Details

Smoke Detectors

I have three smoke detectors in my house, all wired together, and all supplied with house current. The battery in the unit in the upstairs hall just failed for the second time. Neither of the other two units have ever complained. Why is that?

Optical Mouse

I got a Microsoft optical mouse a while back and took an immediate dislike to it. Everyone else in the family thinks it's just fine. But I use it play minesweeper and it was much more difficult to control than my conventional mouse. But then I sat down to play the other day and the mouse was working fine. It seemed to glide much easier. I think someone must have applied some furniture polish or something to the desk, because the mouse slide very smoothly. The problem was that the mouse was sticking to the desk just a little bit, so little that I didn't even notice it, but it resulted in jerky motion, which made it hard to control. For big motions it was never a problem, but for small motions, it was impossible.

Hard Boiled Eggs

I was peeling a hard boiled egg last night and it was being a real pain. You know how sometimes when you peel an egg the shell slides right off, but other times it sticks to the egg, and you have to pick each bit of shell off, and often it takes a bit of egg with it so you end up with an egg that looks like it's been through the war? What causes this? Why is it some eggs stick to the shell, and some don't?

Egg Replies:

I can share some egg knowledge. I heard that older, less fresh eggs peel easier than fresh eggs. Don't know if that's true or why it would be.

To hard-boil eggs, put them in a pan of cold water, heat to just boiling, turn off the heat, cover and let sit for 10 minutes, then plunge the eggs in cold water. I have pretty good luck with this method producing easy-to-peel eggs.

Some people like to pierce a hole in the fat end of the shell (just the shell) to allow the cooking egg to expand and shove the air out of the little pocket in the fat end of the egg. I don't know if this is worthwhile or not.

Now you have something to do this weekend. Good luck on your egg adventures.

-Dan




Note on egg piercing: Not worthwhile if you're hungry and have shaky hands.
Trust me.
Thank you.

Malia




Okay.....I have absolutely no knowledge of any scientific evidence that this is actually true...but I have found that if the hard-boiled egg is still hot/warm when you peel it, it tends to peel off easier. Could totally be a misconception on my part...or a just plain crazy notion...but it's the "rule of thumb" for this housewife!

Di