Well, Friday evening I was having a conversation with my friend...

me: it's raining really hard
her: i love rain
her: do you?
me: yeah, but I'm worried about the lighting with my electronics

...before I hit enter on that last line, there was a loud clap of thunder and a flash of blue light. My room lost power and a smoke alarm went off. The alarm turned itself off after about 10 seconds and as I walked out of my room, I noticed that some of the house still had power.

So, my dad and I figure some breakers flipped, so, after my mom got home, we ordered a pizza and, when the rain let up, he went out and flipped the half dozen breakers back on. My computer and games and TV and such were all working, but I had no internet. I figured it would come back on eventually and went to bed, after watching a movie in my PS2.

When I got up the next morning, my mom told me that the dishwasher, sprinkler system, kitchen phone, remote for the pool, security system, and TV in my parents' bedroom are all dead. The cable internet was down, too.

Luckily, all 3 computers are OK, other than apparently dead NICs, and the 3 TVs that actually get used are all OK. The VCR gives a really weak audio output, now, but I guess things could be worse.