We finally heard back from the vet; our new kitty has FIV. We're pretty sure we're keeping her, as long as we can get her and the other cat on civil terms (so they're less likely to bite each other and maybe transmit the disease). We seem to be making slow progress, but at least it's progress. I think they'll settle down as they get more and more time together. We already love her, so we'll definitely give it every chance we can!

Our agent checked in after a week's vacation; she hasn't heard from either potential buyer, but she thinks one is still exploring government reimbursement for the adjustments they'd need to make (plus that agent was on vacation at the same time), and the other one wants to work with the listing agent (her) so has probably been waiting for her to get back in town. She's trying to track them both down.

One bit of maybe-good news she shared: the other 2-bed 1-bath units in our association have been taken off the market. On the one hand it shows what a weak market our buildings have right now. On the other hand, if someone wanted to buy our kind of unit in our building, we'd be the only option. Hopefully the good outweighs the bad.

My old agent finally showed our place, for the first time since we terminated our relationship with her 5 months ago. She works our building a lot because she lives in the complex, so either this was deliberate or she's had no clients. Surprise surprise, we got prompt feedback (which we never got when she was our agent) and it was negative; lower marks than anyone has given us before.

I touched base with our broker last week, and he said he was just running the two refi options to see which one would be preferable. Not sure why that's taking so long, but at least it's not off the table.

I don't expect to hear from the tax guy in a while, and the WV option (the bigger of the two potential deals) doesn't expire for 7 weeks. Not sure if the smaller deal has a time frame.

So, holding pattern continues. Frugal doings in the meantime:

* We're almost $70 under budget on groceries this week, even with bulk cooking for a good cause. Which apparently went over huge! (Most of the food we donated got eaten, but NT brought some containers of salad back and I had one for lunch today.)
* I won the Dietbet, so I got my money back plus $7.50. I'm just glad I won my money back!
* Went to a community chili fest on Sunday. For $3 apiece ($15 total), we got chili with toppings, crackers, cookies, soda and coffee. Plus NT won a poster and I won an assortment of spice blends. Not bad!
* Going to a free documentary tonight with NT and our neighbors, and he's bringing snacks from work so that will also be free.
* Another friend invited us to a reading/music thing that's free including snacks and drinks that's happening on my birthday. So my birthday entertainment will also be free!
* Planned the kids' birthday presents & parties and, not counting food (which we'll cover with grocery money), it came to about $130. I was aiming for $100, but we usually spend $200-plus (combined for both birthdays), so we did really well this year. The grownup bday budget is also cut in half ($100 for each of us) so we're letting one another say what we want for our gifts.