Washy dishwasher!

Omigosh, you can't believe it. After using distilled white vinegar in my dishwasher yesterday in four different cycles (three cups of vinegar per cycle), I ran a load of dishes through to see how things were shaping up. The glasses on the top rack were still a t-i-n-y bit speckled with food particles and they were a little bit spotted with water/mineral deposits, but the plates and utensils on the bottom rack were absolutely sparkling clean.

I haven't been this thrilled since....I don't know. Since I got my driver's license? Since I got my braces off? I live a sheltered life. But I'm just saying -- the distilled white vinegar really worked. I'd like to run it through a couple more cycles with four cups of vinegar instead of three and then give it a beauty treatment once a week thereafter, and that may well solve the dishwasher problem. Cheaply. VERY cheaply. Two dollars and change worth of cheaply.

I am eager to get to the store and buy a box of Cascade, plus some little Jet-Dry baskets to dangle from the top rack. I may have to drape myself over the dishwasher like a fringy silk scarf over a grand piano and plant little kisses on its faux butcher block top -- I'm that happy.

It isn't often that you can stumble across a solution to a problem that really and truly works without the services of a professional from Sears or similar. Yeeeeha.