The never ending rinse cycle

One of my morning chores is emptying out the dishwasher. It is more of a ritual now because I do it every day. Emptying out the dishwasher must be one of the boring and tedious tasks known to mankind. Every time I turn around I'm unloading the dishwasher and stacking its contents back into my kitchen cupboards. If the opportunity presents itself, I ask dear husband for his assistance in completing this task. He will help, but he too complains.

Well, imagine my surprise this morning when I opened the dishwasher and discovered the granular crystals were still in the dispenser. Grrr! I did a lot of silent cursing to myself. I blamed the problem on the dispenser door. I'm not a big fan of granular crystals, but I'm trying to use up a box of Sunlight dishwashing detergent before opening my mega can of detergent tablets. Last night I had to sweep away some the granular crystals away before I was able to close the door. Although the dishes looked cleaned, I decided that I should put them through the wash cycle again.

This time I used one of the tablets. Once the wash cycle was done, I expected the dishes to be clean. They were, but the little tablet was stuck to the dishwasher door. WTF?!? All of a sudden it wasn't the dispenser door that was at fault. It was mine. I had put darling daughter's plastic insert of her high chair tray in front of the door, not along the side of the rack where I usually put it. The insert was preventing the dispenser door from fully opening. Oops. My bad.

As they say, third time's a charm. I flicked the tablet back into the dispenser, closed the door and hit the start button again. You don't have to tell me that David Suzuki would be disappointed about the energy and resources I wasted in trying to get my dishes sparkling clean. Actually, I was cringing when I pressed the start button, however, there was no way I was washing all those dishes by hand.

This little episode got me thinking about how dependent I am on my dishwasher. The dishwasher is a glorious thing. Despite my complaining and whining when cleaning the damn thing out, I don't think I could live without it, especially when making baby food. The dishwasher is truly a lifesaver in this modern day and age.