First some background beyond the fact that I have a lot of bags, and if you call it a p—— I will hit you with it. I have always disliked that word and refuse to have one. What I carry is and will always be a Bag.

When the swift bag was just a glimmer (aka a design your dream bag contest) in Knitty in 2005, I learned about a Seattle company called Tom Bihn. I filed this away for future reference.

Returning to the present, with a side journey into the past few weeks:

It should surprise no one that I have a new bag. The previous bag is really nice and still works really well in many situations, but is a half inch too narrow for when I need to add my netbook to the mix. Items would be placed on top of other items and the only way to get anything out would be to unpack everything.

Not very convenient when I’m on the train.

Nor very efficient.

In an attempt to find an in-house solution (I probably have a larger selection than many shops) I pulled out my Timbuk2 Tote. I love road trips with this bag and it’s older, bigger sister, but it really did not suit my needs while running around Manhattan the other day– I popped the zipper after rearranging so as NOT to strain it. Sure, I could probably go up a size, but I like Tetris, and I like my bag to be small, compact, and easy to handle. Something that doesn’t start off weighing 1.5 pounds is a plus too. Technology has lightened over the years, but the grams and ounces add up when walking 3+ miles.

Something had to change. The tablet of my dreams does not yet exist, though legal jailbreaking does make the lone current offering more tempting. In any case, for now, akepa must travel when I need him to. The Sony Touch (which probably should be named at this point) is working better for me and is helping lighten things further. The laptop I use at the office can handle SD cards so I can transfer files at mid-day if necessary without futzing with cables. It’s not perfect, but it’s helped.

I went looking through the usual shops once again. Nothing appealed to me. Then somewhere out of the cobwebs in the back of my mind said “check out Tom Bihn”. So I did.

I fell hard for a brand new product. The Co-Pilot.

Geared as a carry-on, what appealed to me the most (this was during the first heat wave of 2010) was the center pocket for a water bottle/umbrella. Swoon! It appeared to be just big enough to hold a file folder (my ideal size) and there were pockets that could hold large moleskines and just ways to compartmentalize all my stuff.

But to spend over $100 on a bag? I don’t think I’d ever spent more than $50. Yes, even given that I’ve owned a few pricey bags including two Tumi’s. I find great clearance sales and often rock the thrift store. I don’t care if it was last seasons or last years. It’s a BAG. I just want it to hold my stuff, not look too hideous, and be ready to live with me, not against me.

I hesitated. I read reviews and watched a video. I pondered on facebook. I asked a question on their forum. I worried this bag would look very touristy. That it would be too small, or too big. That I was looking for a problem that didn’t exist just because it had been a few months since my last bag purchase.

I tried hard to live with what I have. I really do have a lot of bags.

While on a site visit to a client, my bag exploded open spilling its contents across their floor. That sold me that I needed to do something different.

I purchased the bag the next day.

I went with the black ballistic nylon over the lighter weight dyneema (think tent/windbreaker fabric) because let’s face it, the streets of NYC are not kind and gentle. Any extra protection I can gain is appreciated, even if it costs a few grams. The weight difference wasn’t that drastic so I ran with it.

I also, for $20, upgraded to the “absolute strap”. As I’m 5’1″ and have narrow shoulders, straps do NOT want to stay put. I knew I’d need all the help I could get, weirdness of being overkill for a bag this small in size would not fly by me. At worst I knew I could use the strap on other bags. Years of carrying a bassoon around with a terrible strap (and extreme calluses on my fingers) taught me that a good strap is worth it.

While placing the order, I added in a mini clear fronted pouch. I like to keep my library card bar code and monthly rail pass easily accessible without having to open things, so it looked useful. I was curious what it was like and at that low cost, it made sense to try.

Then I waited.

They were back ordered for a week. I survived.

Then it shipped, last week.

UPS ground takes FIVE days (aka a week because there is no weekend delivery) from Seattle to the North East. Speedier shipping isn’t that much more and I do very much regret not springing for it.

