My bedside clock hates me.
I think it started its program of suffering when I decided that I did not need it to ring any more. I found waking up far more refreshing if the alarm didn’t go off.
Its first tactic was to disable the “alarm off” button. It would ring even if it was off. (I think it would ring even if I unplugged it.) Due to a distant power outage that reset it, that meant it would go off at midnight.
Fortunately, I compensated for this by being able to turn it off without waking up. I actually only noticed it on weekends when I would stay up late. That was annoying enough that I performed surgery on it and just snipped the power to the speaker. I did learn at how terrible the manufacturing was where the “alarm on” button only turns on a light on the front, and depends on the (malfunctioning) off button to prevent ringing.
A few weeks ago my clock figured out a new tactic. I’m not sure how, but it is reseting itself now. Not enough that the time goes back to midnight; instead it just starts flashing the correct time.
I could try setting the time again; that does stop the flashing. But because of a lousy user interface, that means I have to set the minutes time again, and that requires holding down the “minutes” button until it wraps around to the correct time. Did I mention that the buttons are barely working anymore.
Can it be considered that it has won if I decide to just replace it?
It took awhile. Most clocks are overpriced for what I want: the time. I don’t want to have a iPhone charger. I don’t want artificial sunlight. Just the time.
On a boxing day sale, I have gotten a new one that I will have to suffer it being a radio as well. Sony.
Never trust Westclox again.

I recently got accused of only cooking one-ingredient dinners. I can’t deny it. There are the special occasions, like turkey night, where I actually cook, but for the most part, I am doing things as simply as possible. Even if we can forgive my spaghetti night before the Sunday long runs, there is not a lot of variety in my diet.
It wasn’t always like this. I used to have a goal to cook something special on Sundays. But I started getting busy on the weekends and actually having a life. The Friday Feast also sucked me in so that there was one less night that I had to worry about meals. Running long distances made me too tired to do anything on a lot of evenings.
I saw a nutritionist last month, so I’ve been trying to eat better.
This week has been fairly good though. Yesterday I made the old family recipe of lemon-garlic chicken. Tonight I used my old standby Life’s on Fire: Cooking for the Rushed and made the beef enchilada casserole. And for the first time I actually made the recommended side dish, so I had a tomato-avocado salad with it.
I really need to hunker down and go through my cookbooks again. I have a list of recipes that I feel comfortable with, but it hasn’t expanded in awhile. For years. I need to be better than that. I want to have confidence in the kitchen.

I got myself a late birthday present on Friday. It was the one day of the entire year when Apple has a sale. I went a little wild.
I got three items.
The iPad Air was a gift from my parents. We had all agreed that it would be better to wait for the sale instead of getting it on the appropriate day.
The Apple TV was so that I could better use my TV. Now that the video store is gone, I need to research alternate ways to get movies.
the iMac was a weird purchase. I have been very happy with my MacBook Pro, and I saw no need to replace it. However, 95% of the time, it sits on my desk and never moves. That defeats the point of being a laptop. But there was the 5% (and I’m being generous with that percentage) that I did move it.
In this day and age though, it should be easy to have the same files available on two different computers. My logic was that I could have the iMac be my desktop computer, but all my files would be available on my laptop when I needed it.
I don’t know if my logic is sound.
When I first started using my iMac, part of the problem was the screen was so big. With my laptop, small screen that I could focus on. It didn’t feel like a big commitment to use it. Now I have to deal with peripheral vision size screen. Was I getting a headache?
Then I realized that my email would not be easy to share between computers. I hadn’t set up to be IMAP, so that magic is unavailable to me. Maybe it will be easy, and I just haven’t figured out how. Something to look forward to.
On the plus side, it has forced me to upgrade to the latest operating system. I hadn’t done that on my laptop because one stupid financial program would stop working. A program that has 2002 in the title. It was time to move on, and this has forced that on me.

Geez, it is like working in front of a movie screen.