Have you ever run your dishwasher

Nope, the main reason being I have never had a Dishwasher besides myself. And it never fails that I have a ton of dishes to do afterwards even if I try to wash them as I go. But if I did have one I would just wash the biggest things and make it so i wouldn't have to run it twice.

I have had the experience of dishes piling up. Specific to holidays, perhaps. That would make sense as I tend to like to have people over to my house. I haven't really given it much thought, however. Often, I have one of my family over to my house that enjoys cooking. As a result, I or my wife have to clean the dishes. (It only seems fair.) It is a shame that I don't have a family member that enjoys doing dishes. That would be ideal. :)

Yes. I have donje this quite often, especially when we eat at home more than once per day. I cannot stand dirty dishes.

Since I am the dishwasher I will often run a load through my hands more than once a day. I rather like the idea of once a day though :)

I normally fill the dishwasher up and hand wash anything that does not fit into the dishwasher in one load. Sounds like you had quite a few dishes used up yesterday.