Earthquake/Birthday/Hurricane

You all heard about the earthquake in Virginia.
It was really a non-event in our household...I didn't feel it
because I was driving a huge SUV at the time,
and Parker was jumping on a trampoline.
Jeremy was at home, oddly enough, because he is never home.
He said the house was wiggling.

Apparently we all got over it,
because two days later it was Jeremy's birthday
and we went out to eat at his favorite place ever, Texas de Brazil,
i.e., the Festival of Meats.

YAY BIRTHDAY!
Actually, Jeremy doesn't get excited about birthdays.

But he was pretty excited about getting a knife, Bose headphones, and lots of attention.

I was pretty excited about the CAKE!

This was the best present, though.

How awesome is this?!?!

All the awesomeness of the Festival of Meats, the cake, the knife,
and the attention were soon forgotten, however,
when the HURRICANE blasted through.

It was a total drag losing power when the hurricane came through.
Our neighbor rushed over in the middle of the lashing wind and rain
to tell us his generator was running,
and he and Jeremy rigged up about 5 extension cords
to get power from his backyard to ours.
We plugged in a single power strip so we could run the fridge and
could alternately plug in a lamp, OR the toaster, OR a fan.

For six days, we endured numerous tripping hazards.
And yes, that is a PLASTIC SPIKE on one of the extension cords.
We wanted to keep it interesting.

Luckily, no giant branches or trees fell on the house.
But it was a mess out there.

Look how HUGE this branch is! And it just SNAPPED OFF!
(No, that is not a ghost's foot--it is mine.)

It fell into our neighbor's yard. Yeah, the one with the generator.
Coincidentally also the one with the chainsaw.

The first day the power was out, we kind of thought it would be "fun."
We had prepared to be out for days,
so we stocked up on charcoal, ice, batteries, and non-perishables.

This is us having "fun" before we were attacked by bugs and had to move inside.

It was a long six days without air conditioning, internet, cable,
a dishwasher, a stove, or a microwave.
We took Parker to his grandparents' house after a couple days
and took ourselves to work everyday
and tried not to think about how hot and humid
the house would be when we got home.
But we survived, and didn't have to throw out
everything in the fridge like so many other people had to.
That power strip was just enough juice to enable us
to live somewhat like civilized people, and it was enough.