Time for an update!

Most of you haven't heard from me in a while. I've been working my ass off to get as much cash as I can before I leave. But at least it has been a good time, the jobs I'm at are really fun and I'm working with a lot of cool people. I'll miss all of them when I leave.

Anyway, Mike and I take off in about 13 days! Wow, even writing that sent a shiver down my spine. I have been getting some great advise from my friends, Don and Linda Wagner, about our planned trip to Morroco. I think we have a pretty good idea of where to go...probably Marrakesh, Fez, and Essouira. I also have a friend who is a cook at the restaurant I serve at, Romano's Italian Pizzaria, who is from Albania. He has been an awesome help hooking us up with his relatives in Athens, Crete, and Milano. He also taught me how to speak a little Albanian, so I can swear at him in the kitchen and no one has any idea what we're saying.

So, I'm really enjoying and living up the days here in good 'ol USA. Now it's time to crunch. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a bunch of sales. One in particular was an adventure sports store in Boulder, CO called GoLite. They had a clearance sale where everything in the store was 50-75% OFF! Freakin amazing. I also have some inside hook ups from Pam Simich and Brian Metzler, who used to work for Ski Racing Magazine and Adventure Sports Magazine. Since these mags feature a lot of top quality adventure brands, they receive a ton of free product promotions and demos. So they hooked me up with some great stuff. Here's an update on all the things I've recently bought.

•Chaco Sandals (incredibly comfortable, really hug your feet)

•Born Shoes, Prophet (Another incredible shoe. Nice smooth Leather, unrivaled comfort, durable, sports shoe yet can easily pass for a nice dress shoe)

•2 Quick dry pant. 1 zip off at the knees to convert to shorts. The other is a solid khaki color Prana Safari brand, common amoung rock climbers, and the pant legs can roll up at the ankles for some extra flow.

•An Eagle Creek money belt. Literally a belt that goes through your belt loops in your pants. On the inside of the belt there is a zipper to fold up money and tuck in. No one can tell you have it stashed away. The only downer is that my Quick dry's already have a belt attached to them so there are no loops. I don't know if I'll be able to bring this but we'll see.

•4 T-shirts from Urban Outfitters. This store rocks. They have these really cool soft solid color t's that make you look great yet doesn't place you out of the crowd. They are only $12 a piece too.

•Some new aviators, a little more stylish but still inexpensive.

•A GoLite waterproof lightweight rainjacket (thanks Brian,) some Spyder spandex gloves, a cool new camelback waterbottle.

•An awesome 60L GoLite Intuition backpack (this deal was amazing, retail = $220, got it for $80!!!! Brand new!)
•for a security measure, I had 6 metal gromits...metal holes...installed into the sides of my bag so I can weave a metal retractable wire lock through the bag and lock it.

•A Tail Feather Hydration Pack, can hold a 3L water bladder with room to spare. (I'll use this as my daypack)

•A few Nylon Stuff sacks and 2 Compression Bags.

•Canon PowerShot A620 Digital Camera, 7.5 megapixel.
•tripod, battery recharger and battery case, a 1GB SD memory card, and an IPOD photo card reader to transfer my photos and store them on my IPOD.

•A 120 GB external travel Hard Drive.

•All kinds of medical first aid stuff.

•shower/toiletries case, travel quick dry towel (it's kinda tiny though...could run into some embarrassing situations), and rubber flip-flops.

•A cheap, but decent looking wristwatch.

•A 8"x8" sketchbook, a pencil pouch with 4 black conte crayons, 3 double tipped sharpies, graphite pencils, colored pencils, pencil sharpener, eraser.

•A pocket size diary/sketchbook/thought collector (someday a great idea will come from inside this book)

Anyway this list is getting a little long. I'll let you all know if I forgot anything. I still have to scan all my important documents and load them up on my FTP website, get an international drivers license, assort all my music and computer programs/files...load them onto my external HD, and create a project brief for my design project.

So I'm out...until the next update!

Brandle