Timer

We moved into a new apartment last month and it is definitely a nice upgrade from what we had before. Not that the old place was crappy, but, well, a few things were crappy. Still, a great "first place living together". One thing that changed was that we went from a glass-top stove to the electric coil type that I prefer (and heats up like a supernova). This is an apartment stove and there is no timer on it. When I cook, I need to time things so there needed to be a method of timing. Sure, clocks work, but if you forget what time it was you started or get distracted from the culinary task at hand; BAM!

-Fission!-

And that's what the coffee, tacos, pancakes, chicken, etc. will end up as, all because you didn't time it. Way to go.

I am the main cook in the house, so I would rather not serve my wife eggs uneasy, dried out chicken, or charcoal. As noted before, there was no timer on the stove that we are now using and I grabbed a cheap-y digital timer when we were at the grocery store. I guess the fact that I preempted this with 'cheap-y' could be a window of understanding into why it sucks.

We have a simple, digital timer that you can set the hours or minutes. Here, it does what it is supposed to, counts down from the top and beeps incessantly when time is up. The problem is that it gives you warning beeps - 2 beeps that sound the same as the final beeping, many, many, beeps.

It beeps at 10, 8, 5, 3 and then 0. So if I set it for 4 mins, it'll go off after 1 minute. What the hell? I don't need the timer to remind me I set it 1 minute after I turned it on. Really I don't want to hear a peep from it until it hits the end. I figured that even buying a cheap timer I would set a number and it would beep to tell me the time was up, not say, "getting there!", "almost done!", "here it comes!", "home stretch...!", "aaaaaand...!". *beep"K, now you're done!"beep*.

Alright timer, I get it, I didn't forget that I set you up because I was the one who set you up 2 seconds ago. And if I set it for 45" to check the laundry, it goes off around 7 or so times before we hit pay dirt. Yeah, I mean, thanks for the reminder, but I think the timer is an overachiever. I have now thought of getting a new timer that just counts down and beeps, I didn't realize that the market had thinned out for those and you had to shell out extra money for that feature.

The beep is kinda shrill, loud, and relentless. Wait, I think that is good for a timer, or alarm clock. Actually I wake up to the radio because I hate the sound of an alarm. Maybe I should just put a clock radio in the kitchen and set it to start the music when I need to check. Hmm.

Of course the problem that might arise is that a song comes on that I enjoy and the timer is no longer annoying. I would rather not burn my food because I was dancing to Lady Gaga in the kitchen. That, or hit snooze a few times.

Mostly I just tell the timer to shut-up.

-James