In which I tell you just exactly how dumb I can be

Well...when it comes to math, anyway

Some of you might remember that we recently lost our beloved little Casio Exslim digital camera. If you don't remember, go check out my post about our canoe trip...I'm too lazy to post the link.

Aaaanywho, we (I) lost it in a pretty unusual way.

We've been looking around for something to replace it. We knew we wanted something small (the Exslim wasn't much bigger than a credit card and was only about 1/2 inch thick), something easy to operate (because we're old fucks and can't see the damn controls), something with a big LED screen (same reason) and something that was easy to hook up to the computer (again, same reason...and because we're techno-tards). We also thought we wanted another one with the charging dock. We hate to have to mess with batteries, although I already have to buy batteries by the gross for....uh...nevermind.

While shopping around, though, we discovered that most of the digitals now don't come with a charging dock like the Exslim did. And if they do, they're about a hundred bucks extra.

Ok, so we rethought the whole battery/recharger thing. Ziggy, being a smart guy, pointed out the fact that batteries might not be a bad idea, after all. You can get batts pretty much anywhere, whereas an electrical outlet isn't always handy. Besides that, it takes a couple hours to charge it back up after you do find a plug-in.

So we decided on a Pentax Optio E10. It's a 6 megapixel job as opposed to the 2 that the Casio was. Frankly, I don't see much difference...it's not like we take 'professonal' type photos, anyway. It's small, though definitely bigger than the Casio, has a big LED screen and seems pretty straightforward as far as standard operating procedure. And it takes two AA batteries.

That are drained after about 10 flash photos.

Yea, we knew there hadda be a catch.

So, Ziggy does a little digging in the software that came with the camera. And discovers that they recommend lithium batteries. Uh huh. A little fact that the ad or the printed instruction booklet failed to mention.

(Wait. I'm getting to the part where I tell you how totally and completely DENSE I can be when it comes to anything remotely resembling math.)

It's NUMBERS, dammit.

Last night, I saw an ad on tv for "Energizer E Squared Lithium Batteries". It claimed that they'd last through approximately 600 photos. Ok, so we figured that's non-flash photos...but even using the flash, we ought to get what?...maybe a hundred out of 'em. A lot better than 10, for sure.

I figured the next time I was out, I'd try to find some.

The "next time" happened to be this afternoon. While grocery shopping, I stopped to check out the battery selection. I found Duracells. I found Eveready. I found the store brand. I found regular Energizer...but no Energizer E Squared Lithium.

They DID, however, have "Energizer e2 Lithium" batteries.

E. 2.

So, I'm standing there, thinking to myself....

"What the hell? They've got e2...but I don't see any damn e4. Because 'squared' means 4. Right? There are 4 sides to a square, aren't there? I wonder if the 2 would work, though?"

Can I hear a DUH??

Thank GAWD it dawned on me. Thank GAWD I didn't embarrass myself by asking someone, having them point out the obvious and me doing something really stupid...like arguing with 'em about it.

And thank GAWD that I'm not a nuclear physicist.

Y'all'd be screwed.