what I’m watching

We have a population of pileated woodpeckers around our area.

We’re not sure if it’s the same family year after year but we love watching them and other birds at our feeder.

what I’m eating

Most days Mr. Aitch and I have a late lunch/early dinner that my brother named “linner”. Our charcuterie board “linner” was fabulous.

Two kinds of cheeses, leftover prime rib bits, fresh veggies, thinly sliced apples, assorted dips and crackers, plus wine.

what I’m loving

My pedicure.

I’ve been going once a month since October. I don’t go for the polish color during the cold months but having someone massage my feet is such a relaxing experience. With the bitter cold temperatures we’ve been having, I went with a frosty, shimmery ice blue. Next month maybe bright red for Valentine’s Day, a different color or none at all.

what I’m working on

Our dishwasher doesn’t completely drain and there’s always a puddle of water (estimating a gallon) covering most of the bottom when the cycle is complete. I know the cycle is complete as I run it mostly at night and it doesn’t take eight hours. I also turn off the heated dry cycle as the dishes are 99% dry in the morning. No point in making our electric bill any higher than it already is!

I got on YouTube to find some answers and what I could do to try to fix it. It amazes me what information is there!

It looked easy enough for me to tackle. Plus I was tired of water sitting in the bottom.

I grabbed a couple of screwdrivers, a pair of pliers, and a roll of paper towels. then I donned my headlamp (a gift from Mr. Aitch), some disposable gloves and got to work unscrewing all the screws and discovered grossness.

Most of this was hard lime scale and some soft gunk. Fortunately it didn’t stink.

A vinegar soak, an old toothbrush, an old turkey baster, some elbow grease, and various other “tools” helped get the parts cleaner, not brand new clean but clean enough.

I found a screw and rivet from a saucepan, a small chard of glass, and some paper from a label. Nothing looked large enough to restrict the water flow to the drain.

After three hours with my head inside the dishwasher, I climbed out, cleaned up the wet mess and turned it on..

The whole ordeal cost me three hours of my life, a gallon of vinegar, and a broken thumbnail.

It still didn’t drain completely. I’m certainly no repair person but I’m pretty sure it’s gotta be the pump. Since this dishwasher is 22 years old, I’ll be looking at buying a new one.