Dinner in the dark

I was expecting Aviva and Ali for dinner because, naturally, we were intending to attend a screening of "Xanadu" at the Plaza Theater up the street a little bit later in the evening. But a huge, weird storm blew in and suddenly our power went out. I went outside to meet the girls and when I came back in, Melanie was up in our apartment hanging out with Brian and the dogs. Then Ryan wandered over to our house. I made steak salad with sesame crostini in the dark kitchen and then we all played Kill Doctor Lucky (a board game pretty much exactly like Clue, but in reverse) out on the porch by sunset and candle light. We drank a couple bottles of wine, and ate gummi bears and chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, because what else should you do in an emergency situation? Eventually, lights started to come on up the block so we phoned the movie theater and thank goodness, it was opened, so we got to go to "Xanadu" after all. Lessons learned? Although I can pretty much make dinner whenever, it's not particularly good when I try to do so in the dark. But this evening was pretty great, having nothing to do with the food.