As I write this, I’m in the midst of preparing myself for The Mother of All Golf Trips: 8 guys from around the country, Fort Lauderdale/Miami area courses, 10 rounds in 6 days.  Preparation includes getting the clubs and travel bag ready, doing a little stretching, and mostly engaging in e-TrashTalking.  It should be a great time; can’t wait!

Here are a few articles of interest I came across recently:

Top 10 Ways to Travel Smarter, Safer, and Cheaper @ Lifehacker.  A good, basic list; I’ve written about several of these, but there are a couple of areas I haven’t touched upon: readying your smartphone or laptop for travel, and how to protect your home while you’re on the road. Check it out.

Ever have a zipper pull tab come off?  (Or have TSA cut your zipper pull tabs??)  There’s a neat Instructable that shows one way of dealing with this problem:  Wire Zipper Slider Handle! (I didn’t come up with this title.)

Shopping for an Apple product? Choose refurbished every time  Rick Broida makes a very compelling case for buying Apple refurbs; definitely worth consideration! – @ CNET

One word to describe John Kenney’s We Are The One Per Cent @ The New Yorker:  hysterical

Jeff Doubek hits on a favorite topic: idiots who fly, in Passenger Etiquette – 8 Annoying People You Meet on an Airplane – @ Doubyland

Tim Leffel offered up a Practical Travel Gear staff rundown of Our Favorite Travel Gear of the Past Year in a recent post. For my money, one of the neatest items on the list is actually an app!

Have a great rest of the week, and travel safe!

I have three Gmail accounts: one that’s associated with this blog, my “standard,” everyday Gmail account, and one that I use solely for online ordering and signing up for offers.  Switching between them has always been a pain: I’d have to log out of one, then log into another,- until I discovered that you it’s possible to toggle between accounts in a second or two.

All you need to do to make this happen is go to google.com/settings and enable “Multiple sign-in”  –

Just click on “Edit” adjacent to Multiple sign-in, and you’ll see this (click on image for a close-up) –

You’ll be prompted to check the three boxes: this is intended to alert you to the fact that not all Google products support multiple sign-in.  Note that Mail, Calendar, Google+, News, Voice, and Reader all function just fine.

You may have to log out of your account for the changes to take effect. Once you do, switching between accounts couldn’t be much easier: first, click on the drop down box in the upper right hand corner of your mailbox, then click on “Switch account,” as shown below:

All you need to do after that is click on the account to which you want to switch:

Note that Multiple sign-in only works with desktop browsers now: you can’t use it on your phone.  For the services which don’t work with Multiple sign-in (e.g., Blogger, Picasa), your account will default to the first account you signed in with during your browsing session.

Hope you find this of use!

My old friend Chris Guillebeau has just launched a site that’s a handy reference for travelers who want to leverage credit card programs and bonuses for free (or reduced cost) travel, Cards for Travel.  One of the best features is a list of the best credit cards for airline mileage bonuses (note that some of the links on the site are affiliate links, meaning that Chris receives a referral bonus if you sign up for any of the cards).  Definitely worth checking out.

Kayak has pulled together a handy reference chart which recaps the various and sundry fees charged by U.S. airlines.  Click on the excerpt below for a close-up view:

See the entire chart here:  Airline Fees – Kayak

A few days ago a coworker and I went through Security Checkpoint 2 at O’Hare.  Dave was immediately behind me as we approached the conveyer belt for the magnetometer, but after I exited the checkpoint, he took about 2-3 minutes to catch up with me as I waited on the concourse. I’ve written about this in the past, but here are the keys to getting through the TSA checkpoint quickly:

• Wear slip on shoes
• Have your boarding pass handy (see below)
• Put your cell phone, wristwatch, and other similar (metallic) items in a zippered compartment in your bag well before getting to the checkpoint (for me, at the hotel)
• Men: no belt. Leave it in your bag and put it on after the checkpoint
• Car keys need to be inside a zippered compartment in your bag
• 3-1-1 liquids bag in an easily accessible pocket in your bag
• When you pack, do so in an orderly fashion; make it easier on the guy scanning your bag
• Nothing in your pockets except skinny wallet, cash, and boarding pass
• Know upfront how many plastic totes you need. For me, it’s usually one, for my jacket and 3-1-1 bag.  If I’m going to opt to take my laptop out of my bag (see below), I’ll grab a 2nd tote

If the airport is small, or the checkpoint not busy, I take my MacBook Air out of my bag and put it in a plastic tote in the middle of my stuff as it enters the conveyor.  If the checkpoint is busy, I leave it in my bag and let them re-run the bag (and MB Air separately) through if necessary. (Half the time they don’t bother, as it resembles an iPad.)  The LAST thing I want to have happen is to somehow get stuck in the theatrical production while my $1500 laptop is sitting in a plastic tote with a bunch of people milling about.

To this last point:  Be organized and disciplined, and above all else, do NOT let yourself get snagged by the metal detector or backscatter x-ray machine. If you do, your stuff has a much greater chance of walking away with someone else.

Other thoughts:  if the line splits at some point and you have an option of going left or right, go left; more people will opt for going right.  As you approach the magnetometers, look for business travelers and get in that line; avoid (sorry) families, old people, or anyone who looks clueless. They will slow you down.

Finally, I don’t bother retrieving my watch, cell phone, or belt until I’m at my gate.  Travel safe!