Front Pocket Quick Closure Loops

While I was corresponding with a customer of ours I realized that, at times, we at M&W Traveler take for granted some of the travel features we have built into our leather laptop briefcases.  I thought I would take time to point out some of these made in the U.S.A features.  Our goal in the design of our leather briefcases was to build in features focused on people like us, business travelers.  Many of the top quality leather briefcases today tend to look at styling and tradition and do not take into account how much business travel has changed the last 10 years.  Our travel features include: 

• Quick Release Snaps, perfect for going through TSA security lines.
• Extra loops on front pockets for easy closure.
• Laptop padding on sides and bottom of our leather briefcases (many times briefcase manufacturers only having padding on the sides).  One case I used to use had only leather on the bottom, and I found it was hard on my laptop when I unintentionally would set my briefcase down quickly on a hard surface.
• Leather tether to snap on your keys when traveling.
• Leather back pocket that allows you to put miscellaneous items when you don’t want to open the briefcase up.
• Pen and business card holders along with two interior pockets for phones and miscellaneous items.  I found that having only one pocket for my phone in the past was never enough, I always had another item I wanted for quick access.

In addition to the business travel features, we took the opposite stance that many leather briefcases have gone with using less leather in the interior to save costs.  If you notice our entire inside cover flap is finished leather.  This is just one of the features that we feel sets us apart.  I wish you the best in your travels this Labor Day weekend.

Driving is a walk in the park by comparison.  It’s pretty nice actually.  You get music and a big comfy seat and you can stop for a Starbucks anytime you want to.  But it means some serious windshield time if you want to visit any major cities in the south.  It’s not like the northeast where Boston, New York, Philly, DC and Baltimore all blurr into one giant megalopolis.  In the south things are a little more spread out.  Tulsa to OKC is 2 hours.  That makes us next door neighbors.  Tulsa to any other major city is 4-6 hours.  Dallas, Little Rock, St. Louis, Kansas City — they’re a stone’s throw away.  You know, “you just go down the road a country mile or so…”

So you learn how to get comfortable with “alone time” pretty quick.  I’m an introvert so I do better with this than most.  After an hour of quiet, though, I get fidgety.  I check the iPhone, sip on some caffeine, monkey with the radio, rummage through the center console, play with the GPS and just generally start going bananas. 

All preferable to air travel, mind you.  But anything you do over and over again does tend to lead to a rut.  I mean how many times can you listen to your favorite Judas Priest CD before you’re tempted to use it as a frisbee?  Or better yet — use it as a Batman throwing star to take out imaginary bad guys at the toll booth? 

Probably not a good idea.  I think there’s a special kind of hell reserved for people who assault toll booth guys.  I mean look at Toll Booth Willie here.  How could you possibly whip a Judas Priest CD at him? 

So what do you do to survive windshield time?  Enquiring minds want to know…

Shaun

M&W Traveler

Enough already.  I’m afraid I’ve been a dull boy lately.  So I’m taking a much deserved break and enjoying what I would consider a perfect Saturday night.  I’m just back from a huge family get together — a weenie roast around a huge campfire out in the countryside complete with s’mores, birthday cake (my mother-in-law’s birthday is on St. Patrick’s day), and a bottle of Left Hand Brewery’s “Fade to Black”.  (It’s a heavy duty smoked Baltic porter – very tasty with lots of kick).  After a shower and a generous pour of MacAllan’s 12 year and the HDTV on Palladia with the 2010 Big Four concert from Sofia, Bulgaria on (Oh yeah.   Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica.   \m/   \m/ ), I just can’t dream up a better evening.  Well actually I could, but you all would be screaming “TMI! TMI!” and this is a family friendly blog, so yes, in the G-rated version of my world, it’s a perfect Saturday night.

I just finished reading an article earlier today from Entrepreneur magazine called “Don’t Melt Down”.  No, it’s not about recent events in Japan.  (To all my good friends there, you’re in my thoughts and I hope you and your families stay safe).  It’s actually another addition to the long list of business articles and books already out there about balancing work with your personal life and not allowing yourself to turn into a totally consumed, frazzled, stressed-out workaholic.  And once again the advice is about learning to say “no” and setting limits and boundaries.  Same message I’ve heard a million times.  But you know what?  I need to keep hearing it.  Because it does make me stop and look around and take a timeout to enjoy the life I’ve created.  It amazes me every time I hear it that I actually need that wakeup call and I can’t do it on my own.  Are you that way, too?  I guess sometimes you really do need someone to pull you back and tell you that the numbers in that spreadsheet or the hatemail in your inbox or the criminal indifference from folks you are counting on just aren’t worth the apoplectic hissy fit that’s lurking in your office waiting to pounce.

