Power, schmower

We were going to go away to the Russian River valley for mom's 34th birthday ... but Mother Nature had other plans. Specifically, a HUGE storm, with hurricane-force winds and torrential rains that caused mudslides, knocked down trees, and flooded out roads. So we rescheduled for the next weekend and stayed home -- only to have our power go out at 3:00 a.m. for 20 hours on the coldest and darkest day of the year. No cell phone service, no heat, no light -- real pioneer stuff. And Annika was fitful and restless, possibly teething, so she couldn't even sleep through the misery. Finally we got in the car, dangerous as that was with all the streetlights and traffic lights out, because at least the car had HEAT. We drove around awhile, then went to dinner at a pizza place, then barricaded ourselves in the bedroom with all the blankets in the house. The power came back on at around 11:00 p.m., but went back out for more than six hours starting at 6:00 a.m. Ugggh!

But we all survived it, and hopefully that's the worst the winter had in store for us ...