So I'm about to go out the door and someone knocks....I look out the window and it's a guy in a white polo with a clipboard...my new Dell laptop has shipped so all I really thought is maybe that's the delivery guy! It's a college aged kid trying to sell me an alarm system by APX Alarm. So he tells me they're doing a special offer on specific neighborhoods and I've been selected blah blah. Shows me a paper with a panel they'd install free etc. etc. and ends up muscling into the house observing the existing ancient ADT system that's installed, then saying "well you don't have a door sensor there" so I get immediately suspicious that this is all a scheme to case the house.

He said this was an internship for him. He goes to school in Utah and is from California. In the end I said not interested.....I was able to see exactly what he was doing...play on my fears (of being robbed etc...talking about rental units nearby, busy street I'm off of, crimes that have happened nearby. He tried to establish a bond....poorly executed though, he out of nowhere goes "is there a six flags magic mountain here?" um ok. He talked about "Joe" across the street (I don't know the neighbors yet) and how they signed up. I should have said "well let's go see if Joe's home and get his input" to see if he was full of shit. Repeatedly says I won't find a better deal and he'll go online with me right now to show me. Also, I have to decide NOW. No deciding later, it's now or never. So I told him never. Now get the hell out of my house. Went to their website, apxalarm.com and it does exist but from the site it seems this is the only way they sell?? Very strange.

I ran down to the store afterwards for a few minutes and passed a car parked across the street with Utah plates, so maybe it was legit. Even so, I'd probably use a dog as a security system before a real one anyway.

ok I'm an idiot. I used to be totally up on computers but in the last several years I stopped keeping up with it and as we all know it changes rapidly. So my desktop is way too old. I decide to order some RAM just to speed it up enough to make it bearable until I eventually get a new PC. Now the computer doesn't work!!! I took out the new ram so it's just like it was originally, but I get nothing when I power it on...everything lights up but there's no signal to the monitor and it doesn't seem to go through the boot sequence. Now I'm using my even older laptop that barely runs. (Bought it cheap refurbished about 6 years ago). I think it was incompatible RAM but no idea really. Any suggestions?

So today at work a customer, a woman about 30 with a daughter about 6, asks where Military Rd is. We're in Amherst. I tell her to go down Sheridan and it will hit Military. She gets this real confused look on her face and says "is it in Amherst?" I told her no it's not and she seemed worried and asked how far it was. I explained she'd cross Delaware....then she stops me and goes "Delaware? Is that a dangerous street? I try not to leave Amherst." This wasn't a visitor folks this was someone from here. I know most suburbanites tend to stay away from the city but holy shit. I hate the suburbs.

I know it's two months away, but I'd like to take part this year. It's Saturday, June 14. Time and place TBD. I thought maybe we could get several volunteers from (e:strip)? Check out their website for more info and let me know if you're interested.

So I finally closed on my house Thursday. The family came and helped me move on Saturday and helped me get things setup in the house. I absolutely LOVE IT!! I love living in N Buffalo....not far from anything really, and my neighborhood is very nice. The inside of the house really needs no work, all updated very recently. I do have some work cut out for me outside though...need a new roof, privacy fence along the back, and now the insurance company wants me to replace the driveway/walkway?! Screw them, that's 3rd on the list! :) Also have some work I can do myself...scraping and painting the sides of the garage, replacing gutter downspouts, repainting the trim (I don't like the color), etc. My parents bought me a washer/dryer which was a HUGE boost and picked myself up a lawnmower yesterday.

I'm finally at that point where I get just as much if not more out of spending money on something for my home as I do the latest video game :) It's weird to be grown-up!