U.S. electronics "bore" German outlets

Thomas and I spent part of the morning picking up each electronic device we own to see if it would work in Germany.

Aside from having different plug thingys (an easy fix with an adapter or DIY rewiring project), U.S. devices use 110 volts and German ones use 230. Thomas casually explained the difference to me like this, "German power outlets are bored with U.S.voltage." The best part was that he didn't even realize how funny this sounded...until I started laughing.

Our assessment: my crappy $14 hair dryer can come (it has a switch to change the voltage), but our $400 PlayStation 3 can't hang. That was costly shock my engineering husband wouldn't dismiss without a fight. Fortunately, some quick research via YouTube suggested a universal power supply might solve the problem.

But most of our electronics won't be so lucky...sorry awesome retro toaster. Looks like I'll be burning bread with someone...er, something else in a couple of months.