Black Out: San Diego Style

Not a good night for those afraid of the dark, but we sure had a blast! 

Some friends from down the street came over and we ended up Scrabbling for a couple hours. Their kids, and ours, ran amok for several hours and *gasp* found out what it's like to live without instant technological gratification!

No Kinect? Nope.

No microwave? Nu-huh.

Candles? You got it, kid.

We barbequed dinner instead of making stew as I'd planned and ate cold canned carrots and sliced apples. Delicious! (Scott added bbqed trout to his dinner, as well, and enjoyed it thoroughly.)

Then what do you do when the power's been out for hours and your ice cream's melthing?

You eat it!!!!! 

Christine and Charlotte, our visiting friends, ran home to get their ice cream. Sundaes, anyone?

Thanks to the flash on my camera you can clearly see what we could barely see...

This is the view from our balcony. Normally above that house, you'd see cars on the freeway and the lights of a shopping center--mostly the Office Depot sign emblazoned in red. LOL

Taking care of the dishes Little House style 

You scream, I scream, we all scream for (melting) ice cream!

Hayley pulled out all our tea light candles and put them in paper coffee cups to make awesome little lanterns. Charlotte's watching, entranced. Although we're not sure if she's entranced by candle light or her hero, Hayley. LOL

Emma had the great idea to make popcorn the old fashioned way... without a microwave!  The kids have never had popcorn made a in a pot and we four adults hadn't had it since childhood. Oh my gracious, it was AMAZING! Adios, microwave popcorn!

Scott enjoyed his dinner on the patio--it was too hot to stay inside.

Emma, Charlotte and Hayley stargazing... definitely not an easy thing to do when the lights of San Diego reflect into the atmosphere.

Right after I took the stargazing photos, Charlotte's older sister, Natalie, arrived with her dad, Dave. We hung out for another couple hours, then Natalie stayed to spend the night. Her family was kind enough to give us two bags of ice so we filled our cooler and stashed the milk, oj, mayo, cheese, etc. (I still ended up throwing out the milk and mayo since they were in the power-less fridge for seven hours. Better safe than sorry, right?)

All of us slept downstairs since upstairs was about three bazillion degrees. The girls slept on the couches while Scott and I commandeered the guest room bed. We brushed our teeth by candlelight, went to the bathroom in the dark and fell asleep in dark, dark, darkness.

Power came on about 1:20 am. The bathroom light had been left on and Scott and I saw the light come on. We both thought one of the girls got up. Then it occurred to me that no, the power was on! Yippee!

But due to the uncertainly of when the power would return, the superintendent cancelled school today. It's a Southern California snow day! The girls and I ran a couple errands. And I actually remembered to take pix for all you Delicious Readers out there!

No refrigerated treats at Starbucks! They had to throw everything away. Lucky for me, though, they'd gotten a shipment of milk in this morning. Thank goodness!

Trader Joe's donated all their perishables last night. What you see in this photo is the vestiges of their early morning shipment. I scored the last gallon of 2% milk. (Not what we normally drink, but better than whole, right?)

I thought the shelves at Ralph's would be completely clear of water, but not so much. I bought several gallons since our neighborhood is on a water boil order. 

Thank goodness for power because I had to look up the specifications of a water boil order. I knew about boiling water before drinking it, but what about showers, washing dishes and um... hand washing?

Here's the low down...

• short showers are fine, but keep your eyes and mouth shut
• using the dishwasher is fine since the water gets hot enough to kill all bacteria
• when hand washing dishes, let them soak in a bleach/water bath for a few minutes

And washing your hands? Hot water, soap, scrub, dry... and then use hand sanitizer!

I have ten girls coming over tomorrow for a birthday party sleepover. I sure hope the boil water order is lifted by then.

All in all, though, this whole thing is quite an adventure. I've enjoyed the diversion immensely!