This and That from Vancouver

1. Missing my dishwasher. Daughter does not have one and hand dishes are still the everlasting pits. While slogging through yet another set a few minutes ago, I wondered about kids who grow up without a dishwasher. How do they even know how to do hand dishes? The first questions is, where do you start? Grew up with no dishwasher and hand dishes were the norm, so I developed a system, based on my mother's. I mean, you have to attack a kitchen in chaos and this means overriding the mess with order. First, I would clear and scrape, then do the silverware, next the glasses, then plates, then pots and pans. In between I drained the water a couple of times and added more detergent and rinsed, rinsed, rinsed!

If you are like me and can't stand a messy kitchen, you would be out here in Vancouver doing hand dishes at least three times a day. When I was first married, I had to decide whether to get a dishwasher or a washer -- not enough $$ for both. After answering the question of what I had to do every day, I bought the dishwasher.

2. Bacon bits. That was part of the inscription on the commemorative bench on which I sat at Jericho Beach the other day while the dog romped with Susanne. The plaque read:
"Allan Chek Yin Lamb, 1978 - 2007. Friends are the bacon bits in the salad bowl of life. Live, love, eat, laugh, chillex."

The guy was only 29. This being Vancouver, I immediately thought of aids. (No idea what "chillex" means, but his friends must.) All the benches have such plaques and all are an intriguing mystery. Read a few others, but they just said, "In memory of Irene and Bill Rose, who love the sunsets", or "In honour of my parents...." But Allan's told a story. What was it?

3. Babies. Wandered through Babies R Us today because daughter and son-in-law are "expecting". Remember that one? No one was ever "pregnant". God no! That was too graphic. And people never died, they "entered into rest", or "passed away".

But back to the store. Can you believe that cloth diapers cost....wait for it....sit down....calm down.....$50 for five!!!!! When I had kids, you bought a pack of diapers for a few bucks; now they are gold. I was actually going to make a few cloth diapers, but they are so complicated, buying them was cheaper. The fact is that disposables cost more than $3,000 over the life of the pooping toddler, while the cloth variety cost about $1,000. If I had my way, I would buy the fabric and make a pile for $20, but that is not acceptable today.

Oh my, how old I am.........