Satchel. It's such a great word. Reminds me of a scene from Psych ... here's where I would show a clip from the episode "Bounty Hunters," but alas, I have been foiled in my attempts to find said video. Here's a transcript outlining the relevant repartee, but it probably/definitely loses something in the translation:
Burton 'Gus' Guster: I think it's a briefcase. Attachés have a softer shell.
Shawn Spencer: Really? That's all that differentiates them, a softer shell?
Burton 'Gus' Guster: Well, "attaché" does have a better ring to it.
Shawn Spencer: Let's go with attaché.
...
Shawn Spencer: Attaché sounds pretentious, dude.
Burton 'Gus' Guster: Well, it could be the way you're saying it.
Shawn Spencer: You say it.
Burton 'Gus' Guster: Attaché.
...
Carlton Lassiter: [to Byrd] Hand over the satchel.
Shawn Spencer: Ooh, satchel! I didn't think of that one.
ANYWAY ... since I'm probably the only one that watches that show, let's move on.
As I have mentioned here ad infinitum, we are going to England next month for two weeks. We'll be in London for a few days, then we'll take the train up north to visit my grandparents (and meet up with my parents) for the remainder of the trip. Very, very excited.
Over the past few months I've been trying to get everything together, so we're not running around at the last minute. This also helps in sort of spreading the cost of things - that way we're not having to spend oodles of money right before we depart.
I've been wanting to get the hubs a leather messenger bag that he can use on the trip: something that would serve as a carry-on, but also would be manageable enough to use as sort of a "day pack" when we were out and about: i.e. something large enough to carry our DSLR camera if I didn't feel like carrying it ;o)
Because I thought he'd use it during our trip, we didn't want anything too bulky or wide. Banana Republic had a great "camera bag" that I thought might work -- but I wasn't sure about the the closure on it. Plus, when I inspected it in the store, there were no inner organization pockets - nothing for pens or his iPod/iPhone. And it was a little on the small size -- which was veering into "manpurse" territory.
Their messsenger bag, on the other hand, was a little too big -- specifically, too wide. Plus, it suffered from that irritating habit of online store: no pictures of the inside of the bag. This frustrates the heck out of me when I'm trying to buy a purse for myself. I did look at the interior of this one in the store as well, but I have no memory of what I found. I think there was a similar lack of interior organizational pockets. Not to mention it was just too expensive.
Finally, after much searching, I came across this one from Fossil:
{"Fossil Messenger - Mason" via Amazon}
It's a vertical messenger, which is perfect, since the majority of it's capacity comes from its height rather than its width/length. It's tall enough to fit my 17" laptop when inserted vertically - but when I tried it on, it's not wider than my butt, which is perfect - I didn't test it on the hubs' butt - but I would imagine similar results, since his is pretty cute ... ;o)
And while Amazon didn't have extra pictures, eBags did, plus helpful descriptions noting "organizational pockets." The price was still probably more than I would normally pay, however we have a bunch of Amazon gift certificates from our rewards credit card, so we were able to get this and actually a bunch of other items for free, which is always preferable.
The leather is really nice and soft -- the interior is lined and there's space for a cell phone, electronics, an ID, you name it -- plus a couple of zippered pockets.
So, we're both pretty happy with this. I think it would make a nice briefcase, too -- or should I say attaché?
EDITED TO ADD:
Whoops! Almost forgot to mention my favorite satchel: Satchel Pooch from Get Fuzzy:
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