All's quiet on the; what was that beep?

Of course this would happen while Shanna's traipsing around Washington DC. Liam was quite easy; dinner, play, PJs, bottle, book, and sleep. Galen wasn't too difficult either; dinner, play, draw, PJs, teeth, and sleep. Afterward I got the dishes done, a few other chores and settled down to watch some TV and wait for my sweetie's call. Boris settled down on my lap and Natasha was curled up in her bed. All in all, it was a peaceful household, exhaling and relaxing towards a good night's sleep.

Beep.

I know that sound, it's the high pitch warning that a smoke detector's battery is low. Arrrrggh. But where did it come from? Next step, wait at the stairs; upstairs or downstairs? Hmm, Downstairs. OK, down to the play room; is it in the playroom, basement, or the kid's room. Nothing. Wait some more, still nothing. Drats.

About half an hour later, beep. Pause the TV and it's off to the play room again. Beep. Ahhh, it's the kid's room. So I open the door, reach up to the detector, twist, and the whole assembly pulls out of the ceiling and into my hand. OK. So I go downstairs and discover that we don't have any 9V batteries. Well, tomorrow it is.

I went to Target and picked up a package of batteries. When I got home it was time to change a battery and find out that the detector's mounting ring won't budge. I can't get it off to remount to the ceiling. A fine piece of engineering there. Don't buy a First Alert model SA303 unless you want to keep the manual around to figure out how to remove the bracket.

Back to the detector. We just happened to have a few extras in the garage so a replacement went quickly. The kid's room is monitored again.

Both kids slept through the entire affair. Good for them.