Our realtor wouldn't let us in during open houses, and for that I will ALWAYS be grateful.

I wouldn't want to be around for an open house of my house. . . if I were selling one.

We wouldn't want to be there, but we have to be gone, to take our dogs far away from where strangers are walking in and out of THEIR house. A 100-lb shaggy black dog barking furiously, backed up by the intermittent support barks of his 75-lb white poodle hype man is not conducive to a buying mood.

Ah, it sounded like you were there from the other post. I had the same NONONO reaction.

Good luck, Scrappy.

I don't have a sitter so I can see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 this weekend. Sad now.

I wish I could come up and help, sj. Maybe this summer!

Also, I don't know if this is comforting or infuriating, but I've always found that you get the worst/most of your own kids. They will push every button and test every boundary with you because they know you, they trust you, they love you. With a stranger, they can't be sure what the consequences of acting out or exploring might be, you know? So they tend to be more cooperative (or simply more tentative to act) with others.

It sort of sucks, but maybe knowing there's a logic behind it helps?

That makes sense, Amy. I used to take my nephew home after a full day of babysitting and tell him parents that he was a perfect angel all day, and their reaction was alway, "our kid!?!"

ltc was mostly very good for her daddy today. Which does annoy me a bit, but I got to finish a book. So, I win.

The weather today sucked, and my pain level was high. So, I made the right decision in asking TCG to stay home. I think part of my recent depression and crying was that my friend Roberta's death upset me more than I acknowledged. She was a big part of my life in this town. I keep wanting to call her and tell her things.

Oh, and a visit this summer would be awesome!

I have hard cider, Johnny cash, and two cats. Not a bad way to shed some stress.

Thank heaven The Man in Black's later stuff seems to be exempt from my "I know I love this music, why can't I listen to it" wackiness. So that's James Taylor, Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, and Johnny Cash that I can listen to.

Yeah, we didn't have an open house, really, although all the realtors from the brokerage where my agent is did a walkthrough. I think we would have, had it gone long enough, but we were having consistent enough showings that we hadn't gotten 'round to it yet.

But, yes, I totally had to get used to the PEOPLE! In my space! bit.

And I couldn't take the Biscuit. He was supposed to be gone, but it was so traumatic for him to be in the car at that point, that I just left him there, in the dog run. He was deaf, so he wasn't prone to endless barking, and sometimes he didn't ever realize there were people in his territory.

I did take him out for the inspection, because that was hours worth, and the inspector needed access to the whole space. I just put him in the kennel, then, his favorite people, but it was still super tough on him.