I sooooooooooooo need one of these!
And I can’t find one anywhere. Well, I can find either a 3€ or 25€ version, but nothing in between. Nothing just like that basic good ol’ kitchen timer like I used to have.
I bought the 3€ version out of desperation awhile ago – it was in the shape of a lemon. I bought it because the only other options were a tomato or a green pepper. And of course it stopped working after about two weeks.
Meanwhile, it’s all your fault I need this timer! 😉 I can’t recall the amount of meals that have been burnt and totally ruined as a result of me ‘putting something on the stove’ and then sitting down in front of the computer ‘for just a minute’ and then forgetting all about it until I could either see or smell smoke!
I used to have a timer exactly like the one in the pic and it lasted for years and years and years and maybe cost $5. But it was one of the many things that got left behind when I moved to England from Toronto. Like my egg piercer – think I could find one in Spain? A friend visiting from TO finally brought one over for me. And I would have asked for a timer too, but I didn’t have a computer then.
Anyhow, not a very focussed rant here. Can’t tell if it’s really about not being able to find a basic kitchen timer in Sevilla or the fact that I need one because I keep burning meals from losing track of time on the computer. Probably a bit of both.
And so Nog didn’t end up getting pasta with lunch today – had to improvise with some quick-to-make garlic toast thingys. And now there is a lovely stainless steel pot in the sink with burnt pasta welded to it. Ah well, never mind. Apparently worse things happen at sea . . .
casa azahar 
I’ve had that problem for years. It began when I learned to play the piano and has continued unabated. What I have developed is methods of getting burned stuff off of pans, most of which involved a lot of elbow grease.
The other thing I do is start the water running somewhere and forget that the faucet is on, like over night or even once for 24 hours. The place it is dripping on gets well watered and my water bill will reflect my absent mindedness. I have learned to set the timer on my kitchen stove, and to write notes to myself about the water being on and put them in my pockets. This usually works.
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Dammit! Just did it again!
It’s 9.30, just finished my last class for the day, Nog is on his way home. So I put on the soup to heat up ‘for just a minute’ … ended up on here with you guys and suddenly soup was boiling all over the stovetop!
Grrr…
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I can only suggest that you move the computer to the kitchen.
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I have done that *so* many times! Usually I end up burning a piece of meat or some veggies, though. I put them on and then get distracted with a phone call or something like that. And, yes, sometimes the PC.
I got a great digital timer at Target, right after Xmas last year. I think a lot of kitchen timers are offered in the stores before the holidays for all that baking, then after Xmas, the store realizes they’ve got too many left over, and so in the January sales you can get one pretty cheap. Mine was about $3 and it does a couple of different modes, count down, count up and repeating.
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I have a kitchen timer like the one in the thumbnail photo. I’ve had it for a little over ten years.
Moving the computer to the kitchen sounds like an excellent idea!
Seriously, though… I, too, have on at least two occasions burned something on the stove because I was mucking around on the computer “for a minute”. Once, I boiled all of the water out of a pan of rice and scorched the bottom of an otherwise perfectly good stainless steel copper-bottomed pan. Another time, I boiled all of the water out of my old whistling tea kettle. The plastic thingy on the spout literally melted- along with the whistle- and I didn’t notice until the smoke detector went off.
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My keyboard is messy enough without having it in the kitchen. 😉
I’ve actually just remembered a very cool old hardware shop in the centre of town that just might have one of these. It’s one of those old places where you ask for most things at the massive wooden counter and the staff disappear for a minute or two and then come back (usually) with exactly what you want.
It also has lots of kitcheny stuff hanging up in the window (copper pots, frying pans, etc, as well as some mysterious objects of unknown origin and purpose) so they might have one of these old-style timers kicking around somewhere. Perhaps I’ll print a photo of the timer because if they don’t have one in stock they may know where to get one from (they’ve ordered stuff in for me before). Fingers crossed!
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If not, let me know- I could pick one up quite easily and for just a few dollars.
I would hate to think how grubby my keyboard would get in the kitchen. My old keyboard was pretty grubby. The new computer cost about two and a half or three times what the old one did, so we no longer eat in that room.
