Our dishwasher died a few weeks ago. It’s been sitting there mocking us with it’s unwavering evil red eye on the control panel. We’ve researched the stuck control panel issue on the Internet and unsuccessfully tried the recommendations of pushing various combinations of the control buttons. I’ve open and closed the door about 999 times to see if it will miraculously come back to life. The hubby has turned the breaker off and on to no avail. At first I found some sort of Zen peacefulness in actually hand washing dishes but by about day two I was considering buying paper plates and plastic cups in bulk. Realizing that it would probably cost as much to get someone to repair our 8-year-old or possibly older dishwasher we inherited from our home’s previous owners as it would to buy a new one, we’ve been temporarily ignoring it because, as inconvenient as it might seem, one can live without a dishwasher.

When I came home from work Tuesday the hubby was already there and I heard the sweet, sweet sound of the dishwasher merrily whirring away when I walked in the kitchen. I believe the exclamation, “THANK YOU LORD” was shouted by me because it really was a religious experience to hear dishes being washed, and not by me. Our dishwasher had risen from the dead. It was like a holiday. He also had dinner ready in the crockpot the next night, which was yet another religious experience.

I asked the hubby how he fixed the dishwasher and his reply was basically, “You know that scene in Armageddon where the Russian astronaut is frustrated about the screwed up spaceship controls and he just starts beating the hell out of the spaceship with a big wrench? Well that was pretty much it, only I used my fist.”

This handyman tip not approved by the Maytag Man.

Nicole’s theme for yesterday’s Writing Wednesdaywas to post a stream of consciousness style to do list, which is inspired by the very funny book, “I Don’t Know How She Does It.” Ironically that book was mentioned twice in the comments to yesterday’s post on my choosing to bring in a store bought pie, rather than homemade as requested, to Caitlin’s Thanksgiving lunch at daycare. So I guess “I Don’t Know How She Does It” is a theme that rings true for us moms, eh?

Here’s my list, albeit a day late.

preds game tonight…take out one of the car seats…white turtlenecks for girls that match…who cares?…new black mary janes for caitlin?…portraits friday at 3…iron outfits…yoga 10:30 fri….lunch with brother and niece…santa parade with papa saturday early…MUST GET BATTERIES for digital camera…video cam?…make baked spaghetti for pat sunday and do not forget to take to work…start christmas shopping…ha…wedding gift for b…check library account online…library books on hold still?…must put together master christmas shopping list…tell daycare director we are taking christmas week “off”…hair highlights…must get rid of roots before holidays…babysitter for dec. 7 co. party…how much to buy depeche mode new cd on itunes…schedule pap smear…ugh…halloween welcome mat still on front porch…order stamps online…write down pumpkin pie recipe for holiday book for caitlin’s class…early spring soccer signups too late?…probably

Now if you want to join in the fun, although I’m not sure if fun is the right word to describe how I felt when I realize how much I have to do, then post your list in the comments below or on your own blog with a link in the comments. And how do you stay organized? If you have an idea that works for you and your family post that, too. Inquiring minds want to know how you do it.

p.s. I just knocked one of these “to dos” off my list! I called daycare to let them know the girls will be out Christmas week. Woo hoo! I guess it makes one more accountable, posting it live to the Internet and all. Kind of beats the random post it notes I have scattered all over the place.

Last night when I picked the girls up from daycare I remembered that today is Caitlin’s Thanksgiving party. There was a sign-up sheet posted on the classroom bulletin board and it looked like I was one of the last parents to sign up to bring in the usual turkey or dressing. The assistant director, a young single woman, heard me bitching discussing this and rechecked the date as she thought it was scheduled for next week.

I felt bad for not expressing my early Turkey Day throwdown love, but she said, “Sign up for chips! No one’s volunteered to bring in a bag of chips!” I told her that I would love to bring in chips, but Caitlin’s teacher had asked us to bring in a Thanksgiving family recipe to share with the class and our child was actually supposed to help prepare said recipe.

“Ohhhh. Well, you know what kind of mom I’ll be! I’ll be the one bringing in chips,!” she laughed. Really I could have grabbed her and kissed her right then.

Just then another mom walked in and I reminded her about the party. “Great…I’m going to have to go to the grocery now!,” was pretty much her response. Obviously the week before Thanksgiving party is going over like a jumbo container of Tums. I told her I’d also forgotten and that I’d be stopping by the grocery, too. I told her she could always go the Charlie Brown menu route and sign up to bring in popcorn or toast, to which she replied…”You know, our family likes to eat cereal on Thanksgiving. And sometimes? We fast.”

I’m going to cheat pick up a pumpkin pie at the grocery this morning and bring in a simple pumpkin pie recipe and not worry that it’s not homemade. Besides, if her teacher asks how she helped make the pie, Caitlin can say, “I helped mommy ring it up at Publix!”

I’m taking Amelia to the pediatrician today. She’s been a virtual snot fountain for over a week and this morning her eyes were crusted together. That is not a good sign. Thankfully since having tubes put in her ears this summer, she’s no longer getting ear infections. But the snot? When does it stop? I’m tired of being tired. The hubby and I were both up with her between midnight and 1 a.m. She usually wants mommy in the middle of the night when she wakes up coughing so we curled up in the recliner under a quilt and I slathered her chest with Vicks. The hubby has her cold and now Caitlin is complaining about her “sneezy nose.” Somehow I keep dodging the cold bullet. Hopefully I used up my sick card this past summer when I had the freak strain of July pneumonia.

