You neighborhood friendly salesmen.

So, we now have an alarm system. $2200 worth of alarm system. The cost? $150.

The only catch is, other than paying the alarm system's monthly fee, is that we need to advertise we have the alarm system. Sounds like a plan, right?

This all came around from a social young salesman who seemed very eager to give us a system. Yes, I'm sure he has a quota, but for a sound piece of mind in the city, the small monthly fee is hard to beat, plus all the equipment for free!

We had four door sensors installed (one for each door leading out of our house) and a glass-breakage detection sensor located in the middle of the house. It's designed to recognize the sound of breaking glass and trip the alarm. Since I do not personally trust the locks on the windows, I felt this was a better detector over the more common motion sensor.

These detectors were given to us free of charge because we are on a corner lot and have a frequently used road (there is a bus line on it). All we have to do is have a minimally sized sign in the front of our house. The security company said they were forgoing a television ad campaign and instead were focusing on installing systems in neighborhoods to see if the trend grew from there.

I think it's a smart strategy.

We were lucky enough to have a same-day install just before our party, and the installer seemed unsure of what to think of me. I was hanging around in my Gamecube shirt (basically my pajama shirt) and was lazily watching television. When the guy entered, he looked to be around his late twenty's. He must not own his own home either, due to the questions he asked me.

"So... how old are you?"
"22, why do you ask?"
"Oh, nothing... just..." He paused. "So, is this your parent's house, or do you own it? Or what?"
"It's my house. I own it."
He seemed a little shocked, or at least did not suspect that answer. "So, are you married?"
"Oh, no. Not yet."

So, after that, I watched him install the system. He asked about if I was thinking about getting married, and what I majored in. I could tell he was a little nerdy, like myself, so we had a good time talking, so he was a little puzzled that I fixed computers, but had an English/Cultural Studies major.

"Yeah, not many people get that either..." I said to him.