Dishwasher Death & Halloween

So my entire childhood we had no mechanical dishwasher at my parents house.  When I got married, I became the dishwasher.  This continued for the first 12 years of our marriage.  We move into our new house almost 5 years ago and FINALLY the house has a dishwasher.  The amazement never ceased, what fun it was to load dirty dishes into this lovely door in my cabinets, put in a magic soap pack and low and behold clean dishes!  I was ecstatically happy in the kitchen for the last few years because i did not have to wash a sink-full of dirty dishes.   That happiness came to a screeching halt last Friday, on Halloween to be exact.  My husband loaded the last of the stray glasses from the night before and loaded the magic soap pack and started the washer.   I walked into the kitchen to fix my daily cup of coffee(2 teaspoons of sugar, 3 tablespoons of fat free half and half)  and what do I smell?   The stench of burning stuff mechanical insides.  I opened the door to the washer and there was not a drop of water coming out of the thing.  So I turned it off before it burned my house down and left for work.  

I called my husband and told him the bad news and he could not believe it.  He told me to leave it off and he would check it after work.  

We were having a Halloween party that night and when I got home from work, I had to take out all the disgusting dishes that had not only spent the entire day inside, they had spent the entire night too.  Well needless to say they were ripe!  I started with the glasses and the other top shelf stuff and proceeded to hand wash them.  I carefully laid them out on my counter on a bath towel.  I don't even own a dish drainer! Well I finally finished all the rest of the dishes started on the pasta with meatballs, thank God for Smart and Final meatballs.  I made the garlic bread from scratch, well I melted the butter with garlic, spread it on the rolls, added Parmesan cheese and broiled them to toasty goodness.   My friend brought bagged Caesar salad, my other friend got the sodas.  All the teenagers had a great time, the adults had a great time and all was well with Halloween.

I finally called the home warranty company this afternoon and the nice lady helped me and I should be getting a call from the contractor tomorrow.  I am tired of dishpan hands and wet aprons.  

P.S.  these are NOT my dishes, but I have been feeling like they are!