Feeling Blue and Dishwashing 101

Bridget had to dress in blue today to fulfill her requirements as a middle school 6th grader. They played Capture the Flag, the Name Game and other mixing type games for the Mixer. She was mostly in to the blue hair color as she asked me about it last night and we drove around to every dollar store we could think of nearby (only 2) and ended up at Meijer which has everything. She promised me she would work for it, so we are going to have a big room cleaning party Saturday. Her room gets very messy and the floor which cannot be seen reminds me of her father's bachelor pad floor.

To further illustrate the cesspool regions of our house, let's move to the kitchen where our dishwasher has been dying a slow death. It is (was) 15 years old which we found out is equivalent to 1,120 cat years or 160 people years. Come to find out, the average dishwasher only lasts about 7, so it was well past its good life. Last night, John installed a new dishwasher and left a rather large puddle on the floor which shocked my foot and got my sock wet at 2:30 in the morning when I got up to eat an apple. This afternoon, I was looking at the owner's manual which was rather descriptive. It warns against putting regular dishwashing soap in the door. If you do...it will cause suds, which will spill out of the vents, cover the kitchen floor,and make the floor wet. Then it warns you to store this regular dishwasher detergent in a specific place since so many look alike and then show anyone whosoever may use it where the CORRECT dishwasher detergent is stored. This will not cause lasting damage to the machine, mind you; it will just not get the dishes clean and you will have a puddle of suds on the floor. We will become new and clean here yet one day. I just hope the blue junk comes out of Bridgie's hair tonight.