Meet the new love of my life

It may not be as pretty, smart or funny as Jessica, my fianceé, but it does the dishes for me, which is truly something to fawn over. *swoon*

Mike and Cathy (the landlords) had the dishwasher, along with a garbage disposal, installed today. I’ve had handymen and women in and out of the house pretty much all day yesterday and today in preparation for the installation. It’s been nice in a way, since Jessica’s been out all week on a field trip in Death Valley with the Geology kids.

After everything was hooked up and ready to go, I threw all the dirty dishes in to see how well it works.

Verdict: It’s a little slow (2-ish hours for a normal cycle), but I don’t have to stand over it and watch it. The upstairs sink gurgled pretty bad while I was washing my hands during the wash cycle, but I’m pretty sure it was just air that got stuck in the pipes during the installation.

Catchup

- Tuesday I took my car to the mechanics to take care of the service engine light that had recently come on. It didn’t hurt that the car was about 400 miles overdue for an oil change. After waiting for 2-3 hours in the waiting room, they told me that they needed to order a new part for the car (a fuel-exhaust manifold, maybe?) and that it needed a complete tuneup. The whole process was going to cost a fortune and take the rest of the day to complete.

The guys at the shop were nice enough to offer me a ride back to the house while I waited. Not wanting to hang around all day, I took it.

On the way back, I started to worry that I had left something at the mechanic’s. After realizing I had left my gym bag in the trunk, I shrugged it off and decided that I’d pick it up later.

Once I got back to the house, I realized that I should pay more attention to my instincts earlier. I had left my house key on the same keychain with my car key at the mechanics!

After some much deserved self-loathing, I walked across the street to the high school where Mike works and picked up a spare key. There’s something special about being a 24-year-old guy walking around a high school in a long black coat and a sad gaze in your eyes.

- I proved my manliness to myself today by being handy. I replaced mine and Jessica’s windshield wipers.

Granted, replacing windshield wipers ranks somewhere between replacing fueling up the gas tank and replacing an air filter, but still…