Avram's got a brand new bag

Monday, 27 December 1999

I bought a new bag today. The Eagle Creek Companion Expandable I'd been using for the last few months broke on Friday (one of the metal swivels holding the strap on bent beyond the point where it could keep the strap attached), and the old cheap Manhattan Portage bag I'd bought before that one just wasn't up to snuff -- too few pockets, not arranged the way I'd gotten used to, and the strap didn't give me any place to attach my work keys.

I'd been faunching for a while over the bag Lise had shown me last month -- 13 pockets, and it had a handle and a shoulder strap and backpack straps! Lise had been complaining that she couldn't seem to find any places that sold them (in case she needed to buy more), and last week Lisa had emailed us saying that she'd found bags from a different manufacturer that also could had those three kinds of straps/handles. So today I visited the store she mentioned -- Westside Luggage Shop at 955 Eighth Ave., near 56th Street -- and picked one up. It's a 1444 Wallstreeter from Manhattan Portage, a much higher-end model than the earlier Manhattan Portage bag. It's only got ten pockets (not that I'll use all of them anyway), but it's got that three-way carry system, and the pockets are usefully arranged (complete with an open pocket on the back that's just right for my sketchpad, and smaller pockets up front for my pens). Also, it's got a lifetime guarantee, and the manufacturer is local so if anything does go wrong it should be quick to fix.

I ordered an Icehouse set from Contagious Dreams last week, and got it within three days. Part of that was my good luck placing an order on Monday -- they fill orders on Tuesdays. It's the first online store I've seen that offers "You know me, I'll pick it up" as a shipping option.

I haven't exercised on two weeks. My left shoulder still hurts from a month ago when I let the bench press weights push my arms back too far. It hurt a lot last week, but then I started wearing my bag differently and doing stretching exercises, and those (especially the stretching) seem to have helped.

I'm working on yet another new site design, a much simpler one, with most of the formatting being done through Cascading Style Sheets. I'm teaching myself PHP so that I can have the navigation links generated automatically, on the fly, as each page is downloaded. I've got it just about worked out, and may be launching the new design before the end of the year.