Topic: What did you get this Christmas? (Read 15756 times)

Towelie · « **Reply #80 on:** December 25, 2003, 06:12:51 pm »

I had to help out a friend who was having some trouble and replace an alternator in one of my vehicles. But due to the circumstances I got over $800 for post X-mas day shopping and all my bills are paid up! WAHOO! I am not broke after this X-MAS.

I was only one that got screwed this X-mas, wife and daughter got loaded up. Cannot decide what to do. Three things I want to do, replace the entertainment center, get a newer surround sound processor, and upgrade this computer. I am thinking about getting a Geforce FX 5900 Ultra, or maybe a MB with P4 3.0 Gig CPU with hyperthreading, 1 gig RAM, 800 Mhz bus to go with video card. I got to be prepared for the arrival of

in five months.

Towelie · « **Reply #81 on:** December 25, 2003, 07:07:09 pm »

Quote:

I had to help out a friend who was having some trouble and replace an alternator in one of my vehicles. But due to the circumstances I got over $800 for post X-mas day shopping and all my bills are paid up! WAHOO! I am not broke after this X-MAS.

I was only one that got screwed this X-mas, wife and daughter got loaded up. Cannot decide what to do. Three things I want to do, replace the entertainment center, get a newer surround sound processor, and upgrade this computer. I am thinking about getting a Geforce FX 5900 Ultra, or maybe a MB with P4 3.0 Gig CPU with hyperthreading, 1 gig RAM, 800 Mhz bus to go with video card. I got to be prepared for the arrival of in five months.

Well, so much for that, my left front strut is messed up on my Buick and is messing up the steering. Got to get those replaced now, looking at around $300.

vsfedwards · « **Reply #82 on:** December 25, 2003, 07:11:35 pm »

OMG How could I forget the socks!! (p.s. Im absolutely totally and utterly drunk! woooo!!)

grimbeard · « **Reply #83 on:** December 25, 2003, 07:55:35 pm »

A newer vid card
A printer/scanner/copier Woot
DVD player
couple of gift certificates
Cologne (am i stinky or something?) Cool Water by Davidoff
A good bonus from my boss at work 150$
Jim Beam sauce mixes (hot, bbq, hot wing and steak)

Santa was definitely batting for me this x-mas. Now I can post a pic of my ugly mug and one of my uber sheperd.
Merry Christmas to everyone here. Hoping next year will be better for all.

Jeff

JMM · « **Reply #84 on:** December 25, 2003, 08:28:54 pm »

Towelie, do you have an advance auto parts in your area? They are second behind Autozone, and their Monroe struts have a LIFETIME guarantee! There is no reason you should not get 100,000 miles out of each one, but if you need them replaced sooner then no problem! Having an assoc degree in auto technology and experience working in the field (I still even have my toolbox from Hades) here is what I recommend to save money. Buy after market struts, get in your garage or driveway and put the front on jackstands and mark with a thin steel marker where the old struts were bolted on, I usually trace the design where it was fastened to the car, unbolt the old strut assemblies, take them to a mechanic, they should have a machine called an orbital, if not then they still use the old cage method, and get him to switch out the struts, you will save a bundle as the labor to do struts on a car is what techs call "gravy." Go home, put them on yourself, making sure you stick as close to the tracings as possible. Then after you tighten her down, go to an alignment shop and get the car wheels aligned.

I used to do this for people while at auto tech school where I had access to alll equipment without getting bitched at for doing under the table work like I would at an auto shop.

What year is your car? A 92 Camry runs about 80 dollars or so per Monroe strut, then I would pay a mechanic 20 per strut to switch them out with the boot dust covers and all, then 50-60 for an alignment. Think about it. Even if you do not have an Advance auto parts, call Autozone and others, most aftermarket stores carry lifetime warranty on the struts (not the labor as that is done where you choose).

250 vs 800 dollars. If you are tight on money, I highly suggest the Logitech THX surround sound P/C-T/V-DVD stereos, I bought one at Best Buy in Mar, and it has been EXCELLENT for only 200, if I had seen the other one for 350 I would have bought it instead, and the wattage? Don't worry brother, your family will tell you to turn down the concert arena!

TB613 · « **Reply #85 on:** December 25, 2003, 09:59:07 pm »

I had a fine Christmas, an excellent meal with good friends and then watching the grandson of one of my friends open his presents. My presents consisted of a very nice and warm sweatshirt with wolves on it that vsfedwards would love, a gift pack of speciality coffees, a gift certificate to the new Olive Garden which just opened up here, and a solid chocolate Santa. My Christmas present to myself was Knights of the Old Republic for the PC.

Towelie · « **Reply #86 on:** December 25, 2003, 10:35:41 pm »

I do have an Advance Auto Parts store here. The struts are only $42-$60 depending on which ones I get. My Buick is an 85 Somerset Regal. I cannot let go of it! I've sold other cars, but this one I love! It's got 199575 miles on it and runs smooth as silk. It was my first car and I just cannot part with it. Out of four cars, I cannot let go of this one.

