This is the messenger bag that I bought from Namaste in November.  I love it.  It's a perfect size and I like the magnetic closure.  When the strap holder broke, I wrote to them and they replaced it within 2 weeks.  Good service.

Today on the train, I noticed that the same piece of strap is tearing.  Again.  It looks like the piece of whatever the material is that they use to attach the strap to the bag is not strong enough for the stitching.  I weighed my bag and I carry about 10 pounds.  This includes my umbrella, a water bottle, a magazine, my ipad, walkman, my coffee and my lunch and of course a small knitting project.

Does this seem like an unreasonable amount?  The bag is no longer available for purchase on the website so maybe I am not the only one who has had problems with it.  I checked out Kate's and hers is tearing as well so I'm pretty sure it's not me.

I wrote to the company this morning to express my disappointment.  It hasn't been a month since I started using the new bag (more like 2 weeks) and to have it falling apart already is unacceptable.  Thing is, I can fix it.  Pk has some scrap leather and I can remove their strap holders and put on new ones that will hold.

I think I am willing to do this since I really like the rest of the bag but Pk thinks I should return it and get a refund (although I think their policy is no refunds, just credit).  I'm a bit conflicted since I agree with him that the product is defectively designed.

Maybe I'll wait and see how they respond before I take any actions.  There's a shoe repair place in the Farmer's Market that could probably put some leather pieces on it for me if I choose.

I am feeling a bit nervous as the Friday deadline for sequestration looms.  The automatic cuts in spending will impact everyone in some way and some folks in a major way.  No one has said anything about our budget here.  Yet.  My supervisor says we're not affected "this go around" since healthcare payments are not affected.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the legislators get their collective asses in gear and figure it all out.  That's what we're paying them for.

Otherwise things are good.  It's raining again and I think the squirrels have gnawed a way into our attic.  The pesky buggers.  Even with all of the birds of prey we have seen in our neighborhood, the darn squirrel population is growing.  And they're not very smart but are very persistent.  Pk has to climb up onto the roof and patch the hole and throw some moth balls up there (squirrels hate moth balls) to deter them.  There's one particularly fat squirrel that is the most brazen of the bunch.  He sits outside my kitchen window and watches me.  They are fat from eating our garbage after gnawing a hole in the lid(s).  We'd get metal cans but the trashmen tend to throw the cans when they're done and the metal ones get dented out of shape quickly.

Ah, life in the suburbs.