Roses & Thorns

The good news is that my kitchen floor is very clean.

The bad news is that my dishwasher flooded twice last night.

Oh yes, happy Friday to me. Last night I had 3 very lovely ladies over for a little TV time (Grey's, Ugly Betty) and some comfort-style food (J's famous beer can chicken and homemade mashed potatoes). ...Ok, and maybe some wine and super chocolate ice cream, too.

All was well-- great dinner, fun TV, and everyone packed it in by around 9:30, so then I could get started packing for Atlanta this weekend(!). The girls always offer to help clean and I always shoo them out--come on, it's four plates--so when they left, I loaded the dishwasher and cleaned up a little, finally turning it on to run around 11:30.

I started the water for my shower and thought I heard the dishwasher making weird noises. To be honest, it's been so long since I cooked at home (thank you, weekend travel schedule) that I wasn't sure what my dishwasher was suppose to sound like. I shut off the water and walked out to find a perfectly calm kitchen with suds pouring out the bottom of the dishwasher.

Saying all kinds of nice and polite things, I turned off the dishwasher and looked inside to find the world's most (semi)confined foam party.

I had no idea what to do. I started running it again and, logically, more suds. I switched it to rinse and, again, more suds. Weirder still, it didn't seem to be draining at all. Correction: It wasn't draining at all. How do I know? I had to bail out my flatware!

So there I was, after midnight, using a yellow coffee cup and a small sauce pan to remove water from the depths of my dishwasher. You know those gel-pack commercials, where the cute little scrubby bubbles zoom around the inside of the pristine dishwasher during the hot wash cycle? Not so, my friends. The soapy water used to clean dishes quickly becomes, well, dirty. So those cute little suds spilling out onto my floor? Not so clean after all.

After 30 minutes of bailing ginger-ale colored stinky water (did I mention it was also steamy? ick.), I somehow got the thing to finish draining and then started it on a fresh cycle, no soap, just to get the dishes food-free. I'll deal with the "cleaning" part when I get home.

Anyone have any idea what went wrong here? I'm clueless, that's for sure. I am proud that I didn't call my mother. She's gotten two calls before regarding my poor, poor kitchen. One when I literally set my electric range on fire (and put it out with water. Eep.), and the other when I cooked bread on wax paper in my oven and filled the apartment with smoke. Did you know that wax paper and parchment paper are, in fact, not the same? It's true. Cooking stories for another day, my friends.

Hope your Friday is happy and suds free!