Washing dishes

My dishwasher broke several weeks ago.  I mourned briefly, but set out on an mission to hand wash everything and keep my kitchen sparkling, despite the lack of machine.

Those of you who know me in person are laughing, because you know my kitchen doesn't sparkle, even WITH the aid of a dishwasher.  So, needless to say, I was rapidly overrun by a pile of menacing Corning Ware foes.  Now, from July 2008-July 2009, the Husband and I lived in a very small, rather old apartment that had no dishwasher and a one compartment sink.  (Though it did have one of those squirter-hose things, which I miss so much!)  While it was only a year, and I DID occasionally let things get out of hand (I was in my last semester of undergrad AND planning a wedding), I had the "wash everything by hand, at least relatively soon to it being used" thing totally down.  I expected that to all come flooding reluctantly back.

Ah, naivety.

I spent a lot of time just staring at my sink and willing the dishes to clean themselves.  I never quite got that to work, but if I DO, I'll let you all know ASAP.

It's been a fight with my apartment complex to get the problem fixed.  Originally, we had run the dishwasher and everything came out coated in a layer of grime.  We rinse/scrub our dishes VERY thoroughly before putting them in the dishwasher, so we new the error was not ours.  They came out, investigated it, turned up the water temperature (now, I burn myself in the shower... woo), and said all was fine.  They ran it and walked out.

Well, it never drained after that.

We spent the entire month of May trying to get them to come back, as there was standing water in the bottom of the dishwasher, and who knows what bacteria was making a peaceful lakefront home in the bottom.  (Hi, I'm Twirly, and I'm a germphobe.)  We also, however, asked they don't enter without us present, because we have a cat who might run out the door.

Meow.

Apparently, instead of coming after 1pm, like we asked, this just meant they came whenever, and marked  our work order as "complete" if we didn't answer the door.  We had to resign our lease yesterday, and we brought this up before doing so.  They promised maintenance would come by at 1:30pm the next day (i.e. today).


So, 3:30pm rolls around.  We get a call that maintenance is on their way and to please make sure the dishwasher is fully emptied.  And lo and behold, they arrived with a new dishwasher and installed it.

It matches!

Um. Nice rack?

Despite the fact the maintenance worker who installed it left the manual IN THE DISHWASHER when she turned it on while leaving, I was thrilled and absolutely more excited that one should ever be to do the dishes after tonight's company left.  I filled the top with cups first, and the pulled out the bottom rack to load it with plates.

Only to find out it's bent and doesn't slide back in once its pulled out.

Whatever.  I'm using it anyway.