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Archive for February, 2005

Dryer fixed!

February 9th, 2005 at 03:34 pm

Finally got my dryer working. Total cost of parts was $55 (got a 10% off coupon from the phone book!) and about 12 hours of feeling my way around the innards of the dryer with a bunch of pieced-together tool sets, a multimeter, and a how-to-fix-your-appliances book. Beats $230 for a new one any day, and it kept me out of trouble for a few days and I learned a lot about my dryer in the process.

Thankfully the weather was warm enough here that we could line-dry for part of the time that the dryer was down!

Dryer died: Time to replace?

February 6th, 2005 at 06:56 am

Our clothes dryer is getting pretty old. It was the original one that came with the house, so it's about 15 years old. I need to replace a set of drum glides and a thermal fuse, which probably would run me about $70. Now, a brand new one from Lowe's would cost me $230. I might break down and get the new one after this repair, but the flip side is that I might get another few years out of it if the fixes work.

Third Anniversary dinner tonight

February 3rd, 2005 at 05:33 am

I was able to get away with my wife to our favorite German restaurant -- Zum Rheingarten -- to celebrate our third wedding anniversary. We had a free dessert coupon that we received last year when we went for our second anniversary. We remembered why we had the free dessert card on the way out. We got it because we mentioned to the server that it was our anniversary! Doh! Oh well....

EBay has "Want It Now"

February 1st, 2005 at 06:18 am

Maybe I've just been Captain Clueless but I just noticed tonight that EBay had a new section called "Want It Now." Prospective buyers place their wants here, and sellers can respond with their auctions. I found someone who wanted one of my magazines that I had tried to sell before. Since I got the magazine for free, I could beat all of the other offers that had responded to the Want It Now ad!

More stuff at the discount grocery store

February 1st, 2005 at 06:15 am

Found five 12-packs of Waist Watcher ginger ale for $1.49 each. (We like this brand because it's sweetened with Splenda rather than aspartame.) Also got 19 Wolfgang Puck Chicken Tortilla soups for 99 cents. (I haven't been buying him out like I had because he bumped the price up on me, but I make an exception for Chichen Tortilla!) These cans weren't even dented!