copied from an email to my dad

the power and water seem to be back on for real this time (we've had intermittent power a couple of times over the last couple of days - for like five minutes at a time) and we're totally fine. had fun drinking by candlelight. bought a deck of cards the day before it was supposed to hit, and only played blackjack a couple of times (turns out that even though tom is from Vegas, he doesn't know how to play poker)...everything is fine. one leaky window to mop up after but all else is well. We've got a palm tree in the front yard that could really use a trim.