I went to Bed Bath and Beyond today with a “20% off any one item” coupon with the intention of picking up an organizer for the mess of plastic sacks we have in the closet. I walked out the door with that organizer… and a Roomba Discovery robotic vacuum.

I’ve been looking at the Roomba for a while, and with my tax return and the 20% off… well, the novelty of the thing just broke through my barrier. It ended up running me $200 all told, and let me tell you: Based on novelty alone I’ve got my $200 worth already. Watching it chase the cat around is way too funny.

It’s in the process of cleaning its first room now. I started it in my living room/dining room, where there’s no furniture, just to see how it works. It’s actually pretty interesting. It seems to follow a pattern as yet undetectable to me. It moves with a purpose - like, it’ll move halfway into the room, then turn a certain amount, then head straight to the wall - so I’m pretty sure it’s not just randomly floating about. But it’s not doing anything discernable to my robotically-untrained eye.

That said, I’m looking at where the tracks have been and it seems to have cleaned things up pretty well so far.

I primarily got it for the wood floors in the house. I don’t mind vacuuming too much, but sweeping the wood floors is a pain in the ass. (We have a lot of wood floors.) If I can get the Roomba to do it, so much the better.

Plus, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten a gadget, and I’d classify this as a gadget.

I’ll keep you posted on it. Thus far - pretty cool.