vacuum

because I said I would - I'm back to update the status of the vacuum.

in the 10 years we've lived away from Iowa (next month!) we've owned 5 vacuums. they've all lasted approximately 2 years. that is just nuts as far as I'm concerned. they've all been in the $150-200 range -- nothing completely expensive but nothing that we found in the bargain bin. a few of them have been recommended by Consumer Reports, a couple of them just looked good. whatever.

when our latest vacuum died, we'd had enough. we debated whether or not to replace it with yet another mediocre vacuum or to take the plunge and spend a little more and hope it'd last us a little longer. we joked about buying a kirby, as they'd managed to bamboozle me last year and wiggle their way into our home to give me a demonstration. since we weren't going to shell out $2K for a vacuum, we needed to go check out the dyson's.

we are the proud owners of a new dyson slim. so far so good. so good in fact, that we've already emptied the canister several times. we *thought* we had decently clean carpet before. we thought wrong. (disclaimer: this is a common theme in the reviews of the vacuum. you think you have a reasonably clean carpet and then you use a dyson. you realize how NOT clean your carpet is)

and now you know. and knowing is half the battle.