I want you to know that I now have another smoke detector chirping in my house. This would be the third one since Friday. And while we went to the store with 9volt batteries on our list but could not find them in our newly remodeled and rearranged Meijer. So we forgot. Until just now.

We are sitting on the couch, Dave is reading, I was surfing, the kids are spending the night at their granny's because they don't have school tomorrow. It's our quiet wind down time and then,

Chirp (my battery is dying)

Dave starts looking for the ladder as I frantically start pawing through the junk drawer in hopes of finding a forgotten 9volt battery buried in the rubble. Which I did not find.

Chirp (if your house burns downs, I won't work, but I can still chirp)
Chirp.

That smoke detector is currently wrapped in a towel in a box in our garage and covered with one of the kids pairs of snow pants. His brother across the hall is also wrapped in a towel in the box. Guilt by association.

Tomorrow I'll tell you a tale that begins with a bag of frozen smelt and ends with a broken ice maker.