I Am Jacks Wasted Life

So, I was about 5 blocks away from my house tonight and the power goes out. I don’t know what the heck Xcel is doing but the traffic lights are even totally dead. It’s kinda eerie considering it’s overcast and there’s no moon to speak of this evening. So, I finish going to FedEx to pick up the mystery package. (It turns out to be Alienware swag to give away at the LAN party I didn’t go to last weekend… hmm… I guess they weren’t kidding when they said they needed more notice….)
I ran back to the house because my notebook was on AC and would keep humming along contendedly until the battery died and that’s usually not the best scenario for a PC. SO I return home, find the candles that we used when our power went out about a week ago, (seriously, WTF mate?) and lift the lid on my notebook to discover a BSOD waiting for me.
So I reboot to make sure that if it’s fried at least I know what I’m up against. Fortunately all seems well. Since Raven should be home any minute I thought I’d wait for her and do a candle hand off so as not to require her fumbling about for 5-10 minutes when she gets home.
Seeing as my battery has 71% remaining and I have a little time to kill, I figure I’ll see how City 17 is doing. Alas, Steam seems determined to not let me find out! When I launch Steam it tries to connect, and then tells me it cannot, and asks would I like to Retry connection or Start in Offline mode. Seeing as neither the wireless router nor the cable modem have any power, I dont’ think I’ll be able to connect right now, so i hit Offline mode.

It really should be that simple right?
Well, it ain’t. Then I get this error message.

Now, I’ve worked Tech Support before, so i know the value of a good error message. This don’t cut it.
Directing me to a web site when I most likely have problem connecting to the internet is right on par with asking me if I can email the error message I get when I try to send an email! Oy.
I guess I’ll just have to play Doom3.