washing dishes

i have to say, i'm sick to death of washing dishes. dishwasher is still broken. the control module was bad, so the little repair guy ordered the part and said they'd be back on wednesday. well, the part came in on thursday and i was able to get the appointment moved up to monday--sometime between 1 and 5. (what we'd do if both of us worked, i don't know. i guess one of us would have to take off work to sit and wait for the technician to show up. last time they said between 1 and 5 it was 5:30 when he finally showed up.) anyway, my hands are cracked and bleeding in places. i have tried using gloves, but that just makes my "dishpan hands" worse. i try and keep up with them, but it's never ending. dear husband helps a lot, but still, it's a lot to do. i don't know how we ever did without a dishwasher. of course, we didn't have the little cherub when we did without.
speaking of the little cherub, that kid can FLY. he is crawling like crazy and into everything. he loves to pull bowls and lids and stuff out of the kitchen cabinets. and then he bangs them together. another one of his favorite things is to carry stuff (toys, his socks, whatever) around in his mouth as he crawls. he thinks that's really funny. and it is. oh, and he loves cheerios. well, they aren't actually cheerios. they're publix toasted oats. but it's the same thing. "o" shaped cereal. and i've finally gotten him to pick up little pieces of banana and eat them, although he doesn't care much for how slimy they are. he also loves to go outside, but he's not too sure about crawling in the grass...maybe he's my son after all. :)
well, i guess the dishwasher will be fixed soon enough. maybe i can avoid doing anymore dishes until monday between 1 and 5...

broken dishwashers and old southern men

well, our brand new dishwasher broke. i had it all loaded, soap in it and ready to go. i pushed start and it filled with water and then just QUIT. so i tried to figure out what was the problem. i flipped the breaker, that didn't work. i attempted all the troubleshooting tips in the owners manual. still nothing. i tried pushing all the buttons again. didn't matter how many buttons i pushed that thing wasn't gonna run. here i was stuck with a dishwasher full of dirty dishes. so, i called the landlord.
just a few words about the landlord. he's a nice man. an older gentleman who's lived here all his life. and a southern accent so thick you'd think he was from the deep south--not just tennessee. but, apparently he still thinks that women don't really know a whole lot when it comes to household appliances. now granted, i don't know a lot, but i can go through the troubleshooting steps listed in the manual.
so, i called the landlord. and i told him, the brand new dishwasher broke. "aww, no," he said, "whadit do?" so i explained the whole thing to him. and don't you know, this is what he said, "well, you have your husband look at it when he comes home from work and you have him call me back." now, i can't type a deep southern accent, but you get the point. yes, he really said that! now, some folks have asked me what i said in response to that. well, what can you say, really? he's my landlord. so, i just said ok. and when dear husband came home, i told him what the landlord said. now, he got quite a kick out of that too. so dear husband opened the dishwasher and looked inside. then he grabbed the phone and called the landlord back. yep, it's broken. ah, if he only knew...

fisher-price update

just a quick update on the fisher-price saga. i attempted to use one of the vouchers they sent me at babies r us tuesday night. and what do you know? it didn't work. now, i can't be entirely certain the the people at babies r us knew what they were doing. i don't have the utmost confidence in them and frankly, i feel that they take advantage of their position as "baby superstore." if there weren't things i could only get there, i would *never* shop there. most of the employees are rude and very unwilling to help. anyway. i haven't tried to use the voucher at any other store, but it seems pretty peculiar to me that babies r us didn't accept it. i wonder if fisher-price is running some kind of scam. i will try a couple more stores before i jump to conclusions and call fisher-price, AGAIN. i'm gonna put their number on speed dial...