Best Diet: Worst Diet

This is the best diet EVAH!

This is the gaping hole where my dishwasher used to be. It broke. It flooded the kitchen. It ruined the floor. But that’s old news. I’ve been avidly shopping for new dishwashers ever since and enjoying the "broken-dishwasher-diet". Let me explain: when you know you’re going to have to wash all your dishes by hand, you sure think twice about making food!

This new diet is going to be in effect for some time, as it will take at least 7-10 days for the new dishwasher to get here…once we order it, that is! And why haven’t we ordered one yet? Well, we’re paralyzed by choice, to be frank. Once you start doing your research, you quickly realize that almost all dishwashers (and I’m sure the same applies to fridges, washers and dryers, too) are made by one of three manufacturers, even though there are dozens of different brands. You can buy a dishwasher called "Maytag" (remember the iconic Maytag repairman?) but it is manufactured by Whirlpool, which also makes high-end Jenn-Air and KitchenAid dishwashers, as well as Amana and Admiral. You can buy a Kenmore dishwasher at Sears, but it’s exactly the same as the GE model beside it, as is the Beau*Mark dishwasher over at The Bay, because all three were made by GE and just had different stickers applied at the end of the assembly line. Frigidaire? Made by Electrolux. Freaked out yet? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to drop $1,000 (or more) on a KitchenAid dishwasher when it was made by the same folks churning out the $500 Amana. Or even worse…drop $900 on a GE profile when you could buy its cousin, the Moffat, for under $300!

Reading all the consumer reports on what we now call the BIG THREE (Wirlpool, GE, Electrolux) has led The Hubster and me to consider an international model. Bosch (which also makes Siemens) and Miele are European, and come with the corresponding price tag and great reputation. Korean-made LG also gets rave reviews, but you need to budget at least $1,000 for any of these makes. Which begs the question: should you buy a brand-new Moffat every 3 years for 12 years, or get one Bosch, Miele or LG and hope it lasts 12 years for the same $1,200?

*sigh*

So you can see why we’re still on the Dishwasher Diet. Time for dinner? Have an apple or a banana…you can throw the core/peel in the garbage and I don’t have to wash dishes!

And now: for the WORST. DIET. EVER.

You remember her, right? My little invalid? Things have been so incredibly hectic around our house since the fateful incident, that it’s been hard to even think straight, let alone eat well.

And then there’s the guilt. She’s got such old, hand-me-down skis. Impossible to properly adjust the din setting on the bindings. Second-hand boots, too. Maybe that’s why her skis didn’t release when she fell. Maybe that’s why she broke her tiny, vulnerable leg (that we should have protected better!). The Hubster and I have been racked by guilt – even though we know she may have broken her leg no matter what her equipment, and if we didn’t ski on Sunday it may have happened this weekend (when we were supposed to visit friends in Fernie). None of it matters. She’s our kid, and she got hurt. Badly. On our watch. And we feel responsible.

In case you didn’t know it already, guilt and food are very, very good friends. Add in being busy and at the constant beck and call of mini-Genghis Khan, and it’s harder to make good choices.

So now the question is…will the Dishwasher Diet balance out the Guilt Diet? We’ll have to wait and see, but I’m hoping the guilt will abate before the dishwasher is delivered!

Check out more of Kath at her other blog, This is Kat.