dishwasher points

SUMMARY:  Rules for Dishwashers

Source: My comment on someone else's post about how super efficient they are at packing the dishwasher and how many points they gain or lose by certain rules of their own, such as what if something doesn't get clean. Their point system has established that they can fit 24 items in the top rack and 24 items in the lower rack and they lose points if they don't fit that many in… Well, it's complicated. Anyway, here's my response.

I agree to a certain degree. 

my current just-washed load; because the top rack was fully loaded and I needed forks or something, I sadly could not completely fill the lower level.

I consider the dishwasher a labor saving device. Therefore, I lose points for every item that could be washed in the dishwasher that isn't, because then I would have to wash it by hand, necessitating a dish pan with dish soap and a dish cloth and rinsing and a dish drying rack and all that. 

My strategy is to keep adding things to the dishwasher until everything that could go in at that moment is in AND the dishwasher is as full as I can get it given certain restrictions – – I do not stockpile dishes on my counter for that purpose. Nor do I hand wash things that the dishwasher could handle. (Exceptions: Sharp knives, pots and pans, and certain delicate items. But I avoid using all of those as much as possible!) also, running out of some particular important clean item (say, forks) takes precedence over trying to fill every square inch of the dishwasher. 

And I have rules: for example, lightweight plastics go only on the top rack, glass drinkware goes only on the top rack. even if I am out of something important, both top and bottom rack should be as full as makes sense to my own rules of logic. 

For one person, with occasional guests, I think I run the dishwasher about once every five days. Here is a full clean load. Too bad I had to leave a little unused space in the bottom rack. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

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On Having A Completely Free Day In Which To Finish Off Some Projects...

SUMMARY: ... in which, that doesn't happen.

Best laid plans and all that. Plus the cure for everything.

Had great ideas for things to do today that I've been waiting for time in which to do them. Up before sunrise. (7ish.) No clouds to make a pretty sunrise, so that was that, BUT: Something interesting to look at in the yard: First frost I've noticed this year. So I grabbed my iphone and my DSLR and headed into the yard (in my bathrobe, I might add; all the good photographers do it). Then, after some time out there freezing my fingers and other parts,  quite a bit of photo reviewing and labeling and editing time ensued.

Posted on Facebook today around 9:30:

Frosty plants taken by DSLR: zoom in on this photo and you can see the square ice crystals. 

(I compared the phone and DSLR shots, noted that it was just barely below freezing point, showed my floppy dog door frozen in flopped position, and presented happy dogs doing tandem tunnels: This is just a screenshot of the Facebook Album thumbnails).

 The DSLR frost one:

And then... things happened. Or didn't. Blah blah blah for hours until I posted on Facebook around 2:00:

So this is midday
And what have I done
Another hour over
And my chores not begun
And so this is crazy
I meant to be done
But I'm still on Facebook
Not feeling very young
A very Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without too much time spent frivolously.

Posted about 2 hours after that:

I decided I had spent enough time today on Facebook, chats, photo editing, dog trick training, and other oddities; time to get back to the things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and haven’t because they take time and effort. I’ve made great progress the last few days. But… I kind of need lunch. 

I grabbed the radishes from my refrigerator where they’ve been sitting since Christmas Day. I stepped over to the sink to rinse them, and there’s a big pool of water drizzling out from under my kitchen cabinet. I threw some rags on it, grabbed a knife, and started to trim my radishes and discovered that they’re...frozen!? I have not changed anything in my refrigerator settings. I can see how I’m really going to be spending my time today.

So, I had lunch. I mopped up the water from the floor and under the sink: Not much there at all, and now I know exactly where it's coming from AND it's not dire. While I was at it--heck, I had wet rags and was on my knees already-- I did some general floor mud removal.

When I stood up, I noticed that the sky was spattered with clouds that looked like they could make a lovely sunset, and the horizon wasn't covered with thick grey clouds. Wow! So--

Posted around 5:30 today:

Today I actually noticed a pattern of clouds in the sky before sunset (not much before sunset), grabbed my camera, and drove a couple of minutes to the nearest place where I might get a decent urban sunset shot. So: I’m not technically in a parking lot. Scroll left and right to see the whole scene. 

(If you don’t already know, if you’re using an iPhone, and maybe others, if you hold it up in front of you and move your head as you move the phone, it’s like you’re looking through your own camera at the scene.) 

(I don't know how this works on my blog site. We'll find out, I guess.
OK, I see that it simply posts as a panorama, which means that it's distorted: The path is not U-shaped--I'm standing on one spot on a straight path and turning in a half circle to take the shot.)

So, then, because I hadn't accomplished nearly what I wanted and because maybe the fridge is broken after 25ish years of service, I applied the Solution To Everything: I went shopping!

Posted on FB before even leaving the Target parking lot:

You might *think* that because winter began less than a week ago you'd find stores stocked up on mittens, scarves, anoraks, and the like. But, no. This is California. You won't see any more of *that* sort of stuff until July. Christmas is over. So: Suddenly, now, if you want to drive over to Yosemite to see the snow, guess what you'll be wearing?!

So, do I post my entire life on Facebook? Not really. At least, not usually. Today has just been scattershot. Maybe I'll try to do other stuff for the rest of the evening. In the whole hour before bedtime. Like, hmm, eat dinner???