Things I have learned

Today's thing I have learned is that dishwashers suck. Even manual dishwashers (ie me) can suck, but I'm really talking about the ones where you stick your dishes in a machine and hope they come out clean.

One of my great delights upon moving to the US was discovering that most (but not all) rental apartment kitchens come with a dishwasher. I'd never had one before, having lived in older pre-dishwasher houses. How wonderful - dishes go in dirty and come out clean! None of this scrubbing stuff in the sink. Plus you use less water because they are more efficient!

Weeeeelllll, maybe there are such dishwashers out there but I've not yet met one.

We eat rice and potato a lot. And vegetables. Dishwashers do not remove the rice and potato and vegetable grunge off the pots. Some would say "That's clean, it's been through the dishwasher" but I see gunge, old food that harbours evil nasties that are just waiting to inflict some gastrointestinal horror upon me (or DH). For all I know that gunge has gotten together with a gluten/casein morsel from DH's cheese and cracker plate and is now just biding its time, waiting to leap at me when I next use that pot.

I've learned that sticking said gungy pots and lids back in the dishwasher just bakes the gunge on harder.

Solution? Scrub pots and pans, give up on putting them in the dishwasher. Run the water slowly without plugging the sink cos the sink is HUGE and takes forever to fill even 7cm deep (enough to mostly cover a glass).

Dang.

Mashed potato also doesn't come off bowls well, nor does cake mix. Handwash time!

Dang.

Then there's the times when I forget to run the garbage monster that lives in the sink drain before starting a load of dishes and the drain backs up and our "clean" dishes come out covered with lord knows what. They also can't just be rewashed - they have to go into the sink for a soak and a hand wash.

Dang.

But I will admit when the planet are in the right alignment, the dishes have been rinsed and the great drain god has been appeased, the dishes come out pretty clean. Just make sure the cups are turned towards the centre of the machine, not the edge.

A home amongst the treetops

I sat in our study today, our study that is home to boxes, mostly empty boxes, some "green" shopping bags, a hammer and one lonely bookcase.

The study is light and bright and airy, even though it faces north. It looks out into the trees. It was very pleasing to me. At the moment the trees are green but soon enough they will change colour and the leaves will fall.

Whilst I look forward to seeing what Fall is like (we have Autumn in Australia, and autumn means some trees lose their leaves but only the imported ones, 99% of the Australian species keep their leaves, so the colour is not exactly spectacular), I fear months of no leaves on trees and gacky pathetic grass that has lost its colour after being snowed on.

So I guess I had best enjoy the study whilst I can, whilst it looks out onto dancing leaves and sparkles of sunlight (maybe I should move the computer up there out of the loungeroom!). Same with the ever-drawing-in evenings - get out there and enjoy them, quick, quick, like the ephemeral insects I saw dancing in the late afternoon sun today. It really feels like summer is done for now and we are heading for cooler weather. The evenings are cool now, not uncomfortable, just below 20 degrees C. Crickets call incessantly for mates, a sound which I like. It is gentle and soothing, unlike the shrilling of cicadas. The days start cool and warm up - we will still occasionally get temps in the 90sF, but I am hoping we won't get such oppressive heat as we have had recently. A thunderstorm every afternoon is exciting but tedious when you have to ride home on a bike in it....