Probably should have tried that first

I've hooked up my phones. (Finally.)

I have three of them -- they're those cordless phones where you only need to plug one into a phone jack -- the other two just plug into A/C outlets. Of course, I don't even plug the first one into a phone line -- I've got that magicjack thingy, so I just plug it into the magicjack, which is, itself, plugged into my computer.

I've never used cordless phones with the magicjack before -- I've only had a corded landline attached to it (even back at the condo). So putting the cordless base station there, plugging in the rest of the phones around my house, and actually getting a dial tone on the other phones was pretty darned exciting.

Odd, then, that I couldn't get a dial tone on the phone that sits on the base station. I mean, it's right freakin here, next to the computer. How come I have a signal on the other phones but not this one?

I left it on its base station for a couple days to let it charge up real good. Still, lift it off the base station and it's completely dead.

This annoys me. I s'pose I can re-arrange the phones, but I really like having the other two where I have them (kitchen and living room).

I think that perhaps there's a chance that the battery in this thing is dead. I open the phone to inspect it ... as though I'll be able to tell by looking at it if the battery is dead.

Of course, I could tell by looking at it that the battery wasn't plugged in.