Blackout Night #2

This is sort of a cheating post. It is blackout night, so I should not be here using a computer and all. But we had to cheat this week as Andrew and I leave for Boston (engineering camp!!) on Saturday. With all of the partying that this weekend required, I have not even planned or packed or thought about this trip and that isn't really like me at all. Especially not when I am fully in charge of navigating in a strange city and I am exceptionally prone to getting lost. I call Chris a lot and give him the names of streets and ask him where I am and how to get home. This will be an interesting trip.
Anyway. It's Blackout Night, but checkbooks need to be done if I am to start readying for this trip, so computers had to be on, so I thought that as long as I was here, I'd fill you in.
I nearly forgot that it was Blackout Night. I happened to pick up a no-cook dinner because I haven't been to the grocery store, which was fortuitous. When Chris got home he reminded me What Night This Is, so I felt very flustered and unprepared, but the lights went out anyway. And I was instantly glad that they did. We ate our deli chicken and salads in the semi-darkness as the remnants of thunder tumbled over our roof, from west to east it seemed. And we just laid around the living room, I on my side, taking up most of the sofa. Emma shoved the clutter out of the cove made by my sideways lap and climbed in. She just spilled out everywhere - legs curling over mine and head towering above mine on the pillow. She had root beer breath and whispered lovely somethings to me about being so glad that God made her and picked us out for her to live with and how happy she was about those circumstances. We cooed and cuddled and giggled. My coil-gong, key-wound clock ticked and tocked soothingly. And snores began to emanate from the Man Chair. Andrew accused Dad of snoring and Dad started awake and insisted he was not, in fact, doing that. I sided with my son.
A game of Wormy Apples was suggested and, though it's far beneath the gaming-skill level of our bunch, it provided just the sort of silly, half-dark fun that we needed.
But we were restless. The porch was full of mosquitoes and the dark kitchen was full of dishes. So we rolled around on my big bed and wallowed in our boredom for a bit longer. Children brushed their teeth and we read two Beatrix Potter books. With an English accent, of course, as that's the only way to properly do it. That Benjamin Bunny! I do love his casually arrogant rebellion when it comes to eating lettuces and bragging that he does it all the time.
I discovered our long-forgotten tripod, though. It provided quite a bit of fun for me this evening. I set my shutter speed as slow as it would go and my aperture as wide as it would go and clicked and clicked around the room and finally managed one self-portrait before I ran out of battery:

Very dark and moody, but so is my house. The lights are all still off, even though the monitor is glowing at my face. But it's still quiet. I can hear the gentle dripping of leftover rain outside. And now, I'll leave you to your own devices and return to my dark, peaceful, restorative evening.

DAILY BLISS: leftover birthday cake for breakfast!