Silence is Golden

Many months ago, as some of you may recall, I wrote about replacing our dishwasher with a super quiet model that's supposed to do everything but cook and dish the food on to the plates. Unfortunately for us, we bought a lemon. The company sent repairmen to our home four times to fix the motor that sounds like a mack truck going through a meat grinder instead of the silent, trickling spring it promised. Each time, the repairmen replaced parts, rebuilt motors, ordered new motors, etc. Each time, within a day or two, the sound returned. Ultimately, the company is allowing us to trade-in this model for another one.

When we arrived at Lowe's (not the one where we purchased it because someone in India decided that the Lowe's in Queen Creek is closer to us than the Lowe's in East Mesa even though it isn't), we were confronted with a couple of happy discoveries. First, Lowe's is giving us a credit for the full purchase price of our dishwasher which means we don't have to buy from the same company; we can choose any dishwasher we like. This is indeed good news because we didn't really want another Frigidaire after our current experience. Besides, the one we have is pretty much their top-of-the-line model, so we could only go down in features and efficiency if we kept the same brand. Second, the Labor Day appliance sale begins tomorrow, so we will get a 20 percent discount off the Maytag dishwasher we chose. Luckily for us, the new one is about $10 more than the old one before the discount! Thus, we will end up with a credit on our Lowe's account that I can use to buy some new paint or blinds. (Score!) Truthfully, it seems only fitting that we should get some kind of discount and credit after all the repair visits we've had to schedule and wait for. (Bless his heart, Jeff - my hero - has taken care of all of this!)

On the down side, it took us about an hour to do the paperwork and choose a new dishwasher, so when we left the store at 6:10 (starving), we succumbed to the temptation of eating out, and we didn't go cheap. Our choice of Sweet Tomatoes set us back about $35, but the food was excellent. Even though I ate far too much, I feel like the choices were healthy since I stuck almost exclusively to the raw vegetables and salads. (The best prepared salad consisted of fresh broccoli, peanuts, and craisins in a sweet slaw-style dressing.) Of course, Sweet Tomatoes has more selections than anyone could hope to eat with about 8 varieties of soup, several pasta dishes, potatoes, baked muffins, focaccia bread pizza, 45 feet of salad bar, plus dessert (which included warm apple cobbler with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream). Yum! Yum! So, once again we fell off the budget wagon, but the time to sit down and talk to each other about our hectic day was worth it in the end. Who knows, maybe when my new dishwasher comes in a week I'll be inspired to cook at home since I won't have to listen to the relentless noise of the old one rattling through the house. Nah, I don't really think so either, but I just keep telling myself it's true.