The Summer Job Search

Now that wrestling season is just about over, and Judy won't be doing spring track, they both will be looking for summer jobs. Both have interviews with the County Recreation Department next week for positions as camp counselors. Jane and I want to prepare them for the interview and I've tried to come up with some questions to ask them, and would appreciate any other suggested questions to ask them.

1. The generic tell me about yourself.....

1a: what school do you attend?

1b: what is your favorite subject?

1c: what after school activities do you participate in?

1d: do you have any hobbies?

1e: what summer camps have you attended?

1f: what summer camps (or camp activities) did you most enjoy?

1g: what summer camps (0r camp activites) did you not like?

1h: where do you live, how would you get to camp?

2. The how would you handle this situation question......

2a: 2 campers start a fight, what would you do?

2b: a parent complains about their son's/daughter's treatment, what do you do?

2c: a camper appears upset after being left by their parents at camp, what do you do?

3. What past work experiences have you had?

4. What are your strengths?

5. What are your weaknesses?

Greenway UltraMarathon March 1st

The Seneca Creek Greenway Trail 50K and Marathon (we just call it Ed's race) is on March 1st. Jane and I have been training pretty hard for this race, at least I've been feeling tired on most of our runs the past couple of weeks. We have one more long training run this weekend and then we'll probably....hopefully back-off on the mileage. I'm not sure whether I'll go for the 28-ish mile marathon or just bite the bullet and do the 50 K ultra. I just visited the site this morning and was amused by this cautionary note in the"New and Notes" update about the race.

Snow, ice, rain, cold, sleet, wind and high water do not bother us. However, if the weather is really severe.......the race may have to be cancelled.

Read my account of last year's race to get a flavor of what is consider acceptable weather conditions.

Here's the last admonition: No complaining.

I'm really looking forward to this race!

March 4, 2008. Well, my race was largely forgetable.....bad leg cramps and nausea developed during the 4 mile loop (miles 15-19) around Lake Clopper and by mile 21-22 (after the section of trail after Riffleford Rd.) I was toast and out of the race. I'm not sure what went wrong. I don't think I went out too fast, I was with a running buddy (Jim C.) at Lake Clopper (who finished the 50K in 6:45) and I had run the HAT 50K in around 6:50 last year so I don't think I was going too fast. Perhaps I should have been taking in more salt, using the Succeed supplements I used last year during the Marine Corps Marathon. I don't know, anyway Jane went on to finish in 6:24.55 (finishing 23 out of 36 women runners) and received a nice finishers hat. I'm just kidding about the hat, she got one but it wasn't reward enough for the effort Jane expended. She is still little sore but intends to do some light running tonight. I didn't have as much muscle strain and have been able to run the past few days. Hopefully, we'll get back on track for our morning runs soon and now that it's gettng warmer and both Elroy and Judy don't have any spring sports commitments maybey we'll be able to get them out with us as well.

Home Addition Update

February 13th. Our home remodeling project was started the day after the Thanksgiving holiday and we were told it would take approximately 11 weeks. By my calculation we're now in our 12th week, and although I believe Jason is mostly finished inside there is still work to do outside. On the inside we still need to have the bedroom carpet installed; it's been orderd but we're still waiting. Other than that, most of the carpentry, electrical and plumbing on the inside is finished; Jane and I still need to work on Jane's walk-in closet but that won't take long once we get started. I think they still have a week outside to finish the porch. Maybe it'll all come together really fast but our past experience is that the final little bit of work takes a long time to complete. Anyway, it's nearly done

February 15th. I talked with Jason this morning and he seems to think they'll be done by the middle of next week. That would be great. Today, he planned to grade the back yard to ensure rain water flows from the house to the storm drain. Supposedly, one of those small CAT earth movers was going to be delivered and it sounded like he was going to do an extensive amount of grading in the back and side yards. This is something that probably would have to be done at some point. Because our yard is at the bottom of the street (and a creek used to run through the side yard) I'm sure this area flooded regularly so we need to pay close attention to water runoff issues.

February 19th. Well, Jason was unable to grade last week....the ground was too wet on top and frozen underneath; the tracks on the CAT earth mover just spun in the muck. So, they'll have to revisit the grading once the weather clears up long enough for the backyard to dry out. Every since the project began, it has rained nearly every week and right now the back yard is only suitable for pig wallowing or mud wrestling......or pig wrestling. Anyway, they do plan on being 99% finished by the end of the week. The cedar shakes are going up on the inside wall of the porch and the screen doors and sceen and lattice panels are being installed over the next couple of days. On the inside, I've started installing shelves and clothes rods in Jane's closet and that should go pretty fast; the only hard part is determining how to best utilize the space. It's a work in progress.

