You simply won't believe this. If you ever wondered at my sanity, well, you will wonder no more...

Fourteen years ago when we bought this house, it had a rather old built-in dishwasher. I'd already stopped using dishwashers because, 1.) I preferred to wash dishes by hand, 2.) with just three of us it took ages to fill it with dirty dishes and 3.) my least favorite thing in the world is unloading the thing. So the following year when Tom asked if I wanted a new dishwasher I told him, no thanks. Don't need one. Don't want one.

But what did Tom do? He went out and bought a new dishwasher. Argh. I hate it when he does things like that.

We'll just skip over my (rather livid, how-could-you?) reaction and I'll just say, instead, that for thirteen years that new dishwasher just sat there. Unused.

No, technically that's not right. I did use it as a cupboard for dishes I otherwise had no room for.

I know, I know... Crazy. (I warned you.)

So last week we finally got around to testing the dishwasher to see if it even worked. I mean, someone told me a couple years ago that most likely it wouldn't because she'd heard that--when it comes to dishwashers--if you don't use it, you'll lose it. And they should be put to use at least once a month.

And here ours had been sitting all lonely and unused for thirteen whole years.

Well, guess what? It works! And something else... I've used it every day this week. I mean, er, after all, it just seemed like the easiest way to wash all my hundreds of dusty decorative white dishes and knick-knacks from our hutches that way before packing them in boxes.

And ok, I threw in a few of our regular ol' everyday dirty dishes from the sink as well. Sue me. :)

All week I've felt like such a Suzy Homemaker! Like a new bride, or something. You know, like I'm playing house and having, well, ok, I'll say it... fun. The kind of fun that spills over into every task and every room and makes me feel like a 21-year-old newly married gal again. (Gotta love that.)

So, well, maybe it was worth the wait. Maybe the dishwasher didn't sit there for thirteen years in vain after all.