Did you. . .

Tonight I loaded the dishwasher with my tetris-honed skills, but when I pushed the start button, nothing happened. Uh-oh.

More button pushing ensued, items were rearranged, the door was closed harder, then softer, then harder again. Nothing. Roommate came out and went through the same motions. Still nothing.

Shoot.

See, I have been quite spoiled when it comes to dishwashers- every place I've ever lived has had one. And I really have no intention of changing that pattern. So, when ours wouldn't start tonight, my first thought was, "How can I get this fixed for free and as quickly as possible so that I don't have to hand wash that load of dishes in there." There is no shame in being high maintenance as long as you're willing to admit it.

The phrase "we need a man around here" gets thrown around more times than I can keep track of, and tonight was no exception. Thankfully, I knew I could send out an S.O.S. on facebook and one of our wonderfully helpful guy friends would take a look at it at Dinner Club tomorrow night and hopefully solve the problem.

But I decided to try one more thing before sending out for help. I set aside my initial female thoughts and feelings ("It's broken. I feel too tired to clean all those dishes tonight. What if it's expensive to fix or if I have to buy a new one? Ooh, maybe I can get one in a cool color.") and then I took a moment to think like a man. And I immediately knew the very first question that Mr. Fix-It would ask when he arrived on the scene:

"Did you try unplugging it and then plugging it back in?"

Huh. A plug for the dishwasher. The appliance that I normally categorize as water-based. Where in the world does that thing get its power? I proceeded to go on a hunt under the sink and low and behold, there was the dishwasher plug that had come a little loose from it's outlet. So, I pushed that bad boy in and botta-bing-botta-boom, the dishwasher is humming away as I write.

Any high fives for my incredible feat will be gladly accepted, both via a blog comment or in person.