Expedited part arrives today.  Dean checks it--no rattle--then goes to install it.  The fuse blows again immediately and has a rattle.  When Dean takes it back apart, another part starts rattling and pieces of fried electronics start crumbling out.

We decide to cut our losses and replace the fridge.

So when I get home from work, we bundle up in the car and head over to one of the nearby "mall towns".  We eat dinner at Chili's (it's been takeout all week long, since we have no way to store food to cook it) where I gorge myself on their addictive chips, then we head over to Lowes.  They have an expansive appliance section, but there are not many fridges that are (A) somewhat affordable, (B) able to fit into our smaller kitchen, and (C) aren't teeny-tiny little boxes that barely hold a gallon of OJ.  The biggest problem is that the nicest choice in our range is a Frigidaire, which happens to actually be the same model as the Kenmore we're replacing.  (Kenmore is just a label that Sears slaps onto other companies' products--the fridges are generally one of three "regular" brands like Frigidaire, although I don't recall the other two)  I'm reluctant to buy the fridge b/c I don't feel comfortable getting the exact same fridge when our current one died after only 5 years or so.  We spend an inordinant time drifting between the other two or three machines, before deciding to head over to Home Depot.

The Home Depot isn't much better--at this particular store, the appliances are crammed way back in a dingy corner, and since we're looking at the lower end models (b/c of size, believe it or not--they just don't carry a whole lot of selection that's under 20cu ft around here), there's only a few in the way back for us to look at.  We started considering two specific models, and got to the point where we were going to buy one of them, when Dean mentioned that it would stick out 5" more than our current fridge.  Um...yeah, I don't think I want almost a half a foot more taken out of our kitchen.  The current fridge is big enough, thankyouverymuch.

At this point Per was getting a little cranky, which after two hours of standing in appliance sections, was not too badly behaved.  So we cut our losses.  Tomorrow Dean will check out a local store, and if they don't have anything, he'll come meet me for lunch and we'll go look some more.  I *did* point out that we could settle for a tiny spare freezer and a tiny wine cooler, and I'd stop complaining, lol.

The interesting thing was that when we got home, I surfed over to Epinions to see what people had to say.  Would you believe that ALL of the comments about the Frigidaire were about the compressor dying way too soon?!  Thank goodness we didn't buy that fridge!!!