This is normal, right?

Yesterday, we got hit with a blizzard. Fourteen inches of heavy, wet snow (that poor Hubs shoveled solo - and was bad ass enough to refuse the help of kindly strangers who offered to let him borrow their snow blower. Hubs is an ox.) fell overnight and it made for one curious kitten.

You may remember Niles, our adorable trash-eating rescue cat. He has a thirst for adventure that knows no bounds.

So, when we caught him staring wistfully out the sliding doors at all that snow, we knew what he wanted. That little weirdo wanted to get out and play in it.

That's normal, right? Most cats really want to get sopping wet and cold, frolicking in the snow, yeah?

 Did you get blizzard-ed? How'd you entertain yourself?

That's the night that the lights went out in Iowa.

Don't worry, nobody got shot or was acting adulterous in this blackout.

Saturday night the weather in Iowa and the rest of the Midwest was nasty. Freezing temps, biting winds, snow, ice - they even started cancelling church for Sunday morning. Hubs and I hunkered down with some homemade pizza, some presents to wrap and White Christmas.

Then.

The power flickered.

"Isn't it weird that we've lived here almost two years and we've never had a major power outage?" I ask, clearly dooming us.

"Yeah," says Hubs (such a talker, that one!).

Flicker. Flicker. Hubs goes on a beer run to the corner store because it's going to be a long night. Opening line of White Christmas. Rousing rendition of Gee, I Wish I was Back in the Army.


Flicker. Flicker. Dark.

Hmmmm, I think to myself (who else would I be thinking to, by the way? I'm not as telepathic as I'd like to be). If the power is out and stays out, so does the heat. Panic. Panic! It's going to be cold tonight! We have a cold-blooded turtle! Ay yi yi!

Hubs returns and creates a calming environment.

Guess Who, a wind up radio and some sweet sweet High Life got us through.

The power stayed off until about 4:00 a.m., but we only know that because our neighbor told us. Around midnight, we packed up the reptile and cats and made our way a few blocks to the Ramada.

Don't even pretend to look surprised.