I see.

My plan is to use a shift register and gain some extra pins, when I can figure it out.  I don't understand how the digit function works either so I'll just have to keep at it.

display datasheet link--www.adafruit.com/datasheets/BL-Q56C-43.pdf

Made this clock the other day as it was the only thing I could understand, it was simple and I had parts.  Hats off to Nick for passing on the info so clearly.  I did find one problem.  The center digit segments (SEGG) were not lighting properly and the whole thing seemed buggy (like a bad ground or a pin floating) but I could not put my finger on it.  Finally I found the trouble.  I cannot explain the "why" but apparently having the SEGG on pin13 is not good in this case.  I noticed the SEGG in digit 2 flash as I uploaded, it was in sync to the led on pin13 on my boarduino. So, I switched the alarm led and SEGG pins, pin8 and pin 13, and it fixed the problem.

I also have a question. I'm not a programmer (I just started using Arduino IDE this week and I have no previous experience beyond Basic stamp and lighting leds) so bear with me on my lack of proper usage of terms etc.

Question: My display has the 4 decimal points AND a colon.  The colon is treated like another digit as I understand things. I can't figure out how to flash it instead of the decimal point. I think I need another output pin and then I'm lost on the code although it looks like it has something to do with the switch statements/functions/procedures?  Any advice would be helpful and thanks again.