Roman Holiday

So let's get back to the air conditioner in TigerBlog's car.

It wasn't working, so TB took it in to get fixed. He was presented with two options: 1) the cheap one that may or may not work or 2) the one that will definitely fix it but would be several hundred dollars.

TB's experience in such situations - car, appliance, anything - is that 1) TB always choose the first option and then 2) has to go back for the second option.

And that's exactly what happened this time.

TB found out the hard way that the $100 solution wasn't going to cut it, when he was driving to Long Island Friday and the AC conked out again.

You know what's fun? Being in traffic on Staten Island and then on the Belt Parkway on a 90-degree day with no air conditioning. And then having to drive back again yesterday, when it was even hotter.

Yeah, it was a lot of yucks. So, now it's back to the car place for Option No. 2.

Of course, all of this comes with exactly one payment left on the car, which begs the question of keeping the car - which also needs new tires - or trading it in while it still has value. It'd be nice to have a new car; on the other hand, it'd be great to not have a car payment for awhile.

Dilemmas, dilemmas.

Meanwhile, when TB eventually did get to Long Island, he stayed at the house of his ultra-hospitable friends Jon and Mindy Roman.

The Romans have three daughters - Zoe, who will be in eighth grade this coming school year and who is away at camp, Carly, who just finished her freshman year at Penn (which is where TB and Mindy became friends) and Amanda, a member of the Princeton Class of 2013.

They also have a very affectionate little cockapoo named Jack, who, like most dogs, will go after any socks he can find but unlike most dogs, TB assumes, he will only play with them in pairs. If you put your socks on the floor, Jack will get both of them together, not one individually. TB doesn't quite get how a dog can think it through that far, but hey, Jack pulls it off.

Because Zoe was at camp and Carly was at the Jersey Shore for the weekend, TB and TigerBlog Jr. (who was also there) each had their own room. TB was in Zoe's room, which features life-sized pictures of Zoe from her recent bat mitzvah. As Amanda and TBJ pointed out, Zoe's eyes appears to follow you wherever you go.

The first thing TB noticed when he walked into the house were the two items in frames on the floor near the front door. Both were waiting to hung on the wall.

The first was Amanda's diploma from Princeton. The second was a picture of Amanda, the one given to her on women's basketball senior night.

Amanda was the manager for the women's basketball team for the last four years, which gave her a front-row seat for the best four-year stretch in Ivy League women's basketball history. In her picture, she is holding a water bottle in one hand and flashing a peace sign to the photographer with the other.

Amanda was a four-year varsity basketball player in high school, but she wasn't going to be able to play in college. When she as admitted to Princeton, TB spoke to the women's basketball coaching staff about adding her to their program as a manager.

At the time, the coaches were mildly interested. They could use a manager (they'd end up with two, Amanda and Jordyn Seni), but managers weren't the highest priority.

Nope. It was continuing the turnaround of the women's basketball fortunes.

Princeton went 7-23 in Courtney Banghart's first year and then 14-14 in her second. Then Amanda showed up.

Oh, along with Niveen Rasheed, Lauren Polansky, Kate Miller and Meg Bowen. To join returning sophs Devona Allgood, Lauren Edwards and Laura Johnson.

The Tigers went 26-3 Amanda's freshman year and reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history. Princeton then went 24-5, 24-5 and 22-7 in her final three years. The four-year Ivy record was 54-2, and Princeton went to four NCAA tournaments after winning four outright Ivy titles.

No other class in Ivy women's basketball history has ever matched the four Ivy titles/four NCAA tournaments accomplishment of the Princeton women's Class of 2013. In fact, only one men's class (Princeton's 1992 class) did the same, at least since freshmen became eligible in the mid-1970s.

And Amanda - who will begin her job at the NFL offices in Manhattan shortly - was right there for all of it.

The most visible of it was how she sat on the end of the bench on game nights and gave the players water during timeouts. In fact, her mother likes to tell the story about the time the Daily Princetonian asked Amanda to describe the Princeton women's basketball culture in three words, and her response was "very well hydrated."

She did a lot more than just give the players water. Her jobs were many with the women's basketball team, whose coaches and players trusted her implicitly and came to rely on what she and Jordyn did for them.

Her college experience as a manager took her around the county and even around the world, as she was part of the team's trip to Paris and Senegal.

It gave her great friendships, taught her time the same kinds of time management skills that the players had to develop, brought her personal growth and confidence - and a lifetime of amazing memories of her time at Princeton.

She even wrote a guest TigerBlog.

Her time at Princeton was defined largely by her role with the women's basketball team.

Defined in an extraordinary way.