Quiet on Campus

Old Main in the Morning
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

Amazing how quiet the campus can be on a Sunday morning... a mere 6 hours after most students had called it a night...

Funny when you think that this exact space can be jammed wall to wall people on a nice spring day and here you have it... completely empty.

Another New #1

With LSU losing, who will take over the number one spot this week? Seems like a curse doesn't it?

Will it be Ohio State? Cal? South Florida? Wow... Wouldn't that be something?

Bend But Don't Break

A great defensive philosophy that seems to have shut down the Badger offense. After a quick score in the first quarter, the Lion defense has quietly pitched a shutout the rest of the game.

Did I Say Close?

When we play aggressive from start to finish it's a completely different team... 31-7 with 11 to go in the 3rd.

A Little VA Magic

Always good when the hometown boy, Evan Royster, runs it in from 22 yards out on 4th and 1. The boy carried westfield to a state championship 2 years ago, it's time for him to get more involved in our offense.

Turnovers

Always a good sign when you have 0 turnovers and the opponent has 2 and you have scored 2 TDs off of both of them.

A good day for sure.

10-7 After One

After one frame Penn State has a 3 point advantage. So far, the offense seems to be more organized than in previous games with the coordinator calling relatively easy pass plays for Morelli. If only quarless would hold on to the ball.

We'll see, but I think my prediction of a tight game is on track...

Great start

Not only are our seats on the 40, 24 rows behind the Wisconsin bench, you gotta love when a team that desperately needs a gift to get one and take advantage of it.

First play of the game, Wisconsin fumbles and Penn State scores 3 plays later for a 7-0 lead.

Yeah!

Perfect Day

It doesn't get any better than this for football... It's about 60 degrees, sunny, and a slight fall breeze. A perfect day for an upset.

Tailgaters out in full force

Our quiet little spot (with the exception of Jeff)

Homecoming Love

Game Day

The day of the Penn State-Wisconsin game has arrived and the day finds Lauren and I in State College with Jeff and Katie to witness what should be a tight game. After two Big Ten losses Penn State is unranked while Wisconsin has dropped to 19 after losing to Illinois last week. Most of the pundits are picking the lions to lose this game but having been here in person for these late afternoon games when the lights come on and the crowd screams, I think we'll pull it out 24-17.

5 hours will mark the start... And 8 hours from now we'll know who comes out on top.

3-1

Yet another week passes and I am ashamed to touch on the performance of my Nittany Lions. Fortunately, we were not able to watch the game since we were on our way to meet the priest who will be performing our wedding mass at his parish up in Wilmington, DE. But try driving up 95 on a saturday when your team is losing and you are an hour late. It was a pleasant ride to say the least.

Anyway, Penn state choked it away again blowing countless opportunities to take the lead. I'm not sure what changes need to be made as I have been out of the loop, but as a fan, the season was over for me after the first loss, even though this past weekend opened the door for a potential one loss team making the national championship game. What a crazy NCAA weekend it was....

However, the sporting weekend was salvaged with a strong DC United win on saturday night over the hurting kids from Toronto and a dominant performance from my two fantasy football teams Socks but no Drawers and Live Action. My 2 wins this weekend put me in a solid position at 2-2 after 4 weeks.

Recovery & Premiere Week

If you're wondering why it's taken me a few days to post since Sunday, it's because it's taken me this long to recover from the abysmal sports weekend that took place. If you know me at all, you know how emotionally invested I become in both Penn State and the Redskins... throw that on top of the two fantasy football teams I manage and it becomes borderline dysfunctional. And then imagine how you feel when all these teams lose and not just lose... but REALLY lose... a la Penn State or Redskins lose... If you caught any of the highlights of either game, you can understand how these two losses were felt like a backhanded slap or an oncoming migraine. I won't use this space to launch into a tirade about Penn State's coaching, or the Redskins complete offensive breakdown in the second half because I wasted too much of my time on Monday rehashing every possible scenario with my fellow Skins and PSU compadres. Just know that I am hoping for a rebound this weekend in some way... some glimmer of hope for the sporting future... Until then, there is TV premiere week to distract me...

So... what shows are we DVRing this week?

Monday: Heroes, Journeyman, Chuck, and How I Met Your Mother
Tuesday: Really nothing on this day unless you count Dancing with the Stars - Which Lauren can't stand anyway... oh wait The Unit!
Wednesday: Bionic Woman, and for now the Practice
Thursday: Smallville, Earl, and of course THE OFFICE
Fri-Sat: Nada
Sunday: Family Guy

What are my winners so far? Well, I have to say that Family Guy definitely opened with a very good premiere. Their "Star Wars" spoof was hysterical which featured Stewie as Darth Vader and Peter as Hans Solo. I had planned on adding a link to the clip on YouTube, but believe it or not, Fox made a copyright claim and forced YouTube to take all of their Family Guy clips down... Unbelievable.

