POWER OUT

No post last night. I arrived home from work at just after 7pm to a dark house. Entire town was dark actually. The power stayed out until after 11pm and by then I was asleep. I learned today that apparently somebody drove off the road and smashed up something that clearly was important, not sure what it was, but the car damaged it enough to keep power offline for 4 hours.

Provided some free tech support today at a local gift/flower shop. The power surge had left their computer fubar. Hard to say what happened, but the stupid thing won't boot. Just gets to the screen saying it didn't shut down properly and asks if you want regular, safe mode, or command prompt only. No matter what you choose it just loops back to that screen. I didn't have time or extra parts to figure it out for sure. Just pulled out the tower and put another one in its place (owner just bought her daughter a new computer so had this one as a spare), set everything up, made sure the internet was working and went on my way.

Wife and I left the kids at her parents for the night and drove into the city for a "date night". We didn't really do anything. Just enjoyed some time without the kids. Had a nice dinner at a restaurant with plates that is also not a chain. I @#$%^& hate those places. Chain restaurants that is. Kelsey's, Milestones, Canyon Creek, Timbers, Outback, The Keg, Casey's, Moxie's, East Side Mario's, Jack Astor's, Lone Star, Crabby Joe's, etc. etc. and etc. They are all the same.

Crap food that tries to make up for the crap food with overexuberant wait staff. If you have seen the 1995 movie Office Space, you know what I am talking about when I say "Chotchkie's". An earlier pop culture reference would be the 1995 (S07E04) episode of the The Simpsons where Mo Sizlack turns his bar into a family restaurant by putting "a whole bunch of crazy crap on the walls".

We ended up at some little Eastern European restaurant named Marienbad which is connected to a pub named Chaucer's. Great prices, big portions, over 100 varieties of beer, mostly regular customers (wait staff knew people by name). Started with a antipasto platter and the wife had mussels in a white wine sauce. Mains were Prime Rib for the lady and I had a plate of traditional sausages and 'kraut. Strudel, crepes and some good coffee ended the meal. I've walked by this place dozens of times (it is about a block from my office) and never been inside. I will definately be back.