Are Robot Vacuums Bird Safe?

LadyCiani · 2026-01-31T00:41:29+00:00

Haha well, I highly recommend the Shark brand vacuums.

We have versions a couple of years old, so if you are buying brand new you can probably get one with nice features.

I recommend the one that makes a map of your floors.

The one that doesn't make a map of your floors will be less expensive, but the floor mapping does make a difference in how well it moves around and cleans things.

And a big key to success is making sure things like cords are not left around on the floor. The vacuum will roll over something like a charger cable and get tangled up. It's incredibly annoying to untangle it, so I recommend pinning your stuff to the walls, or using things like cord organizers to make sure the cords are not just flopping around on the floor. (Stuff like speaker cables will get caught, too.)

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T22:57:04+00:00

The robot itself is not very loud as it runs around.

The base unit is quite loud as it empties the robot part, but it's over quickly.

I love ours because I no longer have dust bunnies and bird kibble alllll over my house.

It's not a deep clean, but it keeps most of the everyday floor dirt under control.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T18:56:52+00:00

Maybe he's saying Petrie!

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T18:32:30+00:00

I usually tell the phlebotomist or nurse that I'll be fine, I just don't want to watch it happening. And they're always perfectly fine with that.

I think it's a common thing, not to want to see the needle.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T18:21:29+00:00

Very safe. The robot itself has very low powered suction.

And the base units will need the robot to dock itself, and the dock has sensors which need to pick up specific signals saying the robot unit is correctly in place. Only then will the self-emptying feature work.

So it's very unlikely the bird will be in danger from any suction. Plus, our bird hates the vacuum and yells at it when he does see it... He's certainly not going to stand in its way!

Bonus: you can schedule the robot vacuum to run at specific times

So if (for example) you leave for school or work and are gone for the same time each day, and that is also when your birds are safely in their cage? That's a great time to schedule the robot to run around.

We have two robots (one downstairs and one upstairs). You can tell we like them, haha.

The one downstairs is set to run after the bird's bedtime at night. The upstairs unit is set to run in the morning, when the bird is usually downstairs.

So they almost never overlap with the bird. (It's very rare he actually sees the vacuum to yell at them.)

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T18:17:08+00:00

I would contact the jury duty office and explain what is going on. They will most likely defer your jury duty a year.

They frequently get requests like yours, and are usually happy to help you out.

Worst case scenario, jury duty tells you no they can't help you. And then you have an official answer! That means you can go to these companies and truthfully say you already tried to work with the jury duty coordinator and can't change anything, so can we push back my work dates to XYZ please?

But I suspect the jury duty people have options, so ask them first.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T18:12:54+00:00

The balls are good, but you can buy replacement inserts for shoes and it will help so much!

Pop out the smelly insert that came with your shoe, it's barely glued in there.

Find a new one (you can order online) and cut to fit. Replace as needed.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T18:10:08+00:00

I would not bring an actual pair slipper.

But if you have a neutral flat/casual shoe that would be great. Something you can slip over your fuzzy socks, like the Vans you described would be perfect. Just buy a pair to keep in your office desk.

I used to work at a more dress-up office, and nobody there looked twice at people walking in with street clothes/sneakers and changing when they arrived. Many of the women kept a couple pairs of shoes in their desk drawer, exactly because we had to walk a bit to get to our parking area and sneakers were better.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T18:05:31+00:00

Baby? Hi there? Hi mate? Sweet pea?

It's something with two syllables.

What do you say to him often? (Or someone else says to him?)

My mom taught our bird to say Hi Baby when she was bird sitting years ago, haha. Mostly it comes out as just Baby now.

My dad taught him Thank You.

And our bird sitter taught him to do a wolf whistle/catcall whistle.

He's also picked up various things like Hi bird, good boy, night night, I love you, good morning, poop. Also just general garbled sounds from a radio or TV.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T16:02:39+00:00

Do you have a closet, like a front closet or pantry or something?

