The first part of the trip is over (ok the easiest part!); I'm in Chicago on a few hour layover now. I'd post a picture but, you know… it's just an airport.

I stayed up all night last night packing and generally getting ready. And working on that Pelican case, which unfortunately didn't come together quite like I planned – but I'm getting what I need out of it. Here's a picture of the lid, where I've either epoxied or velcro'd everything in place. On the right are four Lexar FireWire readers, mounted sideways. These are glued in place. On the left are three firewire drives; the top one is a backup drive for the OS and applications, so I can recover on the road if needed (all personal files are backed up on systems back home and I don't need recovery on the road for those if I lose them). The lower two drives are the G-RAID MINI's, as primary and backup. All master files to go to the one then are backed up to the other. In the middle you see the MacBook Pro power supply velcro'd to the lide, and under that the little white box is a Belkin FireWire hub. The coil of cables underneath are the two FireWire cables coming off the Lexar readers (for the FW400 port) and off the drives/hub (FW400 to 800 for the 800 port). The computer is living in the protective sleeve that came with the case, and the sunshade sits under that. I couldn't figure out a way of incorporating the shade into the lid with all the other stuff there, so I compromised and put a small velcro tab on the lid of my MacBook Pro to hold it when I want to use it. Not thrilled with the idea but at least it works.

So now to recharge the iPod and have a snack before the 8 hour flight to Brussels! I have a three hour layover there, so may try to go to the other side of customs to see the big Tintin rocket. I grew up on Tintin, and my friend Steve just sent me this picture from the airport there. Gotta see it ;-)