So my trip home was interesting.  Since I am the first one to move away from home, my mom was very much clingy the entire time.  I kept getting pulled in other directions, but every time I was back at the house, she was right there trying to at least be in the same room.  I did get a chance to catch up with some friends from my old job and go catch the Tenacious D movie.  Both experiences were quite good.  The dinners were exactly what you would have expected, excellent.

So I was talking to my mom about what I want for the holidays and I told her the Wii if she could find it.  She said that she was going to try to get to the stores early but chose not to because she knew all of the mobs that were going to be there.  I told her that I didn't want her to go through that much trouble to get ahold of a system and that I will get it eventually when it is available.  I do appreciate her concern for trying to get the Wii.

It is now time for a break from everything.  Thanksgiving is coming up and I am taking a trip home.  I've got a long car ride tomorrow, but it will be nice.  I really like long car trips.

I have needed a break for a while.  Work is going to pile up after this break, but I can at least recharge and take some time to get things together.  There are 3 20-page papers in my future and 2 presentations, not to mention all of the work-related stuff.

I really don't have much to talk about now, but maybe I'll update later.

So I have been absent from updating, but there is not a whole lot to tell outside of getting work done for classes and working with my staff.  Halloween was fairly tame this year, since all I did was reverse trick-or-treating in the halls.  It was fun, but I had not costume and instead went around with my Chris Cooley jersey on.  Nothing special.

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but I was swamped with papers and projects.  I did get a chance to catch up with the family and they showered me with very nice things, and for that I am grateful.  I got the jersey I wore on Halloween, a framed pic of the capital building, my diploma framed, a couple books and movies, gift cards to Best Buy and iTunes, and a couple of nice meals out on the town.  The italian place we went to was fantastic.

This will be another fun-filled weekend of doing projects and papers, but I will get to take an excursion for a feast of pies at a co-workers place.

So I have surpassed another level in only a matter of a day or so.  I am still not complaining, but I was seriously just at level 15 for over a month and now I have shot up to level 17 and still climbing.  It's pretty nice, I have to say.

In other news, I have gotten into the full swing of things in grad school and it is a lot of work.  Besides the 30+ hours I put into my assistantship each week, I have 3 classes with a paper per class and up to 300 pages of reading for each.  The research papers have started to pile up and I have presentations in both my classes and my job.  It is just a lot of work.

I need a vacation . . .

I don't know if other people have noticed this, but I seem to be leveling up at an alarming rate.  I know it is not a bad thing, but I was going very slowly for a while there (3-6% per day) and now in the past 2 days with minimal activity I have jumped an impressive 94%, going from level 15 to nearly completing level 16.

I don't know if others have noticed this, but it just seems weird.  That's all I'm sayin'.

I will not be screaming that the Redskins are going to be making the playoffs yet.  They are showing great signs of life, but it is onyl the fourth game of the season and they have a long ways to go.

Brunell and Moss lit it up this week with touchdown after touchdown, including the game winner in overtime.  The one piece that did not show up this past week was defense (for either team).  Giving up under 10 points is great, under 15 is good, under 20 is so-so, and anything over that needs revision.  I will not complain about getting the win, but they Skins need to play both sides of the ball well, and not just against weaker teams.

The Texans were more of a pushover, like the Eagles games against the Packers.  The Jaguars provided the first real success considering the team's consistent strength on both sides of the ball.  I will be looking forward to the Skins winning within the division or even the conference at this point.  You must be able to compete within your division to get anywhere in the league.  Those games do make up over a third of your season.

So something that I haven't gotten to talk about yet has been the Skins game last weekend.  Of course it is not that impressive beating the Texans (and any fan of the Texans knows this better than I do), but the remarkable thing was that Washington looked liked it regained its offensive ability.

Let's start with the return of Clinton Portis to regular action.  He finished the game with 16 rushes for 86 yards and 2 touchdowns and 2 catches for the team high 78 yards.  I know that he had the shoulder injury which is why he couldn't be expected to play that strongly, but wow.  Nice job, Portis.

Next we look at Ladell Betts.  As a backup RB, you never expect to see great things from them other than maybe a decent relief run every once in a while.  He has gotten some extra playing time with the injury to Portis, but he ended the game with 16 carries for 124 yards and a touchdown and 3 catches for 27 yards.  Not bad for a backup.

Finally we come to Mark Brunell.  We know he is old and we know he has played for a number of years, but his performance on Sunday was fantastic.  I have never seen such strong decision-making on the field.  The first 22 throws were positioned just where the offense needed them to be.  To have a record of 22 of 22 passing is just amazing.  Even though he finally missed a pass and end up 24 of 27 for 261 yards and a touchdown, I would say that he had a strong outing.

The amazing thing about the Redskins is that they only upgraded what they had on their team.  So far, they have lost games to both Minnesota and Dallas, both of which also made some good moves.  In this case, do we think Dan Snyder is an idiot who doesn't know what is good for him . . . possibly.

Robert Royal, the past blocking TE in the league, was released and signed with another team.  Even though Mark Brunell is old and Jason Campbell completely unexperienced, there were no moves to strengthen the QB position or the blocking to give them better protection.  The upgrade in WR is great, but if you change the offensive coordinator, have that coordinator take over calling the plays, and change the playbook, you have to expect a lot of confusion on the part of the players.  The defense is okay at the moment, but they keep giving up long pass plays to allow the set up of touchdowns and field goals.

The saddest thing is that they are sitting there with 1 offensive touchdown and it was from Portis, who as you may know is having some injury problems.  Needless to say, there are a number of problems with the team and week 3 may be their only shot in the next 3 games.  I can't wait for them to get their acts together and pull off a run at the end of the season to clinch a playoff spot.  That is something they need to start working for now.

Not much to report on the personal front, so I will continue to update on how my teams are doing.

Maryland took a huge blow against WVU, but that was to be expected.  The Terps have lost a lot of steam with QB issues and establishing a strong running back.  They will get a chance for another win next week against Florida International.

Penn State made up for their previous loss in a big way.  They had Youngstown State running for mercy before the first quarter was over.  They are up against #1 Ohio State next week in an attempt to take a leap in the standings.

UMass had a nice win against Villanova 31-21 to recover after the close loss to Navy last week.  They will be battling against Stony Brook coming up.

Maryland beats Middle Tenn St 24-10

Navy takes out UMass 21-20

Penn State loses big to #2 Notre Dame 41-17

It was a good week for Maryland, though they had the easiest opponent out of my three teams.  UMass had a tough game, but they just couldn't finish in the 4th quarter.  Penn State just simply collapsed.  Look forward to next week.

Youngstown State at Penn State

UMass at Villanova

Maryland at #6 West Virginia