How a dishwasher had me sobbing on the floor

A while ago, I mentioned crying over a dishwasher but saved the story. This was years ago, probably 7 years ago, but Chrissy and I still laugh and joke about it sometimes.

I was house sitting for someone and it was proving to be a bit more stressful than I thought. She was gone for over a month so it was practically more like living there while I looked after her frisky cat and fish. The cat kept me up most nights, and I ran across spiders so often in that house that I pretty much screamed and cried every time I had to go through the garage! I called my mom in hysterics one night because there was a huge one in the tub and another one on the living room ceiling. She did come over once and helped me water the garden where another large spider tried to bite my hand off  popped out of his little home that he made in the siding where the water faucet was cut into! I almost grabbed him and then mom and I had to figure out how to turn the water off with that nasty thing there. Mom sprayed the heck out of him and then turned it off as fast as she could.

Also, the woman's husband had passed away in the house earlier that year. They were practically my adopted grandparents so I knew him, loved him, and even got the cat for him. I am not a believer in ghosts so that wasn't even an issue, but I suppose the thought that a lot of people would have an issue sleeping in a house where they knew someone died, played tricks with my mind at night sometimes.

Needless to say, my nerves were on edge, so when I went to do a load of dishes in the dish washer I was not expecting something to go wrong there too. I put the liquid detergent in the little box in the door and then closed the little lid...but it wouldn't close. I pushed the little lid down harder but it still wouldn't click shut.

*Push *Push *Push *Push *Push!!!! No click; no shut little lid! Maybe there's too much liquid in it?? I'll scoop a bit out with my fingers and see if that will work.
*Push *Push *Push *Slippy finger Push *Soapy lid Push *Liquid's making fingers itchy Push!!!! NO CLICK!!
Why won't this stupid thing close!?! It's just a stupid little lid! It just needs to close!! CLOSE STUPID LITTLE LID!!!
*PUSH *PUSH *PUSH *PUSH *FINGERS COVERED IN NASTY SOAP PUSH!!!!

This went on for a half an hour (because it was just a little lid so I must be able to do it!) before I finally snapped!

*Tears streaming down a mascara stained face, soapy fists pounding the kitchen floor.
"WHY GOD, WHY!?! WHY WON'T YOU JUST LET THE LITTLE LID CLOSE!!! OH GOD, PLEASE JUST LET THE STUPID LID CLOSE!!! I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANY MORE; I CAN'T DO THIS ANY MORE!! PLEASE GOD JUST CLOSE THE FREAKIN LID!!"

A few minutes later, the lid closed. I wiped the mascara and snot from my face and got ready for another sleepless night in that spider house with the crazy cat.

Now for your Music Monday, here's a music video that does make me cry, but I think for decent reasons. I love this song and the music video story is just brilliant. You probably won't cry but I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Picture Perfect!

Yesterday's sign was taken on our trip to Kilcrea Friary and Kilcrea Castle. If you click on them, they will take you to some info about them. The Castle isn't on Wikipedia, probably because it's in a farmer's cow field and we had to jump 2 fences to get there. My friend Jo took a group of us out to see it on Wednesday. The rain poured down on us when we first arrived and wandered around the Friary, so the photos do show lashing rain if you look closely and also the hint of my umbrella on the upper left corner of the second photo.

The last photo is the Friary from the top of the Castle. Thankfully the weather cleared up as we headed for the Castle and it was amazing! The inside of Kilcrea Castle wasn't hugely impressive as it's mostly an empty stone shell, but on top of the roof, there was almost like a secret garden and it was gorgeous!

 Walking across a field to get to the Castle. We started joking that tiny raptors would come out and nip at our heels since the field was like a mini version of the field in Jurassic Park 2.

 This is the smaller tower which you can't really climb up because it's pretty much hollow inside.

 On top of the roof of the large tower. This was like a secret garden.

 On top of the walls of the roof, looking into the 'secret garden'. It's about 70ft up so I didn't go very far out on the wall...

 It's a good thing you can't see my knees shaking. Branden looked terrified with me standing out there and he decided to stay in the stairway.

 A view of the distant landscape.

That's the tower we were up on. It was an absolutely amazing place and I was so glad we got to go. I also was shocked at how wide the spiral staircase was as most castles I've visited seem to have tiny, narrow and steep staircases that you practically have to climb like a ladder. There was nobody else out there except our group as this is pretty much off the beaten path and not widely advertised.

And now, for Joshua, some of the sky shots of the day.

 From the Friary looking over to the Castle

 The ledge on the top of the Castle where I was standing.

Looking up from inside the small tower.

Now that I have thoroughly rubbed in the fact that I live in a magnificently beautiful country, I hope you all have a good weekend and I will see you around blogland next week!

Tip of the Day...Hobbies and Activities

Tip of the Day

If you are looking for a new 'activity' to fill your days (or nights), be sure it is approved and check to see if there is a local group who also participates in your activity. You might be surprised at the types of activities you could do!

Oh how I love June!

