Good-bye, my friend

Justin made us dinner at home last night, even though we could eat for almost a week on leftovers stored in the fridge. He makes a chicken recipe using broccoli, Alfredo sauce, and bread/cheese mixture for coating the chicken to make this dish. For the side dish he made an entire box of rotini pasta, which we can eat all week as well!

                                         

A couple weeks ago he made a couple meals which were pre-assembled at Publix, requiring baking for our consumption. He followed the preparation directions but yet the meat was still a bit raw when he tried to serve it. Thankfully we have a microwave oven to zap the food into doneness! Last night's meal he baked longer than the recipe indicated in order to ensure the chicken was cooked through and through. And it was!

Since he did the hard part of cooking the meal, I told him I would handle the kitchen clean up. Because the TV show he likes was a rerun, he joined me in the kitchen as I loaded the machine, and wiped the counters, etc. The dishwasher was filled, soap packet in place, door shut, and buttons pushed. 

It made the right noises while we were in there but then my sensitive nose caught a whiff of something hot. What the ??? I opened the door of the machine and Justin thought he saw steam coming out. Nope, it was smoke! Immediately I dashed down the hall to the circuit box and looked for the right breaker to flip. While my nose and hearing are keen, my eyes are less so. He came to help me find the markings on the box, stamped into the metal frame. Off it went. No water was pumping into the machine and even though he wanted to try it one more time, it was a no go. Shoot!

                                         

A couple months ago when the renters above me had dishwasher troubles, filling the apartment with smoke and stench, I got to go look at it. Yech!!! The plastic stuff melted onto the coil on the floor of the machine, and the plastic coatings on the racks was hanging down in strings. I am just so glad they were at home when this happened, busily mopping up water from the leak above them, during one of the tropical storms. Yikes! So so glad I was right there to catch mine before anything untoward happened with it.

Now, I was washing the dishes by hand, and not happily so. At this writing there are still some pieces to be put away, thinking that a good 12 hours is long enough for them to air dry. It is mainly the flatware left to deal with, with the majority of the eating and cooking items washed, air dried, and put away. Websites are showing me replacement models to choose from. The purchase, however, bothers me less than the procedure for replacement, due to there being water involved. 

I have already checked with the downstairs neighbor to find out which days he will be home, 'just in case'....I will also have Gus on notice to hit the 'kill switch' in his unit which controls the water to this stack of condos. It's like trying to shut down a nuclear reactor or something to change out a dishwasher!!!!