Mike's Corner

Many people don't know this, but my lovely bride has a serious addiction: vacuum cleaners.

I do not suffer from this ailment, so when we met I still had the same vacuum that I owned in college. Heck, it was in almost mint condition.

Once we merged our assets (also known as "getting rid of all of Mike's stuff"), my vacuum disappeared. I'm still not sure why (like I said, mint condition).

I have learned a lot about vacuums over the last four years (whether I wanted to or not). I've come home from work only to find one of our vacuum cleaners completely taken apart in the den. I've even been sent to Vacuum World to get a new belt on more than one occasion.

We tend to do a lot of "test runs" at our house: buy a vacuum, vacuum the entire house every day for two weeks, return the vaccum. The latest vacuum that didn't pass the "cat hair test" was the Eureka Boss (although it sounded very impressive to me). We still have the latest version of the Hoover Flair upstairs (for light vacuuming), but here's a short list of brands that didn't make the cut: Oreck, Rainbow, ShopVac, Kirby, Bissell, Shark, Electrolux, Panasonic, Miele, and Dirt Devil. Don't even mention Dyson in our house unless you want to hear a dissertation about what Consumer Reports wrote.

Our latest purchase (but I'm assuming not the last) is the Kenmore Progressive 35922 Upright Vacuum. After the first "cat hair test", Shannon actually hugged the vacuum cleaner and whispered "I love you".

I'm telling you, addictions are scary...