Anyways, I was going to do that two months ago when it started getting rough, but the bolts are rusted and I couldn't get them off. I took it by Pepboys (since they were only ones open late that day) and they gave up and told me to take it to a local specialist. At least they didn't charge for anything.

I love this car. I am about to sell my Oldsmobile (too big and don't like the steering) and get another vehicle while I restore the Buick to like new condition. I am even going to pay extra to make sure I can keep my R-12 A/C which freezes the ass off of passengers. Everyone is used to R-134a. I miss my Buick already! Everybody says it's great ride for an old car. Last X-mas, I replaced the cd-player and speakers with an MP3 player and better speakers.

mathcubeguy · « **Reply #88 on:** December 26, 2003, 02:05:53 am »

Well, if ya really want to know...

2 CD's
4 DVD's
Band of Brothers 6 DVD set
Headset for the computer
A good sum of money

EE · « **Reply #89 on:** December 26, 2003, 02:36:13 am »

a broken driver side window that cost me $145 that should have been spent on my cars registration , job hunting and my cell phone bill.

Its all about what I got friends though so thats whats most important.

JMM · « **Reply #90 on:** December 26, 2003, 04:07:43 am »

Towelie, there is a specialty tool that will crack the nut that is attached to the bolt, I will not lie, by hand it will be a beech, air impact tools are the way to go when working on cars and trucks, but it can be done. Make sure you have an exact duplicate of the nut and bolt so when you reattach the strut assembly everything is factory specs. We not only used them for those situations, but also for people that had lugnut locks for custom wheels yet they lost the key to them. Call Sears hardware or other places and you will be bound to find one, I think Advance still sells them as well, but I always stayed away from Ampro tools (el cheapo). There was a time though that Advance would let you borrow the tool for free as long as you left a deposit to cover the price of it if you did not bring it back, not a bad deal. That was in 99-00, so I have no idea what their policies are nowadays.

Edit: Also, if the bolt is really stuck in place, then you get a steel punch and hammer it out. Easy stuff my friend.

NCC2012 · « **Reply #92 on:** December 26, 2003, 07:33:02 pm »

Okay, the full list (from what I can remember):

- "LOTR:TTT" on DVD
- Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD
- "Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker" on DVD
- "Free Enterprise" on DVD
- Hasbro's Yoda lightsaber
- a palm sander
- a battery for my cordless drill
- the forementioned "sex dice"
- Best Buy gift card
- The LOTR books
- Art Asylum's Enterprise-A
- 2 bottles of wine (white zin & merlot)
- $50

...and more on the way next week!

Toten · « **Reply #93 on:** December 27, 2003, 11:57:40 am »

Call of Duty - great graphics
512meg USB chip - WICKED FOR A VIRTUAL DRIVE !!!!!!! 8meg/s write, 10meg/s read - makes smaller appllications SMOKING FAST
twin 512meg chips to up grade mem from 256meg to 1 gig - NOW i can play BF1942 well
BOOOZE GLORIOUS BOOOOOZE

everything else is pale by comparison

NJAntman · « **Reply #94 on:** December 27, 2003, 09:13:19 pm »

4 hours of sleep after a marathon gift wrapping session with the wife ( now I know why the mortgage was paid late), followed by a good half-hour of my son tearing through the same wrappings, and some good tears later on when my wife got to watch her Wedding video as a VCD complete with our wedding song as background.

IKV Nemesis D7L · « **Reply #96 on:** December 27, 2003, 09:54:24 pm »

What did I get?

Good times with family and friends. Everything else was unimportant.

JMM · « **Reply #97 on:** December 28, 2003, 01:00:30 am »

Same here Nem, for once I had a non material Christmas, and when ole doc Sal and his wife came over to treat me at home, I felt richer than King Solomon in his heydey.

TheShadow · « **Reply #98 on:** December 28, 2003, 01:03:26 am »

A nice router/fixed and plunge bases. (woodworking)
A nice set of router bits
A new cordless drill/ about 30 new bits
A shop vac
A skinning knife
A 23 function multi-tool
An organizer for my workshop

SFC Bennie · « **Reply #99 on:** December 28, 2003, 02:58:53 am »

I upgraded my home computer system. AMD Barton 2500 processor (1.84 GHz), 512 Megs of RAM, a 120 GB hard drive, and a Logitech Z-2200 sound system.

And we got a cat.

Scott Bennie

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Topic: What did you get this Christmas? (Read 15756 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Towelie

Towelie

vsfedwards

grimbeard

JMM

TB613

Towelie

Soreyes

mathcubeguy

EE

JMM

vsfedwards

NCC2012

Toten

NJAntman

Sirgod

IKV Nemesis D7L

JMM

TheShadow

SFC Bennie

Topic: What did you get this Christmas? (Read 15756 times)