So if you’re identifying a little too closely with the madness I’m describing, and calling “timeout” sounds like your idea of heaven, then join me now in serving up the one-finger salute to that unrelenting stack of papers, laptop, and smartphone that are all conspiring to drive us insane.  A little rebellion is liberating and therapeutic. Go ahead.  Start raising that finger.  That’s it.  Keep going…  Keep going…  Stop.  Perfect.  Freedom!  Now go enjoy!

Shaun

M&W Traveler

 Best Regards,

 Chris Wunsch

Which is why I have ended up in the dentist’s chair a few times since Christmas.  I’m having two gold crowns done at the same time.  A matching pair on the bottom for the two I already have on top.  I’ll have great bling when they’re done, but it’ll stay hidden unless I get wild at parties and want to show off.

The first couple times in the chair was with nitrous, which is great while I’m under, but gives me one heck of a headache and sour stomach afterward.  It also seems that I’m just a little too uncooperative for the dentist’s likes when I’m on the nitrous, and I hear things like “open” and “wider” and “dammit, stop biting my fingers”.  So this last time we tried something new:  IV sedation.  It  wasn’t exactly suggested.  More like required if I was ever going to sit in his chair again. 

It wasn’t that bad.  I mean the stabbing part and the bit where they strap your arms down tight wasn’t much fun (is that normal?), but the juice was good.  Reeeeal good.  I was big time drunk and stayed that way for hours after.  You know the best part?  No hangover either.  Have you ever seen Bill Murray in “Little Shop of Horrors” when he’s just a little too eager to go to the dentist?  Count me among the converted.

Shaun

M&W Traveler

I’m very happy with the way the steerhide has turned out.  It has a bit more body than the horsehide and a very rich look and feel.  Horween has done a great job for us again.  Definitely a tough and classy addition to the line up that we can be proud to offer.  Watch for more models to hit the website as we get more stock over the next month!

Shaun

M&W Traveler

Why is this blog-worthy? (Or like Elaine says, sponge-worthy?)  You’re probably thinking, “Who cares?”  Normally I would agree with you.  But did you pick up on the 6000 texts a month?  That’s 200 texts per day.  Can you imagine sending 200 texts a day, every day, non-stop?  What would prompt you to send that many messages?  Who wants to be on the receiving end of all of them?  And after they’re received, do they all actually get a response back?  I talked to my daughter about this and found out that she doesn’t actually use her cell phone for talking any more.   It was much easier and a lot more fun to text rather than talk.  Texting was a substitute for conversation.

Get it?  She doesn’t talk to anyone.  Even though she’s now part of a huge community of 20,000+ students.  Between texting and email and Facebook she’s managed to get connected to a lot of people, but she doesn’t actually talk to them.  OK, she talks a little bit.  But it’s not her primary means of communicating now.  And this struck me as wrong. 

It struck me as wrong because every day I see emails that send people spinning off in a mouth-foaming rage because:

1. It’s easier to be snotty over email than it is when you’re face-to-face or talking on the phone.
2. There’s no snottiness intended by the sender, but the sender sucks at writing emails and it comes across as snotty anyway. 
3. Old people like to use bigger font because they can’t see so well and the young people on the receiving end think they are getting yelled at (she just 24 pointed me!).  So it’s ok to be snotty right back.

Do you know what the fix always turns out to be for these silly situations?  That’s right.  Getting together and talking about it.  I watched it happen again today in a meeting I had over in Fort Smith, AR . (Right after stuffing myself at the all-you-can-eat catfish buffet at the Catfish Cove.  Yum.)  It was what made me think to write this particular post today.  Folks were getting wrapped around the axle about emails and assumptions and hearsay that all could have been avoided if these people actually talked to each other.  By the time we were done there were smiles and handshakes all around the table and everybody walked away with their blood pressure 20 points lower.   

Amazing what a simple chat can do (not the online type – don’t get me started again).

