Timelies all!

Trying to defend my lunch from Nova, who seems rather interested in my sandwich.(Of course she is, it's food the human is eating, therefore it must be good.)

Is that a policy thing, or a technical issue?

Technical. The instructions say not to use them because smoke alarms pull more current than rechargeables can supply (I think, it's been a few years since I read my smoke alarm's manual), but of course I tried because I would like everything in my life to be rechargeable. Basically the alarm aways thinks the batteries are about to run out of juice so it's beeping at you to put new batteries in all the time.

I have a little LED flashlight from the auto parts place tucked into the Toyota's console, and biggish flashlights with handles (that probably came with emergency kits) in each trunk. I should check the batteries in those, they are probably really old as they never get used.

VW makes a Tuareg.

Rechargeable batteries lose their charge faster than traditional batteries. NiMH rechargeables are good for high-draw, frequently replaced batteries such as those in portable electronics. You can argue that traditional batteries are better for things you use infrequently, such as flashlights. There are newer low-discharge rechargeables that keep their charge longer.

(I just wrote an article.)

Burrell, I'm always going to recommend Appleton when it comes to rum. It goes all the way from mixing to sipping, depending on which one you buy.

Hmm. I think it's time for more tea and chocolate bacon cookies.

My BFF, who is Haitian would recommend some aged Bharbancourt. She loves the duty-free.

However, the eneloops are of the low-discharge variety, I believe. They'll sit in your drawer charged forever. I am in the process of replacing all my rechargeables with eneloop. They're fabulous. I also have a fancy schmancy recharger which gives me, like, battery geek data. I know. I didn't know there were battery geeks, but now I is one!

Also, buy the LED Maglite. I have had wimpy LED lights before, but the Maglite LED is brighter than some other incandescent flashlights. I get people all the time going, whoa, is that really LED? It's kinda embarrassing when we're herding a group of treehouse kids through the woods and I'm trying to convince them to walk in the dark and they're all whiny and then I sigh and break out the Maglite. Boom, daylight. No subtlety.

LEDs and other solid state lighting are the future. They can last practically forever and use just a trickle of electricity.

I'm waiting for the cost of the E26 LED bulbs to go down.

Ugh, our downstairs neighbor wants to come up and talk to the kids about how noisy they are. Apparently they were making so much noise he was banging on the ceiling. By running from room to room, at noon on a Sunday. We try to curtail really wild stuff and really early mornings, but, you know, small children, old house with wood floors. (The neighbors are a childless 30ish couple, and he in particular is a very finicky guy, the sort of guy who is obsessed with the cleanliness of his car. They have not been very friendly. We figured since we go to bed at 8:30 we had to be better neighbors than the 3 20-somthing single dudes who lived here before us!)

Me, too, Ginger. Though at the rate I'm going through CFLs (which is to say, slow) by the time I use up the ones I have i may just splurge on fancy LED bulbs. Assuming I have income at that point.