My life with the Dish Zealot

One of the best things about Zach is that he does all of the dishes. Which, considering we don't have a dishwasher, is quite the undertaking. I wash the odd glass now and then, but by and large the dishes are his domain.

Unfortunately, that means that he can be a little overzealous in protecting his precious operation. I'll be cutting up some meat for dinner, turn away for one second and find that my knife has vanished. After retracing my steps, racking my brain as to where I could have put it, I finally catch a glimpse of its handle, bobbing around in the murky depths of the sink, soaking with all his other victims. See, Zach is also a little overenthusiastic in his belief that every has  to soak before it can be cleaned. I've tried to explain that soaking is only necessary if there is actually food crusted onto the item, but he insists otherwise. And since he does the dishes, the idea of anything developing a food crust and requiring a little extra scrub is his worst kind of horror. So, he vigilantly grabs anything he can see sitting out and thrusts it in to soak, never mind if I'm still using it or not.

It's almost impossible for me to cook without at least one dish related casualty. A few nights ago, after placing my diced raw peppers into the frying pan to saute, I turned to the fridge to grab an onion, destined to meet its end on the cutting board. Or at least it was, until in the blink of an eye it had meet a watery grave. Today I got a plate out to dish up some pasta for dinner, went to the stove and came back just in time to catch the culprit claiming yet another innocent victim. Sure, I can resuscitate them with a little soap, clean water and a dish towel, but it can be a little tiring trying to save the innocent dishes that get caught in his dish zealotry.

I swear, one of these days he's going to take a plate of food I've just dished up, assume that they're leftovers I carelessly left out, scoop the food into the trash and place the plate to soak. After all, you can never be to careful with the potential for food crusts. I'm glad he does the dishes vigilantly, I really am (mostly). But once, just once, I wish he could dial it down a tad.