Lights out...

for six whole days.  Irene's wrath hit our power lines hard.

We had to empty our fridge. Park our frozen goods and array of condiments at the J's icebox up the hill.
Hit Home Goods for some candles.  So powerfully scented that they made my eyes water...but it's all that was left.
Powered up the flashlights with fresh batteries.
B dusted off his headlamp and hand crank transistor radio/flashlight combo.

Our days...
B went to work.
J went to the library.
M and I ventured to wherever I could charge my cellphone...library, playground, poolside, even to Burger King one morning for a playdate.

Our evenings...
a few book lights clipped to the lamp stands for some ambient LED lighting.
M jumping up and down to power up his shake flashlight.
B cranked away on the transistor radio...whilst wearing the headlamp with the almighty glare.
Sat around with J and B for some quality conversation time, after M went to bed.
The three of us crowded around B's laptop watching The Coen Brothers True Grit.
With the help of a booklight, J read The Help on her "vintage" no backlight Nook.
I read Rob Lowe's memoir Stories I Only Tell My Friends in three nights.  Then onto Anthony Bourdain's Medium Raw. 

On the bright side of things...we did have hot water and use of the stove, which are gas powered.

So we were able to toast some bread on a skillet for breakfast.
Stocked up on mini sized rice milks to have with cereal.
About three days of PB and Js for lunch. Alternating with some takeout; pizza, grilled cheeses, bagels...to keep it interesting.
Other than one night out for Japanese, we cooked most of our dinners...on the stove or the grill (it's the burbs after all).
Small simple meals.  Doing food shopping an hour before dinner, buying only the ingredients that we needed.

No fridge meant no leftovers.

All in all, not a total disaster for us.
More of an inconvenience...a step up from camping (like I would really know).