February 20th. I'm hoping by the time I get home tonight the porch will be substantially done. It didn't appear that there was much progress yesterday, but maybe I just anxious for them to be done. After the porch is completed, Jason still has a number of little odds and ends to take care of. I still think that they'll be here some next week.....but I hope I'm wrong.

February 21: The cedar shakes are up and they look great. The lattice panels are nearly complete and probably will be done by later today. The screen doors are up and all that's left are the screen panels around the porch. By tomorrow they'll surely be finished, except for the fact that a weather front is supposed to be coming through later tonight and tommorrow. Snow followed by sleet, freezing rain, and rain, but I'm not sure what the exact order is. This will likely cancel school tomorrow and make work conditions untenable. Maybe they'll push to get the screen panels done today, but there are still some details that will need to be completed next week.

February22: Early this morning snow, sleet and now rain is falling. Schools are canceled and Judy and Elroy are home. The porch is still unfinished and will need at least one concerted day of work to be completed. So like I said, Jason will be here next week. The grading will be put off until some future date when the backyard is dry enough for scaping.

Woof....UMBC accepts Elroy

Elroy was accepted at UMBC...one of the University of Maryland's Honors Universities. We're still hoping he gets accetped at St. Mary's College, but UMBC would be fine. Congrats to Elroy!

Woof!

ROSSSS!!!

Physics Unit 7 Lab: Spring Waves
Data Table- Spring B					13-Feb-08
		n	L (m)	x	t (s)	v (m/s)	FT(N)
Wave Pulse		2	7.24	1	1.34	10.81	8
		A	w	x	t	v
Standing Wave 1		1	14.48	10	16.71	8.67
	2	2	7.24	10	9.2	7.87
	3	3	4.83	10	5.47	8.83
	4	4	3.62	10	3.73	9.71	VAvg= 9.178
							Mass= .69 kg
		n	L(m)	x	t (s)	v (m/s)	FT (N)
Wave Pulse		2	8.59	1	1.51	11.38	11.5
		A	w	x	t	v
Standing Wave 1		1	17.18	10	13.45	12.77
	2	2	8.59	10	7.51	11.44
	3	3	5.73	10	4.66	12.3
	4	4	4.295	10	3.53	12.17	VAvg= 12.012
							Mass= .68 kg
		n	L (m)	x	t (s)	v (m/s)	FT (N)
Wave Pulse		2	9.985	1	1.31	15.24	17
		A	w	x	t	v
Standing Wave 1		1	19.97	10	12.59	15.86
	2	2	9.985	10	6.35	15.72
	3	3	6.66	10	4.28	15.56
	4	4	4.9925	10	3.47	14.39	VAvg= 15.354
							Mass= .72 kg
		The mass of the spring is .7 kg

Will Judy be a Terp?

Judy received a letter over the weekend acknowledging that she was accepted in the Univeristy of Maryland.....but not until Spring, 2009. It seems the UM fills up early, and you need to apply early for Fall admission.....which Judy missed. Anyway, if she attends UM, she can always take Fall courses at Montgomery College that will transfer or, as the acceptance letter indicated, she can travel. Travel?

Home Addition Update

February 11th. We installed the shades in the bedroom over the weekend. They look very nice....a little darker than the blinds in the family room that nicely complement the rich mahogony color of the doors. We did some thinking and planning how to tackle Jane's walk-in closet over the weekend but with two long trail runs and Elroy's wrestling match, we did not have the time to purchased any closetmaid yet. The bathroom is just about finished. The tilework was done last week and on Friday Jason installed the shower curtain rod. But...the curtain rod he installed was white.....while all the other fixtures in the bathroom are chrome.....what's up with that? I had to ask Jason this morning whether we could change out the white curtain rod for a chrome curtain rod. I hated to ask him to undo his work but chrome matches the other fixtures in the bathroom and we should have been asked our preference since BONI ordered the accessory. So, I don't feel too bad. Anyway, I think he kinda expected the question and said he would speak with George (who does all the ordering for BONI). I think we'll wind up getting the chrome shower rod. Anyway, Jane spent a lot of time cleaning up all the dust that had settled in the bathroom and reorganizing the bathroom closet......it looks great. Both Jane and Judy used the new bathroom shower over the weekend. The curtain rod has a nice featue...it's bowed---that's the way its made---to provide more elbow room when your using the shower. This morning was really cold, in the teens cold. Jason planned to finish up some inside work in the morning like installing the shoe molding but would be outside later working on the porch. I thought they'd be nearly finished this week, but they may still be here next some week. We'll see.