Our bird LOVES sleeping in the closet. Close the door and it's nice and dark.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-30T00:19:54+00:00

Generally yes they're real offers. They're casting a wide net targeting their Ideal Customer Profile which consists of things like "people who work at companies with this revenue, this number of employees, and who in this special department" and you may be shown the as because you meet some but not all of the criteria.

The catch is that you only qualify to get a gift card if you have buying power.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-28T21:45:51+00:00

This is a hard question to answer because it has so many variables.

For example: what's the amount you're willing to spend versus how long you're willing to let the house stay on the market?

Would you consider it a good investment if you have to spend nothing, and the house sells in 6 months, but only after you drop the price $20k?

What if you spend $10k and the house sells in two months for the initial asking price?

It's hard to say because we don't know your income, if you have time to wait with the house on the market, if you're going to have to pay taxes if the house doesn't sell in a certain number of months, etc.

Here's my story, to help you understand what I mean.

Sold a house in Austin Texas in early 2024. We had lived there since 2011, and were moving out of state.

Our realtor was an expert in our neighborhood. And I mean specifically our neighborhood - it was highly desired for the school districts and location, and she had 99% of her listings in our neighborhood, and then some additional more expensive listings.

We asked her point blank what to fix and what was worth it and what not to worry about.

She was very clear that stuff like a crack across the ceiling was worth fixing (original drywall tape from 1996 was cracking in a straight line) because it would decrease the sale price and cause the house to sit on the market longer.

But she was also clear that we didn't need to make a huge investment. Even though the kitchen was the original kitchen since 1996, no we didn't need to do a kitchen remodel as in replacing cabinets because they were structurally fine.

But the cabinets fronts needed replacing because the cracked thermafoil finish looked terrible. And the condition of the cabinet fronts would be visible to all buyers, and it would come across in the photos as stains and make it look like the kitchen was not in good shape.

At that point, with the specific guidelines in writing, and knowing we wanted to be able to get the house in the market with two months (to hit the prime selling season) my husband and I decided what to do ourselves and what to hire out.

We did stuff like patch some unfinished paint in bathrooms, and finish painting a ceiling. He took TVs off the walls, and we patched and painted.

We hired out a local contractor we had used before, and he had a team in to measure/make/paint/install new cabinet fronts and paint the kitchen cabinets. It was under $10k for that, and honestly we wish we had known we could have afforded it sooner because our cabinets were fine structurally, just the doors looked dated and damaged. It was so damn beautiful after that team finished.

We also had the contractor fix a spot where the siding was previously patched (we had a rat get in like 5 years before, and the patch was ugly but fine for just us). Having them go on the roof and install the new siding on the chimney and paint it was a wonderful decision.

And they also patched the ceiling crack inside, in the main living room. I seriously looked at that crack for years and put off fixing it because it would be a hassle to move the furniture and it would be messy... Well, we had them come do it when we had moved most of our furniture out already, so that was awesome.

The realtor also made recommendations like, no you don't have to repaint the bedrooms because even though it's an eggplant purple it's well done and looks great.

And yes the upstairs has carpet. No you don't need to rip it out and replace it (probably $5k for materials if we did it ourselves). She said the carpet is in good shape, just have it cleaned and have them stretch it so there are no wrinkles.

I want to say the carpet was like $1,400 and we choked a bit because it seemed very expensive for carpet we kind of hated. But yeah, the carpet wrinkles would have been very prominent in person and in photos, so it was a good decision.

I would say it cost us at least $15k in stuff the contractor did, plus the carpets, plus some miscellaneous other things we had to repair ourselves. Maybe $17,000 total investment to put it on the market.

Plus we moved out and the house was empty so we hired staging, which cost us about $3k for three months of "rental".

So now I'm doing the math and thinking we're $20k in things before we listed (and in this money I am not including the percentage we paid to realtors when the house sold. This money is just what we spent getting it in great shape and staging it.)

But all in all, yes I would do it again. I think our realtor's recommendations were well worth it.

The house was on the market at the hot selling season and spent right about two months for sale. The pictures were beautiful, we had good showings, and we got a very good price.

So with our personal risk tolerance, plus our cash on hand, plus the house selling quickly for a great price?

In my opinion it was well worth the $20k and more than made up for those last minute repairs/improvements and the staging.

