That house is indeed awesome, Hec and JZ. Best of luck on the offer process!

The new alley kitten is going full bore into the scratchy-bitey phase of his development. I could hardly pet him without an attempt to eat one of my fingers tonight. He followed me from the parking lock to the back deck in search of prey.

Argh. Mortgage broker is going to give me conniptions. I don't understand money or lending or numbers or why it's such a great idea to get a loan even when you don't strictly need it, and I'm trying to take everyone else's word for it and go with it, but there are so many weird little moving parts to my dad's estate and the way it's being closed out one piece at a time that I feel like we're making the mortgage guy very unhappy. I get very anxious when I feel I'm making someone unhappy.

OTOH, scratchy-bitey kitten sounds adorable, if kind of exhausting.

((((Sheryl and family)))) So stressful, for all of you.

I'm so sorry, Teppy. It's so hard to manage grief as well as closing out someone's life at the same time. Best of luck to you and Tim and his family.

I feel like we're making the mortgage guy very unhappy. I get very anxious when I feel I'm making someone unhappy.

sweetie, HE works for YOU. Of course, you don't want to make him unhappy, but if you are doing what you need to do and he is unhappy, then tough snoogie oogies.

Ugh. My friend has a harmless, but annoying (to me) habit. If she texts me and I don't reply, she sends a text that says, literally "*poke*". I don't know why I find this irritating. Just say "hey, what's up" or even just a question mark.

She is lovely, but sensitive to criticism, in a way that she really internalizes it. If I said "I find this habit annoying" she would hear "Steph thinks I'm annoying" and I don't. I really like her. This just tweaks me.

I know it's kind of irrational, and not a big deal, but how do I get her to stop other than passively aggressively ignoring the "poke" but following up to other messages.

I don't like being poked. I don't even like it when somebody sends me two texts in a row without my reply. WAIT FOR MY REPLY! MY TIME IS MY OWN AND IF I'M DOING MY SHIT I'M NOT ON YOUR CLOCK!

Hey, any of you out there who bought a house ever got to the place where it's frantic and you have to fill out a lot of forms and underwriters are balking at the mortgage over some technical detail and your realtor says you have to make a bid in the morning but....

You know. Like that.

That's where we are. Buying a home is stressful.

Obviously you have to be pretty fortunate to receive that bucket of stress, but it's still stressy.

how do I get her to stop

Up until about a year ago I was still on a plan that charged for each text message, so family knew not to text me casually. I still haven’t told most of them that I’ve upgraded my plan.

Perhaps you could send a reply of “Pondering….” Do you think she would eventually catch on?

There is probably a gif out there of Jack Benny saying “I’m thinking, I’m thinking!” that you could use.

That's where we are. Buying a home is stressful.

I have purchased property 4 times (once the business building), and Every Single Time it is super stressful. Nothing ever happens on the expected timeline. There is always another avadavat for some bullshit. OMG, I was late with a utility payment 14 years ago now need to write a letter explaining the reasons. It is torture. Upside, it does come together and is so awesome when it is finished. (ps, in case it wasn't already obvious banks and insurance companies are inherently evil)

There is probably a gif out there of Jack Benny saying “I’m thinking, I’m thinking!” that you could use.

Or one of those buried under paperwork graphics.