Every bidding war in Silicon Valley is different; this is how ours will work. Tomorrow morning our realtor will give our pre-prepared bid to the seller's real estate agent. The agent will be accepting bids until 3 pm. At 3 pm, she will look over the bids and contact the seller (the seller in this case is the original owner of the home and has recently retired to Sacramento and will be living off of this sale until she dies). The seller and her real estate agent will choose the best offer and contact the lucky buyer. There will be no counter offers or any chance to find out what the other bidders are bidding or how many bidders there are. We will aim very high - the very height of our comfort level - and hope for the best. Our goal is simply to feel that we did all we could. This real estate market makes every bidder feel like a big dummy (an average size fixer-upper ranch-style house for over a million in a regular neighborhood?) but, in a few years, once we're in, we'll get over it. If we do get the house we will be closing as soon as possible and putting our entire down payment into escrow (that is all part of our devious plan to look devilishly attractive). The lease on our apartment ends in June and we can't sublet so, in either case, we'll stay where we are and, in the mean time, have the chance to get rid of some of the floor to ceiling ugliness of any house we get.

As if this week were not stressful enough, Matthew is attending the Game Developers Conference full-time in San Francisco - getting up early and coming home late. Simon is staying with Grandparents Kagle in San Francisco Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday thru Friday he'll be at home with Grammy Joan. Hava will be spending her time at work making money to support our real estate endeavors and not using the vacation time we're saving for June.