February 12th. When I got home last, the shoe molding was installed in the hallway and closet amd Jason had begun working on the porch railings but there isn't too much to add. The locks to the two new outside doors (from the bedroom and basement) were being changed-out this morning to locks that have been re-keyed to use our regular house keys. It will be nice to be able to exit and enter through the basement door when Jane and I go running in the mornings. We should use the basement entrance as much a possible to reduce the amount of dirt and dust we track through the house. Today is primary voting day. Since I'm registered as an independent, I'll be on the sidelines waiting to see whether Obama or Cilnton gets the most votes.

Wisdom is Wasted on the Young

Judy's wisdom teeth have been bothering her and we're going to have them removed on Thursday. The bottom set have come through her gums, but at wierd angles, and the top pair are impacted. She'll be under general anethesia for the approximately 1 1/2 hour procedure. Judy was concerned that as her wisdom teeth come in they'll unalign her other teeth.....which look perfect. What I don't understand if why these teeth, that emerge in the late teens, are considered "wisdom" teeth. Teenagers are neither mature nor wise. In fact, this is the age when one is most likely to make some really regrettable mistakes in one's life. Maybe I'm just speaking form personal experience, but I think they should be called something like....."whoops" or "OMG" teeth.

Anyway, here are Judy's wisdom teeth the day they were pluck out......yuk!

Home Addition Update

January 31st. Well the home renovation project is quickly winding down. The painters have been busy the past three work days. We're keeping the same painting scheme used throughout much of the house....Benjamin Moore paint; ceiling white for the ceiling, dove white (eggshell finish) on the walls and beige (966) for the trim. It is a nice look. We're switching the door color to Mahogony (SW2838), and the doors look spectacular with this color (see picture at right). Wow, I was really happy with the color change on the doors and I will definitely be re-painting our other existing doors once BONI leaves.

Here are updated photos of the outside:
From the same angle as usual.

From the street, also looking at the bedroom addition.

February 6th. Today the electrician came and will be installing the lights and ceiling fans we chose earlier. Even though heavy thunderstorms are predicted for later this afternoon, these should be installed when I get home tonight and it will be nice to have extra illumination as I inspect Jason's work every night. Jason was busy yesterday installing steps up to the porch and he may finish that today. I think by next week BONI will be gone and Jane and I can work on her closet, intall window treatments and wait for the carpet to be installed and then move in to our new bedroom. The carpet is from the Liz Claiborne collection, I think the style is called cirque and the color is stone.

February 7th. The shades for the bedroom windows came yesterday and maybe we'll be able to get them hung in the windows this weekend. Jane likes the natural woven shades from Smith & Noble rather than blinds or curtains. In fact, we haven't had much success in the past using curtains. There's a funny story about Jane's attempt to make curtains once when we lived in Connecticut, but I'lll save the story for another time. Jason delayed pouring the concrete footers for the steps off the porch, think it was going to rain.....it didn't rain. So I suppose he'll finish that task today as well as build the railings. The electrician is mostly done installing the light fixtures and fans. He'll be back on Friday and should finish then. There was one slight problem yesterday.....when I renovated the basement last year I patially enclosed the electrical panel such that the electrician couldn't get into the panel to install new circuit breakers. Doh! Jason will have to undue some of my handywork so that when the electrician returns Friday he'll be able to access the electrical panel. I had to sheepisly hang my head when Jason told me this news last night. I never said I was good at remodeling......or even that I know what I'm doing most of the time....only that I work cheap. If you remember this sequence from the movie Mr. Mom.....you have a good idea of my handyman skills.

Ron Richardson: Yeah? Are you gonna make it all 220?

Jack Butler: Yeah. 220... 221, whatever it takes.

"Earlham Can Use a Guy Like Elroy"

This is has to be one of my favorite opening moments from a movie.....Of course, the movie was Risky Business starring Tom Cruise.

The dream is always the same.

Instead of going home,I go to the neighbors'.

I ring, but nobody answers.

The door is open, so I go inside.

I look around, but no one seems to be there.

Then I hear the shower running.

So, I go upstairs to see what's what.

Then I see her.

This... girl!

This incredible girl!

I don't know why she's there because she doesn't live there...

...but it's a dream, so I go with it.

