moms are great

But a mom who reads your blog is greater.

She got me a bag. A sweet, huge, bag. I was actually surprised, even though I may have said something about needing a bigger bag in a previous post.

It's a Timbuk2 Classic Messenger X-Large. Much more affordable than the Seagull, and still holds a lot of stuff. The Seagull XL is 4,620 cubic inches. Timbuk2 is crafty about their bag volumes; they rate volume in TPRCV, or Toilet Paper Roll Capacity Value, and the dimensions are measured as the bag lays flat. My new bag is rated at 20 TPRCV.

To bridge the gap, I know my old Chrome Mini Metro is 1000 cu. in. and holds about five or six rolls.

The requisite "exploded view."

Top-left are bags of dried organic fruit from Hummingbird Wholesale to hand out on this day of giving: three pounds dried mangoes fillets (Mexico), three pounds dried nectarine halves (Washington), six pounds deglet noor dates (California). I had originally brought these in a big grocery bag.

The rest of the stuff had been in the orange backpack. Socks, razor, patchkit, multitool, minipump, Grado SR80 headphones (Thanks dad!), external hard drive, Campy coffee table book, Kesey novel (Thanks, Hudson!), laptop computer, mess of wire.

Everything fit in the bag, with room for a change of clothes and a towel. My brother had his own way of testing the capacity: