Some of my best friends...

Scooba, affectionately known as "Scooby," is one of my dear friends.  Along with Roomba, and Garmin we have become something of a family within a family.  I have counted on them so many times, and they have come through for me so many times.  That last minute realization that I have company coming, and my kitchen is a disaster, there are dishes in the sink and not one square inch of kitchen counter showing?  No worries, Scooby will mop while I take care of the rest.  And I'll have a little friend to keep my company while I'm washing, clearing, organizing: a bumbling friend who wanders around drunk while I wash the dishes.  I occasionally have to rescue it from under the cabinets where it wedges itself too tight to move, but once I pull it out it staggers off leaving a trail of cleanliness behind it.

For a year my upstairs was the cleanest area of the house because we knew Roomba was coming out twice a week, whether the kids were ready or not.  There was no clutter because we had to stay ready for Roomba.  Sorry kids, gotta clean up, Roomba comes out tomorrow!  And that lovely feeling of walking upstairs to find it vacuumed while I was out, priceless.


Garmin is more my husband's friend.  He takes her on his business trips, I only get her on vacation.  But I learned to love her as I was wandering around Florida a couple years ago in a rental car that felt very strange to drive, with a sick kid threatening to throw up at any minute.  We had checked out of the conference hotel and I was trying to find the Disney hotel we were moving to for the remainder of our stay.  There's no way I could have followed even the most clear google map directions.  I needed someone sitting next to me calmly telling me where to turn...  and I had that in Garmin.

But Roomba's been sick for a while.  It makes a distinct persistent knocking when it starts, then stops.  There is a system of diagnosis, counting the beeps to analyze the problem.  I wish it would just tell me, but no, I have to count the beeps.  Roomba is my oldest electronic companion, and is way past warranty.  My understanding is once past warranty the nice people at iRobot become surly and monosyllabic.  If you're under warranty they're happy to help you, shipping of complete replacements without even raising their voices.  I know this because I've had both Scooby and Roomba replaced under warranty.  This of course does not bode well in the long term.  Scooby had a minor hiccup recently but a quick online search gave me a quick solution, and we were back in business.

I'm feeling better because my house is somewhat cleaner, my primary program is half written, and I was able to steal some time to work on the sweater I'm trying to finish (pictures when it's done).  Today while the girls were distracted with playdates, I made the felted rose for Thing 2's purse which my mother knitted and felted for her. It is the first time I've felted anything.  I have to buy a magnetic clasp thing to sew on it, and it will be done.

Please excuse the fuzziness of the pictures, they're from my phone's camera. Too lazy to drag out and upload from the real camera.