Tuesday was another day of testing my ability to wait for things. I was constantly refreshing the delivery status, “out for delivery” is the meanest phrase to see, even if you know the approximate time of the UPS truck. It wasn’t waiting for me when I got home, so I waited very impatiently for the afternoon delivery. My basement office means that it often appears that no one is home. The nice UPS guy didn’t even try to ring the bell, it was just left on the doorstep. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing that I retrieved it within three to five minutes of delivery. ;)

Upon opening the box I was surprised at how small the bag was.

I put it together (added the strap) and filled it up with what I carried that day. I was surprised at how much room I still had and when I put it on my shoulder, how light it was. And how it didn’t look at all like a touristy bag. Or a computer bag. Or really anything other than a very efficient and well built tool that I could potentially use.

I am impressed with everything. The pockets hold what I need them to, there are d-rings in the front, and it shipped with a key strap. I need to rethink my keys (there are 3 rings and the car keys are just absurd, especially since I don’t drive) but it’s nice to finally have my office keys on a strap that I can find early in the morning. My berry is spoiled by a fleece pouch. My pens enjoy their neat home. The ruler doesn’t know what to make of its new abode, it’s used to being on the very bottom. My moleskine planner, writersbloc log books, and the sony LOVE not having to compete with akepa for space. I’m happy that if a post-it is on the cover of any of the books chances are when I next take it out, it’ll still be there because there wasn’t a competition for (something) going on while I put them all together.

I’ve now used it for one day, an atypical day where I did more running around than normal. So probably a good day to have to see how the bag works for me.

What are my first impressions?

It looks pretty much how it did in those staged photos above. It held all this stuff and I told E on the train home that I’m now petrified I lost something since it is so much lighter than my bag was the day before! For me this is amazing. Normally by the time I’m on the train home at night (or even in the early afternoon) I’m a mess of index cards, post-it notes, receipts, and my headphones are twisted around everything.

I am still in love. It’s light and very well balanced, I can find what I need when I need it, and can sit in the park between meetings and get things done without turning it into a production and piles of stuff on display for strangers to view in person (‘cuz flickr is for only my bestest of internet buddies </sarcasm>). Actually, I pulled akepa out and drafted this post while I was waiting on Wednesday. The bag shared a chair with me and provided easy access to anything I needed. Later, on the train, it sat quietly on my lap while I knitted. When we were halfway to our stop, I commented to E that for the first time in a while my legs didn’t hurt on the train. The bag sat curled up like Shadow napping. With all my other bags I had to lift with my toes to keep the bag semi balanced and from slipping to the floor.

Oh, right, that nifty water bottle pouch I was enamoured with? Why should Ms Dehydrated carry water when her knitting fits perfectly inside? I haven’t tried a spindle yet, but I suspect the fit will be perfect.

The question remains, how long will this love affair last? I hope for many years to come. I’m already plotting my next Tom Bihn acquisition (in steel please) er, acquisitions (kiwi).

Will this co-pilot and I have a perfect relationship? No. Honestly, there is one thing that after 24 hours I would change if I could, I would switch the arrangement in the front pockets. While I’m definitely a paper & pen(cil) girl, I do like easy quick access to my berry. In this current design, the nice fleece pocket for my much abused berry, because I’m right handed and carry the bag on my right shoulder, ends up in back. I’m turning this into a positive development and hoping that it’ll help me break my terrible habit of checking it every 2 minutes, mostly to ascertain the time.. but then I’ll probably have to buy a watch and wear it.

What are the other millions of bags I own doing? Enjoying the AC and keeping the basement expedit unit company and while available for travel. Yes, even the one with the busted zipper.

Oh, how do I grill ‘em? Wash, pare out big eyes, slice kinda thick (¾ inch-ish aka my thumb width), parboil until just softish, drain, toss with olive oil & salt, grill until yummy. I start skin side down when available because they’re easier to flip.

