"Looks like you blew a seal." "Never mind my personal life, just fix the car, OK?"

With luck, we just found the problem with our steam vac.  With a little more luck, we'll be able to get a replacement for the under-tank seal that appears to have mysteriously^[1] gone missing.  The frustrating thing is, now that we know what we're looking for, both of us have seen it lying around the house, but neither of us knows where we last saw it.  And it doesn't appear to be available as a separate part.

*kick* *kick* *kick*

If only I'd recognized what it was and where it came from when I had it in my HAND....  now, I have absolutely no idea what I did with it.

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[1]  For values of "mysterious" about two years old and about 31" tall.

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Update, 2004-07-13 2311Z

cymrullewes found the missing seal in the kitchen this morning.  We have a working steam vac again!  (We're still vacuumless, though, and the steam vac cannot be used as a general-purpose vacuum.)

Wanna lose that old hardware?

Office Depot will be accepting old electronic equipment for recycling at all their US branches, through the summer.  One item per person, per day.  No specific ending date for the program is given, and no word on whether they'll extend it beyond the summer if it's successful.  (Or what the measure of success is.)