protects him. He got that in the beginning of last season, and the Redskins went 6-2. He didn't get it at the end of last season, or the beginning of this season, and the Skins went 4-12 for that period. He got it on Sunday, and we beat the 6-2 Broncos, who were and are still at the top of the AFC West. I rest my case.

Mister Update

First big kitty news, Mister had his first vet appointment yesterday. Well, not exactly his first, but his first with us. He had two vet appointments in NJ before coming down here. But this was his first time seeing our vet, Dr. Shah. It was so cute. We walk in a couple minutes after 8:00 a.m. (our appointment was at 8:00), and there is half the staff waiting to see our new boy! They all loved Buddy so much, they were all excited to meet Mister. Naturally, they all thought he was adorable.

He was very curious about the new surroundings. He jumped on the exam table, jumped down, did a few laps around the room, jumped on the counter, jumped down. At one point, he tried to jump up on the top edge of a corkboard on the wall. That didn't work out so well. But he was able to push off before falling down and he landed safely back on the exam table. Best of all, though, he got a clean bill of health from the doc. Yay!

Even though he was really good while he was there, he still wasn't too happy about the whole experience. When we got home, he pretty much ran for the bed and stayed there most of the day. He seems to have settled down now, though, and he's looking forward to a visit from his Aunt Noelle this weekend.

Vacation and New Beginnings... and New Beginnings?

Well, we're back. We spent last week at the beach in Wildwood, NJ. Naturally, it rained almost every day there. Of course, except for Friday, when we were packing up to head back. But, as the old saying goes, a bad day at the beach is better than a good day at work. Seriously, though, vacation is vacation. I always feel that you can't control your circumstances, you can only control how you react to them. Whether we were able to sit out on the beach, or were stuck in our room, or wherever else we went, it was up to us to have fun. And so we did. We went to the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum at Cape May Airport. We went down to the Boardwalk one morning when it hadn't started raining and rode rented bikes. We played Rummikub. We visited Douglass Fudge for the first time, where I found that the fudge well exceeded that of any other I have tasted. In fact, they have sugar-free fudge that tastes better than any other regular fudge I have ever tasted! (sorry James). We finally got to try chocolate-covered bacon from Laura's, after seeing it on Dinner Impossible! Everything really is better with bacon.

We did finally have to come back. But we were not alone. As you know if you read this blog, last month, we had to put our beloved Buddy to sleep. Well, about four or five months before that, a young cat began loitering in my mother- and sister-in-law's garage. After a several phone calls, discussions and back-and-forth decisions, they decided to keep him. Not for themselves, but for the unfortunate, inevitable time after Buddy was no longer with us. We knew we would want another cat at some point, we just weren't sure how soon. Well, a month later, we knew we would be in NJ for our shore vacation, and decided to bring Mister home with us when we came back. They had taken him to the vet, so we knew he was a healthy, neutered male about two years old (sadly, many people in that area drop unwanted pets off in the countryside, rather than find homes for them or take them to shelters). It has been just over a day, and he seems to be adjusting pretty quickly. After the initial lap around the apartment looking for the way back to the garage he knew, he worked is way under our couch. He stayed there for about an hour, before finally coming out. He walked around again, trying to figure out where he was. He eventually got used to us enough that he sat in my lap for a few minutes. Then he wandered again, eventually ending up on the couch. He spent most of the afternoon sleeping (he had a rough morning), with periods of waking up to explore. He still hasn't eaten or drank much, but we're hoping that, as he gets used to the fact that he is safe here and his food is safe here, his appetite will pick up.

The other, fortunate-yet-unfortunate new beginning was the new football season which began this weekend. The Redskins lost their opener to the Giants 23-17. The game really wasn't as close as the score and stats might indicate. They looked fairly outplayed in many aspects of the game. I don't know what happened to the much-touted West Coast Offense that we displayed to great effect against the Steelers' 1st team in preseason. It looked like Zorn had abandoned the passing game and reverted to the Gibbs run run run game. The "upgraded" defense looked like it got some of the big plays (a sack and 2 turnovers) it wanted, but at the expense of basic good play across the board. DeAngelo Hall got an INT, but missed several tackles that let big plays get by him. Haynesworth created some pressure, but not enough to collapse the pocket on the QB as we wanted. Orakpo was virtually invisible all night. I certainly hope this was just a rough beginning and we'll shake the rust off next week. There's no reason we shouldn't beat the Rams next week, but then again, there was no reason we should have lost to them last year!

Sad News and Angry Letter

As I'm sure most of you are aware (especially those on Facebook), we had to put our beloved Buddy to sleep. To make a very long story short, he was at least 15 years old (we never new for sure exactly how old) and diabetic. Toward the end, he stopped eating and drinking, and was so weak he could barely stand. We really did try everything we could (antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, testing his blood sugar) to give him (and us) as much time as possible. We finally had to let him go. It got to the point where it was not going to be fair to him any more. It was a difficult decision, and the first time either of us had to make that decision, but it had to be done. By the time we actually brought him to the vet, his condition had deteriorated to the point that neither of us had any doubt that we did the right thing. It was tough for us, but right for him. *sigh* Very sad.

