Give me an R...Give me an O...

Give me a Roomba. Ever since the Roomba came on the market, I've been eying them. But with a hefty $200 price tag, I was never willing to purchase one in hopes that it would work on my sloped, crack ridden, wooden floors. And plus, if I were a good housewife, I would whip out my vacuum every night and clean up the remains of dinner the old fashioned way.

Truth is, I almost never whip out the vacuum. On particularly awful nights, the dust buster may make an appearance, but generally I sigh and think about digging through the makeshift cleaning closet for the vacuum, but then figure it is only a few more days until cleaning day, and a few more peas give or take never hurt anyone. Hey, maybe the cats will learn to like them.

A few weeks ago a playgroup mommy started to rave about her new acquisition, the Roomba. "It has changed my life," she proclaimed. "I no longer feel scuzzy walking through my house. Plus, it occupies the kids who love to sit and watch it go." Hmmm. A clean floor AND entertained kids. This merited some thought.

After listening to the Roomba's new walking advertisement a few more times, I decided I had to at least TRY it. But I was still unwilling to commit to its purchase without seeing it in action. So I did the unthinkable, I asked to borrow the Roomba.

After the initial shock of being asked to loan out her vacuum, she graciously handed it over for a test run. Tonight at dinner I let the kids fling with abandon, and even scattered dried play dough bits for good measure. Then we set the Roomba in motion. True to her word, my kids sat in their chairs for a good thirty minutes watching the vacuum bounce around the room sucking up bits of play dough and dinner scraps. While whipping out the vacuum probably would have taken much less time, the Roomba cleaned my floor like it has rarely been cleaned. I might actually consider eating off of it... well, not really. But you get the picture.

When I mentioned the wondrous turn of events to M, who is traveling and missed the whole Roomba demo, his response was predictably practical. "It took how long to do the kitchen? And how long would it have taken you to take out the vacuum and run it around? And it costs how much? Uh huh...." But my floor, it's clean. And I didn't have to do a thing except hit a button...do you think she'll notice if I don't give it back?