I am an engineering GENIUS!

Previous to my moving into the apartment where I live, it was owned by three guys, all of whom were quite, shall we say, technically proficient. They were all into the whole engineering/model making/whatever thing. So they always had cool gadgets lying around. Most went with them when they moved, but before Phil (the prior occupant of my room and a pretty neat guy, to be sure) left, he gave us copies of the keys to the apartment that he'd had made. They weren't just any keys, however. These keys had a blue plastic top with a little black rubber button that, when pressed, caused a little blue LED light to glow in the direction of the key hole in which the user was inserting said key. I have found this particular feature to be eminently useful, especially because our porch light is out and so it's a bit difficult to see where, exactly, the keyhole is without a bit of extra illumination.

So when I came home tonight after a long evening of work, I pressed the little light-up button, put the key into the door, and turned it (as usual). And then something bad happened. The whole thing fell apart in my hands. The plastic case on the top had cracked in half, revealing the inner workings of the key, which were only revealed for a moment before the battery and the little rubber button rolled off onto the floor of our entryway, leaving me holding the metal part of the key, the little LED light, and the two plastic halves of the case that were still attached to my keychain.

This, of course, was devastating. My wonderful little key gadget that had been so useful to me seemed to be no more. Oh, the horror!

But then I had a flash of inspiration. I tracked down the battery and button and carried the whole thing up to my room, where I painstakingly fit it all back together and closed the case back around it. The only problem was, the case had previously been glued shut, and therefore would not stay closed on it's own. So what to do?

Two words: duct tape.

At the mention of the silvery savior, my one male roommate shook his head at me and told me I had been living in Minnesota too long, but within minutes I had the key back together and (surprise surprise) the light still works! If only I had a digital camera so I could take a picture... this is just one more piece of evidence pointing to the fact that I am, indeed, a genius.