It is nearly impossible to find a cool backpack designed for laptops that isn’t huge. I’ve narrowed it down to some, but most of them are still a bit larger than I like, fitting up to 15″ screens (mine is 10″). Another couple options that seem to be missed in the few bags that are getting in smaller size are a chest and/or waist strap so I can use this on the bike, and additional pockets that would allow for carrying around mail, papers, etc up to about 2″ thick. So it’s either super slim and small, or larger and thick.

Here’s the ones I’ve narrowed it down to:
http://www.rei.com/product/47993992.htm
http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=TSB016US
http://www.stmbags.com.au/smallsphere
http://www.gregorypacks.com/prod.php?ID=73
http://www.slappa.com/site/velocity.html
http://www.spireusa.com/products/ZM6.htm
http://www.tumi.com/…/index.cfm?modelid=16812

This house is super duper! It was just remodeled and only 1/2 block from the beach. If you’re going to stay in Seaside, Oregon and are looking for a nice house next to the beach, you should check these out. There is one large one and one small one to fit your family’s size - both are nice and clean. Check them out at Oregon Beach Houses for Rent

I’ve got the hankering again to go travel a bit. I’m thinking it could be kind of fun to go on a road trip, maybe even camping-style down south through some of the warmer states. It would be even cooler to do it in a ‘72 Lincoln or another obnoxious older car but I’m not about to buy something like that anytime soon. Besides, who wants to have it die in some no-name town in New Mexico? (remember the movie U-Turn?)

The caribbean has been on my mind a lot lately too. As has Mexcio and Latin America. I guess I have the exploring bug right now driving all these thoughts.

Back when I lived in Finland, we used to watch soccer quite a bit when we weren’t playing hockey. Now, it’s hard to stay in touch with the sport living here in the USofA.

A really cool site that I found is this World Cup Blog. It’s well written, funny and gives insider information from all the Soccer teams. You can even buy your World Cup Tickets on the site.

I’m thinking of flying over there to meet up with some friends. This is one of the best sites for Cheap International Tickets / Airfare I have found so far.

Here are some posts worth looking at: Budweiser at World Cup and World Cup Beauty Pageant The World Cup Tags site makes it easy to follow along on any topic related to World Cup that you’re looking for.

Don’t forget to check out Eurailpasses too!

Germany or Bust for World Cup 2006!

Well, my aspirations for travel blogging my entire trip kind of met an abrupt end. After waking up on New Year’s Day, both Vio and I got a case of dysentery (or salmonella - the symptoms are pretty much the same) that pretty much ended the trip as far as we were concerned. So, alas, motivation and the ability to leave the hotel room was something that escaped us for the remainder of the trip.

Oh, well. As with everything in life there is something to be learned in the experience. My personal lesson: Don’t eat sushi in a 3rd world country no matter how nice the hotel is. Yeah, dumb of me for sure! I honestly don’t know what I was thinking - or more likely I wasn’t thinking at all.

I’m packing. I decide to go carry-on only which I feel is a good choice for multi-stop, multi-carrier flights. Not to mention, travel to lesser improved countries (No, I’m not being exclusive just being factual, okay?)

To accomplish this, ya gotta pack agressively. Here’s a couple tips to pack Mika-like:

- 22″ carry on. No bigger than 15″ wide and VERY MAX 7.5″ thick. Why? Sometimes you get older planes, and their storage compartments are significantly smaller than the new planes and the last thing you want is ALL your luggage to be put into baggage, especially any valuables you have in your carry on.

- Pack your small items and thin garments in the outer pockets of your roll aboard that you aren’t using for important things. EX: Tank tops, undies, etc.

- Wear clothes you’ll use at your destination or for “just in case” weather so they don’t take up space in the bag. Layer so you can shed and dress down easily.

- Pack things inside your shoes in the suitcase.

- Roll everything. They take up less space and stack nicely. Another option is to buy the vacuum-bags that suck out the air and make everything thinner.

- Pack multi-purpose clothes. EX: I packed long sleeve shirts that are thin and have sleeves that roll up easily. I can wear it all day long, and then roll down the sleeves for the evening instead of having another shirt.

V’s up and about getting ready for work and making noise, which to my irritation wakes me up. I guess I deserve it. After all, I woke her up at midnight to find her passport just to be sure before I clicked the “book now” button. I get up slowly as ever, and stagger to the computer to find the email. Seriously no joy!

After calling expedia, I am informed to book my flights somewhere else because they don’t have e-ticket agreements with Delta/United. What? An online travel site without e-ticket capability? Right. They’re blowing smoke for sure, but what can I do - agrue with them? I check a couple sites (bootsnall.com has a great multi-site pricing program you should check out) and end up booking a from cheaptickets.

Frustrating as this has been, it ended up saving me about 700 USD. And I am down with that!

I am still asleep, and an email just cam in from Expedia saying they can’t book the airfare portion of our flight on such short notice. No Joy!

So I got all travel-jealous with Keener, Hydro & Court all taking off. Not to mention a bit impulsive. Here it is, 12:01am on Thursday and I just got done booking a trip that leaves tonight at 11:20pm. I’m a bit stressed because that is QUICK for a longer trip. Good news is that one of the flight segments got upgraded to first class so it should make the re-eye a bit easier to deal with. Yeah, I did check into Visa requirement first guys - I’m not a complete noob…

I’m inspired to blog about the trip to Jamaica, so here goes. I’m going to update this a couple days at a time - the hotel has a “computer” for internet access, but it’s ancient and kind of buggy on how it runs so it’s going to be hit or miss, but expect it to be spotty at best and I’ll follow up when I get home. Mostly, I’ll be taking my notes and converting them to blog post. I’m blogging on paper (otherwise known as keeping a journal but not as geeky) so I don’t forget what happened yesterday.

12/29/05 12:03 AM - Portland, OR. Just finished booking for our trip. After some time (about 2 days) contemplating I finally chosed Jamaica as our destination. The weather forecast looks good and prices for both the trip and at the destination are similar to going somewhere closer like Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It is also a relatively short flight compared to many places in the Caribbean. Now, it’s time for bed because we leave today at 11:20 PM. Yes, today - talk about spontaneous.

We will be in Jamica on 12/30/05 and returning 1/5/06 to ring in the new year. Here’s the place we’re staying at:

I want to do this in a bad way! Anyone with some mechanical ability want to join me?