Techless in Silcon Valley

Here I am in the heart of the Tech Empire with all the big names surrounding me..... Yahoo, Apple, EBay..... not to mention the less well-known companies that produce the innards of our tech systems. So with all this techy vibe in the air, you would think that I would be somewhat able to understand the simple technological things in my home..... I guess not.
Our normal weekday routine begins when the alarm goes off at 6am. Mark staggers into the bathroom to shave, brush his teeth, etc. Then, leaving the bathroom light on, he heads into the dressing room to get into spandex bike garb. Leaving THAT light on, he shuffles off to the kitchen to fix my coffee, his coffee, breakfast..... The radio is still on, the lights are all on and I begin to realize that it is time to get up. So....... we had a power outage when someone in the neighborhood cut down a tree and it fell on a powerline. I went around the house resetting the clocks and microwave etc. I could do this easily as I had LOTS of experience with power outage repair from Maine. Mark came home that night, unaware of all that had happened. We had dinner and all was as usual and we went to bed....... Now, I have to insert an aside here. Mark has not been sleeping very well - stress with work keeps his mind whirring late into the night. So occasionally he takes a sleep aid to try and fool his brain. When he does this, he falls DEEP asleep and can be a bit befuddled first thing in the morning. So, now back to the story.....
The alarm goes off..... Mark staggers out of bed..... He shaves, brushes his teeth, etc........ He heads into the dressing room to get into spandex...... he fumbles out the to kitchen and begins to grind beans for coffee...... Meanwhile, I realize that all the lights are on and the radio is playing. I hear the announcer say, "It is now twelve nineteen"...... Waaaahhhh?? So I roll over and squint at the clock on my side - 12:18. And the clock on Mark's side - 12:19. And I hear the hot water kettle in the kitchen starting up..... So I crawl out of bed and weave my way to the kitchen (I'm not very balanced when I first get up). There is Mark.... measuring freshly ground coffee into a filter and the water all boiled and the oranges cut for juice.... "Honey" I say. "Do you realize that it's 12:19 AM?" Mark looks up at the clock on the wall in the kitchen and says, "Is it? Yeah, I guess it is...." He shuts off the light and begins stripping off the spandex as he heads back to bed. "Thanks for getting me before I had my coffee" he mumbles.
So, how did this happen anyway? Well, what I, in my techless ignorance, DIDN'T realize is that when you reset the clock, you must also reset the alarm. If you don't, it goes off.... but at midnight. Oops. I MUST learn how to operate ALL the stuff in the house..... and soon!