Ok. That was the sad news. Now, the angry letter. An angry e-mail, actually. A while back, I had been noticing some delays in the turnaround of the movies on our Netflix queue. I went back & forth with Netflix customer service sending me non-responsive form letters that had nothing to do with my problem. Someone finally answered me personally, that Netflix was sorry, blah blah blah, if it happens again, let them know, more details, yadda yadda yadda. It happened occasionally after that, but for the most part was fine. Recently it has gotten worse again. So I did a little looking on my history and wrote back to them. Maybe you can tell me if this happens to you, too. When we return a movie, we put it in the mail, Netflix receives it the next day, then ships out the next movie later that same day, we receive it the following day. Three day cycle. One day each for shipping each way. What I have noticed is that during periods when we watch a lot of movies, suddenly, it takes two days for them to receive our returns. This month, we have returned eight movies (with a ninth on the way back). Our last four movies were mailed on two consecutive Mondays, but Netflix didn't show them as received until Wednesday, which means we didn't get the next movies until Thursday. This only seems to happen when we exceed about five movies in a month. What I suspect is that, when our frequency of return becomes to high, they will receive a movie, but hang on to it for a day before officially marking it as received. The more movies we can get out of them in a month, the more processing they must do and the more postage they have to pay. If they can slow us down a little, it saves them money. Maybe if we get fed up enough, we'll upgrade our membership and they can make even more money.

Hmm. Just thought of something else. I didn't think about until I was just writing this post. I'm sure they will say that they have no control over the Post Office, and it's probably just random delays. The one problem with that, which I did mention in the e-mail, is that the delays only occur when our frequency of rental increases. The other problem, which just occurred to me, is that the shipping delay never occurs when they ship us the movies. Only when we return them. That would be a pretty big coincidence...

Borrowed Time

Well, we got some bad news from the vet today. It's a pretty safe bet that our Buddy has an abdominal lymphoma. In other words, a cancerous tumor. It was a fairly emotional morning. Our vet, Dr. Shah, is really wonderful. I think he's really trying to get us to realize that it's not going to be much longer. There was some discussion as to whether we should put him to sleep today. The other options consisted of nothing (where he would waste away to nothing), Prednisone (which would have had too many side effects), Metacam (an anti-inflammatory, which would hopefully alleviate some discomfort or pain he may experience, and allow him some quality for what time he may have left). So we decided to go with the Metacam. We'll see how that does for him. We also got an antibiotic, since he seemed to be displaying some of the same symptoms he had before when he had a mouth infection. We hope that between the two medicines, he'll start to feel a little better and start eating better. When we can get him to eat, he seems to perk up quite a bit. The problem is getting him to eat. If all goes well, and everything works as we hope, we're still probably only looking at a couple of months. But for now, he's home, and he doesn't seem to be in any pain or discomfort.

Redskins Training Camp

Well, it's almost upon us. Camp starts this Thursday, I believe. (Why it starts on a Thursday, I have no clue.) I've thought about going to Fan Appreciation Day, but I think I'll pass. a) Don't want to go solo. b) It's going to be hotter than Hades, not to mention humidity roughly equal to that of the Atlantic. c) The older I get, the more crowd averse I get.

As we get closer to the season, naturally, all the prognosticators have to put in their $0.02. Not too many people are giving us much of a chance. I think the collapse of the O-line in the 2nd half of the season is looming large in everyone's mind. I, on the other hand, think we'll do much better than last year. I certainly hope so. Of course, I am optimistic. I am a fan, no? In any case, it's not entirely without cause. Our defense, already ranked 4th last year, has added Albert Haynesworth. He should draw double, sometimes triple coverage in the middle, meaning someone else should come free to go after the QB. His presence also should effectively shut down (or at least limit) the middle lane for RBs. We also added Orakpo on the line and Daniels is back and healthy. In the secondary, we re-signed Hall and Rogers has had a full offseason of working on a healthy knee. No question our defense should be greatly improved over its already spectacular performance last season.

The greatest question marks appear on the offense. Here's why I think we'll do better this season. Campbell is in his 2nd year under Zorn. His handling of the off-season shenanigans of Snyder & Cerrato shows his maturity and determination to be the leader of this team. I think he will make great strides this season. Last year's rookie receivers are now healthy, know the system, have adjusted to NFL speed and have had an entire offseason to work with Campbell. I think they will step up and give defenses someone to cover other than Moss. Portis, as usual, is a machine (though I don't get the new look...). Another 1,000+ season. The O-line is the only area of concern. They've certainly gotten younger, with the release of Jansen & Kendall and the return of Dock. The question is, will they gel as a unit and stay healthy? If they do, I think there's no limit to what this offense can achieve. Apparently, Madden 10 agrees with me...

Two for Two!!

For the second night in a row, Larry Michael read one of my questions on Redskins Nation!! Last night, I asked if the Skins would consider putting Rock Cartwright in on punt returns. Tonight, in response to the recent press release regarding the changes in the parking and tailgating rulse, I asked what the shuttle situation would be this year. This time, they didn't use my last name, but they still said "Michael from Crofton." Those were my only two emails so far, so I guess I'm going to have to come up with some more questions.