Home improvement for the lazy

We didn't buy much in the way of gifts this holiday season. That was deliberate - we really have all the things we need here.

What we don't have nowadays is time. Between Jane's job and my business, we hardly saw each other over the last month or so. So this past weekend, I went out and made a purchase (with a handy 20% off coupon) at our local Bed, Bath, and Beyond. It's purpose: to let us ignore some of the annoying chores in the home so we can actually get a little more "together time".

The purchase? A Roomba Discovery robot vacuum cleaner.

Why, you might ask? Well, day-to-day cleaning is one of those things it's tough to stay on top of when you hardly have any time. So I figured we'd try this and see if it performs as advertised - if it works well, then we get to deal with an annoying, time-consuming chore by putting Roomba down on a floor and pressing a button. So far, the results are encouraging.

The only thing Roomba doesn't like is fringe - which is only a problem in our dining room. All the other rooms it can handle fine. We're going to get rid of the fringe-containing rug sometime soon anyways, because it's pretty tattered (and it only cost $79 when we bought it a decade ago). Roomba doesn't replace a "real" vacuum cleaner, but it means you have to use the real vacuum a lot less often. Today, while Jane and I watched TV and read together, Roomba cleaned most of our upstairs for us.

Which is what I call multitasking.