[Leboman]

Originally Posted by Nate

You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to buy a house.

It is the equivalent of trying to herd 2 dozen feral cats.

I don't care if I ever have to go through the process again.

[Nate]

So, hey, my passwords are getting old. I need to get some new ones. Any suggestions?

[slap_j]

Originally Posted by Nate

So, hey, my passwords are getting old. I need to get some new ones. Any suggestions?

Your birthdate. Or last name. Or a08zasur9ch4ncjd.

[thesteve]

password

[Nate]

Seriously, what's the deal with craiglist? Everyone seems to think it's a place to effectively get a full rebate after your 30-day period has expired with the actual retailer. Who in their right mind is going to pay 85%-90% of retail price for something you've used and abused for 3 years?

Actual prices / quotes from the N.O. list:

Kenmore range: $600, paid $765
Kenmore fridge: $800, paid $999
Kenmore d/washer: $350, paid $433
Range hood / fan: $400, paid $500

7-piece dining set: $550, paid $750

Dude. Why bother telling us what you paid unless you're asking less than 50% of that?

Really, I wouldn't even consider it a good deal unless it's closer to 33% or 25% of retail.

What are these people thinking? It's no wonder these things sit on there for months.

[Nate]

Originally Posted by slap_j

Your birthdate. Or last name. Or a08zasur9ch4ncjd.

*tries a08zasur9ch4ncjd*'

Darn, that's not Josh's real PW.

[Nate]

So, hey... we own a house.

For some reason I still don't quite understand, we owed about $1,000 less in closing costs than estimated, so we walked out of closing with a rebate check in the amount of $900 some odd dollars.

We didn't finish closing 'til 5:00 this afternoon, and we headed straight to the property to start cleaning up. We managed with the help of Cat's folks to clean both bathrooms pretty thoroughly, remove the old washer and dryer (we also with the help of Cat's folks picked up a "new"er washer / dryer from a craigslist ad this morning for $150) and half the icky linoleum floor in the washroom, thoroughly clean the fridge and start to clean the oven and counters / cabinets, shampoo most of the carpet, clean many of the walls and baseboards, and all in all just get things going pretty quickly.

Most of the rest of the cleaning inside we should be able to finish by lunchtime tomorrow, and then we'll start to move stuff in and/or paint some of the rooms. Yay.

[Art]

Awesome, Nate. I'm happy for you two.

[Nate]

I am more tired than I thought.

[redbaron]

Isn't it a wonderful feeling to own (well, with the bank) the walls around you? Nothing like being able to paint a wall because you want to, and not having to worry about painting it back before you hand the keys back to the landlord.

congrats man!

[BillSPrestonEsq]

cool news.

[bravesfan007]

Congrats on the house!

[Nate]

Originally Posted by redbaron

Isn't it a wonderful feeling to own (well, with the bank) the walls around you? Nothing like being able to paint a wall because you want to, and not having to worry about painting it back before you hand the keys back to the landlord.

congrats man!

We have already painted some of the walls. It's such a freeing sensation.

The kitchen was pink, and now it's green. Amazing what paint can do.

Dude, someone in town is selling a murphy bed for $125. We might get it.

We were hoping to have some kind of guest bed, but didn't want to kill our space.

This one allegedly has a bookcase on top with the bed in a "buffet style" hutch beneath.

During one of our loads tomorrow (our first big "moving" day), we might check it out.

That's a super-cheap price if it's in good condition and of decent quality / build.

[Chrysostom]

Originally Posted by Nate

So, hey, my passwords are getting old. I need to get some new ones. Any suggestions?

I run together obscure things I made up as a child. So, like, my friends and I used to be into robots and I had a robot name and model number; so I used the first letter of the two-word robot name plus the model number. Then there was this spaceship we traveled around on, and I added that after the model number. And that became a password. I have another password that's an abbreviation of the name of this wizard that my friends and I made up, followed by the spell we made up that he would cast.

Also, some of my passwords are relative to the name of the things they protect. So I have two different 3-digit number that are meaningful to me. I then take the first and last characters of the name of the thing I'm password-protecting -- so if it were verizon it would be V and N. I add the "number" of the first to my first 3-digit number and subtract the "number" of the second to my second 3-digit number. The "number" is its place in the alphabet; so A is 1, D is 4, N is 14, Z is 26. Sometimes I also do stuff involving squares -- i.e., the number squared.

Stuff like this helps me come up with passwords that will be really tough to figure out, and as an added bonus I stay sharp on my math skills.

a08zasur9ch4ncjd is actually not too dissimilar from my most important password. But that's one that I almost never use, and if someone else were to learn it could take everything I own pretty easily.

[BillSPrestonEsq]

definitely thinking of you today as I make gumbo. I hope rice roux works...