the Bride bought me an Ipod nano for my birthday. The nano is pretty impressive.

What was even more impressive was her foresight in buying the Altec Lansing IM3c. It's a small portable speaker system with a charging doc that runs off AA batts. The sound is surprisingly good, and the key, it charges the player. She told me she was specifically thinking of my yearly Canadian fishing trip when she bought it.

Every year, a group of alcoholics and I do a Fly-in out of Red Lake, ON. There is a 150 lb weight limit per person, inclusive of food, gear and tackle. That may sound like a lot, until you start factoring the food consists of steak and the beverages come in 12 oz cans. I bring up a Grundig shortwave, but the musical selection on shortwave is pretty spotty. I look forward to using this next year. I figure anything beats listening to a dozen drunks arguing politics.