I have this dream of walking through an airport with nothing but the clothes on my back and a small book or magazine. If I used my ID and a 20 for a bookmark, I wouldn't even need a wallet. Instead, I often get stuck lugging a giant backpack through security and between terminals every time I fly. But since Brooklynne and Halleigh are flying separate from me this Christmas, there is a possibility my dream could finally become reality.

So now you can understand my dilemma as I debate whether to take my laptop with me next week. What do you guys think? A gloriously unfettered stroll through the airport, or two weeks of feeding my digital appetite?

In a related development, I got to play with a MacBook Air today at work. It really is incredible how thin and light it is. I'm going through a stage where minimalism has great appeal to me, so the lack of extras seems totally worth the reduced weight. Still, this thing is not small--it is thin, but large in every other dimension, which makes it less portable than you would think, especially compared to the mini notebooks that are selling for 1/7 the price. The other bummer is the one USB port. I often use two USB devices, and the lone port must double as the eithernet port when wireless is unavailable. I think juggling a USB hub is a big downer. So I probably would not buy one of these, even if I had the cash, although it does make me excited about the future direction of pared-down and ultra-portable laptops.