My lovely high-end dishwasher suddenly produced a grinding sound and it is normally very quiet so I made a note to call for a repair. I run it late at night after all possible snacks are done with. (This is sometimes a lost cause.) In the morning I noticed a puddle on the kitchen tile next to the dishwasher. It wasn’t much of one, so I chanced using it again which was a mistake because the following morning there was a lake in the kitchen.

A repair guy is coming Saturday and I am reduced to washing dishes in the basin. I no longer have a dish rack, so I am stacking dishes on a little wicker bar cart I just got which is making the serving of dinner and clearing of the table a lot easier.

Ziggy has discovered the bar cart and lounges on it when it is not in use. I cover the top with a large kitchen towel to protect it and provide a clean setting for the dishes since it is now doing double duty as a cat Riviera. I find it hard to say no to a cat.

Lest you think I am elitist for finding dish washing a chore, we use a lot of dishes. Ed snacks throughout the day and sometimes in the middle of the night. When I load the washer, it is sometimes hard to find room for everything. Another benefit is that the dishes are sanitized. In New York, I would load the second basin with Clorox water and dip the dishes after they were washed and then have to rinse the Clorox off. No, I am not being paranoid – we are more susceptible to upper respiratory stuff than we used to be. I even had to go to the emergency room a couple of years ago because I couldn’t swallow and was having trouble breathing.

We are also waiting for a quote from a guy who will install new kitchen cabinets. The ones we have are 50 years old and falling apart. This may mean we will eat out every night until it’s done. I’m smiling.

xx, Teal