Roomba! Fix Me a Martini!

Sean and I recieved a Roomba (made ironically by a company called "iRobot" - do these people not read science fiction or watch Will Smith movies?) from a generous group of folks as a wedding present.

A Roomba is a robot that automatically vacuums your floors, independent of your feeble human help. You can program it to clean them a number of times a week, which frees up many hours to enjoy the important things in life, like watching season 2 of Mad Men while gorging yourself on popcorn. IMPORTANT!!

I was hoping that our Roomba would be a constant companion like Mr. Butlertron from Clone High, but I'll just have to settle for a robot that just vacuums.

Of all the things I thought I would never own, but now do, the Roomba definitely takes the cake. It blows the cell phone, the garage door opener and the time machine out of the water.

For those of you who haven't seen a Roomba in action, watch this informative and completely not entertaining video.

Then, watch this very entertaining, but not very informative video.

Woomba @ Yahoo! Video

I am confident that Sean and I have what it takes to harness this advanced techology - ability to program electronic devices, desire to terrorize our pets in new, creative ways and acute domestic laziness. That is the trifecta that drives most household innovation. To all those who doubted the Roomba, it works. It picks up cat hair and dust - the stuff that is most likely to be hanging around your floors. It doesn't pick up popcorn that you drop during shocking scenes in Mad Men, but it does pick up the dirt that your cat digs out of your large potted plant because he's a jerk and he's thinking that maybe, one day, he'll pee in said plant, but for now he'll just dig in it.

In the short time that we've owned it or should I say co-habitated with it, Sean and I have made a concerted effort to treat our Roomba with respect. We're hoping treating it kindly will ensure that no robot-led uprisings occur under our roof. Whether they be T-1000s or Cylons, a robotic uprising is never good, especially in Thunder Bay where the government has been plotting to destroy the city with lumber machinery for a century or two. I'm pretty sure there won't be a full-on sentient uprising at our place, but I can guarantee there will be a war between the feline inhabitants of the house and the Roomba.

Here's a taste of what will be in store for our cats.

I promise to post videos of our cats "interacting" with the Roomba (I'm picturing Robo riding around on it, wearing driving gloves and goggles with a white scarf that flaps in the breeze), but until then, here are some more instructional videos on how to terrorize, um, I mean, care for your cat. These videos are long, but they are VERY funny.

One last thing about Roomba! Roomba is so awesome that a sensitive young recording artist from Brazil named Pitbull who is respectful to women wrote this little ditty about it. You know you want it. It knows it wants you.