Well, mine likes the HP15C, and what it goes for.
She likes the NeXT cube, with original docs, laser printer( and why did they ever decide to make it 400 DPI, anyway ?), the external CDROM, the internal magneto-optical drive. She mainly likes it because I might actually get something for it if I sold it. Funny, because she's not normally like that.
She's cool enough about it to offer me that when we've moved up to Wisconsin, I can put up a large shed on the property to house my Junk and I.
Of course, secretly, she's impressed by all the Junk I have. 6 years ago, her best friend's answering machine's wallwart fried, and of course I had one.
Then, since I've known her, she's gone through 2 CDROM drives on her Dell Inspiron. But somehow, I always seem to have a spare laying around.
I'm the only one in the family that can get "Dad" (father-in-law) gifts, since I'm the only geek( aside from him, but he doesn't collect)
So, it's with this kind of stuff that I manage to jolly the family along, they figure, as long as I can pull something usefull out of it once in a while, it can be tolerated.
Years ago, I used to repair TV's and stuff out in Monterey, and when I met my wife, at some point I mentioned how once in a while you'd get a VCR or something with a bunch of roaches in it. So, of course that stuck, and nowadays that's really her main concern, that there's a 'secret' roach in a given piece of junk somewhere.
For some reason, she likes to see things coming and (probably prefers) going. I've noticed as long as I pull in some sad PC left behind at the curb or landfill, put Windows on it, and give it away to someone, I've got a lot more slack. Go figure. She's no dummy, either, she's got a Ph.D and does GIS and stuff, just not as, well, whatever I am.
Oh, Mad-Mike, I'll be more than happy to take your "beyond-repair" stuff off your hands, PM me if you want, I can always use it for "See, see what I'm getting rid of ?..."
patscc