I originally intended for this post to go up last night, but we lost power while I was in the middle of it and didn't get the power back until somewhere between three and four o'clock this morning. I had a terrible time trying to sleep in my 87* apartment last night, and even once the power came back on the air conditioning doesn't reach the bedroom well, so we just put in the fan since it was fairly cool outside. It took several hours for the room to cool down to a comfortable level, and Kobold was so unhappy at the situation he didn't sleep hardly at all. Therefor, neither did we. And now I have to go to work. Ugh.

So, here is my original post, nice and delayed. Please remind yourself that everything that says "today" really means "yesterday." I'm too lazy to fix it.

Patrick and I went to the King of Prussia mall today, and while it took us an hour to drive there and a little over two to get back we had an enjoyable time. I got a new purse from the Sanrio store (Hello Kitty!), a tea brewer and some new tea, some socks, and a game for Bob. Patrick got Left 4 Dead 2.
On the way up, an interesting thing happened. Elanor sent me a text message saying that my dog training stuff had come. I sent her back a confused reply, telling her that I had not ordered anything. She called me promptly and said that someone must have ordered it for me, then. It was a large box of 150 dog training pads. This brought more confusion from me since Kobold is already house-trained. And then she read off the return address. "Roxanna Matthews."
I fought the urge to make Patrick turn around so I could go retrieve my parcel. I know well by now that packages from Roxie mean wonderful things.
In the end, we kept going, and determined to stop on the way home again.
We did.

I opened the box in front of my expectant parents and Patrick, and found balloons. "Huh," thought I, "good packing material."
Underneath the balloons was a note declaring the large soft lump underneath everything else to be a quilt that Roxie had lovingly made. I expressed a wish to obtain one of her quilts on her blog a little while ago, and she obliged me in a wonderful way. It is completely machine washable, too--its base is an old comforter that she bought at a yard sale (very economical)--so that we can use it for picnics or stargazing or whatever, really.
It is an absolutely gorgeous quilt, and I am in love with it. It's a shame that it's too warm to keep it on my bed, but it'll stay on the couch for any chance that I might have to use it.
We've finally broken out of the unusually long period of hot and dry weather this afternoon while Patrick and I were away. There was, the way I have heard it, an Armageddon demo. A transformer on the corner of Bob's street exploded. We dropped off the game we got for him and part of his street was blocked because the wreckage was still smoldering on the tar. On the road behind my parents' house was someone's aluminum shed, which had apparently tumbled around and crumpled quite severely (a friend of mine watched it blow across the road in front of him earlier).

--end original post--

The sky today is blue and it's sunny, and everything is still wet from the rain yesterday. people will be out and about today to clean up the tree damage and debris that is littering the ground profusely.
I briefly considered calling out of work today so that I can get some sleep, but who's going to cover my shift? We're still severely short-handed today, and I'm sure a lot of places still don't have power. I called last night to warn them that I didn't have an alarm and might be a tad bit late but I'd try, and was told that the two closest Pizza Huts (Clementon and Deptford) were dark and that poor Magnolia was getting the overflow of business. Matt apparently came back in last night to help out around the store, which is amazing. They got their butts kicked from all accounts, and I'm a little afraid to see what the store looks like when I go in. But both of the Alyssas closed last night, so I'm pretty sure they stayed late and did a good job. Go them.

Well, time to get dressed and eat something before I go trudge through my day. Thank you so much for the quilt, Roxie! I love it.

"He was the sort of man who stood on mountaintops during thunderstorms in wet copper armor shouting, "All the Gods are bastards.""
~Terry Pratchett