Much Busyness, On Land and Sea

Finally making decent progress on the house buying front, and it's looking like we'll be able to close on July 21st, barring any unforseen developments. I've had to run down the last two days to make assorted repairs, which is a little odd (given that, umm, we don't own the house yet) but nothing major.

If you're thinking of getting a loan to buy a home, for the love of Jebus don't use CTX Mortgage. Run. Far. Away. I'm not sure what happened there, as they were great the last time we used them to buy our current house, but I'm thinking it was more due to our particular loan agent at the time (who has since left) than anything else. The most recent wrinkle was calling, with much dread, to make sure they had everything they needed, at which point Weasel Loan Guy claimed he'd been trying to call us all week (patently false) because we needed to write a letter confirming what our current total assets are, since we never provided him with documentation of that (also patently false, as he made copies of it twice because he "misplaced" the first set of copies). So that's reasonably annoying in and of itself, but the total assets figure he'd listed on the loan, that we needed to confirm, was like 1/5th of what it should have been. When asked where he got that number from, his answer was "Umm, why, is it not the right number?" Brilliant...

It'll be interesting to see just how much this house kicks my ass, though. It's pretty much the definition of well-built older house that's structurally solid but has been let go over the years by the older couple who lived there forever until they could no longer take care of it. So much work to do, from refinishing all the floors to replacing bathroom tile to basically demolishing the guest bathroom and starting anew to landscaping the hell out of the yard. But that's exactly what I was looking for, so I guess I should shut my mouth.

Very little time for poker although I did donate a chunk of money at the NL tables last night. I was overdue for that, so again, I should just shut my mouth. How people can call a 5xBB raise with 57o pre-flop, though, whiff the flop but still call a pot-sized flop bet, turn a 5, call another pot-sized bet, then river another 5 (and then lead out on the river for just $4, which is just fishy enough to cause me to slow down and call, with a paired board and possible flush out there, too, when I would have lumped another sizable bet in there if they'd just checked to me) is beyond me. But I suppose it's good that some things will remain forveer beyond us, as that's not a place I ever want to recognize with a warm, snuggly, familiar feeling.

Everyone should go congratulate DonkeyHunter for acquiting himself well in the $50,000 HORSE event. Or, you know, congratulate him just for winning the right to play in it, something most of us mere mortals will never accomplish.