so apparently i've been using the dishwasher wrong. growing up, my mom always washed dishes by hand, and i followed suit. i never used the dishwasher until we moved to our current house almost 5 years ago (wow, has it really been 5 years?!?!). i started using it when our friends were telling us how you actually use less water and energy using the dishwasher. but i was doing it all wrong! i would rinse and rinse and make sure all the food stuffs were completely gone from the dishes, cups, bowls, utensils. well, turns out, if you have a newer, more modern dishwasher (which we do) this is unnecessary and doing so actually wastes more water and energy, and can actually ruin glass cuz the enzymes in the detergent need something to "eat." we use eco-friendly, milder dishwashing detergents, so i still had my doubts, but i tried this approach and whaddayouknow...it works! my dishes came out nice and clean, even tho i didn't scrape off the food. hmm...better late than never i guess?