My sister visited this past weekend. She is the mellowest house guest you could ever ask for, and she loves playing with the kids, so it was really kind of a vacation for us. We ate out or ordered in a lot, but she paid for several of the meals, so it wasn't too expensive.

We had many interesting conversations. She is a complete and utter philanthropist, always thinking of ways she can help people. She literally almost gave the coat off her back to a guy on the street until I talked her out of it. One of her activities while she was her was going to a Kenyan church service and surprising some of the kids she knew from a group home she visits in Kenya, who live in MN now.

Her finances are interesting. She told me her husband does most of the work, and he's a super-saver on one hand, but really disorganized in some ways. She said for a while he routinely paid a $50 late fee on the mortgage because he could never send the payment in on time. And their taxes have been late from procrastinating too.

Their communication about finances is dysfunctional. She pretty much gets to spend her income on whatever, which is mostly ordering out for dinner, helping the homeless and others in need, and helping out her adult children with some of their bills. He handles all the bills and retirement, and occasionally freaks out over some long-delayed tax or bill issue. It sounds like it works for them; I don't think our system would work because if they completely pooled their money, they'd have lots of disagreements about how to spend it. And it sounds like they're doing OK because the husband is really good about stashing money for retirement.

She also told me some things about my family I didn't know. I didn't know my mom was a hoarder long before I came along; once a floor of a rental home caved in because a big heavy cabinet was so crammed and stacked with stuff. I thought maybe she'd gotten worse over the years, but no, she's always been that way.

I also found out that now that my mom is more or less immobile (doesn't like to walk because her knees hurt, so she just stays in the living room all day), my dad has been systematically clearing out all the rooms in the house. Surprisingly, my mom is aware of it and has found a way to cope: she told my sister "I don't go in those rooms anymore, because it's better if I don't know what he's gotten rid of." Which, for a hoarder, is pretty impressive!

It's really interesting to get news from my sister because she's pretty open and honest about things. My family can be weirdly secretive within itself, just about random things, and doesn't always deal openly with problems.

Once I confirmed with my downstairs neighbor who's a real estate lawyer that the association dues refund check was valid, I deposited it and put half toward making up retirement, half toward shared spending money.

Last night NT had a carshare that his company was paying for (has an all-day meeting today), so I suggested he and AS use it to go oven shopping. They found one they liked for $710 (with tax and haul away of the old one). It will be delivered Friday, May 1.

It puts us about $150 in the hole in our shared spending money, but AS is expecting a $500 check any day now, so we decided it was OK to go ahead with it.

This morning, I woke up to a nasty surprise: the monthly autopay check to the duplex seller had been sent. Guess in everything that was happening, I forgot to cancel autopay! I emailed the title co. because I still haven't heard 100% confirmation that he got the payoff. As soon as they confirm that, I'll let him know to ignore the check that's coming. Don't want to confuse matters, or get an earful from him if he hasn't received the promised payoff.

I heard from the broker on the duplex refi; he should have final numbers by tomorrow and wants to close on Friday. That's inconvenient for NT but if we can arrange to meet in downtown Minneapolis, we could do it. I know I'm naive, but I'd hoped a streamline refi could all be handled electronically without an in-person closing!

I really just want to get those exact numbers on the monthly mortgage payment so I can finalize my budget for the next couple of months.