If one asks a question, it is usually answered one way or another by the person we ask and in this case I think if he had just said "no" and left it at that you might have felt a bit rebuffed?

Think about the questions and if they might be a little more than one feels one "should" ask? Sometimes I know I ask questions that are just "Hi, how ya doing" sorts of questions to me but another could take more personally and actually think you want to know how they're doing? I think T's jobs are to interact so they're going to take things a bit more in detail and actually answer, aren't thinking our throw offs are just throw offs :-)

It's a great question, questioning what might be inappropriate; I'd discuss it with your T