"Who's there?" she says.

"Joel," I say.

"What are you doing here?"

"I don't know. "

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm taking a shower," she says.

Then I give her...

..."Do you want me to go?"

"No," she says.

"I want you to wash my back."

I'm getting enthusiastic about this dream.

So, I go to her, but she's hard to find through all the steam.

I keep losing her.

Finally, I get to the door...

...and I find myself in a room full of kids taking their College Boards.

I'm over three hours late!

I've got two minutes to take the whole test.

I've just made a terrible mistake.

I'll never get to college.

My life is ruined.



Now, I have a similar dream only my dream is about my kids not getting into college or not being able to afford going to the colleges they've been accepted to. Why am I worrying about this now? Even though we've spent so much effort the past year thinking about where Elroy and Judy would be going to college I thought I still had a few months to chill before having to deal with college acceptance (or rejection) letters. Anyway, we got our first acceptance letter yesterday. Elroy was accepted to Earlham College. This happened only a couple weeks after he sent in his application, what's up with that? Shouldn't the admissions office at least offer the pretense of being selective. This is not to suggest that Elroy doesn't have a pretty good academic record and will likely be accepted by all his choices but still, if the college is going to ask us to pony up 30+ thousand dollars a year to attend I want to feel that there was a rigorous selection process going on. Maybe Elroy mentioned that his uncle went to Earlham and that sealed the deal......anyway, Earlham probably could use a guy like Elroy.

Gulp.....

The last couple of weeks have been very busy, Elroy and Judy completing their final college applications (see what colleges Elroy and Judy have applied to here) and Jane and I applying for financial aid. The principle financial aid document is the FREE Application For Student Aid (FAFSA). Normally, I like anything that is free. I think every family with kids entering college, save for the independently wealthy, submit a FAFSA application in which you detail all the financial aspects of your life from yearly salary and assests down to how much change is currently in your pockets and underneath the sofa seat cushions. We finally completed the FAFSA after days and days of figuring out how much $$$ is coming-in and how much $$$ is going-out and, I note with emphasis, providing any "special circumstances" the good folks at FAFSA should consider before providing us an estimate of what our family is expected to come up with for Elroy's and Judy's college fund. Well, the Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) I received was generated immediately upon submitting the electronic FAFSA application. So obviously this is a computer-generated cold calculation that has no intention of feeling my pain over our special circumstances (like having twins entering college!!). Anyway, this is the message I received nanoseconds after hitting the FAFSA submit button. The comments in bold parentheses are mine.

Based on the information we have on record for you, your EFC is 49235 (That's $49,235.00 dollars....Gulp! For some reason FAFSA doesn't like to use financial punctuation like the dollar sign, comma, or period. I wonder if that is supposed to make the EFC more palatable?). You are not eligible for a Federal Pell Grant (Doh!) but you may be eligible for other aid (yeah, like first aid to keep me alive for the next four years). Your school will use your EFC to determine your financial aid eligibility for other federal grants, loans, and work study, and possible funding from your state and school. (Somehow....I don't feel overly optimistic).

Home Addition Update

January 28th. The bedroom is nearing completion. Jason and the construction foreman from our previous renovation project, John, have been busy installing the casing trim on the windows and doors. Here are recent photos of the bedroom looking toward the backyard through the bay window. The ceiling wasn't quited as high as we would have liked but it had to be about 6 inches lower to accomodate the air conditioning ducts in the ceilling.

At right, imagine I'm standing near the bay window looking forward to the left-front of the house with a view inside Jane's closet. It turns out that the BONI was only planning a simple shelf and ROD for the closet and Jane will certainly need a lot more than one rod. So I have a new DIY project once BONI is done. Jason and I talked about installing a closet maid system in the closet. I used closet maid in the basement closets I installed last year and it's pretty easy, so this shouldn't be a problem and Jane and I can custom fit the closet with a lot of shelving, storage bins, and rods.

The last view below is a view to the right-front and the door leading from the bedroom to the back porch.

Cat Napping

Here's a picture of Max lounging on the family room sofa. Everything he does is kinda cute.

