It's been an interesting 2 days. At 4:30PM Thursday, the lights flickered out at work. I was laughing to myself because the server I was chatting on at the time has and Uninterupted Power Supply, so I was fine. I decided to do the polite thing and turn off the computer and the UPS that was beeping incessantly.

After an hour or so we finally figured out that it was a bigger problem, and we all went home. I assured my coworkers that I was not stupid enough to travel to Detroit in a time of crisis. I have parents that remember the riots.

I drove to my parents' house slowly as there were no traffic lights, and as I pulled into their driveway, I realized that I had forgotten my keys in my locker at work. I steeled myself in preparation for breaking into my old bedroom window, but alas my parents still think it's 1952 and hadn't locked their door.

I went on an unplugging frenzy and then my dad came home and asked me if I wanted a beer. I said "Sure". It wasn't till later that I realized that this would be the first of about 100 times my parents would open their freaking non-working fridge.

We spent the night in darkness in the basement where it was cool enough to sleep comfortably.

On Friday, my mom invited both my brothers and their families to come over and pool their resources with ours. They came with carloads of food to use up and snacks.

My brother Jason and I went on a mini-road trip to his house to rescue his cat. Anyone not familiar with the metro Detroit area will not know what I'm talking about for the next couple of sentences. Feel free to email me if it's unclear.

The Dream Cruise idiots were out. When there was no power. They were swarming every open gas station so they could fill up their precious gas guzzling classic cars. They were blocking Woodward so that these asshats to the nth degree could show off what lots of money and no life can do for you. While the rest of us tried desperately to save our frozen Boca Burgers.

Anyway, after Jay's house we breathed in a deep breath and started on our way to Detroit. I was freaking amazed. The highways were running smoothly, I saw three cop cars in the space from the expressway to my apartment, and people were being polite at the intersections. It looks like Detroit is finally getting their act together. We may yet be a destination for out of towners.

At my apartment, the cats were fine, the place was hot and my fridge is a piece of crap. There was nothing left in good shape. I grabbed my nice cheese and brought it with me just in case.

Back to my parents' house where my brother and I finally convinced my dad to try to start up the generator with some gas from Jay's house. My dad left the sucker outside for two years......but it started! We hooked up some fans and a fridge. I was never more proud of my nagging skills.

We ate hot dogs and chicken from the grill. My mom made the largest vat of mashed potatoes I've ever seen in my life.

We were all sitting around the house sweltering in 90 degree heat with 90 percent humidity, when my sister in law looked up at our ceiling fan and sputtered, "FFFFFFFFaaaaaaannnnnn!" The fan was spinning! We all screamed and danced around! It was the best moment. Even though we had been instructed to not turn on our air conditioner, we could still have a fridge, fans and light!

Within about 20 minutes, I plugged in my mom's computer and signed on AIM to see if it worked. Within seconds, Marie IMed me. I was so happy to hear from her!