That’s it. Sorry, I’ve not had time to write more. On good days (like today) we eat real food. On bad days I make rice the rice cooker makes rice and I toss in tofu and canned veggies at the table.

It’s been crazy in a good way the past two weeks. Thank you for all your dehydrator thoughts. Hopefully I’ll reply to them in the next post, and personally before then… let’s just say there’s a solution in my kitchen that I hope to mod from eh to perfect. It’s what happens when you have geek+engineer living together and two idle soldering irons. ;)

E’s 30th birthday sweater: My goal right now is to touch it and work on it at least once before he turns 31. I need to rework some of my figuring with row tension and hope I don’t have to rip out anything.

Girasole: It was dumped into the storage bin of the side table in my office. I hope to work on it again soon. The rounds are at the point I need to start finding it acceptable to stop in the middle. Half a round knitted is more than no row knitted.

30 for 30 Charity Hats: Uhm… *blush* … Shadow stole some of the yarn and I threw it all into a big ziplock and it’s lost to the depths of my closet? (he did, but still, my excuses are pathetic)

brandywine: I had a beautiful spurt with this the other week and once again it was set aside for other projects. I love knitting it and do not understand why I set it aside. The fibre is pure luxury, the pattern is well written and fun, the colours are perfect, so why do I keep abandoning this for something else? If I knitted this to completion at least I could have the option of wearing it…

baby vests and baby hats 2010: No good excuse. I love the patterns but wish I could handle knitting worsted or higher more often. These knit quickly because they are baby things but not quick enough. I need to find a way to spice up this project, there’s another little one due any moment now and the others aren’t getting smaller (thankfully!)

featherweight cardigan: This sat on the nightstand until recently when it was upgraded to car knitting status. I’m not sure of the colour for me. Someone might end up super lucky with a small sized avocado cardi in the near future. I expect this to be set aside too, but I must finish it before I can start any other adult sized garments for me.

Blue Flutter: I took this to our house closing last August and I totally foo’d the PU. I tried to fix it in January but screwed it up further (what lifeline?) so it’s sitting and thinking about itself and needs to learn if it doesn’t behave next time I pick it up, I’m gifting it to Shadow.

Niles: is hibernating. The nupps on 2mm needles about killed me. I really should work on him. I’d like to get him done (or turn him to the frogs and reuse the yarn!)

Which leads to me one item that is not on the list anymore.

Pattern: Rick by CookieA in Sock Innovation
Yarn: Shibui Sock in wasabi
Needles: 2.25mm
Rav project Page
Started back in January to wear in hopes of spring, finished last week during the height of summer.

These took forever and there is no good reason as to why. The closest I have come is I thought the yarn was more semi-solid than it turned out. The other factor may be that I knitted them one at a time down to the toe decreases where I finished them together and actually kitchenered the toes. The look awesome, they fit perfect, and are definitely happy-dance socks. I surprised myself by enjoying the kitchenering. I still prefer my socks toe-up, but since my feet are so small if there is fear that I will short-change the leg in the interest of moving on to something else, I now have a good solution. I have nothing against grafting beyond I can never find one of the six trillion tapestry needles I own when I need one.

I’m reading. I’m just not yet able to publish finalized reviews of books I’ve finished in the past, er recently. I’ve probably mentioned one or two here before and it is what it is. Today I will try the following, below is a long crazy list of many of the recently completed books and short stories (that I can remember) sorted by author and with an attempt a few words in thought-dump format on each.

• Megan Arkenberg’s “All the King’s Monsters” in Clarkesworld Magazine Issue #40
  I’m not sure why I really enjoyed this one, but I did.

