Lil'Buddy 

“The future is here, and it's kinda cute…”

This weekend I picked up an iRobot Roomba – a robotic vacuum. Canadian Tire had this model on a significant sale price which was enticing enough for me to buy it. I've thought about getting one for awhile but the the $400 price range seemed too high for something that was still more whimsy than practical. With the price drop (and a fistful of Canadian Tire dollars) it became more attainable. I rode to the store on my bike with my trailer attached and unbelievably the boxed vacuum fit perfectly in the trailer's duffel bag. Destiny, I suppose. So – I bought a piece of 21^st technology and brought it home via a piece of 18^th technology.

My first assessment is that if you hired a person to sweep up and they did this job, you'd want your money back, but because it's a robot, it's fun and awesome. When it disappears under the bed you wonder what it's looking for, then when it emerges covered in dust and trailing dust bunnies behind it, you think, "oh, how cute" rather than, "hang on… you're making it worse!" Hopefully a weekly robotic sweep-up will help keep the apartment a little more presentable.

All Roomba needs is a couple of googly eyes and it will double as a pet.

…or maybe I just need a couple of more pets to share it with -


I have to admit, I was completely unaware of this pet(s)-plus-Roomba YouTube genre