When I was a kid, I watched the Jetsons and, while their robot, Rosie, annoyed the crap out of me with her whiny voice, I always wanted a robot of my own to take care of chores around the house. Who wouldn’t? The closest I’ve gotten is an iRobot Roomba, a lovely gift from my wonderful husband, who wasn’t quite sure why I had one on my Christmas list to begin with and who was very surprised by how excited I was when I unwrapped the present. At any rate, I’ve got my eye on a new robot. Unfortunately, it’s not advanced enough to do my dishes or anything like that, but it will be guaranteed to let me know what’s going on in my house and probably scare my dog to death. If you haven’t already guessed, I’ve got my eye on the Rovio Wi-Fi-enabled Robot Webcam.

I’ve actually been eying it for some time, but passed it off as too expensive and felt it would be a pain to set up on my Mac since the software it comes with is only for Windows. However, I Googled around for set-up instructions for the Mac and came across a related gem – there’s now an iPhone app to control your Rovio remotely. How sweet is that? As sweet as my neighbor’s delicious, home-made, honey-dipped Finikia cookies, I tell you! How can I pass this up?

So, the Rovio is now on my shiny-objects-I-must-have list, along with many other things. I just got my bonus and there are some tough decisions coming up. Should I get high-performance tires for my car for this autocross season? What about new curtains and area rugs for the house? Or a new snowboarding helmet with Bluetooth? Or should I save it all like a good girl? (Sigh.) Despite my angst, I’m sure you can already guess what I’ll end up buying…