I have been eduring really miserable night shifts at work. The problem is that I don't see dictation as "part of the job" and so I let it pile up. And....even though I'm in the fast track area the acuity is fairly high and most of the patients need work ups that can't be put together in 60 minutes. So end of shift comes and I have, literally, 2-3 hours of dictations to do. I saw 26 patients in a 7 hour shift the night beofr last, and more last night. F'ing miserable. I cleaned the rack out so no one who came in at the end of my shift had to wait, but, come on--three hours of unpaid dictating?! After work I met the Biscuit to have the new home appraised and investigated. Appraisal went flawlessly: we needed an appraisal that was a little high in order to have our loan fully finance and the guy let us know early on that that was not going to be a problem. He's a friend of our realtors, "JohnsonSoldit@aol.com", and we understood the guy was a home team ump and would give us a few extra percent if we needed it. The investigator--well, I guess he did his job, too. Apparently the house is a death trap. A place where if the uncontrolled attic fire doesn't kill you the poison fumes from the furnace will and, should you survive that, the Faulty Electrical Wiring! surely will leave you a smoking twitching puddle of nerve fibers. Shit--the place is not up to code on its wiring and this represents either a $300 problem or a $35,000 problem. Oh, and by the way, that slope in the backyard will never be anything more than a swift eroding landslide in waiting. Terrace it? Yeah, if you have an extra $60k laying around. So where does that leave us? I think being brought up to code is a reasonable request. Also, some of the bloom is off the rose: I think we can walk away from this without too much emotional agony. Though, good lord, the broad expanse of hardwood floored kitchen spilling into the beautiful living area is......damn, damn nice. And the little four bedrooms are so enticing (even at about 100sqft each). And the artfully designed backyard, with a little grass, a nice dog pen, and enticing jacuzzi with a view of our very own valley is....wonderful. The realtor told me to be aware that emotions would be in flux throughout this process. We'll see how it goes. U-561