Adventures in Dish-Washing - Pt 1

I have never owned a dishwasher. Growing up,I was the dishwasher. (I was also the remote control, but that's another story all about the fine art of scooting and paths rubbed in carpeting.) I have only used one dishwasher without the assistance of someone else and that resulted in a flooded hotel room, so getting one for Christmas was a both thrill and a terrifying chance for soggy disaster.

In the last 2 weeks since it was installed, I have used it three times. That's not saying there weren't that many dishes in 2 weeks; there were plenty. It's been a learning process for both me and my 63 year old mother who has also never had and never used a dishwasher.

1. Because we never had to worry about things being dishwasher-safe, very few of our dishes are. Fate and my own clumsiness seem to be remedying this, however, because in the past 2 weeks I have broken 3 of our dinner dishes and cracked a couple glasses. Seems like sign enough to go dish shopping, don't you think? :)

2. You cannot test the dishwasher if there are no dirty dishes. My mother was taking dishes out of the dishwasher to wash them by hand. I have no idea why. There are plenty of other dishes she could have been using, but apparently she only wanted to use the survivors of of the set that I had been systematically dispatching.

3. Duncan is not afraid of dishwashers... or being locked inside them :-(

4. I don't care if you can steam a fish in one; you will not steam a fish in mine!

5. MY GOOD COOKWARE DOES NOT GO IN THE DISHWASHER!!! Feel free to toss in the crap sauce pans but leave my wooden handled wok, chefs knives and the set of saute' pans OUT.

6. Loading a dishwasher is an art unto itself. Much like Refrigerator-Tetris and Linen-Closet-Jenga.

7. Dishwasher-cleaned glasses are so shiny. I thought our glasses were spot-patterned. Turns out I was just shite at cleaning them.