The Dishwasher Chronicles

3rd August 2007: Roomie, S and I huff and puff up the stairs, as we struggle to transport our newly bought portable Kenmore Dishwasher into our house. Portable in name only, it seems. Its distinctly unportable and unbelievably heavy. My back hurts for 2 days after this exercise.

4th August 2007: We try to plug it into our faucet. No go. It doesn't fit. I call S for help. As usual, he knows the answer. We need an adapter it seems, to connect the dishwasher hose to our faucet.

15th August 2007: I am tired of washing dishes, while we have a perfectly good dishwasher staring us in the face. I swear I hear it smirking as I cuss my way through a sinkful of dirty dishes. Roomie and I decide that we have to go to Home Depot soon.

16th August 2007, 9pm: Home depot has 2 adapters that look promising. We buy both, sure that one will fit.

16th August 2007, 9.30pm: %*&#! Its a cruel joke. One of the adapters fits the faucet. The other snaps into our dishwasher. Neither fits both. Roomie and I cry buckets.

20th August 2007, 7.30pm, Lowe's: They have the exact same junk that Home Depot has. Plus the sales rep is about 275 years old, crusty, and distinctly unhelpful. One nicer dude there suggest we make our way to Sears, because Kenmore is a Sears brand and they probably have it.

Thoroughly disgusted, we let the matter lapse for about 3 weeks. Then it got cold. To do the dishes in summer is one thing. To wash 'em in winter, is entirely a different matter. Roused out of our state of inertia, we grumble our way to the Sears outlet store in Shrewsbury. Very helpful Sales Rep, sadly informs us that they don't have it, but the Sears Store at Auburn Mall is sure to carry it.

16th September, 4.30pm, Auburn Mall: Appliance department guy hears us out patiently, then says that he doesn't do dishwashers, he's the TV guy. We need the dishwasher dude, he says, while pointing us in his direction. I tell myself to breather deeply. In. Out. In. Out. You are from the land of Yoga. You can control your mind. Do NOT lunge for his throat. He's just a guy trying to do his job. Breathe. We make our way to dishwasher dude.

Dishwasher dude says...Oops..we don't carry that, but our parts' store is right 'round the corner. I know you will find it there. We walk to the parts store. Its closed. They are only open until 4pm on Sundays, says the sign. By this time, righteous indignation has given way to uncontrollable mirth. We laugh at our plight, while wishing a pox upon the guy who sold us the dishwasher, and forgot to mention the all-important adapter.

22nd September 10am: I knock on a distinctly grumpy roomie's door. Time to rise and shine. We are headed to the parts' store, I remind her. About 30 minutes and 1 liter of coffee later, we are on our way to Auburn Mall again. Parts' store is thankfully open. Lady with scary eye make-up answers our queries, and shows the one adapter they do have.(Whirlpool, not Kenmore) Roomie takes one look at it, and says it won't fit. She should know. She can practically write a PhD thesis on the intricacies of dishwasher adapters, with an emphasis on faucet thread size. Scary eye make-up lady, says Scalamos' is right down the road, and a good hardware store. Try there, she says.

Scalamos, turns out to be spelt Sclamos', and is a good hardware store. Nice furniture too. Very nice guy at the counter. Rather good looking as well. Except, they DIDN'T sell dishwasher adapters. But, he suggested we try Barrons' Hardware Store. We are certain this is a another wild-goose chase, but decide to give it a try. Its either getting an adapter, or investing large sums of money in hand lotions.

Barrons turns out to be a really nice store. Lots of good stuff. Best hardware store in the world actually. The sales rep was old, but knowledgeable and VERY helpful. A prince among men, in fact. Because he had the right adapter. One look at it, and roomie said, YES, this is the one. We clutched it gleefully as we made our way back home. That brown paper package held the most precious gift purchase we had ever made. It cost $3.29 and about $20 in terms of Gas. But its value....priceless!

Back home, we nervously snapped it into our dishwasher. It fit. Then screwed it onto out faucet. Perfect. I wept tears of joy.

No more dishes! Yay!

This is turning out to be a great day actually. Not only did was the DW issue resolved, but India just beat Australia and are in the finals...against Pakistan. Double Yay!

There's no silver lining today. Just a big, fat silver cloud.

UPDATE: I came home to find roomie laughing her head off. Apparently, the faucet in the shower just came off! Fact. I kid you not. So, we can wash the dishes now. But there'll be a wait to bathe!