The day we got things cleared up enough to open the wee folding table in our new flat, Steve was very excited to stop eating on the couch even though our chairs were still at the old flat.

When I used to live in lousy apartments in college, I often worried about the gas stoves.  There was always a bit of an odd smell to those apartments, and I generally attributed it to a possible slow gas leak that was gradually poisoning me.

We don't have a gas stove here, but I still think the bad smells in our Tiny Town flat are indications of a silent killer.  Sometimes I lie on our bed and imagine the various invisible molds that I'm sure exist wafting into my lungs, before I hop up and throw open the windows for a bit.  Then I go check the black bug count in the bathroom.  Every time I go in there, I find two or three itty bitty black bugs.  I kill them only to find them replaced the next time I enter the room.  I don't know what they are or where they come from or how to eradicate them.  I just can't seem to get this place clean and sweet smelling.

When the landlord gave us the keys, he said the cleaners had been over, but that was a lie.  That, or the cleaners did come around, but only to sprinkle crisp crumbs on the dark, must-be-vacuumed-every-single-day carpeting (with one of the two broken vacuums conveniently stuck in the hallway) and to check to see that the mattress was flipped so that it would be upside down (NOT a reversible mattress) and give an extra special springs-poking-out-my-kidneys effect for the first night we slept on it.  They may have done that.

Suggestions for getting rid of my bugs?  Or would anyone like to adopt us and put us up in the east wing of their mansion?

AND end complaining.