Angelika And I want to report on another groundbreaking event. After almost four years, we bought a dishwasher. Now, you might not find this too exciting, but I tell you, anyone who knows how much Michael and I hate washing dishes, and anyone who has visited us and experienced firsthand how the dishes pile up, and had to join in the dishwashing routine, will not only be happy for us but will thank us on their knees. Hey, stop the eye-rolling and gossiping. Now comes the funny part of the story. In our kitchen, it is impossible to install a dishwasher because the cabinets next to the sink are built in such a way that they can't be moved even a centimeter. This, by the way, seems to be a very common problem in American rental apartments, because there are rolling dishwashers available for purchase.

Maybe you can't quite imagine it, but as the name suggests, you roll the dishwasher up to the sink, connect its hose to the faucet, and off you go. This is, of course, not the most elegant solution in the world, as the machine then stands right in the way, and in our case, since our kitchen is so small, you can't reach the refrigerator or any cabinets when it's in operation. Yes, go ahead and laugh, I also wonder on a daily basis how it can be that in the land of unlimited possibilities, one sometimes feels transported back to the Stone Age, but we will put up with anything as long as we don't have to wash dishes anymore. By the way, we got the machine through Michael's colleague and friend Greg. He moved from Mountain View to San Francisco and, lo and behold, his new apartment already had a built-in dishwasher. So he offered to sell us his rolling one. Since he assured us that it is quiet and doesn't shake the whole house (that was our fear that had kept us from buying one before--you know, we live in a wooden house and the neighbor below us is a nagging goat), we are now proud owners of a dishwasher again. HURRAY!!!

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	Ikea, Finally
  	Bay to Breakers
  	How To Speak American with the Pros
  	US Basket of Goods and Services
  	What Germans Do Wrong in America
  	Clickety-clack and Thump!
  	The San Francisco Rental Market