Woo HOO! I'm Free!

Ahhhh, it's vacation time at last. I went ahead and told everybody that I was taking Monday off, too so that I'd have a 5-day weekend instead of that measly 4-day thing I would have had. Actually, since they told us all to go home at noon today, it's really a five-and-a-half-day vacation. Not too shabby. I'm looking forward to it.

Ok, so I've got this really awesome, brand new 4x4 Tacoma bumper & valence that I won on eBay. I forget if I mentioned on here that I tried to install it last weekend with no luck. It turns out that Toyota changed the bumper mounts on the Tacoma between the 97 and 99 model years. Bummer. So, I used one of my favorite online junkyard networks (Junkyarddog.com) and put in a parts request for both right and left bumper mounts for my new bumper. This is a great service...and if you're ever looking for a part for your car, I'd HIGHLY suggest using it. It takes your request and then forwards it out, nationwide, to it's network of salvage yards and they contact you if they have the part you need. So, I received an email first thing this morning from some junk yard in New York. They have the brackets I need..but they wanted $39 EACH for them. That's $80! So, I decided to call a local Toyota dealership to see if I could get them cheaper. Nope. Toyota wanted $41.99 each for them! But, I figured that I already have the bumper and I might as well finish what I've started. So, I decided to purchase them locally from the Toyota dealership, just in case they're not the correct parts. Taking it up the tailpipe again, but..It'll be worth it. When I got home with the new brackets, I held them up to my frame and it looks like they're gonna be a perfect fit. I won't have time to install them until Saturday.

We're heading out for Portsmouth tomorrow morning for Thanksgiving. It'll be nice to spend time with my parents and grandparents. I don't get to see them very often. Special thanks to Eric and Kelly for taking care of Gizmo while we're gone. Hopefully Gizmo will decide to be nice to Eric after this. Right, Gizmo? Oh wait, I forgot. He hasn't figured out how to get on the Internet yet.