Susan, do you know the quick tarnish remover trick with Calgon and an aluminum pie plate? I think I got the tip from one of Haley's tips (and who knows any more where I saw those? PBS?) and made a note, but here's information from one of those eHow sites. I keep one of the disposable aluminum cake pans to do this in:

Set out an aluminum pie plate. If you don't have one, you can cover another type of pie plate with aluminum foil, shiny side up.

Pour two to three cups of hot water into the plate, enough to cover your silver items.

Add 1 tbsp. of table salt and 1 tbsp. of powdered water softener to the water. Stir to dissolve.

Place the discolored silver onto the aluminum for a few seconds and then remove. Often this is all that's needed to clean off the tarnish.

Rub the silver item with a clean soft cloth after removing it if the silver is badly tarnished.