Hey, this is kind of like a fancy restaurant...

said my seven year old as we begin our candlelight feast of bologna sandwiches. Why oh why would you have cold cut sandwiches and chips on a Friday night, you ask? Shouldn't you be making something like a delicious turkey breast coated in herbs? Why, yes that is what I should have been making.

Here's how it started. I mean I don't know exactly how it started at the transformer. I'm assuming some random squirrel took a game of Truth or Dare a little too far. Like, "Hey Rocky, here's your dare...you have to go to the transformer and do a small dance on top." Rocky chuckles to himself as he thinks, "Oh man, this is too easy." Little did he know this would be his last dance, ever. Did I ever tell you my favorite comic is The Far Side?

Back to my house. I'm on the stairs doing part one of my basement circuit (who needs a personal trainer?) and the lights go off. I go up the stairs muttering, "Will you all please leave the lights alone?" I flick the switch...nothing. I go back downstairs into the family room. Nothing. I go back upstairs and the kitchen is totally dark. I did have a turkey breast cooking in the oven. Now it is just in the oven. Then I proceeded to call the electric company. It is never a good thing when you call and immediately go to hold after business hours. Finally, the operator comes on and takes my name and address, then informs me that there is a large outage in our area. She does not tell me when I can expect the wonder that is electricity to refill my home.

Meanwhile, we are all famished. I decide to make sandwiches. On the count of three, I grab meat and mayo as quickly as possible from the refrigerator (she didn't give me a timeline for the power to come back on so I had to preserve the cold). We all sit down to the table around a giant lilac candle (those teacher presents do come in handy sometimes), when my son notices the ambiance. There's nothing like a sandwich and Cheetos eaten in mood lighting.