Well, brut force won out after all. I managed to wiggle the bar that runs from the base of the dishwasher up the back to the top spinner. I was hoping to get it off, but it wasn't happening, so I just turned it a bit to the left, so I could remove the screen. The screen was the next pain in the tush, but I managed to remove that, too.

I had to use a turkey baster to get the remaining water out of the cup/basin under the screen. I sucked up some questionable stuff (barely any food particles). But, when it was entirely drained, I used a paper towel to pick up anything else that was in there. EWWW! I can only explain it as looking like labels washed off, but in massive quantities - a few huge globs. Oh! And a clear plastic tab. As I do not put anything with a label in there, I am assuming the gunk was food that couldn't get eradicated, but rather just broken down to some form by water and detergent? I don't know, but it was gross. And, at the same time, very cleansing. Ahhhhhh.

I couldn't pull that cup/basin out (I was hoping to get to the sump that I believe to be under there), so I moved on to the large screen around the bottom of the dishwasher. As it couldn't be removed, I just lifted it and wiggled it around. EWWW again. More gunk. I used a paper towel and chopstick to remove the "labelesque" stuff from under the screen.

I reassembled everything. Ran a load. It works! Yippee!!!!!

My dishwasher won't drain completely. There's just under 1" of standing water. I've never had this problem before. When it drained, it drained completely where any food would be dehydrated and easy to pick off of the bottom screen.

I've removed the spinner (technical term, I'm sure) and the thing underneath that. I see some gummy stuff floating around (almost like a pulverized label), but nothing to cause complete blockage. I'm afraid to remove any another parts as I don't see any screws and don't want to break anything with my brut strength. :D

I read the drain cycle is on a timer, so I thought maybe there was something blocking it last night, so it couldn't drain completely and now there's just too much water to move in the allotted time. So, I manually removed the water and gunk, and ran the rinse cycle again. The sink drain was making a LOT of noise, which I haven't heard in a while. I thought this might be a good sign, but it wasn't. I'm still left with ~ 1" of water.

I've read about cleaning a sump, but I don't know how to reach it on my model. No one seems to be addressing a screen that runs on the bottom of the dishwasher. Is it only my model that has this? I don't even see it in the parts manual.

Is my only other option to pull out the dishwasher and check the hose(s)?

Anything you can suggest would be greatly appreciated!

Lissa