Skins, Caps, Wizards and Terps Predictions

Almost 3 weeks ago I was ready to talk up the Caps. I was entirely ready to use the overused and obviously premature "if the playoffs ended today" line by pointing out that the Caps would be in. So that day I went to write and lo and behold, I was surprised to find that good ole' Teddy L. beat me to the punch (oddly enough it was in his 500th post). So I didn't post, but the braggadocio karma still hit. The bottom of my "slurpie cup of happiness" busted... 6 losses in a row, including two loses to the lowly Bruins.

So not only were the Redskins catatonic and the Wizards not up to last years par, the Caps offense just couldn't make up for the defense. (The Caps were outscored 9-25 during those 6 games) Even the Terps football tanked losing to Boston College, getting a reprieve when Miami beat BC, and losing to Wake Forest at home this past week. My only solace comes in the surprisingly good Terps basketball team (currently undefeated and the only 8 win team in the nation).

But then the Redskins win (although they looked kinda like a newborn horse trying to stand up in the process), the Caps beat a southeast conference foe who have had their number recently (Tampa Bay, although that could be said about the Trashers and Canes as well), and the Wiz... well, they squeaked by the Hawks... we'll just leave it at that.

So what does all this mean? Here is my "if the season ended today"-ish predicitons:

Redskins: I've already spoken here... they're dead... i.e. good for another 2 wins. Maybe we can hope for a good draft pick.

Caps: Very intriguing. Alexander Semin returns and the teams looks like an offensive powerhouse against a very good team. I'll say 7th place in the East, giving their first round opponents a scare, but losing in 6.

Wizards: Basketball, especially the NBA, is one of those games which I can't watch sometimes because I seriously get too mad. The referees have TOO much control of the game and in the NBA it's compounded by how much they protect their star players. Unfortunately Gilbert Arenas isn't star enough... oh yeah and they don't play any defense. They might get by a first round series, but will lose whenever they play the Cavs or Heat.

Terps Football: They're supposedly going to play Navy (in the Meineke Car Care Bowl) or Purdue (in the Champs Sports Bowl). I feel good about the Terps chances against either opponent... but I would think the Mieneke Car Care Bowl would prefer to have the Terps there to get themselves a bona fide "Crab Bowl."

Terps Basketball: Shhhhh, I don't want to talk about it.... karma is listening.

Redskins Pyrite

I had resigned myself to not writing about the woeful Redskins, who had truly become among the worst teams in the NFL. But I just can't help myself because driving home from FedEx today, I was listening to the Redskins post game show and heard ridiculous optimism from Redskins fans who dared use the term "win out." The Redskins at 9-7? How insane is that? Did they even watch today's game? Or did they only watch Chris Cooley's touchdown and Sean Taylor's interception?

The Redskins are still a bad team, it's just that today the defense tackled and play more like last years defense. But after changing QBs, Al Saunder's complicated offense is still not clicking. Mark Brunell would have been the winning QB had he still been the starter because Campbell did nothing extremely out of the ordinary.

Don't get me wrong, I think Jason Campbell has got huge potential, but take away that 66 yard touchdown to Cooley and Campbell has a grand total of 52 yards passing. And he threw 2 interceptions, one of which was negated by a roughing the passer penalty. Don't be fooled, the defense won this game, but only because they played slightly better. Remember, last week (like this week) the Redskins scored 17 points, it's just that this week the defense didn't give up the second touchdown, keeping the Panthers to 13 points (instead of the 20 they gave up to the Bucs).

There are 5 more games left in the season and I would put a 2.5 on the over/under. I seriously doubt they win a game on the road (New Orleans and St. Louis), they seem positively listless away from home. They probably lose one more at home (maybe the Giants game), and that would put them at 6-10 (7-9 if they're lucky and pull an away win or win out at home). Yup, right about where I think this team deserves to be.

Gillers in Shenandoah NP and Zoomr

A few weeks ago we went for a short afternoon hike with Gilligan in Shenandoah NP. He loved it and smelled everything on the way in and out. This is him at an overlook along the AT. A few seconds after this picture he got a tick on his leg... Cindy pulled that little bastard off quick!

oh and this picture is hosted by Zooomr.com (btw, remember the extra "o" in Zooomr), a sweet (and free) photo hosting service... like flickr, but better. And in case you wondering, yes the reason i posted this is so i could upgrade to a pro account.

Go bake a cake.

This probably only applies to you if:

1. You live in the DC area (or near a Safeway, Vons, etc.)
AND
2. You want to bake a cake at some point.

So here's the deal. Safeway currently has a Buy One Get One (BOGO) free deal for Betty Crocker's Super Moist Cake Mix. (They sell for about $2) But they are also having a deal that if you buy 10 Betty Crocker items you get $10 off. SOOOO if you take 10 cake mixes up to the register, they should come out to between -$0.70 and $2.00 total for 10 cake mixes.

The Math: 5 boxes (plus 5 free boxes) x $2 = $10 - $10 (for getting 10 Betty Crocker items) = some where around $0, depending on how much one box sells for. Kinda complicated, I know, but it's worth a try... to see how it has worked for others check out the SlickDeals thread on the deal.