I bought a Roomba at Costco two weeks ago and it's still in the box. This is making me question my commitment to it so it may be headed back. They have an exercise bike I've had my eye on that's about the same amount of money. (See above re chonkiness.)

I feel like trading a Roomba for an exercise bike should have some kind of metaphorical meaning

I use Noom and like it. I’ve lost 16 lbs in less than 2 months. The cutesy doesn’t bother me and I ignore some stuff (PB is a red food and IDGAF). ETA I am definitely eating a lot healthier and moving more, even though I still need to work on the latter part.

Timelies all!

Nova started meowing before 6, which ended up waking Mr. S up early. The day has gotten better since then, but I would like a good night's sleep for once.

I would love a Roomba, but I think it would freak out my dog.

So it definitely did freak out my cat (but maybe doesn't anymore?) but I kind of thought of it as enrichment for him, since his life is so boring otherwise.

I had to take another sick day today, because I was in too much pain to get to sleep until about 5 AM, and then still had so much brain fog that I knew I couldn't get through explaining calculus. A colleague covered my class. And I tried to officially put in the sick day request, but to do that, I had to VPN into the university network, and my computer was refusing to cooperate with that, and I got too frustrated, so I'll submit it tomorrow, I guess.

I had a cut-rate roomba for a while and it just didn't work that well. I have a small house with a lot of rugs to protect the HW floors, and a low sofa, and it just always got stuck in a corner, or fell off the step to the front porch, or got hung up on the corner of the rug. Just didn't work very well. I gave it to my niece and she has a bigger place with more open rooms, and it works well there.

I hope you feel better today, Hil.

I had a low end Roomba. It was nice, and while the cat didn’t love it, he was content to jump up on furniture and watch it from above. However, it could not cope with one cat’s fur. I’m sure it couldn’t deal with two. I got a Dyson that was specifically for pet households (on sale) , and that’s been great.

{{{Hil}}} This is beside the point but I think it's awful that you (the general you, meaning all of us, but also specifically you) have to jump through hoops to take a sick day when you are by definition not up to working so all those hoops are even harder

It has taken a week for me to find out that Verizon can't do one damn thing for my non-working phone except suggest that I pay off the balance I owe on it and upgrade. So that's swell. Not sure what I'm going to do about getting a new phone just yet but I don't think I will buy it through Verizon

Well, there's good news, which is, my first vax dose is scheduled for March 20th.

Then there's devastating news in that one of my closest friends lost her brother to a heart attack three days ago. He was maybe 56, father of two grown but still twenties kids. My friend had to deliver the news to her/their parents and their other sister. I cannot imagine any of this. Or, I don't want to. We, her friends, are circling the wagons, of course, but there's no actual defense against this kind of grief.

This is the family that took us all in as new college kids and have welcomed us every day since. Have spent countless occasions with them - weddings, holidays, vacations - and her brother was just a delightful human. Heartbroken for them.

ETA: I'm good. I just wanted to share it here, where it's safe.