Not OP, but with the aforementioned schedule, there are still weekends before and after that are still very valuable. The weekend before vacation could be used to catch up on chores and errands that would be nice to get done before the vacation, plus maybe pack. Then when you get back, your coming home to a clean place and not having to deal with running around straight away. Just be ready for only two days of work. Then another weekend to get rested up before a full week of work.

Two weekends bookending two half weeks of work bookending a week off from work is very nearly the same as a week of vacation and a week of staycation for only 5 vacation days. Sure you can’t go out of town for an extended period with that plan, but I’m kinda ready to go home after 4-5 days away anyway.

It’s not too difficult to buy a pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts, prep them, throw them into the oven, cool them, and slice them up. That’s an option if you want a new little project to master which is also serving your function of healthier, fresher lunch meat.

Easy rundown: trim off and discard fat. Butterfly the breasts. Spray a sheet pan and put them on there. Either put Italian dressing or custom seasonings and white wine on the chicken. Throw the pan into the oven at 325°F until it hits 160°F (165 is food safe but residual heat will get it across the finish line). I’d set a timer for like 20 minutes and then temp and assess. It’s easier to slice up without tearing if the chicken has had a chance to cool down.

I have been taking more or less the same sandwich to work for about ten years now. Whole grain bread, mayo, two slices of cheese (different kinds), and a bunch of lunch meat (usually turkey or chicken). Rarely, I’ll sub a good mustard in for the mayo. Or I’ll add tomato slices or avocado. A while back, my wife pickled some cucumbers so I had homemade pickles on my sandwiches. For a good while now since then, she’s been pickling jalapenos for me to put on the sandwiches.

If I didn’t have that, I’d probably reach for my spicy BBQ sauce or Sriracha from Underwood Ranch. They’re not paying me, but I really want them to succeed so I can keep buying their sauces. They got fucked over by that green cap rooster brand that makes Sriracha, so now instead of supplying their peppers to them, they just make their own shit and it’s amazing. They have a garlic pepper sauce that I blew through really quickly. That shit would probably slap on my sandwiches too, but it didn’t last long enough to try lol. It was good in mac and cheese though. And stir fry.

Is it weird that I try to make sure to say fuck somewhere whenever I recommend any specific product just to avoid any accusations of it being an ad? This isn’t an ad. Fuck Disney. Cum on a Big Mac. Shit on a Bugs Bunny plushie. There, now no corporation would want to be associated with this comment.

The generation that raised you will say “yeah, duh, it’s common sense” without a hint of introspection to realize that it was their job to teach you this kind of shit.

Between the Technology Connections channel on YouTube just being legitimately interesting and having just bought a house, I’m speedrunning a lot of information about DIY maintenance to mitigate the disasters. When it comes to knowing how your water heater works or where your main water valve is, better late than never. Routine stuff like cleaning your dishwasher filter and running the machine properly will have immediately recognizable effects that greatly benefit your life. And unlike other people who you’ve heard shit like that from, I’m not selling anything lol.

As a rule of thumb, it’s good to clean that filter roughly every month. Since you’re using rinse aid, I recommend just cleaning the filter every time you top that off. To minimize how much the filter catches, give dishes a little rinse before loading to at least knock off the bigger stuff.

There are a few things that most people don’t know to do for optimal dishwasher effectiveness:

• Don’t use pods. Ideally use dry detergent, but liquid is good too. You have no control over pods.
• Don’t cram it full. Give everything space and have it all face down and/or toward the center where the jets of water will come from.
• Don’t put big shit in there that will block the spinning arms from spinning.
• Put a little detergent on the detergent door for a little assistance in the rinse cycle.
• You probably don’t need to fill the detergent door (unless you’re doing a heavy load of stubborn shit), and overdosing the detergent could be contributing to cloudiness on your dishes. Obviously, close the detergent lid. If not, you’re throwing all of your detergent away in the initial rinse cycle.
• Run hot water through your kitchen sink until it feels hot before you start your dishwasher. Your machine doesn’t use much water, so it might just grab cold water from the pipes instead of hot water from your water heater if you don’t do this. And everybody knows that hot water is better for cleaning most things.
• The dishwasher takes like 3-4 goddamn hours to run, but it uses way less water and soap than if you handwashed that shit yourself, plus it can run while you work or sleep.
• Most things can go in the dishwasher. The only stuff I don’t run through there are knives, my cast iron cookware (including Dutch ovens because they’re just cast iron coated in enamel), and things that explicitly say that they’re not dishwasher safe.

Follow those simple steps and your dishwasher will work better and you’ll feel like you reclaimed a bunch of time compared to handwashing or rerunning the dishwasher.