Alex the repairman

I noticed the other day that there was a compacted napkin and a big ol' wad of chewing gum in the bottom drain part of the dishwasher. This made me a little irritated, since I know I wouldn't have had such a big glob of gum on my plate… I managed to pick out the napkin bits, but when I tried to get the gum out, it slipped further down into the drain. great. I took out the bottom shelf in hopes of better accessibility, but simply taking the drawer out apparently turned it into a "manly" project. Alex was suddenly very interested in helping out!

He got the screwdriver and started taking things apart to get to where the gum was. After much exertion on his part, he had the thing half disassembled and the main part of the drain separated from the water line, etc. He probably would have taken more of it apart except mean mom put the kibosh on all that. I was slightly afraid he wouldn't remember how to put it all back together!

Unfortunately, after all his great attempt, it turned out we couldn't remove the little piece blocking access to where the gum had slipped. I got a straw, stabbed it into the hole, and pulled the gum out. Solved in 30 seconds… but the project was an entertaining bit of evening. He decided that being at such an odd angle and without being able to support himself by balancing his weight on the door (didn't want to damage the door) was challenging and not something he really liked to do. I pointed out that while plumbers have important jobs, he should remember the discomfort when he doesn't feel like applying himself in school…