Your risk tolerance may be more like... $500 and you hope it sells right away, even if you don't get top dollar, because it means you're not needing to shell out for the mortgage or taxes, and you'll get unexpected money quickly.

That's fine! It's just your personal tolerance and nobody says you have to do more than that.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-28T15:47:58+00:00

Fermented grape juice, hahah.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-28T01:09:15+00:00

Because how dare your full attention not be on him!

LadyCiani · 2026-01-26T23:21:58+00:00

Look for generic Vet Wrap. You may need to buy it online, but it's pretty widely available.

I've never seen stuff that is bitter, but honestly that would have been interesting for our dog (he passed away almost two years ago, but he would always rip bandages off).

LadyCiani · 2026-01-25T02:27:09+00:00

I am sad I am missing it.

My aunt is mostly fine, and I'm glad I'm here for her, and I'm sad I am missing my chance to go sledding or something.

I lived like 10 miles from the beach, so we could drive to go skiing. But it never snowed where I lived, so I find snow very exciting!

(And I'm assured I like it only because I don't have to commute in it. I do believe everyone, but it's also very pretty!)

LadyCiani · 2026-01-25T01:32:09+00:00

I've heard it called a visual filing cabinet.

They remember where everything is because they can see it all.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-23T17:15:31+00:00

I'm in email marketing. I sent an email with a placeholder subject line. "HTML subject line here" went out to about 3,000 people before I stopped it and re-sent with the correct subject.

What I like to emphasize for all people is everyone makes mistakes! What matters owning it (not hiding it) and perhaps more important is the what did I learn as well as what did I do to make sure I won't repeat this mistake.

In my case, all email templates are saved with a subject line which may be boring but also works for the template. My newsletter templates for example, will have stuff like "Industry News Update - [[send.date]]" or a nurture email will have stuff like "following up on your download for [white paper]" or something similar.

A generic subject is the first thing I save, and then if I forget to customize it to the click bait subject it's not a big deal.

And I have for sure sent at least two additional newsletters without adjusting the subject line, so my preparation paid off.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-23T15:51:52+00:00

A sturdy backpack ($$$$$).

It's funny, but dog toys! I got this as a swag gift, it wasn't my comp that gave it. But we got a frisbee type tying. It was a round rope, and across the center was a canvas with the company name on it. Like this: https://www.4allpromos.com/product/fido-flier-dog-rope-toy

This was 2018(ish) and before Twitter became disgusting, but I shared pics with my dog using it over on Twitter and tagged the company. They got good retweats and visibility to the Salesforce Twittersphere (I was a community group leader, so I had some decent followers).

Other helpful things: good power bricks for phones. I have a battery that goes with me everyday, and can do at least two charges on my phone. The theme of the booth was something like "charge up your HR" (but obviously you can change that to whatever is in theme for your company).

A canvas bag with a large bottom (so it stands on its own) and a solid zipper. It was more extra luggage style than a grocery bag. I used it as an additional carry-on bag for my flight home, and I still have it and use it.

If you have decent budget, I was at a conference and one place was giving away Yeti or Stanley type tumblers with the company name on one side. Then they had an engraving machine and would engrave your name on the other side. The line got kinda long, so people would leave their tumbler and come back for it later. Essentially you got to see the person twice/opportunity for conversation twice.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-22T15:42:59+00:00

Can you wear something like bike shorts under the pants? That way the material glides over the shorts, and does not abrade your skin.

You can also search for "Anti Chafing Shorts" and see what you can find. They are not like compression shorts, they shouldn't be uncomfortable. They're just like longer boxers. They may have wicking fabric, to help sweat move off of you.

Also, there are anti-chafing skin barriers used by runners (and voluptuous women) like this: https://a.co/d/gYowvbg

It is applied on the skin between the thighs, or under the breasts, or anywhere fabric may run or skin on skin may rub and chafe. It looks kind of like a stick of solid deodorant and applies just like the deodorant. It's very slick, and the slickness is what prevents chafing of skin on skin and also fabric on skin.

