Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for April 30, 2016

Washing dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. I hope all they’re doing is sterilizing them.

Larry’s a free loader!

Laura should let Buckles do it, he’s more efficient.

Well at least he has fun with it.

There should be support groups for people who wash their dishes before they put them in the dishwasher. Scrap off the big pieces, yes; but washing them twice ort of defeats the purpose. And dishwashers use less water than doing them by hand.

Is anyone else thinking of the scene towards the beginning of the Hobbit when the Dwarves clean Bilbo’s dishes? They even had a nice song to go with it.The Hobbit-Blunt the Knives scene

Problem is, Larry is a one trick pony.Let him try that with the vacuum-cleaner.

Larry’s also the official sweeper-upper of broken glass.

Laughing Loader lightly lifts… Laura laments loaded Larry…

You don’t often find free loaders.

Agitator- That would be Jonathon’s job.

I’ll just bet he’s loaded!

Larry’s probably a freeloader, as well.

Love the dog IN the dishwasher! LOL

Well… here I am…...….what, nobody here?What are you all doing… sleeping?? Well…. I was … but I just woke up in my chair…Doesn’t anybody want to play?Sigh…..

Hey… get a load of Larry…..

In re: pre-washing dishes.

I don’t have a dishwasher… tiny place, no room… and it’s just me….I usually don’t have to wash dishes, I just wash the dish.

But when it comes to loading other people’s dishwashers…. I’m one of those scorned pre-washers… or at least a thorough rinser.

It’s the way I was trained. I guess never having had a modern one of my own, I’m used to loading the 1960’s-70’s ones that belonged to my parents and in-laws…If you left egg yolk or gravy it got baked on…bits of strawberry left in the dessert bowls came out glued to dinner plates.

So I still hear my Mom asking whether I got everything off them before I pushed the button….which, come to think of it, is probably why I never thought owning a dishwasher mattered.

Oh…. and just in case you come back, Shika…. and anybody upset about the Victorian animal photos.

I really wanted to post this Friday but never made it back on time….So… just to set the record straight:

Those are NOT dead dogs… or cats and rabbits.Yes… there are Victorian photos of costumed and posed taxidermied animals…. but most of them look ghoulish…lopsided, with glass eyes and stiff limbs.I’d post one but they’re mostly creepy.

There were also several well known (in their time) photographers who made popular postcards, cabinet cards and books of costumed, live baby animals in anthropomorphic poses.

On an old computer I had dozens taken by one of them, whose name I couldn’t remember…

but I found him again yesterday….Harry Whittier Frees….

I thought Bev’s pup with the bass was one… and it was.Also a lovely little white terrier on a scooter… I used her on a card but haven’t been able to find it again, or recover that old hard drive.

There are websites claiming he used dead animals… but absolutely no proof, and it makes no sense, with their bright-eyed faces and shiny noses.

You can see some of his work, and what he said about the animals…. by clicking HERE

4:36 on a Sunday. Temp 83, not a cloud in the sky. Last post 10 hours ago…………….

Yeah, I remember when I was a kid and all our dishes were cheap plastic.