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My present keyboard is that beigy-greyish non-colour they seem to make all these things in, though in slightly different tones of it.
And it really looks totally disgusting.
Some keys are totally-blackened with ‘ick’ and others are only half-blackened. Well, it’s not ‘black’ blackened just ick stuff, you know? Also a few coffee and rioja stains here and there. . .
But I need a new keyboard anyhow as this one gives me constant grief because if I ever nudge it – it then goes buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz – for ages until I do something or other to make it stop. Really annoying. Stupid keyboard has to be treated with kid gloves so as not to have a hissy fit. And when I brought it into the shop to have it checked out it *worked totally perfectly*. Grrr.
Meanwhile, thanks for the offer for the *very simple and generic timer that we all know about* which I hope I can find in this ferreteria … it’s so bizarre that such a basic product is so difficult to find. Anyhow, I’ll let you know. And thanks again for the offer!
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That’s so typical that the keyboard would work perfectly when taken into the shop for repairs. That always happens to me, too.
Fortunately, the keyboard and mouse for that came with this new (although it’s not really “new” any more, after five months or so) are black. So unless I get something white all over my hands, we should be fine. The old keyboard had rice and jelly under the keys- there was a spot of jelly under the “F” and “5” key on the alpha side that made the keys stick down when pressed. And some of the keys were permanently fuzzy.
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Luckily for Nog the keyboard on his laptop (in fact, the entire laptop) is black. 😉
I keep trying to remember to give my keyboard a good scrubbing down when I’m not using it – but that ends up being when I first get up and am not entirely awake or when I’m going to bed and not entirely awake … at these stages of unawakefulness one tends to forget about the state of one’s computer keyboard.
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Cat hair…it´s amazing how much hair that can get stuck in a keyboard.
Both Elliott and Ishta loves to lay on top of the laptop´s keyboard. Warm and nice… The keyboard of the PC is less interesting, but still there are a lot of furry fuzz inside it…
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It is a well-known fact that cat hair can infiltrate *anything*! I find it all over the place; if only I could train the buggers to sit still and let me vacuum them — eliminate it at the source!
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I used to vacuum my cats. Fred wasn’t too keen, but Sandy quite liked it except when her tail went up the hose.
I bought this laptop secondhand. It’s been mine for at least three years, but the carry-case thing is still full of cat-hair that was once part of a cat called Oscar who lived with the laptop’s previous owner.
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I use baby wipes to clean the keys on my keyboard.
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As long as you disconnect the keyboard – you should be able to do pretty much what you want in the way of cleaning. Baby wipes aren’t a bad idea for the keytops – and a thorough vacuuming might help. Turn it upside down and shake it?!
I have heard that you can soak them in water (though if you are going to try this and I haven’t, give it PLENTY of time to dry before reconnecting.
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Coffee is no good anyway… ask dp
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I don’t think soaking it in water is a good idea, Johnny. 😕
Several years ago (before I had my own computer) I borrowed a friend’s computer while he was away on holiday and knocked a whole glass of vino rosado all over the keyboard. 😳
So of course I stopped using the computer until my friend got back, which was a few days later, and when he opened up the keyboard it was still all wet inside. We had to take out the two plastic layers of circuit thingys and dry them carefully with paper towels and then leave it taken apart until everything dried out properly.
It worked fine after that, but clearly it wouldn’t have dried out properly if we hadn’t taken it apart.
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One of the things I tried with dp´s keyboard was destilled water. I soaked the keyboard in it and let it dry etc. Never worled properly again, so I had to get her a new one.
…but then of course she has a Mac…
*run away*
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A Mac keyboard? 😕
I’d never seen the inside of a keyboard before that time we had to take Pablo’s apart. Seems to me that soaking circuit boards with water cannot ever be a good idea. I didn’t know before that there were these two plastic sheets of circuit stuff going on – and clearly getting them wet makes them stick together. And so, even if they dried out again (after about maybe six months?) there would be residues left on the circuit thingys that would no doubt interfere with how it works.
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“I use baby wipes to clean the keys on my keyboard.”