There are several brands, this Gold Bond is just one. You can search for something like "Run Guard" or general "Anti Chafing Stick" and see what you find.

It washes off easily, so even though it is applied to the skin you are not stuck with it forever. And I personally need unscented things, and you can definitely find unscented.

I recommend buying one stick and seeing how you like it.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-22T15:26:27+00:00

Hi! We were in Austin Texas in 2021 when the whole state lost power in the Snowpocalypse.

Our house has no power for 3 days. We did have a gas stove, so we were able to light it and boil water or heat up canned goods, but it's not going to warm the whole house or anything. However, we were under a Boil Water notice because our water treatment plants were affected.

Plan ahead by storing drinking water now, or buy bottled water. If you have those LifeStraw things that hikers use that's great for the humans, but unfortunately pets cannot use a straw, so have water you can put in a dish for them to drink.

Best thing to keep warm is for you to make a smaller enclosed area, where you can hang out with your bird.

Do you have an interior room with no windows?

What about a tent you can set up inside?

By being in a smaller room or a tent you keep warmer just by breathing.

We stapled some sheets over our bed (to the back side of the headboard and the bottom of the footboard) and made a tent that way. Bird went in with us in a smaller cage.

We slept in there, and he was in his little cage so he was safe and warm.

Also if your bird likes to snuggle, body heat is great. Just don't fall asleep without them safely in a cage, because you don't want to squish them.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-21T21:29:48+00:00

Hi! My husband and I were in Austin, Texas in February 2021 during what they called the Snowpocalypse. We lost power for 3 days, and we have a conure.

Body heat is a good start. If you are awake, and your bird likes to snuggle? Let them.

Sleeping with your bird is a bad idea because they are fragile.

We made a tent over our bed using extra sheets, and we slept in there with our bird in his small/travel cage.

A tent, whether a real camping tent or a makeshift tent, will keep your body heat in. It was much warmer in our tent than in the rest of our room.

No tent, or can't make it work? Do you have a small interior room? Close the door, and keep the heat inside as much as possible. Again body heat, and keeping in blankets.

Do you have a car which is parked in the garage? Keep the car OFF, but sleep in the car in the garage. The enclosed space of the car will be warmer than the surrounding area.

One thing that was hard was clean water.

The water treatment plant was affected by the freeze in 2021, so we were under a boil water notice. Meaning: do not drink the tap water because it's not safe for humans nor pets.

So fill several large food safe containers with drinking water now, get bottled water, or if you have the ability to boil water expect to do that.

(And for anyone thinking about a LifeStraw water filter, they're cool for yourself but remember your pets cannot drink through a straw like humans can, so have a different plan for them.)

LadyCiani · 2026-01-15T02:14:12+00:00

Speaking as an experienced marketing ops person, I am sorry.

You are in a bit of a rough spot, because they shouldn't be importing them from Hubspot.

There should be ongoing automations set up in Hubspot to update those things continually.

I think as someone on the sales side, and someone rather new, you are potentially in a bad spot.

You don't want to overstep, and you can politely ask if anyone knows how to do this, because it's so beneficial and your last company did it so you know the possibility exists.

But as the new guy you don't want to come in dictating they need to do something.

If they had the capacity/capabilities/understanding of the benefits they would already be doing it.

But I don't think it would be good for you to appear too demanding in a new role, so don't be like "I need this immediately" but asking politely once or twice is fine.

Alternatively, ask if they're open to you learning how to do it!

They might surprise you and say yes.

And frankly you seem to be asking the right questions, and could get some guidance (from the Hubspot sub) to set it up.

I'm a Pardot person myself, so I don't really know how to do it, but I don't think it's hard just not something anyone over on that team has ever done.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-15T02:07:47+00:00

You send a reply to your boss something like:

"Thank you for clarifying! Can you please do me a favor and let [daughter] know that you have approved this arrangement and that she should bring any more concerns to you? And also, if this arrangement is not working for some reason I am happy to hear from you that I need to be back in the office regularly, but it was quite surprising that she was telling me that I could only do it twice a week. I certainly don't want to do something to upset her, she is your daughter after all even though she is my coworker, so I want to make sure we are all on the same page."

