Abandon Nest

As luck would have it, I was sitting around on Thursday night at about 8:45 PM, and the power goes out. Now, common sense would say at that point you just go to sleep. However, I had just got done with a three and a half hour nap, and there was no way I was getting to bed again so soon. Sitting there, I remembered when I was younger all the fun games I used to play when I was younger and the power went out. If I still had them, I would’ve done so on Thursday too. I figured you would enjoy a quick list of
games you can play with candle light when the power goes out.

1. Find the Candles and Matches - OK, remember this game? It’s when the power goes out and you have no idea where the emergency candles and matches you’ve been saving up have gone. Oh, you didn’t play this game? OK, moving on.
2. Sorry! - This has to be one of the most vindictive, hate mongering board games of all time. Sure, it starts out innocent enough, but wait until the same person has bumped you back to the start 4 times. Awesome, isn’t it? Bust out this game and you’ll have a ton of competition and a great sarcastically apologetic time.
3. Monopoly - Otherwise known as the game that lasts forever, Monopoly is a perfect game to play by candle light. Sure, it may make it easier to cheat the bank, but the game will probably last until the power comes back on half a day later. By then, you’ll be ready to do something cheap, easy, and mindless… like watch TV
4. Trivial Pursuit - Is there any game in the world that can make you feel so smart one moment and then completely brainless the next? If there is, I haven’t found it. Trivial Pursuit is the ultimate team game, but make sure you stack your team correctly. You need to make sure you have science guy, history girl, pop culture whiz, and sports nut or some combination thereof. Mess up this winning combination and you may find yourself stuck with no chips and waiting your turn over and over again.

Well there you have it. If the power goes out, play some board games. It always makes the time go by faster and before you know it, your power will be back on and you can go back to your regularly scheduled life.

Blockbuster Online is a movie rental service that ships DVDs to your door for a flat monthly rate. There are no late fees, no drives to the store, and a seemingly endless selection.

When I got rid of my cable service, I knew I was sacrificing entertainment. I just didn’t think that continuing to pay that $54 bill every month would my life any better or make me any happier. As such, I was happy to cancel. Lately I’ve found myself in somewhat of a media void, though. Sure, YouTube.com is great for independent stuff sometimes, and blogs always make for good reads, but I wanted something more mainstream. I wanted something with high production values that shined through. As such, I decided to sign up for Blockbuster Online.

The whole process was very simple. I went to the web site and clicked on the big sign up button. I filled out all the information necessary, including my credit card number, and I was enrolled. I immediately began to select DVDs to fill up my queue. Within a day, my first three movies were shipped and I had them in my possession a day after that. Overall, a very quick process.

After viewing my first two DVDs, I stuck them in the return envelope, and sent them on their way. Blockbuster received them the next day and my new DVDs were immediately sent out. Overall, the turn around time was 3 days. Great!

From my experience so far, I can say this is a great service that is well worth the money if you have time to watch a couple of movies a week. I anticipate having 25-30 movies every month at my current rate, so I’ll be renting at the rate of $0.40 a movie. Excellent deal and something that I highly recommend.

I have company coming this weekend. As such, I thought it would be a good time to point out the things you should do to prepare for people coming to your house/apartment/trailer. Here’s a simple checklist that anyone can go through to make sure the big things are covered.

• Vacuum the floors
• Clean the toilet
• Clean the mirrors in the bathroom
• Remove incriminating items from the bathroom counter top
• Scrub the stovetop
• Put away dishes and clean dirty ones
• Make the bed
• Hide dirty clothes
• Stash personal financial information
• Clear the table so that dinner can be served easily
• Replace the toilet paper with a fresh roll
• Mop if you have one
• Arrange your bookshelf
• Turn on the air conditioning (or heat) to bring the temperature to 72 degrees F

So that about sums it up I think. Pay attention to your surrounding and attempt to replace the things that seem like they’re somewhere they shouldn’t belong. Good luck on entertaining your guests!