I hate being alone in other people's houses at night. Of course, this only ever happens when I'm babysitting. So, Wednesday night, I was watching Eli. He was asleep upstairs and I was sitting on the couch reading. Their dog, Stella, was on the couch next to me. She's a great dog - she's a Hungarian pointer (also called a Vislaw, which I know I cannot spell). She's really pretty and nice and well tempered. Back to the story: I was sitting there reading, trying not to think about the fact that I was alone in someone else's house at night, when I thought to myself "I wonder what I would do if the power went out?" I went back to reading and didn't think about it again until.....the power went out. So, no lights, no baby monitor ticking, no nothing. I immediately grabbed my cell phone and called Josh. "Baby??? I need you to come over." He said, "The power just went out here, too. I'll be right over." Knowing that the power was out at home, too, was calming to me because my first and most rational thought was "Someone is in the basement and threw all the breakers so they could come kill me." (too many babysitters club books when I was 11). So, Josh showed up in front of the house with a flashlight for me, but as he approached and I started to open the door, Stella decided there was no way come hell or high water that she was letting this stranger into her house at night. She started growling, barking and being very protective of me. Everything Josh would come closer, she would growl more. So, I said, "Josh, just put the flashlight down and walk away and I"ll com get it when Stella calms down." Stella could sense that I was anxious and misattributed that to Josh rather than the power being out. So, I got the flashlight, checked on Eli and then went hunting for matches to light the candles in the living room. Josh stuck around outside until I had candlelight, then left because Stella really did not want him around. Normally, I would be totally scared in a situation like that alone - but I felt so much better knowing that Stella would protect me if someone dangerous came around.

Now, the power goes out rather frequently in Charlottesville. This was roughly the third power outage in the last month here. Then, last night we were baking and the power kept flashing off and right back on. It did this about three times. We were not happy, but luckily the power stayed steadily on for the remainder of the night.