The Romance of Dishwashing

Some people think they have the best husbands ever. I'm very happy for them, but I have to disagree. From the very beginning daltonboy has proved himself to be amazing, which has earned him the title of TSMITW (the sweetest man in the world). As my friends marry, they are forced to add numbers on to the end of that (i.e., TSMITW2) if they want their husbands to be considered in the same league with DB. Or, maybe he just got there first.

Anyway, he continually reasserts himself as the best, in my opinion. He is also the funniest. Take last week, for example. It became apparent from the increasing sponginess of the kitchen floor and subsequent discovery of water streaming from the dishwasher that we needed to replace that appliance. There were a couple of other things wrong with the thing, so we went shopping. Also, we didn't want to ruin our streak of spending the tax return before we even submit the forms to the IRS.

As we looked, DB set out the ground rules. These are the brands he would not consider: Whirlpool, GE, Maytag. Fine with me. What I really wanted was a Bosch, but I pretended not to be greedy. I pointed out that while he had had considerable experience with certain brands, which maybe made him an expert and able to confidently say that they sucked, certain others maybe had only failed him or someone he knows once, and possibly different models would be okay. And that's when he said, right there in the Lowe's:

"My good opinion once lost is lost forever."

I said, "You're a lot like Mr. Darcy in that way."

He said, "Yes. I am. I'm like Mr. Darcy in a lot of ways. But especially in that way, as regards dishwashers."

It was like I was living right in a romantic movie, only without the Edwardian clothes and prettyish wildernesses, and surrounded by more hardware and floor tile and stuff. Also I was laughing my head off.

And then DB bought me a lovely Bosch dishwasher and installed it without throwing any tools through the window even though it was really hard, and it's the greatest. And so is daltonboy.