I finally decided to go out and buy a battery backup for my computers on Saturday after the power choked for a split second during a thunderstorm and all the computers reset. By total coincidence the APC model that I wanted turned out to be $40 off that day. I tested it out on Sunday and it worked. Pretty cool. With all my core equipment on the battery it has about 20-27 minutes of power, not bad, especially since I want it mainly for the split second power outages. I also hooked it up to my main desktop to have it shutdown once the battery reaches a low power level. I haven't tested the shutdown procedure, but the software seems to be connecting with the battery correctly in it's status window.

Also on Sunday, a house in my neighbourhood was struck by lightning and the attic (and probably the second floor too) caught on fire. I always thought those were just freak accidents.