• Persuasion
  by Jane Austen
  Heather forced me. No really, this was the latest CraftLit read and while I’m late to the Austen party, I found it a very interesting read. Thank you Heather. I think. I’m still avoiding A Connecticut Yankee but that will come in time.
• Raw Foods for Everyone: All the Essential Techniques and 300 Simple-to-Sophisticated Recipes
  by Alissa Cohen
  I very randomly picked this up off Strand’s book proof shelf. When it’s really hot outside I want to make sure we still eat something yummy and healthy. Do be warned, you’ll definitely be wanting a dehydrator after reading all the yummy recipes, many of them require one. I made a nice twist on a standard coleslaw. I am also not staying totally true to the whole Raw philosophy when I make recipes from this (I will add dairy or even cook things) but the flavour combinations are inspiring and good for another hot summer Monday. More on this one hopefully coming up next Tuesday.
• Amal El-Mohtar “And Their Lips Rang with the Sun” (Podcastle 111) (Rated PG)
  One interesting tale.

• Mercedes Lackey’s Mage Wars Trilogy.
  Several years ago, this was my introduction to Lackey and the Velgarth world. Over time, I definitely combined and condensed the three stories into two in my memory. It was a delight (and slight worry) to discover The White Gryphon as a surprise. I wonder why we have such difficulty remembering middle stories? (I’m sure pages are devoted to this very subject, I’ve never checked).
• The Secret Worlds Chronicle
  by Mercedes Lackey and Steve Libbey
  This is a podcast-based audio book series. The first two books, Invasion and are available in full and the third, World Well Lost, is into part 18. Metahumans. War. Interesting.

• Jay Lake’s Torquing Vacuum in Clarksworld Issue #41
• Tongues of Serpents
  by Naomi Novik
  This is Naomi’s most recent publication and I think I missed one. Laurence and Termaire are exiled, to Australia where things in this outback land of convicts will not be one of quiet. The story definitely felt more forced than my recollection of her earlier stories. I will rereview when I’ve read through everything again.
• The Library at Night
  by Alberto Manuel
  I wish I remember how I discovered this one. I confess that I enjoyed Manguel’s essays on Libraries as order, space, power, shadow, identity, etc, but I must admit that the pictures were my favourite part. I read most of these as we were finishing our renovations.
• McIntosh, Will “Bridesicle” (Escape Pod 247) (Rated PG) Very fascinating. I listened while mowing the lawn Friday afternoon. Death but not death. Hitchers. Dating. I’m still thinking about this one and where science will take us..
• Sean McMullen’s The Great Winter Trilogy
  I discovered this author by picking up the third in the series at Bookoff a while back due to the blurb on the back. Even though I tend to refuse to buy used series unless they start at the beginning. What caught my eye? Two words: Librarians and duel. Seriously. Cross not-steam-punk with not-yet-cyber-punk and mix in Australia. I found it highly entertaining. It began my Australian reading adventures of July 2010. I hope to read more of McMullen’s writing in the future.
• David J Schwartz’s “The Somnambulist” (Podcastle 112) (Rated R) Again with the death that is not death. Sleepwalking and squirrels. What more might you not want? Oh yes, a diamond.

What, you expected coherency? I think that clears out most of the list. I know there are titles of interest I’ve missed, but it’s a start. I also forget if I’ve mentioned this little bookcase before. E built it into the access to this portion of the attic. It pulls out on rollers. The two up top hold Lackey, Norton, and Novik, the next to bottom is for McCaffrey’s Pern, and the bottom is for a random assortment of classics. I have sff split between the library downstairs and this upstairs case. It’s not the most efficient use of shelving, but until I figure out what this portion of our collection needs, it works.

May you have an easy and meaningful fast.

When he was full of snuggles and temporarily out of purrs we had a tug-of-war (it is summer kitty camp time, n’est ce pas?) with some yarn, but that’s a story for another day.

I will sum up and link to what I’ve been reading soon. Why not now? The clutter in my office has been distracting me and my work, causing me to enter that downward spiral of “must attempt to do work and ignore all else”. If you’ve commented, emailed, or written and I’ve not gotten back to you or you’ve expected high quality posts, the clutter is why; to anticipate questions, no, I wasn’t accomplishing anything beyond wallowing in clutter and frustration. I spent hours working on problems that with focus require minutes to solve.

