I get twitchy when I come home to find that my landlord's been in to do something without having told me.

That used to happen all the time, at the last apt complex I lived in. Once every couple months, I'd come home to find a green note on the counter saying "We came in your apt to do this or that". I hated it. Sometimes the guy would even track in mud or something.

I once finished off my roommates half bottle of Diet Coke and replaced it with a full bottle when she was away for a long weekend. It pissed her off.

I had a roommate who once finished off my bottle of wine and refilled it with water (so I wouldn't notice right away).

The same roommate stole my 8-track of Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols, which was worth about $50 at the time.

I think it was that they were subletters, and not roommates, per se, that bugged me on that one.

I am extremely casual when it comes to friend's homes, because I know their boundaries. I know where the coffee cups are, get a snack, try a spritz of perfume.

But I wouldn't watch someone's DVDs or listen to their CD's or do anything like that if I were a subletter without asking first. (I would read a magazine left out on the coffee table, but that's about it.)

I may be a freakish product of my midwestern upbringing, however!

There are reasons I live alone ... and you're listing some of them.

I have problems that my building management tends to send people in (OK in an emergency) or shove a note under my door saying they're coming in to do work the next morning and I have to clear out, basically, half the apartment to give them access. I hate having workmen in because they invariably seem to break something. Then there was the time I came home and found boot prints across my bedroom floor. ick

Argh Calli, I can see where that could happen, but they were your eggs, if you didn't share them, why did she toss them?

It's good that it was an aberration in an otherwise OK roommate, tho.

If I was in a "shared space but not shared food" position again (and hopefully I never will be again) I'd wait until the person was around unless something was obvious. OTOH? it was this very type of thing and the fact that I have forgotten items myself that I tend to re-label anything I repackage nowadays.

Plus since I tend to be rather lax about expiration dates more than Andi, I let her decide on most items now, because I want her to feel safe more than I want to keep the foodstuff around.

Speaking of which, unopened green pepper Jalapeno Tabasco? one year past "best by" date. Would anyone here open it and use it anyway? Kept in a dark pantry since the "best by" date.

I think it was that they were subletters, and not roommates, per se, that bugged me on that one.

So, a sublettor is like a poor relation in an Austen novel, there on sufferance and not to be considered one of the real residents?

Sorry, I don't mean that as nasty as it maybe sounds. But I've been a sublettor before and was under the misapprehension that paying my monthly rent meant I lived there, fair and square.

Speaking of which, unopened green pepper Jalapeno Tabasco? one year past "best by" date. Would anyone here open it and use it anyway? Kept in a dark pantry since the "best by" date.

Unopened tabasco should last approximately forever, I'd say. Opened, it may dry out and get crusty but is probably still no health hazard if you're in a pinch. (Um, not that I would know.)

Unopened tabasco should last approximately forever, I'd say. Opened, it may dry out and get crusty but is probably still no health hazard if you're in a pinch. (Um, not that I would know.)

Isn't it made of salt, peppers, and vinegar? Aren't they all pretty much in and of themselves preservatives?

Eat it.

I have seen Louisiana hot sauce turn color, though I don't know how that affected it. Jon threw it out. I likely would have at least tried a bit of it.

I don't think it'll hurt you to use it. It might not taste quite right. But if it's unopened it's probably fine.