Hi, Mom!

This is very strange....

Since I first bought an optical mouse for my laptop some years back, I've been using a piece of white card stock paper as a "mouse pad" instead of mousing on the bare tabletop. Card stock has enough "tooth" that the mouse moves around smoothly and comfortably. A sheet lasts a month or so before it gets dirty and the constant movement of the mouse burnishes the tooth down to where the paper's slick.

I finally got down to my last piece of the card stock I was using so I bought some more today. And guess what? It doesn't work! The shade of white seems to be too "bright" for the mouse's optical sensor. Move the mouse around on it and the cursor stays in one place. Put the old sheet back down, the mouse works fine. Hold the new sheet and the old sheet up for comparison and I can only see the least bit of difference. But that slight difference is enough to make the mouse inoperable. Go figure....