To that end, I took five minutes this noontime to tidy up my office knowing it would do worlds of wonders. It did. I knocked off a request in half the self-estimated time, definitely a good thing; I like to beat my time estimates.

E walked in tonight and commented about the large amount of cleaning I did in my office. I explained that I hadn’t taken much time: I only cleaned and neatly piled the stuff on my work surface and moved a few things to the periphery to bring more space into the room. I also took off the temporary sewing machine cover I made years ago, I didn’t want to waste fabric so I used an old t-shirt (mistake #1), I didn’t bother to make it fit so it always fell off (mistake #2), and I’d rather dust out my machine than keep looking at it and feeling bad. Tonight as I close up for the night, I will take 5 minutes and make sure that what needs to be put away is put away and try to pick up and clean one part of the rest of the office. 10 minutes of cleaning tops. If I had kept up with 5 minute clutter control weeks ago I wouldn’t be in this predicament now. Mum should be amazed, at age thirty I’ve finally learned to clean up.

Once what’s here is clean then I can begin to attack the seven boxes of office stuff we moved. My desk surface still has a way to go before it won’t easily into the temptation of easy clutter, but it’s getting there.

I don’t have questions today, just comments and friendly reminders:

1. Try to put things away where they belong when you are finished with them. Turning a one step process (putting it away now) into a multi step process (putting it away later after moving it several times and thinking about putting it away) leads to clutter.

2. Find what works for you, both for clutter control, and for tools.
3. Five minutes a day can make a huge difference. Rome didn’t fall in a day and it won’t get mother-in-law-visiting clean in a day, but five minutes are manageable. Do it!
4. Shine your sink (a.k.a. your clutter hot spots) every day. I agree with doing it as part of a going to bed routine (or leaving the office). It puts a positive spin on things.

It’s a lifelong challenge. I’m aware of my personal challenges and I’m rising to meet them. I will probably never fully conquer my disposition to clutter a space, but I shall try.

I recently posed a frantic question by email to some friends “what should I write about on Tuesdays”. One of the offerings was comfort food, a topic which I’ll expand upon below.

My first question of the day to you: What should I write about on Tuesdays?

Let’s return to that great idea comfort food; I define it as a dish that is filling, soul warming, often gooey, and not necessarily good for you.

It is summer. While I love comfort foods, most of my favourites are foods that either further heat up me or the kitchen, not something I’d like to do when the digital mercury passes 90.

Twisting it, let’s talk about summer comfort foods.

Mine aren’t anything elaborate and most are actually things that don’t require application of heat.

Carrots, berries, and watermelon all top my list with grilled corn closing in just behind. I didn’t say that all were heat-free. ;)

Oh and of course there is vanilla ice cream. How could I almost neglect that?

Question two of the week: What are your favourite summer comfort foods?

The super highly observant among you will notice there is one type of food missing from this list (excluding allowing the ice cream to melt). Yup! That’s it, something to keep me hydrated. This is something I’ve struggled with since forever. In general don’t like plain water, many other drinks turn me into Goldilocks. They’re either too sweet or too tasteless. One day I’ll find the one that is really just right.

Speaking of dehydration, I’m beginning to look into ways to preserve all the herbs I’m growing on the deck. I’m looking at two different dehydrators and my main impression is that they seem super big and bulky. Are they worth it? I’ve done close to zero real research on what I’m looking for, other than not to have the oven on when it’s hot outside, so I don’t know. It would be a shame to see my beautiful herbs go to waste. Yes, I could freeze all of it, but I’d like to give gifts of dried herbs come gift giving season.

My third and final set of questions for this post: How do you preserve herbs? Do you ever dry any fruit? Do you own a dehydrator and if you do what do you like and not like about it? Is Mary Bell’s Complete Dehydrator Cookbook a definite addition to my bookshelf? Should I acquire it now?

Advice welcome.

Yes, I am recycling photos. I have some more I’ve taken but I haven’t processed them yet.