Shaun

M&W Traveler

The side project is far less interesting than the trip to Africa.  I’m sure you’re curious about it, but I need to be a little vague about the details for now.  Let’s just say that I agreed to help a friend out in a larger capacity than I first imagined, but it was my choice to become more involved.  So the whole work-life balance has been tested a bit more than usual lately.  But like I said, it was my choice and I’m happy to be doing it.  What’s the project?  Sorry.  Mum’s the word.  I’ll tell you all about it another time. 

Back to Africa.  What do you think of when someone says to you, “Let’s take a trip to Africa for a family vacation”?  I know what I thought when I first heard the idea.  I thought it sounded perfectly potty.  (I’ve been dying to use that phrase ever since I first read it in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). 

More precisely:  I thought we were going to get lost in the jungle and catch malaria and yellow fever, but we wouldn’t have to worry about that for too long because we would soon after get chopped to pieces by a rebel militant group that found us dumb Yankees bushwhacking in their backyard looking for “Blood Diamonds” and “Gorillas in the Mist”.  And then the pieces would be eaten by giant pythons and crocodiles and hyenas and there wouldn’t be any evidence left that we were ever there.

I was being unreasonable, I know.  These were pre-trip jitters that I get before visiting another continent and country that I’ve never been to before because I only know the Hollywood version of what goes on over there.  As usual, my concerns turned out to be totally unfounded, and instead I found that the people and the place were magical and it was one of the best experiences of my life. 

How so?  It’s hard to put it all into words.  This is definitely one of those times when pictures do a better job of it:

Awesome experience.  Do yourself a favor and go — go to the Serengeti and see the wildlife and meet the people.  You’ll never forget it.

This was the same night I was introduced to beer other than Budweiser, Miller, and Genesee.  (Haven’t heard of Genesee?  It’s a northeast thing.  I grew up near Rochester, New York where the brewery makes its home and has been around since the 1800s.  Folks there call it “Genny” for short.  Genny, Genny Light, Genny Cream.  My hometown pals called it Genny Pee.  Or Genny Scream.  What do you want?  We were teenagers.  Back when the legal drinking age was 18 in New York.)  I tried a Henry Weinhard’s that night and  I thought it was wonderful.  The Air Force rule was “12 hours bottle to throttle” for drinking and flying so we were ok to have a couple (or six).  Soon after that trip one of the guys showed me how to homebrew and opened up the world of beer for me.  From then on Budweiser was no longer the king of beers.

But the main event wasn’t supposed to be the beer.  It was supposed to be the steak.  I was the greenest guy on the crew and had no clue how to order a steak.  So I asked what a good one was.  There was a little debate, but the Filet Mignon won out with the guys as the overall best bet and they pointed it out to me on the menu.  So when the waiter came I ordered the “Fillit” (yes, I really did do the stupid mispronunciation that sitcoms use as a worn-out joke).  He asked me how I wanted it done.  I didn’t know anything about that, so he tried to help me out by mentioning a few.  “You know, medium, medium rare, rare…?”  I didn’t know what any of that meant, but I had heard “rare” before and figured that was a safe bet so I ordered it that way.  Nobody tried to stop me. 

So the steaks came out and mine looked great.  And then I cut into it and discovered that it was only seared and cooked about an 1/8 inch on either side, while the remaining two inches in the middle was still mooing.  I didn’t know anything about sending it back to get it cooked more, so I just made the best I could of it and sliced the cooked parts off and ate those.  And then I tried to eat a little more, but was totally grossed out and couldn’t do it, so I left it. 

It was a diappointing first encounter with fine dining, but I eventually learned the ropes by asking lots of questions the next time around.  Five years later I entered the world of business travel and entertaining guests, so I really had to learn  my way around the fine dining table to avoid embarasssing myself or my guests at dinner.  The pendulum swung in the other direction when it came to beef and I ordered it well done for a while.  But I soon figured out that this is a good way to get shoe leather on a plate, so I eventually worked my way to medium and finally medium rare.  I don’t think I’ll ever go full circle to rare again, but who knows. 

Trivia Question:  What’s the best place in Tulsa to get a steak? 

Answer:  Either Fleming’s or Mahogany Prime Steakhouse.  Both are excellent.

So what do you think?  What’s the best way to enjoy a steak?  And what’s your favorite steak place?

Shaun

M&W Traveler