Grains of reality

A couple of nights ago I spilled about half a box of couscous grains all over the kitchen counter and the floor.

That stuff is a nightmare—it’s like sharp-edged rice, and it sticks to the soles of your feet (even with socks) like burrs. I didn’t want to dump it in the sink for fear that it would balloon up when wet and clog the drain. Ditto even washing my socks—I have visions of it filling up the washer and foaming out onto the floor.

(After all that, it tasted really nasty (the stuff I didn’t spill)—the spices were weird, and I suspect it might not be authentic. It was, however, old—the box actually had a circle on the top labeled “price”. As in from the days when markets used a labeler jobber to slap prices on merchandise.)

I want a Roomba. But a Roomba that will mop the floor and then climb up onto the counter and wipe that down, too.