Hoover, Panasonic and Eureka are all three highly designed and trustworthy vacuums? You have got to be kidding yourself. And the dirt finders are a joke whether it be the microphone or light sensor. And by the way, the Kirby Generation models do clean better than the older models, they have a better designed brushroll that has more aggressive agitation and they have better airflow as well. While I believe the Kirby is overpriced, it has way more airflow than the other vacuums you mentioned and will clean cirlcles around Filter Queen, Rainbow, Panasonic, etc! when it comes to vacuuming carpet. Having said that, it is terrible as a shampooer as all it does is brush soap into your carpet leaving a residue that attracts dirt. Those that use the Kirby shampooer regularly have tons of soap in their carpet which you will notice if you bring in a quality extractor because there will be tons of suds. It is also not a user friendly vacuum as it is hard for most to hook up the attachments. Also,the newer bags do hold dust better than the older single ply bags so they have improved in filtration as well. I wouldnt buy a Kirby new at the price they get for them and I would never use one to shampoo my carpet. But they do a great job of vacuuming carpet which is really all they were designed for in the first place. Shampooer and the other gadgets were added on to try and add value to the machine. And for those of you that didnt know it, Hoover is now owned by Dirt Devil so when you buy a Hoover these days, you are really buying a chinese made Dirt Devil with the Hoover name on it. At least the Kirby is American made

I hate those ball things. They're like biting into rocks. I vote sprinkles! For the cones, I think I'd either make a waffle cone or more likely just go with the regular sugar cone. It's actually closer to a real microphone than a chocolate color would be. Yes there's a few black microphones often with yellow windscreens but most professional mics are that "gunmetal" color, gray-like. And for another effect, I'd go one step farther and put some black licorice whips on the cones for a mic cord.

We had a similar situation about 6 months after moving in to our new house. I noticed the hardwood bubbling and warping in one area. It turned out that a pipe (yes, copper) was kinked where it came up out of the slab and had been slowly leaking for a while. Similar to what you did, the plumbers just rerouted the water into new pipes running through the walls and attic. What a huge pita the whole thing was, it probably cost over 10k in repairs but my builder covered all of it. We had to replace both hardwood and also cabinets in the adjoining laundry room. Water leaks suck. We had 3-4 leaks in the first year we moved in.

Well being that I work in our schools at all the levels. I don't know what kind of tool they could be classified as. Unless they all have smart phones and internet access..they could do research..but that is certainly stretching it. LOL In Elementary..phones are to be turned off in backpacks out of reach for the day. (we have a lot of latch key kids in our community) In middle school, the phones are to be turned off and can be kept in pockets or back packs and brought out at Lunch. In high school, here's where it gets a bit tricky. Technically the rules are the same as Middle School..however there are some teachers that use them themselves and check their phones often and allow the kids to have their phones on and in use in class, unless it's during a test. But there are more teachers that will confiscate a phone than not. The kids do know which teachers allow phones and which don't. Over the 2 months I worked at our 9/10th grade campus last year, I had 5 or 6 phones turned into me for parents to come pick up. Did you know that kids can text without looking under their desks? It's quite an "impressive" skill to see..LOL