For the Ladies: Burton Women’s Day Hiker

Laptop.  iPod.  Headphones.  Camera.  Phone.  Wallet.  Home keys.  Car keys.  Moleskine, writing implements, Bluetooth earpiece, DS, games, maybe a spiral notebook or two, possibly even a textbook.  And this is all supposed to go into a messenger bag and arrive unharmed and somewhat organized at my destination?

Faced with this issue while packing my regular carryon for a trip last month, I realized something had to change - I needed a better receptacle for all of my junk.  After shopping other messengers, slings, totes, and various other bag designs, the best solution was the Burton Women’s Day Hiker 12L.  This bag has some serious pockets - plenty of organized space for my phone, various pens and pencils, a fleece-lined pocket for my camera, a clip for my keys, even a separate pocket for my iPod with a cutout to run the headphone cord through.  There’s a shovel pocket on the inside of the bag that houses a 13” notebook (although it’s not the most protective pocket on Earth - a sleeve might be a good idea).  Two outside board straps make schlepping your sporting board of choice a breeze.  Most importantly, the shoulder straps - which are made for women - were comfortable while carrying a heavy load. 

The Burton Women’s Day Hiker 12L is available in six colors, including basic black, and retails for $49.95.  Just in case you guys get jealous, there’s a men’s version as well.

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First Space Hotel Planned for 2012

What began as an idea from former aerospace engineer Xavier Claramunt may become reality in 2012. Galactic Suite will be the first hotel in space and allows a round-the-world experience in only 80 minutes. Booking a room doesn’t come cheaply, as a 3-day stay will cost $4 million. While there, guests can wear velcro suits to crawl and stick around their pod/rooms and will be able to see sunrise 15 times a day. Claramunt, the company’s director,  says that the hotel was created keeping in mind that each pod had to fit inside a rocket.
“It’s the bathrooms in zero gravity that are the biggest challenge,” says Claramunt. “How to accommodate the more intimate activities of the guests is not easy.”
Even if we had sufficient funding to travel to the posh resort, we think we will pass, as we get a bit nauseous just eating in revolving restaurants.

Read More | CNN

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Save Food and Lodging Fees By CouchSurfing

It’s vacation time but you don’t have enough funding to go past the back yard. If the Charity Guide isn’t quite your idea of how to spend it this year, consider becoming a member of CouchSurfing. Although the site has been up since 2004, it now has 218 countries involved and over 260,000 members that will assist you in saving on those pricey hotel and meal costs. Create a profile as completely as possible on the site, chat it up with some of the discussion groups, and request a destination. After your options appear, find out more details by talking to your host, seeing pictures of her/his home, and make plans to literally crash on someone else’s couch.

Read More | CouchSurfing

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Off to See the World—Now That I Can

I failed to announce a few months ago that my Dad had finally received my Consular Report of Birth from the powers that be and had sent it directly to me. So in my hands I have held the one thing that allows me to at last feel that I actually exist! This piece of paper with the stamp of Condoleeza Rice was so difficult to track down and I am sure that everyone who prayed for me helped to speed up the process as I needed this piece of identity to be able to travel with some of my church members and 300 or so other young adults from around the world on the mission trip I had mentioned in a previous post.

Click to continue reading Off to See the World—Now That I Can

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I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane

It is 2 am Friday morning, I will be leaving in approximately 17 hours for San Jose and the Blogher conference. My husband asked me if I was excited, I said "no, I'm nervous". Why am I nervous? Well let's go down the list shall we? 1. I am very new to blogging. I have no idea what I will talk to other women about. My husband explained to me today that I blog using Expression Engine. What does that mean to me? Not a whole lot. 2. I am to blog live from the various sessions I attend, how do I listen and type with two fingers at the same time? 3. I hate to fly. 4. I'm scared my hotel reservation will somehow be void for some unknown reason. (Paranoia setting in) 5. I am leaving my two-year old alone with my husband for 24 hours. When I come home, he will have mastered Halo or have his own podcast. 6. Reading other posts from the women attending, it seems a lot of us are worried about what to wear, and whether we will be pedicured. I feel frumpy in any clothing I own and as of now my toes are hanging on to the remnants of a pedicure from months ago. 7. The new pill my OB prescribed is making me break out like a teenager in the midst of puberty, oh joy. 8. I hate to admit that I have not read many blogs so therefore will not know if I encounter a "celebrity" blogger. I apologize ahead of time. 9. I am very bad, no really, very bad, at remembering names. So if it seems like I am staring at your boob, I am only trying to ingrain your name from your name tag, into my brain. 10. I get all flustered talking to new people so it seems as if I'm interrupting when I am really trying to avoid the awkward lull in a conversation, so I tend to speak before the other person is finished. Bad habit. These are only 10 reasons I am a nervous wreck, I could go on but will have to sleep sometime before my two-year old wakes up. I noticed while reading the other posts that I became more nervous of the kind of impression I will make meeting everyone. Will I fit into a niche? Am I a mommy-blogger? Or something altogether different? Thank God my sister is coming with me. Although she is not a blogger by all accounts, she does write for a site of ours. She possesses more social skills than I and will hopefully keep me in check as she is the queen of etiquette. She will remember names. I also wondered why it is that women care so much to impress other women more so than wanting to impress men, when we should all be sisters and not care what we all look like or have on? We are so insecure and put so much pressure on ourselves. Why is that? I am asking because I do it also. Would everyone feel better if we all wore uniforms to Blogher? I wonder. I want to go and have fun and not have to worry if my toes match my outfit, but I know that I will be secretly obsessing about it. It's just in our nature. Well, at least we will know that we care enough to shower and change our underwear :). It is late and I am now rambling. If I have the energy later in the morning maybe I will do my toes, in between packing and the chaos of a 2 year-old and 11 year-old shouting to see which one is louder. Hmm...San Jose is looking a little less scary.

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