April 24th, 2018:

	Sigh.

Mrs. IPX phoned me at work this morning.  Our dishwasher blew and started 
leaking water.  Thankfully, she remembered where the shut-off valves are, 
and was able to shut the water off to the unit.  Catastrophe averted, but 
we'll be doing the dishes by hand until the repairperson shows up.

I don't mind doing dishes.  Before we bought this house, I'd never had a 
dishwasher, so while it's nice and convenient and all, it's not the end of 
the world if it's dead.

In my bachelor days, I used to do my dishes to relax.  I'd fill the sink, 
put on my lounge playlist, make a few martinis (or Campari & Soda, or a 
Sazerac), and would generally make a day of it.  That all ended when the 
Missus (back when she was the Girlfriend) and I started dating and she 
moved in...

"Why does it take you eight hours to do a week's worth of dishes?  
Especially when they were already rinsed off before going in the sink?"

Yeah, it's been a morning.  I'm not complaining too loudly, though.  
There's no property damage, the repair bill won't be too big an 
inconvenience, and I can still buy beer and bike stuff.

On an unrelated note, I dug out my old espresso machine last night whilst 
cleaning the kitchen.  It's an old Mr. Coffee ECM3 machine that I bought 
second hand over a decade ago.  I got the thing for a fiver, including the 
basket filter assembly and carafe, but missing the carafe lid.  I'd bought 
a second carafe (with lid) from a parts place on eBay, used the machine 
for the better part of a year before it went into storage until yesterday.

I gave the thing a once-over before firing it up, and I'm kinda glad I 
did: the top pressure cap was broken and wouldn't seal tight enough.  I'm 
not a steam mechanic, but working in the hose & fitting industry I know to 
leave steam well enough alone.

Thankfully, I found a replacement cap on eBay for fifteen bucks (three 
times what I paid for the espresso machine in 2007), so I'll be back in 
action soon.

While I *could* have bit the bullet and bought a new Espresso machine, I 
didn't feel like spending a bunch of my mad money on something I'd only 
use on occasion. 

Not when I have bikes to build/upgrade!