It only took us 15 years to get around to buying one

That's right. We have been married 15 years in two months, and we have never owned a vacuum of our very own. When we were first married, and lived in a tiny, grungy apartment in B.C., we simply ignored the carpet. We were hardly ever home, we had no pets, we took our shoes off at the door and we never ate on it. Then we moved to a house in Langley and our border (one of those people who is thoroughly capable at all the practical things I am inept at -- we never could figure each other out) borrowed her parents'old one. Which still didn't stop us from ignoring the carpet most of the time. When we moved to Saskatchewan, there was a central vac system, so we used it. But about a year ago its suction started deteriorating until it got to the point where is basically just moved the dirt along. With two small boys and a cat, this has been a total disaster for the carpet.

So, as part of our push to get our house in a state where we can stay sane this winter, we bought a vacuum. And now I am spending about an hour a night scrubbing the carpet until the damn thing is at least uniformly discoloured.

This is the special attachment we received with it. I don't know if Dave bought it as extra or if it was a bonus. Its called the Power Paw. I don't know if you can read it, but it says its for picking up pet hair and doing stairs. Then in small print under the frightened looking cat is says : Do not use on animals.


It was good that they packed the vacuum in lots of styrofoam. That way, after Andrew was done constructing "stairs"(seriously), I could test it out on all the debris.


Also, why is it that when you look at photos of other people's children they are blissfully playing with their pretend food in their pretend kitchen, while my son


is making pancake and leftover salad stir fry. Um, in between taking bites out of the cold pancake. I guess its time for fridge locks.