I did it, I bought a ROOMBA!!!!

 

A couple of years ago, my friend Holly told me that I needed a Roomba, she has cats and swears by hers.  The price point is a bit hateful, so I didn’t buy it, but since then I’ve seen over and over again on Facebook people singing it’s praises, and nobody seems to have negative things to say about it.

The first time we saw our house, I told hubby I loved it but the floors would be a b*tch to keep clean because they were dark.  He kind of shook his head, I don’t think he really understood how unforgiving dark wood is.  But boy, does he ever get it now.  He’s the floor guy, and it’s a daily job, using the Swiffer and cleaning them with the Bona wet system.  We bought a Shark Cordless Vac and it helped but it was still a royal pain in the patootie.  

Out of desperation he started reading about the Roomba, and was quickly onboard.  We snagged a great deal, but that’s another blog post, fired it up and O . M. G. it does a phenomenal job with the floors.  This thing is seriously awesome, seriously!  I was worried about the sensors, since my floors are so dark, but she has no problems at all.  It runs for a long time, I walk by and say “Hi Hazel, great job you’re doing” while grinning like the cat that swallowed the canary.  If you have stairs, you can set up zones so that she doesn’t go near them, these are highly engineered, the company that builds them does a wonderful job.

Every morning she undocks herself, cleans the floors and then redocks to charge again.  And since I name everything, I named her Hazel, after the 60’s maid in the sitcom Hazel, one of my favorite shows of that era.

Here’s a video of Hazel in action, boy was she a “doozy."

If you’ve been considering a Roomba, I highly recommend it.  She goes from wood to carpet to tile with no problems.  She vacuums my closet, under my bed, along my cabinets, and she never complains or gets tired, Hazel is da bomb!!!!!

~ Jan

It'll Blow the Lid Right Off the Popper

If you are a certain age, you will remember Orville Redenbacher, the geeky guy from Valparaiso, Indiana, and how he always blew his lid right off the popper.  Our family has coughed up the big bucks for his popcorn since it first came out, nothing else compares with his big fluffy kernels, but we don’t do the microwave bags, too unhealthy.  We have had several Presto Microwave Poppers, you know the ones with the nasty little paper disk in the bottom.  But the poppers worked well, so I just spent a chunka change replacing those disks.

A couple of weeks ago, hubby was popping corn and the whole lid just broke in half and fell apart, so it was obviously time for a new one.  I checked them out on Amazon, decided that I just couldn’t handle that Presto one any longer, it’s time to update to silicone.

This silicone popper had good reviews, the price was right, $12.97 Prime, so I ordered it.  It’s pliable, folds flat, easy to store, at first hubby thought it was a bit small, but we quickly found out that it pops just the right amount.

No more nasty disks, you can put oil in the bottom (Orville Redenbcher’s Popping Oil, of course) and salt along with the popcorn, 1/4 cup seems to be the right amount, and in less than 3 minutes you have popcorn.  When you put the lid on, it sinks down in the bowl, but raises as the corn pops.

It’s a winner, winner, chicken dinner, check it out here if you need a new popper, too.