Welcome to snowy Indianapolis, site of tonight's AFC championship game and, this weekend, the glitter-sprinkled, false-eyelash-wearing, pompom-waving pre-teen girl capital of the universe.

The JAMfest Cheer Super National cheerleader tournament has been booked at the Indiana Convention Center for a year, and, naturally, so have all the hotel rooms downtown. Besides the national media coming in, fans around the state who come in for games and normally camp out near the RCA Dome are now scattered all over the place. Which means there probably will be more cars on the road at game time late afternoon/early evening, which means trouble even if four inches of snow hadn't fallen last night. Yikes. Still, thank goodness for domes; Soldier Field, three hours south of here and hit with the same weather system, doesn't have one. Football weather? Easy to say when you're sitting at home watching.

Anyway, the convergence of events also made for a weird scene in the streets last night: crazed pumped-up Colts fans, a sprinkling of staggeringly drunk and loud Patriots fans, a swarm of basketball fans coming out of the Pacers home game - and screeching, squealing tweeners  zigzagging about, still in uniform and glitter, still looking peppy, with parents and siblings in tow, not looking peppy at all.

Speaking of Patriots fans, by the way, there are, in fact, lots of them here, and according to this Indianapolis Star story yesterday, it's because Colts fans are notorious for selling their tickets to out-of-town fans. Baltimore gets an unsolicited shout-out for its fans' loyalty, a little surprising considering how Brian Billick pleads with fans before every Steelers game not to do what Colts fans are accused of.

More later.