Not that it's any big surprise to anyone, but Our Man and Woman in L.A. took a few days (OK, a week) away from posting, totally leaving you in suspense about the second half of our Hawaiian adventures. Mea culpa, mea culpa. But you probably expected it.

But look, this time we have legit excuses. Really, we do. What's more, these excuses will show you a side of Southern California that normally does not grace this blog. Like, for example:

1) Rolling Power Outages - That's right, last week was a particularly hot one in L.A., and with nearly 7 million people all needing their A/C, the Department of Water and Power (DWP or "those geniuses") couldn't keep up. Which meant that they planned blackouts for parts of the city to "manage" the demand for power. Our power was out every day for five days in a row, sometimes for as little as two hours, but sometimes for as much as 12. Other neighborhoods affected included virtually the entire city. Either way, it's tough to blog when you've got no electricity.

2) Earthquake - A 4.7 with epicenter in Lake Elsinore, which is . . . somewhere. It didn't do anything except shake our apartment a little, but it's a decent excuse. FYI, this was Our Woman in L.A.'s first quake (only my second).

3) Out of Town Travel - Our Man in L.A.'s work took him to Philadelphia for a meeting with a potential corporate sponsor. For those who don't know, Philadelphia is Our Man in L.A.'s least favorite East Coast city, and visiting the City of Brotherly Something often requires a day or two of recuperation.

That's it, really. But seriously, aren't those pretty good?

OK, back to work.