We’ve harvested our first peppers of the year.

Well, actually, that’s not true. We have been harvesting peppers for some time now, but this is the first substantial harvest.

Here’s the bounty:

On the plate, you’ll see (clockwise from the top): Red Chili, Anaheim Chilis, Serrano, Jalapeño, Thai, Cayenne, Cowhorn, and the ones in the middle are Habaneros.

So what did we do with them? We made hot sauce, of course. We made three varieties– mild, medium, and HOT. Here’s the basic recipe.

Mike’s Basic Hotsauce Recipe

- Shred 2 carrots with a fine grater. Microwave about 1 minute to soften.
- Put shredded carrots and 2/3 cup white vinegar in blender. Blend until smooth.
- Drain liquid using cheesecloth, squeezing to get as much liquid out as possible.
- Combine in blender: Carrot vinegar, juice of one Persian lime, 1/2 tsp kosher salt, 4 to 8 ounces hot peppers (split and seeded).
- Blend until completely smooth.
- Pour into glass bottle. Chill. Enjoy.

Since the beginning of the year, a Logitech S510 wireless keyboard and mouse combo has been my main input device for my computer. I am almost entirely happy with the setup, except for one thing…

The low battery indicator.

Last Wednesday, the Logitech SetPoint application started telling me that my mouse’s “batteries are critical,” and that I should change them. To me, “critical” means that the batteries are going to fail any minute now, leaving me with the inconvenience of having a dead mouse until I pop in new batteries.

It is currently Sunday night, and my batteries are still working just fine. There is no sign of failure, no loss in functionality, and not even a hint at lowered performance. And believe me, the mouse has not sat unused– I have used the hell out of it since Wednesday.

While I appreciate Logitech’s desire to keep me updated of the state of my battery, I don’t appreciate the annoyances of constantly being told to replace my fully-functioning batteries. I also don’t appreciate that their application has people changing the batteries of their mouse well before they are truly dead.

Hey Logitech, how about this: You tell me when the batteries are getting low, and give me an opportunity to dismiss the notice. That way, when the mouse dies, I already have new batteries, and I can replace them immediately.

It’s driving me nuts.