A completely random spam email I got this morning at work. I kinda like it.
I’ll take the position
assume the missionary part
you work by committee
you had me pegged from the start.
I’ll be pounce pony
phony maroney
pony before the cart.
I’ll be pounce pony.
this ceremony
only fills my heart.
who cast the final stone?
who threw the crushing blow?
someone has to take the fall
why not me?
a punch toy volunteer
a weakling on its knee.
is all you want to hear
and all you want to see.
romantically, you’d martyr me
and miss this story’s point
it is my strength, my destiny
this is the role that I have chosen.
Saturday night we had a lovely evening with Will, Ele and Finn. They arrived around 6 for dinner. I made the boys’ favorite sweet potato and salmon recipe, and for the adults I made salt-and-pepper salmon with mashed white sweet potatoes and roasted asparagus. Yum! Will and Ele were kind enough to bring libations, both beer and wine.
We had a nice time catching up, eating and drinking. The boys did pretty well playing together. Mostly, Henry enjoyed playing near Finn and Finn loved playing with Henry’s multitude of toys. Finn is getting so big, using words and repeating sounds. He’s really growing up! When it was getting late and time for them to go home, we convinced them to stay a bit longer by giving both the boys a bath. That was a fun time and they both did great.
Saturday afternoon, Dave’s brother Kevin, his wife Mary, and their three kids all arrived from Cleveland. We are so excited to have them here as most of them have never been here before.
We had a nice chicken dinner last night and waffles for breakfast this morning. The waffles went over better with the kids. 🙂
Today we went to a local park to let the kids run out some energy. They had a great time at the playground.
Tonight Mom and Gene come over for a big family dinner. It’s sure to be a chaotic, fun time!
I really, really want a Roomba. With Henry spending so much of his time crawling around on our floors, I love the idea of having the Roomba maintain our carpets, hardwoods and vinyl on a daily basis. I realize that a Roomba does not replace regular vacuuming with an upright. But the idea of having a daily maintenance plan for all the dust, food, cat hair and Jeni hair on our floors just thrills me with delight. (I know, I should get a life.)
Depending on the model, the Roomba will turn on at a specified time, undock itself from its charging station, and then go clean its appointed area. It cautiously beep-beep-beeps as it backs of its dock — how adorable! If it finds areas with higher concentrations of dirt, it will focus on that area. It will switch from carpet to tile to hardwoods effortlessly. When its program is finished, or when the battery is getting low, it will go back to its dock and settle in for a nice recharging nap.
It sounds so lovely. *Sigh*
Of course, it doesn’t always work that way. The 400 model series don’t have a home base to return to, so you have to find the Roomba whereever it died, then plug it in to recharge it. They also don’t have scheduling capabilities. On the other hand, several of the 500 models have known flaws in the design and require a little more frequent maintenance or replacement of parts.
A Roomba with basic features (the Roomba Red) starts at $150, but there is no self-charging home base with that model. The 500 series Roombas, which have more features and more standard accessories, start around $250 and seem to have some enduring flaws. Top-of-the-line Roombas can sell for as much as $550.
On the other hand, there are used Roombas of all flavors on Craigslist, ranging from $75 – $350. Some of these are unopened, new-in-box. Some of them are “gently used” and some are probably two years old or older.
Everything I’ve read about Roombas say pretty much the same thing: “It worked great while it lasted.” That means if I get a new one, it might only last two years before pooping out on me. Which makes paying full price for a new one a bit hard to swallow. On the other hand, if I buy a used one the life expectancy may be significantly shortened, but I won’t be out that much cash. But buying electronics from a person off the street with no warranty protection just seems nutty. Another idea I had was to buy one at full price and use it for a few weeks, then return it. That way I could evaluate just how much I like it and how handy it is. That might help me make a purchase decision.
Dave says I don’t blog about the cats enough, and he’s right. It’s been a year since I posted pictures of our cats. Here are some cute pictures from the past 365 days.
