So time has passed and yet another roommate has decided to move out. Apparently it's because he wants to be closer to work. I can't help feeling that there may be some misunderstanding regarding the way food costs are divvied up. Either way, Jeff and I have to find a new roommate, yet again, or move on...

In other home related news, I have done something which may receive mixed responses from the peanut gallery. I have purchased a Roomba.

I'll wait for some of you to stop laughing.

For those of you who aren't laughing, you might not know what this Roomba thing is. No, it is not a dance. Rather, it is a little robotic vacuum cleaner that buzzes around your floor. Yes, its movements are dancelike.

No, it doesn't do a spectacular job. Yes, it still does a good job. Yes, it most certainly does a better job than I would do. Yes, it is adorable. Yes, you may grow to love it as you would a child. No, that would not be normal. No, buying it did not break the bank.

It follows walls, crisscrosses floors, and make other various movements over the course of its cleaning cycle to get complete coverage. You can keep it in one room either by setting up a Roomba "Virtual Wall", or you could just put a suitcase in the doorway. You can also set up a device called a "Lighthouse" which allows the Roomba to intelligently switch rooms when it is done with the first. When it is done cleaning, it goes back to the little charging station it calls home, parks itself, and plays a triumphant series of beeps (Yes, that is kind of like R2-D2). To empty the dustbin you just pull the butt off of it and dump the contents in the trash..

The Roomba is made by a company called iRobot which also makes a shopvac robot, a floor washing robot, and a gutter cleaning robot. The Roombas have been around for a number of years and are continuing to be successful. I've had my eye on them for a while, and since they're available at Costco I finally gave in and decided to give one a try. On Sunday it vacuumed the living room while I washed the kitchen floor.

Yes, I have decided to name it: Cavil.