You were right! It was the crud in the solonoid (plus a frozen motor)!

Thanks to everyone here, I was able to fix the dishwasher clog caused by
all the debris that came out of the water heater repair. Complete pictures,
as always, are posted.

For example, so the next person benefits, please see the updated pictures
of the tremendous amount of dishwasher sand in the mesh filter cup inside
the blue "solonoid" at the bottom left of the GE Nautilus dishwasher.See
http://www.flickr.com/photos/donnaohl

At first, I checked and cleaned the "air gap" as many recommended (this
caused a flood as the airgap had a plug of its own that I forgot to put
back once I got the dishwasher working). Without that cap on the air gap,
water shoots up six inches all over the countertop as shown in the photos I
uploaded so the next person benefits.

As for teh solonoid, I unplugged the power and removed the four 8mm screws
holding the blue solonoid together and water splashed all over the place,
this time on the floor as the water supply must be turned off. I got the
camera all wet trying to take a shot of THAT fiasco for you boys!

Nonetheless, I did take a good shot of the horribly clogged mesh filter
that was inside the solonoid. This wasn't the only culprit though. The
motor in the middle on the bottom wouldn't start. I guess it has been
turned off for so long it froze shut. I had to oil it and cajole it into
spinning with a screwdriver but it finally worked and now the dishwasher
has gone through two cycles and it seems to be repaired.

Thank God 'cuz I can't figure out how to remove it from the kitchen (see
the photos of the screws that were holding it in that are tiled over on the
top so they will never come out). Who builds these things that way anyway?

Donna