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Man, am I bushed today! Last night I was awoken about 2 am with a loud beeping sound. That got me up fast! A quick investigation around Experiment House revealed that the source wasn't my obvious guess -- smoke detector -- but our ancient electric range stovetop. My daughter, H--, had made dinner earlier in the evening and must have been playing with the timer. So I did all the obvious things to try and stop the beeping. A scan of the stovetop revealed that there were only four buttons associated with the timer: hour, minute, timer and clock. So how hard could this be?

I pressed the timer button. BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

I pressed the clock button. BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

I held down the timer button. BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

I held down the clock button. BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

I set the timer to 0:00. BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

Getting desperate, I pressed every combination of the buttons imaginable. BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

It was now 3 am. I decided a change in strategy was in order. I went to the world wide web and looked up the Frigidaire website. (Am I the only person who thinks it's weird to have a stove by Frigidaire?) Great -- you could download manuals. Not so great -- you had to type the model number into the search box.

BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

So I go into the kitchen to get the model number off my stove. There's not one in the front. So I move the beast away from the wall, and wipe the cobwebs and grease away to get a better look. I'm screwed because there's no model number on the back, either.

BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

I head back to my iBook and enter some random numbers in the search box. I do find some ranges, but they are newer and different models. By now it's 4 am.

BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

I consider calling Lamont, who is at the National Youthworkers Convention in Pittsburgh, and decide against it.

BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

I go back and repeat step one (pressing buttons at random) for awhile.

BEEP -- BEEP -- BEEP...

At 4:30 am I wake up my twelve-year old daughter and order her to the kitchen. Still 3/4 asleep, she shuffles into the kitchen and immediately shuts off the timer. She does it so quickly that I don't even see what she did.

Blessed silence.