So I need to accept this job offer this week....

[mtgordon]

As someone who's interviewed people for jobs before, a year gap in a resume doesn't look very good. It throws up an automatic yellow flag. If you do take a year off, make sure you have a good way of explaining what you were doing (or carefully word what you did for a year and put it on the resume).

Secondly, it's easy for us to sit here and tell you to go for it, say things like "you'll regret it if you don't", etc. However, if it sets back your career substantially you may regret that for the rest of your life too.

Finally, I'm not trying to say what you should or should not do; I just thought this input might be useful to you.