Piano!

It's in. Whew.

DH rounded up some guys in the neighborhood to help pull it in. So there were four men and one teenager (and me, who mostly just watched). One guy said this wasn't the first piano he'd helped move into this house. Only, the last one was a brand new grand piano, and they had to move it downstairs (the stairs have a nice little turn, which makes it extra tricky). Luckily this one is banged and ancient and only had to go about three feet in the door. So everyone's well and we have a piano! And the keys have stopped sticking, which is nice. It turns out that the board in front of them is sort of not really attached, so it's easy to er, remove and let any humidity down there dry out.

So now we need it turned (but considering everything, it's really not that bad) and we need to fix the pedal. And clean it. But first we need to make it not wobbly, either. It's on carpet, and it seems to wobble just a bit. Ideas to stabilize it? If we got those caster things made for pianos, that might protect the carpet, but would it make it more stable as well? Otherwise I guess we could just let it sink deeply into the carpet padding, but the owners might not be excited about that...

Random Saturday stuff

1. Whoever suggested I try a farm and ranch store for gloves, thank you! There is one I drive by every day, and I never thought that they might sell stuff other than feed and tractors. Actually, they have the kind of gloves I was looking for for less than Walmart (and they are better gloves). They have a ton of other cool things, too, including all the farm-related toys your two year old could ever want, and also a ton of camping stuff. So thank you!

2. So, do you have things that are an automatic yes? I realized today that anything German is one of my weaknesses. (I already know it is one of my husband's. Back when we had Aldi, he'd see something like Erdnussflips--kind of like Cheetos, only in peanut butter--and get all excited and buy them, because hey! They are from Germany! Even though he doesn't actually care much for Erdnussflips.) Anyway. I was poking around the thrift store we got the piano at, looking for a smallish shelf that would work to hold our music collection in an accessible and not-messy way (no luck yet) and found a little tricycle. We have one of those Radio Flyer ones and all our children have technically had it--but it's huge. By the time you're big enough to ride it, you're big enough for one of the little regular bikes we have. So PMB gets all excited, but can't reach the pedals at all. So I thought vaguely about this one, picked it up, and saw that it was a Kettler, made in Germany. Dingdingding! Pavlov says, BUY TRICYCLE. So I did.

3. The writing has slowed down. I am still making notes and trying to write, but this week my kids have been on Walk on Mama mode. Seriously. I hate when people get sick because then their sleep patterns change and even when we're well, we're all back to the beginning again as far as getting people to go to bed. And they climb on me more, too.

4. I've now put about 15 books on ILL at the local library. They are all purchase requests too, I guess, but since they've JUST moved into the new section and been working on that, I'm sure my little slips of paper are all in a bin somewhere. I forgot to order ALL CLEAR by Connie Willis last time I was in, so I had DH do it via the university. Wow. Within a week, it came in. AND it was a purchase order as well. I guess it helps to own your own bookstore, though. So while I'm dodging people climbing on me, I at least have the rest of this story to read. (Reading being huge amounts easier than writing as far as concentration goes.)

Hope you're all having a nice weekend!