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What a night...

Liz and I met in the lobby of work at about 4:45, all primed and ready to go to our water aerobics class. Well, we were about as primed and ready as we get. While Liz likes the instructor, and some of the people who attend it, she thoroughly despises the class itself. It's not my favorite thing in the universe either, but if I don't want to go to class, odds are we won't go. So, I usually act ultra-excited about the whole idea, which balances out Liz's natural distaste for the class quite well.

We drove to class, got to the Rec Center, and sat around until 5:15, when we're "allowed" to go to the locker rooms and change. We went up to the desk to get the passes for the class, and when the college student running the desk stopped talking to her vapid sorority friend, we let her know that we were here for our class, and that since the instructor was sick last week, we were entitled to a free class.

She nodded slowly, as comprehension seeped into her brain, and she found and crossed off our names on the sheet of paper next to the cards

"Thanks" we said, and started to head off to the locker rooms.

"Your instructor is still sick, " the girl said, " but she got Joanne to fill in for her."

Liz and I stopped in our tracks and stared at each other. Joanne, the 70 year old instructor we called Der Kommandant. Now, while Liz and I didn't usually see eye-to-eye about the class in many ways, we agreed on a key point: Skip all classes taught by Der Kommandant. We jumped back to the counter and handed our passes back in.

"Sorry, some other time!" we shouted, and we both literally skipped back out into the parking lot (Hey, I just said I act enthusiastic about the class.).

On the way home we stopped by the grocery store, and picked up the ingredients for a soup that Liz wanted to make. We got home, and Liz started the soup. I checked my email and the power calmly flickered enough to dim the lights momentarily, but not take down the computer.

"I'm gonna shut the computer down!" I hollered to Liz. She was working on the soup in the kitchen, and I came out to watch some TV.

Then the power flickered again. And again. And then it went out.

6:30PM

"You know, " Liz said, "if we had gone to class, we'd be trying to change in the dark right now. Yup. We would have. So, it was a good idea to skip class. But dinner wasn't started, just the soup. Fortunately, I'd gotten a packet of Craisins and had snarfed down the whole bag while the TV was still on.

We quickly lit candles all over the house, until every room was dimly lit enough for large pieces of furniture to be distinguished from empty space. But that was about it. No computer. No TV. No reading. No dinner. Gods were we bored.

Liz called her mom. We let the cat in and out several times. I had some Nutri-Grain bars that I'd forgotten to take into work that morning. Liz had some soup. We sat next to each other and talked for a while, mostly about how we kept thinking of things we could do if the power was on. We kept brainstorming for things to do. Not a lot came up.

One of the things that did come up was this small shelf under our phone where we keep about 25+ bottles of the tiny liquor bottles -- the size you get on airplanes.

"I still need six points tonight." Liz mused. "A shot is about one point. Six shots and I'd be really having some fun." That was about 7:15.

About 7:30 and it really didn't seem like a bad idea. I had a pewter cup about the size of a shot glass and a small bottle of 12 year Chivas that I'd been given at a good friend's wedding that I hadn't drunk yet. So I headed over to the shelf, got the cup, rinsed it out (the wedding was in August 1997 -- it's not just that Liz and I aren't winning any awards for our housekeeping), sat down in the chair next to the shelf, got the bottle, opened it, and poured it into the cup. Almost all of it could fit and there was just a little bit left. I lifted the bottle up to look into the side to see exactly how much there was left...

... and the lights came back on. So there I am, sitting with a quite full cup of Chivas. I got up, and raised the glass.

"Happiness and health, Brazzo." And down the hatch...

Not too bad of a night.