Almost sounds like you have a wheel loose on the spindle, just for grins, put a lug wrench on the front wheels and see if you have any nuts loose. Or, it may be a flakey brake rotor. Too bad you werent here in Austin, Id gladly have a look at it.

"they said the tie rods were bad and they couldn't do an alignment on it."

I wish I had a dime for everytime Ive heard that one!