I’m the youngest of five kids and by the time I came along my mother jokes that she just didn’t take me anywhere because she was so tired of going to the pediatrician’s office. I know my SAHM friends also struggle with sick kids, too, so the germs are not just a daycare phenomenon. I push the hand washing like a crazy lady and I have antibacterial gel stashed everywhere. In fact, that new lovely scent my co-workers comment on is usually antibacterial gel. Which reminds me, I haven’t used any in the last hour (reaching over to sanitize my hands now.)

It’s going to be a long winter.

National collection week for Operation Christmas Child starts today people! I read about this cause on Want Not a few weeks ago. I’ve been kind of searching for a holiday charitable project that we could do as a family and I think this is a good one.

I also heard about Shop NOLA on NPR a few weeks ago in a rare moment when I was not listening to a cheesie Fisher Price freebie kids CD in the car. You may want to check out the New Orleans based retailers for cool holiday gift ideas and help support New Orleans revitalization at the same. Shopping that is charitable. Wahoo! It can’t get any better than that. This bracelet is very cool. And check out these chocolates. These soaps are really nice as is this awesome prayer/wish box bracelet, made by a New Orleans artist.

Here’s a holiday tip for you. Go ahead and buy your holiday card stamps online now from the post office. Believe me, you’ll thank me. I’m always foraging around my office and practically begging my co-workers for a single 39 cent stamp so the thought of standing in a long line in late December waiting to buy stamps makes me want to break out in hives.

p.s. None of these places contacted me to promote them or their cause. I just thought I’d share the link love and my online shopping addiction. And have you started your shopping yet? Nope, me neither.

Today is the first Saturday I can recall in months that we have no plans for the day. No soccer games or no birthday parties to rush to. The hubby is not working. There is nothing ON OUR AGENDA. It’s a rainy, cool sort of day where you want to stay inside and veg out and I remembered that we have coupons from a certain local movie rental establishment. There’s one coupon for a free kids’ movie rental but it dawned on me that we may owe a late fee for a certain horrific low budget Hello Kitty DVD that we kept forgetting to return and shuffled back and forth in our car like a late library book or a forgotten sippy cup of milk wedged under the driver’s seat. So maybe we’ll just suck it up and go to the national chain rental place and avoid the late fees. We’re renegades like that. Also, it’s quite possible that this is the video rental place’s bait to sniff out the rental fee delinquents. They’re clever like that. Or maybe I’m just paranoid.

I’m trying to resist the urge to just have the idiot box on all day. It’s not even 8 a.m. here and I’m about to break out puzzles for the girls to work on. Play Doh will probably be next on our roster. We may get really crazy and pop popcorn.

Any way, before I lull you to sleep with this, the most boring of posts, back to Saturdays with no plans. How rare is that? One of my co-workers was telling me on Monday how she and her husband basically slept all of last weekend. They’re trying to get pregnant and there was a part of me that wanted to grab her shoulders, look her squarely in the eye, and yell “SLEEP NOW WOMAN WHILE YOU CAN!”

I have a secret indulgence. I love celebrity gossip.

It’s a guilty pleasure that can be traced back to when I was a little girl and would look at my grandmother’s neatly stacked copies of National Enquirer and Star on the coffee table, always folded so that you couldn’t see the covers and placed next to her glass candy dish stocked with gummy orange wedges.

So when the Britney Spears divorce headline appeared on my computer Tuesday, I had to read more. Britney keeps you guessing. She’s like the white trash Madonna (pop star Madonna, not that Madonna), constantly reinventing herself.

Apparently Britney went shopping at the GAP and then ice skating at Rockefeller Center just hours after she filed for divorce from husband Kevin Federline. That’s normal, right? And did you know that the Britney post-divorce sweater at the GAP can be yours, although you might want to actually put a shirt on under it unless your trying to get a waitress gig at Hooters.

I don’t know who Britney’s publicist is, and I’m sure she has a team of PR handlers, but you’ve got to admit she’s been playing the paparazzi this week to the tune of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” I had my doubts in Team Britney when she did the Matt Lauer interview earlier this year and smacked a wad of gum like a Piggly Wiggly checkout girl but someone had to orchestrate the David Letterman appearance Monday where she actually looked somewhat sophisticated (click here to find out all about her makeup that evening), the filing of the divorce papers Tuesday, the post divorce paper filing shopping spree at the GAP, AND the ice skating. She also carefully timed the divorce, as she filed exactly two years and one month from the date of her official marriage, on Oct. 6, 2004. The prenup agreement apparently includes increases for Kevin Federline for every year of their marriage with a 30-day grace period.

And now K-Fed is retaliating and seeking custody of their two small sons who are, unfortunately, the real victims of this divorce, but I have no doubt that Team Brit will try to raise those boys up right.

In summary, Britney’s guide to workin’ the divorce bullet points:

timing is everything
get fit, get tan, get revenge (OK, she may very well have had some surgical help with her new post-baby body)
go blonder and shorter
appear to be unphased
work the talk show circuit
buy something off the rack to appeal to the suburban diva
and check and recheck the details of your prenup

I raise my bag of Cheetos to Britney and her PR team.

The people have spoken. He’s out. And President Bush has nominated former CIA chief Robert Gates to replace Donald Rumsfeld.

I haven’t seen much coverage of the editorial piece that was published Monday in the 250,000 copies of the Army Times, Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, and Air Force Times, asking for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation.

Here’s a link to the editorial. And today we hear that Rummy is resigning.

I leave you with a photo of Rumsfeld from his Princeton days.

He’s always depicted as a pointing, furrowed brow curmudgeon so I thought I’d hunt down a flattering picture of him. Granted it’s a 50-year-old picture, but still. Politics does age you. I wonder if there is a spa for political resignees?

Any way, that’s my political wrapup for the week. My friend R*Belle just launched a great new blog (I believe it’s now a must for people to have more than one blog) called Moms on the Fly to help you keep up with current events.