Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer patiently waits for "The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2)" to install:

-- Make your plans to travel to Okinawa (at this writing) come the week of Nov. 8-14. There's a new DODDS-Pacific Far East high school Class AA football playoff format in town. DODDS-Japan and Okinawa Activities Council champion, Seoul American and Guam High travel to Okinawa on Nov. 7, play semifinal games on Nov. 9, followed by the third-place and championship games on Nov. 14. Very much like Europe's Super 6.

-- No more rotating of semifinal and championship sites. No more having to double-book airline and billeting reservations. No more Guam High losing a $75 per head deposit for cancelling out of a trip.

-- Nice timing, too. While the teams are practicing, studying or (maybe) headed out to a cultural destination on island, you can fix your tennis Jones at the Far East Tournament at Kadena Air Base's Risner Tennis Complex.

-- On the Class A football front, nothing much changes, except for Zama American being added to the Japan fold, thanks to a drop in enrollment. The Trojans and perennial Class A titlist Robert D. Edgren now get to battle it out to see who represents Japan in the Class A title game against Osan American or Daegu American of South Korea. Korea's winner hosts the championship on Nov. 7.

-- Last month, we said farewell to refereeing icon John Zivic. Now, another familiar Okinawa sports "face" has left the island -- Steve Rowland, for 10 years the chief of Semper Fit programs for Marine Corps Community Services on Okinawa. Founding father of the Martin Luther King Invitational Basketball and Firecracker Shootout softball tournaments, longtime softball and football referee, he even found time to coach, along with Don Field, the Pacific Force softball juggernaut during his heyday of 1997-99. Pac Force won 10 of its record 39 titles consecutively those years, including all four in 1998, the only time one team swept all four in one calendar year.

-- Perhaps his and Pac Force's greatest achievement was putting seven players on the 1999 All-Armed Forces team. Starting outfielders Byron Randolph, Gary Chaney, Lonnie Dillard and Tommy Carlo, infielders Armando Delsi and Stu "Ice" Saylor and pitcher-assistant coach Nathan Hales.

-- Not since 2003 had all three scheduled U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League games been scratched due to transportation problems. It necessitated an overhaul of the league schedule; the regular season has been extended to July 18, the same day the playoffs begin; Foster is at Yokosuka in a battle of Southern vs. Northern Division leaders, while the No. 3 and No. 2 teams in each division slug it out for the right to face the division winners in the second round. The Torii Bowl has been pushed back to Aug. 22, but it could be played a week sooner.

-- The reason for the change: Giving teams enough time to make their transportation arrangements. Five games thus far this season have gotten the ax due to transportation problems.

-- BTW, that "The 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2)" is taking FOR-EVAH to install. I could cook a steak, eat it and have time for dessert by the time that thing finishes. Modern technology is great when it works. Or to paraphrase Chicken Knows Best ... "Hi tech is gross."

-- Countdown has begun. 245 days.