Inventory...

[alexpgp]

Made it okay yesterday. If you don't count my incredible luck at being singled out (surprise!) for the in-depth security check in Durango, the only glitch in the process occurred in Houston, where it took nearly as long to get my bag back from the airline as it did to fly from Durango to Phoenix (or seemed so, it took actually 40 minutes). The wait was made tolerable by having run into Andra H. on the plane from Phoenix, and we caught up somewhat while waiting for the bags to arrive.

I stopped by the Fry's store for a few minutes on the drive down to Pearland, but amazingly, could find nothing that struck my fancy (which is fine, as I don't have all that much spare cash, and they don't take American Express). What I found interesting was the lack of any "depth" in their magazine department (only one Linux magazine, and that one was hidden in the top row of a bottom tier, so you had to hunker down to see it). At any rate, I left without buying anything and continued down I-45 toward "home."

Around where the highway snakes around Houston's downtown, I called Natalie from the car, and arranged to meet her at the Outback restaurant at the intersection of I-45 and the beltway. She suggested we take in Matrix Reloaded afterward, and I agreed.

When I got to the restaurant, Natalie wasn't there, so I called her number and she answered. She said she'd be at the restaurant in 20 minutes and got there in the time it took me to nurse a martini. Dinner was good, but by the time we were finished, I knew I wouldn't be able to last through a movie, so we went back to the house.

Just for the heck of it, I wondered what all I do take with me on these trips. Herewith, an inventory, in an order dictated by the way stuff is lying around:

• VAIO with power supply and network card dongle
  
• screen wiping cloth
  
• TRADOS and DejaVu dongles
  
• NASA badge
  
• MCC headset
  
• PalmPilot
  
• Cell phone, charger, and spare battery
  
• 3 fountain pens
  
• digital voice recorder
  
• Compact Flash reader
  
• 64-MB Compact Flash card
  
• network cable (way too short)
  
• printout of translation to be edited (most of which was edited on the plane)
  
• reporter's notebooks (for interpretation notes)
  
• "FilmCard" Compact Flash PCMCIA adapter, with 64-MB card
  
• toilet kit, meds kit, alarm clock, contact lens container
  
• Franklin Planner
  
• digital camera with transfer cable, spare batteries and 128-MB Flash Card
  
• Sharp Zaurus with charger
  
• clothes (which we will not inventory)

As noted in the list, I managed to edit 58 of the 72 pages translated on Thursday and Friday while on the plane from Phoenix to Durango. I need to finish that edit today and send off the file.

Natalie wants to take me to where a friend of hers will be singing in a performance of Mozart's Requiem, and we're supposed to be there at 3 pm. Therefore, I really need to get cracking on the new translation, even though it's due on Tuesday (I'd love to have the draft done by the time we leave for the church).

First, however, I think I'll run over to the McD's for a quick bite... there's nothing in the fridge here except bottles of soda, it seems.

Cheers...

Comments

[brenk.livejournal.com]

Hehehehe... that list sounds like mine, and I'm an expert into fitting it neatly into my computer bag with wheels by now - a small one since the larger version isn't accepted by all airlines. I just (after years) bought a long, long modem cable which is great as most offices I'm given when abroad seem to have phone plugs at the opposite end of the room from the power sockets. Oh, and depending on country, I also need the appropriate adaptors or cables. The thing about coming *back* is the additional, huge pile of documents for the reports that simply does not fit in same little bag so I'm usually trundling a 'conference bag' around as well that can't be checked in (too confidential) and incurring the wrath of a few airlines for 'more than one piece of hand luggage'.

It irritates me when people say 'laptops are light and don't take up much room'... thaey forget the transformer and all the cables and plugs!

On the Requiem - that's what I sang in this March and I'm still singing bits of it now. I think the moment it breaks into a huge, swelling 'Sanctus' never failed to bring goose bumps, and a lot of the rest too for that matter. Wonderful, wonderful stuff.