Home Addition Update

January 24th. Lots of progress to report. The new tile for the bathroom was delivered; I'll talk more about this below. Inside the radiators were installed in the bedroom and the drywall is up, sanded smooth, and the rooms ready for the trim-work and painting. Jason hung the new doors to Jane's closet, so soon we'll have to find out how the inside of the closet will be arranged with hangars and shelving. It will be a fair-sized, walk-in closet......although I'm not sure it will be ample enough for all of Jane's clothes and accesories! Anyway, after that the switches and outlets will be hooked-up. Outside the roof has been installed and the siding is mostly finished. The siding crew started last Saturday and I expect will be finished early next week. We have a lot of custom trim-work that has to be wrapped in painted aluminum. This "metalwork", as it is called, takes some time to finish...but will last a long time with minimal upkeep and has great curb appeal. Here is the latest view from the backyard looking toward the porch (picutre taken January 27th); notice the trim along the bottom and top segments of the porch framing. The siders were at work over the weekend installing the ceiling. The ceiling is white vinyl that mimics 2 inch beadboard. The crew worked all day and the ceiling looks great. See a picture of the ceiling below. This view is from the bedroom door.

The Bathroom. I had originally demolished the bathroom approximately 7-8 years ago after the wall tiles had fallen off, the result of water getting behind the walls. The long wall of the tub surround had a window with painted wood trim. This isn't a good design feature to have in a tub surround where we mostly take showers because the wood was continually getting wet and eventually leaked water behind the wall resulting in a lot of rot and eventually the wall failed when the tile fell off. When I took out the the old bathtub the wall sheathing and studs were competely rotted and I had to replace them. I re-drywalled the entire bathroom and installed new bathroom sink, toilet, and bathtub. I never did finish the tile. The reasons why are many and long-winded and I'm not sure I believe any of them myself anymore. Suffice it to say, it will be nice to have the shower back.

Janauary 28th. The tile was installed last week but has not yet been grouted. Remember as you look at the photos below, that I demolished the old bathroom and installed the tub, all new plumbing, and the backerboard for the tile.....if the window had not been an issue, I think I could have put up the tile as well (or at least I would like to think so).

The picture at left is a picture toward the front of the tub surround. We opted for the larger, hipper tiles. I think they must be 5x7 or something. Evidently, no one uses the old 4x4 tiles anymore and I must admit that now that the tiles are up they do look nice. As an accent, we used a border of small glass and stone tiles. See the close-up of the accent border below.

We have enough of the accent tiles left over that I'll be able to use them to make a backsplash for the bathroom sink. Then, I'll have a DIY project to report on.

Home Addition Update

January 7, 2008. The insulators are supposed to make an appearance this week. We had our walk-through last Thursday with Jason, George and Chip and made all our last minute decisions on placements of receptacles; if the close-up inspection went okay then the insulators will start filling-in walls, floor and ceiling. This is standard home-remodeling practice, before the walls get closed-in all the wiring gets inspected by the county and by the homeowners...Jane and I. For us it's a question of where do we want the light switches, how many outlets and where, and do we want two-way or three-way....light switches of course, not Skyline Chili.
Just as this is about to happen the temperatures have started going back up again...go figure. I'll tell you, it's been chilly in the house the past two weeks with only a thin sheet of plastic between us and the uninsulated, unheated bedroom addition. There has been a veritable tsunami of frigid air flowing into our living spaces and now that the cold temperatures have at least temprarily abated......the insulators are scheduled to come. I'm not complaining, just marking the irony of the situation. Besides it will get colder again and we'll be one step closer to getting the project done. Here's are recent pictures of the outside.

January 8th. When I got home last night the porch decking was about half completed. In order to make the porch as mosquito-free as possible the framing crew first laid down a fiberglass screening material over the floor joists before installing the decking. The porch decking has a nice detail I haven't seen used before, a trim around the perimeter of the deck so that you don't see any exposed ends. Click on the picture to see an expanded view to see the decking detail.

January 9th. Today the porch decking is complete and looks real nice. Here are some pictures from different perspectives. I just figured out this morning that the insulators won't arrive until air-conditioning ducts are navigated to the new bedroom and the copper pipes for the radiators plumbed. The ducts were going in this morning as I was leaving for work. I'm not sure about the radiators. The picture above at left is looking from the bedroom door out to the screened porch. The picture below is from the porch looking toward the bedroom addition. No insulators yet.

January 11th. The framing crew and/or Jason have done a lot of work outside getting ready for the vinyl siding to go on. Our siding has a lot of detail features, a watermark band around the bottom and similar band around the top of the walls that we've received a lot of complements from neighbors about. I don't even want to think about how much we pay for this feature; they require a lot of plywood underlayment to build-up the watermark before the siders come. It's looking good and it'll be worth it when it's completed. No insulators today either.

