Downsizing.

Major breakthrough today on the packing front. Per a friend's suggestion, I will be traveling, living, surviving out of a carry-on bag for the first 2 to 3 weeks after I leave the states. In a word: streamlining. American Airlines (those greedy bastards) would charge me for a check-in anyway...and this way things won't get lost on the way from Los Angeles to Zurich. There's just too much that could go wrong. Needless to say, I will be cutting down on the crap that I thought I needed to bring. And taking lots of tiny bottles in ziplocs along. (One of many reasons I dislike terrorists. Why couldn't they have planned to blow up planes with 10th grade bio teachers or bowling coaches instead?) But I guess it's not all that bad...carry-on size is actually pretty big. According to American, that would be 45"measured linearly (height+width+depth < 45"). It also means, though, I will be FedEx-ing most of my crap over to Edinburgh, which is pretty pricey. A 10 kg (yeah, the metric begins already) box costs just about $200, or shall I say £100.