Rowena comes in stands in front of my office door today just after 1:00 with a letter. "Where is Tom? I need to get this signed."

"He was supposed to leave at 2:00 to go to a game, but he left around 11:30. I don't think he's coming back."

"He WHAT?"

"You know, a football game." He did this last year for New Years too, now that I think about it.

"He's on my ass to get this done, the Client's on my ass to get this done, and he went to a GAME?"

"That's about typical," I said. "You'll get used to it. What do you need signed?"

There were several items, including the engagement letter. Couldn't help her out there.

"What am I supposed to tell the client?"

"Tell him he went to a Bowl-Game."

"It's a GAME? What's so important about that?"

I shrug. "You should have been over the summer, when he and this one," I point at Oliver's office, "were leaving at two to go watch the world cup of soccer. On TELEVISION."

Of course, we all kind of liked that.

"I mean, if I'd known it was kosher to leave at two for sporting events, I sure would have been taking advantage of that."

"But it's a GAME," she wails.

"He's a guy. There are only two things in the world important to guys. Sex and sports."

"Those things aren't important to me."

I look at her for a moment. "YOU are NOT a GUY."

Neither am I, but I did take advantage of the 2:00 out time to go to the NCAA tournament this afternoon. Not only did we have the four participating colleges, but quite a few area Junior Travel teams as well.

Dawn was working at the souvenir booth. "Oh," I said. "I was kind of hoping you'd be working at the pro-shop tonight."

"Why?"

"Because I want to get a goalie necklace, but I don't want to buy it from the dweebs that are working in there."

"Did you check out the ones the guy's got in the hallway." There was a guy with a nice selection of jewelry, including a catcher's pendant, but I'm thinking I REALLY don't need to advertise that. The boys give me enough trouble about picking favorites just because they're catchers as it is now.

"Yeah," I tell her, "But the ones in the pro-shop are nicer."

"I'll be working there tomorrow." Cool.

Someone comes by looking for patches. "We don't sell those," Dawn tells her. "We like to have control over that we put our logo on."

"Yeah, or weird people like me could end up wearing one."

"It's okay since you bought that jersey."

"No I didn't," I tell her. "I WON it."

"Well, you purchased a ticket, which is pretty much the same thing. I can't believe you bought tickets from those kids."

I didn't have a choice in the matter?

"The Midget Majors were selling tickets Saturday night," I tell her. "They looked like a bunch of thugs walking around here. Buy my tickets or I'll punch you!"

"They ARE a bunch of thugs. You should see the way they act when they are in the pro-shop."

"Midget Majors weren't thuggish when Jamie was playing."

"No, they weren't smart enough to be thugs then." Ouch. Okay...she has a point.

Anyway. The early game was Western Michigan University vs. the University of Maine. Western Michigan is Rob's alma mater, although I will generally cheer for anything Michigan. It was also helpful that Vince Bellissimo's brother Dan is a goaltender for the Broncos. (Vince, although not a goaltender, is in fact my favorite Everblade this year.)

Unfortunately, none of this helped as the Broncos lost, 8-4 to the Black Bears. Riley Gill got the start in net for the Broncos. Hopefully, Bellissimo will get the nod tomorrow. Or Trevor Hefferman.

I mean, I admit to being a goalie slut, but...when I walk out at the end of the game and say "OKay, they can sign any of the kids on the ice except THAT goalie," that should tell you something. I did rather like Chris Frank and Steve Silver, both defensemen on the Bronco squad, as well as their captain, Jeff LoVecchio, who is a winger.

I walked out after warm ups and tell Dawn that Vince's brother is "pretty". He is. Quite the bench ornament. She just rolled her eyes. For whatever it's worth, none of their goalies are rocket scientists either.

Bret Tyler had a near hat trick for the Bears, his two goals coming within 1:37 of each other in a span that saw Maine knock three past Gill to pretty much put the game out of Michigan's reach. Tyler's third goal later changed to credit Mike Hamilton, who supposedly tipped it in.

Mark Letestu, Brian Bicek, Jeff Pierce and LoVecchio scored Western Michigan's goals. Gill made 35 saves in the game.

6'7" Ben Bishop handled the netminding duties for Maine, kicking out 26 Bronco shots. Wes Clark had two goals for Maine, including that one was waived off but then awarded to the team after video review.

Billy Ryan, Keith Johnson and Teddy Purcell also tallied for the Black Bears.

The game ended with quite a scrum and a number of penalties called against Western Michigan. Already down by four there was just no way to come back.

Cornell took on University of New Hampshire in the second game and brought their own band with them. I think all of the colleges should be encouraged to bring bands so we can have band wars. In any case...

Raymond Sawada scored twice for the Cornell, including knocking the first shot on goal past Kevin Regan for the first goal of the game. Regan was not bad, but the New Hampshire team looked very overmatched against Cornell. Sawada had two goals on the night, and Blake Gallagher added three assists in route to the 5-2 win. Mitch Carefoot, Colin Greening and Tony Romano added goals for the Big Red, while both Romano and Greening both added an assist. Troy Davenport picked up the victory in goal, his eighth of the season, while making 17 saves.

New Hampshire only managed 2 shots on goal in the first period.

So, Western Michigan will play the University of New Hampshire in the consolation game, while Maine and Cornell will pair off for the championship game, which is the way the powers that like to see it at the Florida Winter Classic.

In other action, the ECHL Florida Everblades downed the Texas Wildcatters 1-0 in a shoot out. The Blades dropped last night's game, 4-1 in Texas. The teams rematch tomorrow for the Blades final game of 2006. They will begin 2007 at home against the Charlotte Checkers.

Rochester defeated Binghamton, 5-3. The River Rats fell to Hershey, 4-2.

I will have some shots forthcoming form the College Tournament, but it's well past my bed time now, so...