January 15th. The insulators came and went yesterday! The bedroom is now wrapped (with Tyvek), insulated, caulked, and ready for the next act. That would be the drywall installation. When I talked to Jason this morning he thought that all the sheetrock panels would be in place today (after all we're not getting that much more interior room). I suspect that it will take another couple of days for a couple coats of dry wall compound and a first coat of paint (which shows the drywall defects) and the then the finishing drywall touches. This means the bedroom should be ready for the electrical installations and finishing woodwork by next week. Jane and I really have to move to get the carpet selected for the bedroom so we can arrange for it to be installed without a big time lag after the painters are finished. Below are before and after photos in the bedroom looking toward the back of the house and the baywindow.

Waste Not......

....or is it waste naught...whatever. In the basement, the new waste ejector has been installed. Our home was built in 1933 and originally had a septic tank system. At some later time when the rest of the area was built up and public sewars were put it, our house must have been hooked up to the public main and the septic system abandoned. However, the main waste pipe rather than exiting through the basement floor exits about two or three feet above the floor. Hence, when we do laundry in the basement we need to pump the waste water up to exit in the main sewar pipe. In the past we always just let the waste water from the laundry go into our basement sump pump (that also collects ground water) and then pumped out in the city sewars.....which is illegal. So we fixed it and now have a ground water sump pump and a separate sewage ejector. Supposedly, if we ever want to install a toilet or shower in the basement we can tap into the right end of the pipe that is partially buried in this picture. Okay enough about sewage.

A Puzzling Development

On Christmas day we spent the day at Jane's sister in Cincinnati. While there, Judy and I started helping out on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and having made little progress in the hour spent trying to fit pieces together decided to get a puzzle of our own when we got home. I suppose gluttons for punishment is the correct description for us. There are no puzzle-only stores in our area that I have found so far; toy/hobby shops or the local Target are our only options at the present. Assembling puzzles can be a little......bedeviling. I'm sure that if the CIA knew how frustrating puzzles can be they'd be giving puzzles to the detainees at Guantanamo Bay....puzzle-boarding! Anyway, we did purchase a puzzle from Target and have been working on it intermittingly for the last week or so. It's now finished and with great pride I present a picture of our completed one million piece (say like Dr. Evil), actually only 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

Lighting and Fan Selections for the Porch

Our new screened porch, we're hoping, becomes a focal point of life during most of the year. We wanted to have a nice big ceiling fan to generate cooling breezes in the summer heat and chose this nice 52 inch ceiling fan with an oiled bronze finish. The ceiling with be some shade of off-white and this fan will look nice against that backdrop. We also needed a stoop light for the entrance to the porch and a flushmount light fixture for the breezeway. We found this matching set shown below that has a pleasing cottage-like styling. I think they'll look great when installed.

Breezeway Light (at left).

Stoop Light (at right).

Are We Home Yet.....

Whenever I look in the rearview mirror on trips back and forth to Cincinnati, I see Astro resting his head between the two rearseat headrests just staring forward as if he is saying...."are we home yet."

Hail to the Redskins

After nearly 4 years of bumbling and stumbling; bad game-time decisions (the most infamous being the two consecutive timeouts Gibbs called to "ice" the opposing teams place-kicker) and mis-management of personnel (i.e. how was Todd Collins ever behind Mark Brunell?) the Redskins find themselves in the playoffs. The weird thing is that right now they really look pretty good. However, I think that the other NFL teams are, at some point, going to catch-up with Todd Collins and the "new Redskins". Evidently he's running more plays out of Al Saunders playbook than Jason Campbell was and defenses will eventually adapt and then we'll see---but at least for now they seem to have the other team's defenses off-balance. Anyway, this Saturday I do plan to watch the game and root for the Redskins.

January 7th. Well, the Redskins did indeed lose. They look completely inenpt the first half with three or four dropped passes on perfectly thrown balls by Todd Collins. But in the second half the Redskins scored on a couple of nice touchdowns drives with crisp passing patterns completed by (who else Redskins MVP), Todd Collins. But it didn't last long. The Redskins botched a field goal attempt after recovering a kickoff, the Seahawks scored on the next possesion to take the lead and then intercepted the only bad pass Todd Collins has thrown in 5 games and ran it back for a touchdown. Oh Well, I read this morning that coach Joe wants to come back next year.....and maybe longer.

January 8th. Gibbs made it official, he's severed all ties with the Redskins organization, as coach, as president of football operations, and probably also as an interested former head coach. I'm happy he's going......I really feel he was just out of touch with the personnel and the league, but his abrupt and complete departure was a little weird.