Anyway, on top of a stellar Family Guy, I was very impressed with The Unit and HIMYM, giving them all 4 stars. After watching Journeyman, I definitely think it has potential and will give it 3 stars with a strong likelihood it could reach 4. To me, Heroes was only mediocre this week also earning 3 stars. Bionic Woman could be interesting, but I was not really that impressed last night giving it 2 stars.

Left to watch from DVR: Chuck, Kid Nation, and the Practice. Stay tuned for my reviews on these three as well as my commentary on tonight's premieres!

Perfect Picnic Day

Jefferson Memorial
Originally uploaded by psubuzz

Today the weather was so nice, Lauren had the great idea to head down to the Mall and have ourselves a picnic. We chose to park by the FDR Memorial and walk around the reflecting pool before having lunch. When you live here, you forget sometimes how lucky we are to live so close to these national treasures. It literally takes us 10 minutes to be across the bridge and parked...

Anyway, we could not have asked for a more perfect day... unless of course the Skins win... then it's the perfect day. ;)

Two Years

For those of you following along at home... Today marks two years from the day I walked into Clyde's after work one night and was blown away by a blond at the bar...

Two years, and so many great memories later we're the happiest we've ever been and as you know, 10 months away from our big day!

Our thanks to all of you who have been a part of our lives these past two years and have been a part of making these wonderful memories.

All Good Things...

... must come to an end.

Though the weather has not been the greatest these past few days, it's been nice to slow down and chill out. I was saying to Lauren the other day, what makes vacation down here so great is that the hardest decision you have to make on a daily basis is what you want to eat for dinner. Between now and July 12, I imagine that will not be the case, which is why this week has been so important... and appreciated...

Goodbye OBX...

A Tad Chilly...

Today the wind was a lot stronger than we had hoped which made laying out a challenge... That being said, we have each found different ways to atypical ways to relax at the beach.

Here, Lauren is attempting to get some sun despite the layers of clothing that were required.

This is pretty much all I've done today... that and keep an eye on the games on TV.

Sophie and Sadie causing nothing but trouble today...

Aurene and Steve playing with Sophie on the beach.

No matter how fast Aurene ran, Sophie was right behind her.

At the Beach

After a relatively uneventful drive yesterday, Lauren and I arrived down in Kitty Hawk to join my family for a week in the Outer Banks. 6 adults and 3 dogs, one of which is still a puppy. Can you say craziness?

Looks like Saturday is becoming more and more about survival these days in the college football ranks. The parity that exists these days seems to make each week about winning and moving on... Penn State managed to do this, though allowing 3 TDs in the final quarter surely won't sit well with JoePa (we listed on XM on the way down). Three teams that didn't make it through the weekend: Georgia Tech, Louisville (goodbye national championship hopes), and UCLA (same to you). With Louisville now having a loss, it will be interesting to see if they dash the hopes of their fellow Big East teams, i.e. West Virginia and Rutgers. Same with UCLA... do they have enough talent to bounce back and knock of USC later this season when they get their chance?

On to the big boys... My FFL matchups today are going to be tough with me down a few points in both leagues to my opponent. That being said, I was not favored last week as well and pulled off two very convincing wins. Will the trend continue? At least I don't have to stress about the 'Skins today with them playing tomorrow night in Philly. That being said, it still looks like it's going to be a nice day of sun and football...

Yay.

DC Wins, I Lose...

Last night, DC United continued it white hot 9 game unbeaten streak last night barely beating Real Salt Lake 2-1. The game saw Emilio score his 19th goal (who somehow is still in 2nd in the MVP voting right now behind Juan Pablo Angel), 8 yellow cards, 2 PK saves, and several beers thrown in the air. On an amazing night where you could sense Fall returning to the DC area (finally), a small group accompanied Lauren and I to the game where we saw DC take the lead off of a great goal by Emilio, only to see if disappear minutes later from a long shot by RSL. The level of play then spiraled down into a seriously chippy match with the ref seemingly calling phantom calls on DC while allowing RSL to throw 'bows at Olsen and several others. In any case, we were finally rewarded with a PK that Gomez promptly missed. Seconds later, a phantom PK was issued to RSL which Perkins made a diving save on. Finally, about 10 minutes later, Fred set up Gomez on a beautiful cross that Gomez nodded past Rimando. All in all, we earned 3 pts, took a 7 pt lead with 5 matches remaining in the season and locked up a berth in the playoffs.

Unfortunately... the previous night I was not so lucky at Jeff's steamy house of poker, donating my $20 to the eventual winner... the steamy host himself... I suppose there is always next time... Though $20 poorer, we had a good time and had 2 newcomers join us which should make it easier to get together more often in the future. Until then...

Sweep Complete

For those of you who care... the two games last night did not make much difference in my FFL games as my weekend ended in a 5-0 sweep across my teams... PSU, Skins, United, Socks but No Drawers, and Live Action.

We have a friendly game of poker scheduled for tonight and DC United plays again tomorrow night at home, so let's hope the streak continues...

More on poker tomorrow...

White Out Notre Dame

What Penn State is all about...

Bring on Michigan...