It all comes out in the wash....

or does it?  today, i'd like to talk about dishwashers.  my very first dishwasher was (like a lot of people's) a roll around one with the hose to hook to your sink.  I think we bought it for $10 at the salvation army.  since it was less than a block from my house, we just rolled it on down the street to out home.  we had to buy a part so it would fit on our sink that cost $7 I think.  pretty damn good investment!  it was a dinosaur even then.... BUT  that was an excellent dishwasher!  I loved that thing.  it was also additional counter space!  one year for my birthday, my hubby bought me a brand new one.

I had a rather bad reaction to his wonderful gift.  not for the reasons you might think.  not because his gift had to do with a chore... but because I didn't want a new one.  I liked my old one.  and now I was not only losing counter space but also had to lose a cabinet!  wtf?  I came home in the middle of it being installed but sadly, my old dishwasher was already gone.  THAT made it even worse! (I frequently have bad reactions to gifts my husband buys me out of the goodness of his heart.  I feel terrible after and always wind up looking like a heinous bitch.  that poor man!)

I could have had two dishwashers!  now THAT would have been awesome!  anyone who knows me knows I don't keep up with any housework.  I tend to let it build up and do a lot all at once.  this allows me to keep my laziness status on full.  since I don't do dishes often, I have more dirty dishes than will fit in one dishwasher load.  SO... I either do two or some carry over.  if I had two dishwashers this would solve much of that problem. 

when we were looking at houses before we moved, and we looked at this house, the kitchen was what I fell in love with.  if you haven't seen it it's a black and white kitchen.  the bottom of the walls are painted black.  it has a white chair rail and above that is white wall paper with black twall designs on it.  like this -


and it  has..... YELLOW COUNTERTOPS!  oh hell yes.  it is so quirky and I love it more than I can say.  and it has a dishwasher (built in) which I think is even older than my $10 dishwasher.  It seems I have a may-December relationship with dishwashers because I love this one too.  the one at the old house had all kinds of buttons and fancy settings and what not.  this one has one cycle.  it's called "wash".  and that's what it does.  it does have a button that says, "cancel drain"  I have no idea what that means.  would I have to bail the water out of the dishwasher?  why would anyone cancel drain?  no thanks, keep washing my dishes with the dirty water!  it will also just warm up my plates if I want it to.  maybe the plates get cold sitting in the cabinet.  or maybe they are stressed and could use a good steam to relax.  who knows?  all I know is that I love my old as hell dishwasher.  blane has repeatedly mentioned getting a new one.  but seriously... why?  why get a new one when my old one is fine?  it works great.  it doesn't look any older than anything else in my kitchen.  so what the hell?  my only complaint is that it is small on the inside.  I have some pretty big dishes.  why?  who the hell knows.  i'm not a very good cook so why would I need to cook so much crap that it can only fit in a giant bowl? 

but the giant bowls don't fit in the dishwasher.... they are usually "carried over" many times.

speaking of bowls.  ya wanna know the problem with plastic bowls?  they flip over in the dishwasher and fill with water.  what's up with that?  it irritates me.  so one day I think, "oh, I know.  i'm gonna fool the old dishwasher.  or bowl.  who ever's fault it is .... i'm gonna fool them!" so I put all the bowls in right side up. (like you would eat out of them as opposed to upside down like you would normally put them in the dishwasher).  and do you know what happened? 

they did not flip over.  they were all full of water when I opened the dishwasher.  well played, my friends.  well played!

I also refuse to hand wash wooden spoons.  I know they absorb stuff.  like germs.  so I refuse to accept that they are actually clean unless the dishwasher has sanitized them.  my cast iron skillets are ok not being washed in the dishwasher because I can boil water in them to kill germs.  that doesn't work with wooden spoons. 

another note on old dishwashers - I like them old because you can tell when they finish.  some these days are so quiet you can't even tell they are running.  I like to hear my dishes getting clean.  if I don't hear it... I don't trust it! 

that is all for this evening.  and if anyone has an old roll around dishwasher that works and you want to get rid of it, give me a call!  the more dishwashers, the mary-er I shall be!