Weekend Forecast

The water was gushing into the basement at a fairly rapid rate, and the resulting flood wasn't exactly a lot of fun to clean up.

The wet vac - like a snow blower, it's something you buy with the hopes of never using - says it holds 16 gallons at a time, and TigerBlog had to empty it nine times. Doing the math, that adds up to 144 gallons of water. If you think in terms of gallon jugs of milk, well, let's just say it was a lot of water - it took two-plus hours to finish the job.

The paper this morning that this month has been the rainiest March in the history of Central New Jersey. This of course comes on the heels of a most snow in any winter in Central New Jersey history, a record set by a wide margin.

And so, as today is the last day of March and spring is now ready for full bloom, what's next? Well, here's the forecast for Princeton for the next few days:
Today - Sunny and 65
Tomorrow - Sunny and 71
Friday - Sunny and 72
Saturday - Sunny and 71
Sunday - Sunny and 71

A few days ago, the forecast called for temperatures in the 80s, but TigerBlog is happy with 1) sunshine and 2) something resembling spring. A few years ago, this area went from having two glorious spring months to going directly from winter to summer. Spring is much better.

And, the great forecast for the next few days coincides with a great deal of bolded events on Princeton's all-sport schedule page. Bold, of course, stands for home games.

The Princeton campus will host 17 athletic events from Friday to Sunday, with a wide range of sports on display. Oh, and every single one of those events will be free of charge.

It starts Friday afternoon, when Princeton-Harvard softball and Princeton-Yale men's tennis both begin at 2. If you stand beyond the leftfield fence at softball, you can essentially watch both at the same exact time.

There's also the Sam Howell Invitational in men's and women's track, which starts at 5 on Friday and continues Saturday at 11 in the morning. Sam Howell, for those who don't know, was a 1950 Princeton grad who worked here for 38 years, including 21 years (1970-91) as an Associate Athletic Director. There is a plaque in Sam's memory outside the ticket office in Jadwin Gym, and it refers to him as "warm-hearted." TigerBlog didn't know Sam well, but he did know him; warm-hearted is a word TB would definitely have used to describe him.

The men's volleyball team, who is having a strong first season under new coach Sam Shweisky, hosts George Mason Friday at 7 and Ramapo Saturday at 1. The Friday match is a big one as the Tigers go for second-place behind national power Penn State. How big is it? The Princeton band will be playing at the match, something that is believed to be a first.

The softball team plays Dartmouth on Saturday beginning at 12:30, and the baseball team plays its home opener Saturday against Harvard (noon) and Sunday against Dartmouth (also noon). If there are two sports where records mean nothing heading into the league, it's baseball and softball, who almost never practice outside prior to their first games, which are usually against Western or Southern teams that have played 20 games or so by that point.

The men's heavyweight and lightweight crews row Saturday morning against Georgetown and Columbia, while the women's open crew rows against Rutgers and Columbia as well. The men's tennis team completes its weekend against Brown at 2.

There is also a women's lacrosse home game against Cornell at 1 in Princeton Stadium Saturday.

Seventeen events. All free.

If you want to pay some money and drive four-plus hours, you can go to the New England Lacrosse Classic at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. That doubleheader begins with Cornell-Dartmouth at noon and concludes with Princeton-Brown at 2:30.

But if you're going to be in the Princeton area this weekend, you might as well stay on campus and go to something here. Take advantage of the weather.

And you can always listen to the men's lacrosse game on the radio.