snow white

Raise your hand if you hate buying vacuum cleaners....... I will assume a million and one hands just went up. This is quite possibly the lamest post ever but it's Friday, it's my last day of work before maternity leave and I am pretty excited about my new toy once I got over the initial sticker shock. I'm a cheap girl well I prefer conservative/ thrifty and I think that's why I really hate dropping money on things like vacuum cleaners. I was in denial that ours was shot for about a solid month till hubby finally put his foot down and stood firm we needed a new one.

The last one we bought was a Bissel, it lasted all of less than 3 years and I think it ran a pretty $200 or so at Target. It killed me to buy it, we mulled it over for a week checking consumer reports and online reviews and in the end it didn't matter anyway. This time I was ready to just go buy a cheap $50 dirt devil and call it a day. Hubby wasn't so convinced though he wanted to go a different direction.

He talked me into going to the Vacuum Cleaner store around the corner from our house last night. We had a big conversation before we left about how much money I was comfortable spending, how I'd signal him to run if I felt a panic attack setting in, and how not to look like we had a big fat targets on our foreheads to the salesman. When we walked in we were greeted by a man who turned out to be a really nice guy named Ray. Long story short I didn't have a panic attack, we spent more than I wanted but I think we got a really great machine- a Riccar, that came with a 3 year warranty including parts and labor and Ray assured me that it would reasonably last us 10 years. Ray even said we lived so close he'd make a house call if we ever had trouble. Well that's a better deal than Target or that damn Bissel could offer so we took it. I have to admit I was smitten with the fact that she looked to pretty- I had never seen a white vacuum cleaner before, I decided I would call her Snow White. So $333 later we left with Snow White and a half a dozen bags.

When we got home Nick and I had a short debate over who got to use it first. We compromised- I got to use it upstairs first and then he got to do the stairs and the first floor. It was amazing! It glided with ease and left perfect track marks all over the carpet. We were in awe. It did just as well down stairs on the tile and hardwood surfaces. Only time will tell if this is the real deal and we struck gold but we're certainly off to a great start. Now that I feel like the biggest geek on the planet for spilling all of this to you I will wish you a happy Friday!