We Like: A robot roams my house

So I got my family a Roomba for Christmas.

I should be clear: I am undoubtedly the person most excited about this. I may be the only person in the house excited about this. I am certain that the dog and the cat are not excited about sharing their space with a noisy hockey puck that keeps bumping against the couches and disturbing them. But I’m excited.

I’ve been dreaming of buying a Roomba for years. A real robot, one that does housework, like I read about in science fiction novels when I was a kid. It sounded like fun, but they were expensive and kind of impractical and I couldn’t bear the Glare of Irresponsible Purchases I would receive from my wife when I bought one, so I left it there.

But I watched, and waited, and bided my time. I went to camelcamelcamel and set up price searches for the models I was most interested in.…