*cough, cough*

"Hey, boss, it's furrer4heisman. Hey, yeah ... um, yeah. There's NO way I'm going to be able to come into work today. I think I caught that 48-hour flu that's been going around. Yeah, the 48 hour one. It's like the 24-hour flu but like twice as bad. No. Yeah, I've been throwing up all morning. It's terrible. So, I mean, I'll try to come in tomorrow, but we're just going to have to play it by ear. What's that? Oh, does that start today? I had no idea!"

I'm at home today. And tomorrow. Yeah, there will be hell to pay on Monday, but it will probably be worth it. For every year except My Year In Hell, I've skipped school and or work to watch the first two days of The Tournament (notice the capitalization).

My favorite memory was 1998 when my parents called me in sick so we could go to the Myriad to watch the first round games. Boy am I glad they did:



We bought tickets on the street prior to the game and ended up sitting two rows up, across the court from the Valpo bench. There were a bunch of higher-ups from the school sitting around us and we all went nuts after Drew hit the shot.

What I remember most was that shot woke everyone up. The game started at 11:20 AM or so and the entire arena (which was about half-full) slept through most of the game. Until it started to dawn on us Valpo had a chance.

There were great games at the Myriad that year. Right after the Valpo game, Florida State upset TCU. Two days later, Valpo advanced to the Sweet 16 and Rhode Island joined them by knocking off Kansas, who a lot of people picked to win it all.

What's your favorite three-day work week or three-day school week memory?