Ha! I complain about the ants and they think they have the upper hand! Little do they know I’m armed with my trusty can o’ Raid. I got to slaughter two trails of the creepy little suckers this morning – one swarming all over one of the cat food bowls, and the other making tracks for my wastebasket. I’m not sure quite what was in the wastebasket to attract them, but I emptied it anyway, just to be sure.

The trail to the cat food stretched from the closet, which is right next to the bathroom. I can only hope that this might also have taken care of that lone toilet ant experience I’ve had so much fun with these past few weeks. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

*****

For my wedding gift to Richard I spent the past few months conspiring with Bil-1 to build him a computer. Basically, I knew some of the parts I wanted him to have (rewritable CD-drive, for instance. I told Richard it’s nice to share!), and Bil-1 supplied the rest, complete with emails chock full of questions to which I mostly had blank ‘huh?’ replies. However, we done good, since Richard has been merrily playing with his new toy ever since we got back from our mini-honeymoon (yes I’ll post an entry about that at some point. No it wasn’t our real honeymoon – that’ll be next summer, in Ireland).

My wedding gift was a pick-it-yourself sort of affair, which was actually a good thing because as anyone who tinkles the ivories knows, you have a certain feel and pressure you expect and like on the keys. Yep, my incredibly wonderful new husband got me a piano, and after we picked it out earlier this week, it was delivered this morning!

The poor piano guy wasn’t too happy to see our front steps, but with his assistant and Richard’s help, they managed to get it up the three steps and through the front door into the living room.

The sound in this house is amazing. That echo factor we noticed with Sebastian-the-foghorn-cat works beautifully for a piano – the music comes out so rich! I plopped on the piano lamp Richard got me, dug out my folders of sheet music, and sat down to discover just how rusty I’ve gotten without access to a piano of my own lo these past many years.

It feels so good to play, and know that I can play any time I want! The cats aren’t too sure what to do with this new thing. On the one hand they can lounge on the top (it’s an upright. I’ve never seen any use for grand pianos – they’re lovely in concert halls but they take up far too much space in a house), but on the other hand, it makes a lot of noise. Azrael jumped up and tried to ‘help’ me play by batting at the higher keys. The others are eying it from a safe distance with a modicum of suspicion.

They’ll get used to it. I’m already looking forward to family gatherings at our house with the whole group gravitating toward the piano as we so often do at my parents’ place.

We’ve got each other. We’ve got our office and our computers. We’ve got our cats. And now I finally have a piano of my own. Who needs furniture (grin)? I’ve got all I need to make this ‘home’.