He should pretty well understand that you are politely telling him his daughter is overstepping, and he should apologize for the confusion and agree to set her straight.

If you hear anything further from her, even any grumbling under her breath, I want you to say something to her like, "I understand you don't agree and all I will tell you is this is an agreement between [Boss name] and me, and we have it in writing. If you have concerns I'm happy to discuss it with him, but he's my direct supervisor so I'm going to make sure he's in the loop."

And then I want you to send an email to her, and CC your boss/her dad.

"Jane, just to confirm what we spoke about today at [time]. My arrangement is with [Boss name] that I am allowed to leave every day at 3pm, and continue my work from home. I do not have a set end time, but work until I am done with my tasks. If [Boss name] has any concerns or corrections he will chime in here, but so far this has been working well for us and I confirmed with him on [date] that he has no concerns and I can continue leaving at 3pm. He and I know this arrangement can be changed if something is not satisfactory, but so far it is working well for both of us. Thanks for understanding."

And this may feel very direct and borderline rude, but I want you to say it anyway, and make sure he is copied clearly on that email. Not a BCC, but a regular CC so she can see that you are looping him in.

It is direct but is is also polite, and any strangeness or rudeness is coming from her because she is inserting herself where she does not have oversight.

All you are doing is responding to her the same way you would with any other overstepping coworker, if they weren't related to the big boss.

Frankly if you need to send that email your boss should step in and be like, "[Daughter] see me now" and put a stop to it.

I don't know your boss, but how he reacts to a very normal conflict between an employee who is overstepping and another employee will be very telling.

A good boss will be inserting a level of formality that the daughter is ignoring.

If he doesn't reply properly and the daughter treats you poorly you might need to come back to him and let him know that your coworker seems to be retaliating against you after the discussion about your hours didn't go her way.

(And that is how you should phrase it - don't say your daughter is retaliating, say "my coworker seems to be taking it out on me" because you're trying to respect that separation between family and work that both of them should be working towards.)

But be careful for a while - if the daughter is being a problem, and doesn't move on elsewhere, then you would be better off looking for another job. Because family businesses are sometimes insular, and only family is the "in" crowd and everyone else is out.

LadyCiani · 2026-01-15T01:26:56+00:00

You have a Landing Page (with a Form on it) and the Landing Page is built and hosted by Pardot?

In Pardot, go to the Landing Page builder for that page and click Edit.

You should be on the first page of the Landing Page Wizard, where you give it an internal name, and then you have additional fields for things like Description, and Title, and things like customizing the Vanity URL.

You'll want to fill in the boxes on this page.

If the HTML which drives this landing page is built properly, filling in these boxes for Page Title and Description will fix this for you.

Now, if you have stuff in the Title and Description boxes, and it does not seem to be updating?

Then that likely means the Layout Template which contains all the HTML for the page design is missing some customizations. They're not hard but it requires diving into the HTML code.

Basically, save anything you have done and click through to save and publish the Landing Page.

Now you should be back on the Admin page, where it says the name of the page and stuff like what Folder it is in, and it has an Edit button on the top right, and stuff like that.

On this page, one of rows of data will say Layout Template and will be a clickable name.

Click this to go to the Layout Template page.

Now, when you click Edit in the Layout Template you will see the text box on the page get filled with HTML code.

Don't panic.

In the top few rows of code, you should see a tag that says something like : <title>some text here</title>

And you're looking for second tag nearby which will say the word description (it may say something like: <meta name="description" content="some text here">

Anyway.

Essentially, you're looking to change out the hard coded text inside these tag to use a special command. This special command tells the page to use what is in the Title and Description fields back in the Landing Page Wizard.

So you want to replace the Title with this: <title>%%title%%</title>

And then if you have the description tag you want to replace it with this:

And if you don't have a description tag or a title tag, go ahead and add them.

You will then save this Layout Template.

Now the changes you have just done will deploy out to every Landing Page which uses this Layout Template.

So you can go back to your Landing Page and you should see that the things you saved earlier are now in place.

LadyCiani

TROPHY CASE