For some reason, I seem to have the strange ability to pick out random appliances with broken or missing features that most people take for granted. I bought a brand new microwave a couple of years ago (in 2005), and it didn’t have a kitchen timer. I never even thought to check that before buying it; it was something I just assumed would be there. It does have a timer, after all; it would only make sense for there to be a way to time things without running the damn microwave, but nope. Not on this microwave.

And then there’s my alarm clock and its crazy snooze button. When you hit it, it turns the alarm off for nine minutes before turning it back on again. That part is pretty standard; I’m not sure why they picked nine minutes, but whatever. Unfortunately, whoever designed the thing also decided that it should give up after three times. After you hit the snooze button a third time, the alarm never turns back on until the next day. Not only does this lead to all kinds of waking up late, it also forces me to try and remember how many times I’ve hit snooze already. This is especially challenging given that it only comes up while I’m trying to put off waking up for another nine minutes.