We had a good weekend for the most part. The not so good part was just that my throat decided that it wanted to make it extremely difficult and painful to eat or drink anything. The worst of it was Saturday, when Branden had to work all day, but he brought me home some good numbing lozenges and I significantly improved throughout Sunday.

Friday night was wonderful though. My throat was starting to bug me but we were able to go out and enjoy a gorgeous June evening. We brought the camera and headed to the park by our house, and then our usual walk up the river. The weather was nice, the sun was setting, and I somehow managed to not even inhale a single bug! Here are some shots we got.

It was a wonderful walk, especially since it chucked down rain the entire next day! Oh well, it's green here for a reason!

On Sunday, we heard music coming from the park so we decided to go explore. Sure enough, there was an event on with 2 music stages, lots of kid's activities, and a good number of food and drinks vendors. We stopped by a baker's booth since she had a 3 for 5 Euro deal. Branden got a Belgian chocolate mousse, I got a white cupcake with little chocolate pieces and sugar glitter on top, and our third item was a giant chocolate chip cookie which we heated in the oven and ate today after lunch...mmmmmm! We also got some coffee and then went to the main stage and listened to a band finish their set. With it only being about 3 in the afternoon, and bands set to play until 5, we decided to pop back home really quickly to get a blanket to sit on, some water, snacks, and umbrellas (since the rain wasn't making it's mind up on if it was going to mist on us or pour on us). We had a great time listening to a few other bands, and even got a CD. There were lots of people, lots of dogs, tons of kids dancing, and great music. At one point I discovered that I had been sitting on a very large earthworm, but other than that, things were fabulous!

Today, Branden and I set to book a place for our 3rd wedding anniversary that will be at the end of this month, but things didn't go the way we had hoped. Our original intent was to book a place in Killarney since we haven't been yet, but it just ended up being really frustrating trying to find a place and oddly didn't feel right. So we got random and now have a B&B book for 2 nights in Galway! We've never been there either and I think a quirky Irish town on the coast is just what we need. We're pretty excited now and we'll be anxious for a 3 day little holiday since it's been a while since our last one.

I was going to share with you some music that we heard yesterday, but I couldn't find it so I may have to share it at a later time. Thankfully though, a friend of mine on facebook shared this video that had Branden and me cracking up! I love "Misheard Lyrics" videos anyway but this one is brilliant! It may just brighten your Monday up a bit!

Don't cross the passive aggressive...

If passive aggressive fury makes your heart quake with fear, then I'm not the person you want to tick off! Last night I snapped, and someone faced my anger in the form of a very snippy worded note. There is one particular house mate who knows as much about a dishwasher as I know about performing surgery on a beluga whale. He loves to put his dishes in the dishwasher without so much as a rinse that have so much baked on crap that 3 days of soaking in turpentine wouldn't even clean them, AND he places them in the most ideal place that they are guaranteed to not have a drop of clean water touch them through the whole wash cycle...if it weren't so annoying, it probably would be considered a talent. AND since he refuses to ever unload the dishwasher, he never sees that his nasty dishes come out just as nasty, but now with the nasties steamed on, making it even harder for those of us who generously unload the dishwasher to scrub off by hand. It could just all be a clever plan on his part to insure that everyone else ends up doing his dishes, but if that's the case then IT'S STILL ANNOYING!

So last night, I had it! He placed a disgusting casserole dish in a place that would yet again ensure that it would never get cleaned and with our dinner dishes filling the dishwasher, I took his dish out so I could start the dishwasher. I seethed to Branden about how I would just love to unload my wrath upon him verbally because of his countless times of dishwasher ignorance. I even told Branden what I would like to say, but of course, when Branden said that I should actually just say it I declined since that would make me look mean and I would feel bad, so I'd be better off letting animosity build inside of me that would never be released...that's healthy right? My frustration had been building for quite a while though, so I decided I'd leave the worst type of sound lashing that I was capable of...the angry note!

Now the angry note has disappeared so I have to paraphrase, but it was basically:

"This dish was taken out of the dishwasher because it was placed in a way that it would be impossible for it to come out clean. Please be mindful of how a dishwasher actually works when you load your dirty dishes so then the rest of us don't have to hand wash your dishes whenever we unload the dishwasher. THANKS"

I felt invigorated, but then also had a bit of a mental panic as I realized that Branden and I were the only people in the house at the time, besides the dish offender, and so when he came down a few minutes later he must have easily figured out that we had written it. So I did what any seething passive aggressive person did...I hid in my room all night and have been keeping hidden all day in case I run into him. But also by a stroke of luck, he apparently is moving out today! I had a moment of celebration at the thought of never having to mess with his dishes again, but then my passive aggressive brain started working again, "What if the note hurt his feelings and he's moving out because of it!?! This is why you are nice and keep your mouth shut! You may have crushed the poor guy and now he's leaving! Maybe you should make another note, apologizing and offering to hand wash all of his dishes from now on, and do his laundry, and clean his bathroom! It's the least you can do, you big meanie!"  


On a happier note, this was the highlight of last night. Branden out of the blue asked, "Why does my toe jam smell like actual jam?"