The other day I was giving the house a thorough vacuuming when N suddenly appeared in front of me. He looked at the vaccuum, threw both hands over his head, and shouted “Oh No!”

So I chased him with the vacuum, growling and making monster faces. I don’t think he heard me growling. Our vacuum is really loud. I did it anyway, though.

A little while later his brother arrived.

I chased him too, growling and making monster faces.

The kids tired pretty quickly of the monster vacuum, which was good. I did, after all, have to get the floors cleaned. A few minutes after they retreated, I was vacuuming in the kitchen when my wife tilted our trashcan up so I could get underneath it. We have a large heavy wooden trashcan, so this was quite helpful.

I zoomed over to get under it.

As I approached, however, my wife shouted, made a truly scary monster face, and faked dropping the trashcan on the vacuum. I laughed and zoomed it around towards her feet, making my own monster face.

Her expression turned several degrees scarier.

Suddenly uncertain, I backed away and turned off the vacuum.

Turns out that the trashcan lid was pinching her finger. The “monster face” was actually a grimace of pain. The “fake” dropping of the trashcan was her trying to find a way of putting it down without breaking the vacuum.

Oops.

That’s the trouble with playing monster vacuum. It’s all fun and games until someone loses a finger.