That sounds like quite a good idea, alji, as I don’t think any liquid from them would be enough to get into the keyboard itself. At least not any more than using a damp cloth.
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As I say – the soaking was what I had heard not tried!
But I did say water – so that there should be no residues etc. It does also reassure people that a spllage of water need not be the end of the world.
Coffee grounds, sugar etc – that’s another story.
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I use baby wipes for quite a lot of things unrelated to babies!
az, my mother has been nagging me to trim my face fungus!
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Don’t do it, alji!!! I think it looks great. 🙂
(face fungus seen on Skype the other day)
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I posted this on the 17th of October – it is now the 24th. And only today is the burnt to a crisp pasta pot usable again! It took daily soaking and scrubbing and scraping …
Meanwhile, went out on Saturday morning to see if the hardware place I mentioned had one of those good-old timers, only to find they were closed for stock-taking. Felt like a bit of a conspiracy that day as when we got to the electrical shop to buy some twirly-tube lightbulbs they were just closing up early because everyone there was going to a wedding. 😕
Anyhow, off to have pasta with smoked salmon and grilled courgette …
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My burnt to a crisp rice pan still has some black residue in the bottom, after YEARS of scrubbing, scraping, and using only for steaming veggies.
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Well, I finally made it to the old hardware shop to ask if they had kitchen timers and the guy told me they don’t carry them anymore as the ones they used to get in never worked properly and they couldn’t find a good supplier. Oh well, the hunt continues . . .
It is such a wonderful shop though! Actually quite a landmark in Sevilla. I remember it closed down a couple of years ago and there was such a public outcry that a few months later they re-opened with the same wonderful staff. I suspect they were given a grant by the local government to keep going.
It’s like walking into an old hardware shop from the 1930’s. And the staff there always greet me with ‘hola Shwa’ (that’s as close as they’ve ever got to pronouncing my name properly). 🙂
I think they also get a kick out of me coming in and saying – ‘Hi guys, I need one of these thingys and I’m not sure what they’re called but it looks kind of like this (hand gestures) and does this (more gestures)’. Yeah, I could look up the word in the dictionary before I go there but it’s more fun this way. 😉
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It sounds like it could make hardware shopping, which isn’t always the most interesting activity, a bit more fun.
Perhaps your hunt won’t last much longer. You never know. Hopefully, you will wind up with something that works properly and lasts a while.
I’ve had good luck with mine, but my dad has one that sort of stops counting down halfway, and starts up again at some random point in time.
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The other nice thing about old-style hardware shops like that is if I go in to buy something and then say I need some extra screws or nails or whatever for something else, they just throw them in no charge. It’s the small personal touches like that that make those types of shops so special.
Likewise in my neighbourhood electrical shop. Because they know I’m a neighbour they often give me a discount when I buy stuff there, which was very nice when we were buying all those twirly lightbulbs as they are quite expensive. When we bought some more of them last week the guy asked me what ‘my price’ was as he couldn’t remember.
Nice touch.
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Yay!!! Got a lovely surprise this morning when the promised Boggle game arrived from PC for our intensive English classes … she added a couple of extra treats including a perfect timer almost exactly like the one in the photo (actually, it’s a bit cuter).
Gave it a test run and it works perfectly and so it will now take up permanent residence on my computer table. Yay! No more burnt pots! Thanks honey. 🙂
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You’re welcome! Glad you like it- I thought it was a bit cuter than the other ones, too. 🙂
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Can’t tell you what a difference this timer has made! I’ve been using it almost daily and am quite sure it’s saved many a dinner (and pot or pan).
Of course, at first I had to remember to set it (duh!) ;).
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On a chilly December afternoon I am making a roast dinner (honey dijon garlic ribs with roasted garlic, shallots and carrots … also roasted potatoes in olive oil) and this timer has been so handy to remind me to check on things every 15 minutes or so.
Thanks again, PC. You have saved more dinners than you can possibly imagine! 🙂
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You’re very welcome! All of your dinners sound lovely, so I’m glad I was able to help. I’m also glad that it didn’t crap out right away. That would have sucked.
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