Roomba's First Run

This is my new "friend" the Roomba Discovery. If you remember my Weekend Reflection post from a couple of weeks ago, I bought him on in the most recent Woot Off. Given how much I have been gone from home, I finally got the chance to run him last Saturday. I thought I should be home the first time it ran just to see how it worked. It was actually faster and quieter than I thought it would be.

It ran into no major problems and it returned to it's base to charge itself when it was full or when the battery was low... whichever came first. It doesn't have a terribly large bin for the stuff it picks up but I was still thoroughly impressed! So impressed that I did not feel compelled to run my Dyson to pick up any remaining dirt when it finished its run. I am not a big fan of cleaning but vacuuming is one task that I don't hate.

However, I don't have time to vacuum as often as I would like and I think that the Roomba is going to be the perfect solution! All I have to do is hit one button and it will run while I am out and about. It even gets under things like the Love Seat that I can't easily get under with the Dyson.

I left it running Sunday morning while I was at church and it got caught on a bad spot on the carpet. That wasn't the Roomba's fault and it just waited for me to come home and attend to it. I tried again Sunday night while I was at church and it ran with no trouble. It was safely resting on it's base waiting for it's next adventure.

I love gadgets so this one is right up my alley. It helps keep the house cleaner and it requires little work on my part. It's really cute too. :-) It plays a little song when it starts and it has a little rotating brush that helps it to know when it has run into a wall or a piece of furniture. Now I just have to come up with a name for it... any ideas?

I'm also not sure how Brun is going to react to it. He is terrified of the Dyson and goes to the opposite side of the house and hides. This one can "chase" him around the house so my guess is that he will hate it. I may have to limit its run to times when Brun is outside. I'll report on that next time I run it when he is around.

Woot Monkey Video

Some of you have asked "What is a Woot Monkey??" Well I don't have a good way to take a video and I don't really know how to post one so I borrowed this one from YouTube. Mine has a black cape but other than that it looks and works just like this one. You basically pull it's rubber band arms to stretch it out and then let it go.

Yes the scream is really that annoying so I'm sure that none of you want your children to have one. :-) They really have no point... they are just a collector's item from the Woot website that show up at the end of a Woot Off. They sold 10,000 of them in two minutes last week so they are pretty hard to get. Yes I realize some of you are still saying "Why would you want one?" But I wanted one so I now have three. :-)

Weekend Reflections

Well it has been another good and busy week. I was in town most of the week so I would say this week was a little less busy than usual.

Last Sunday was spent at church and then at a picnic with our small group from church. This is a program started within our congregation to help us get together in smaller groups in order to get to know each other better and encourage each other to participate in activities. After the picnic I came home and watched the Talladega NASCAR race. As a big NASCAR fan I was a little sad not to be a few hours away at the race but I was also quite happy to be watching it from my couch and not fighting the traffic, crowds and heat.

Monday and Tuesday were your typical work days with normal evening activities. On Wednesday I got a haircut. It really needed it so I was happy to get that taken care of. My hair grows pretty slow so I usually go three or four months between haircuts. Haircuts are stressful to me so I am glad that I don't have to have them any more often than I do.

Thursday was my last day of work for the week... yea!! Thursday right after work I headed to my hometown for a class I was taking on Friday. When I got to my hometown Thursday evening I was able to attend a singing that my parent's congregation was having in one of the member's home. I like the church in the town where I live but I LOVE the congregation where my parents attend. I could go on for hours about why I like my parent's congregation but for now I will just say that I was very happy to be able to gather with some of the folks from their congregation and sing praises to God. Unfortunately, Amberly and her family weren't able to be there because of the "crud" she had late this week.

On Friday I was able to take a class on using my new sewing machine. I will write more on my new machine next week so for now you will have to be in suspense. :-) The class was very informative and I learned a lot. After class my dad, Brun and I headed back to the town where I live. My mom joined us in my town after she got off of work and we were all able to go out to dinner. After that I spent some time using my new sewing machine.

Then this morning the doorbell rang at 7:58 AM. Because my parents were in town, I was sleeping on the couch. You can't really see the couch from the front door so I opted to continue to lay on the couch and ignore the doorbell. I was not awake at 7:58 AM on Saturday morning but my mom was so she went to the door. Apparently the extra early FedEx man brought my Woot monkeys!!!!! When my mom said "The Woot monkeys are here" I popped right up off the couch and tore into the box. I am easily entertained so I was thrilled to get them. :-)

After I opened the Woot monkeys and slingshotted them around the house a few times I laid back down and went back to sleep. Apparently I was pretty tired because I slept until 10 or so regardless of the fact that everyone else in my house got up at 8 or before. After I finally got up I did a little bit around the house and then spent all of the afternoon at the house where my brother lives. This is my grandparent's house and we are trying to do some things to get it ready to sell and so there was lots to be done this afternoon.

After I left there I came back to my house and cooked dinner for my parents and I and continued on some sewing projects. I had several things (mostly graduation presents) I had to finish to send back with my parents so I finally got all of that wrapped up. Leslie, ToolMan and CRB dropped by for a little while to check out the new machine.

So I am thankful for a lot of things this week... I am thankful that I was able to be home most of the week, I am thankful for my parents, I am thankful for good church congregations that I was able to spend some time with this week, I am thankful for my new sewing machine, I am thankful to have my dog back at home with me... and even though I am tired from painting and scraping windows I am thankful for the physical ability to do things like that.

I hope everyone else had a great week! Go visit Judi at Mommy of Two for more Weekend Reflections.