The photo above is my wife at McCarren Airport in Las Vegas. The suitcase is open as she removes stuff. It was about six pounds overweight. In America today overweight baggage is priced like printer ink--outrageously!

I'm not sure if mortified is the right word, but she wasn't exactly thrilled at airing her dirty laundry in public (literally) as the world passed by. Knowing her as I do this wasn't going to happen again. Today the answer to her problems arrived in the mail.

This is the "Joy Mangano Pack A Weigh Digital Portable Luggage Scale" which she bought on sale at HSN. You hold the scale with the bag hanging from it. Pretty simple while geekily digital. Trust me, there would have been no GearLog entry had my wife bought Joy's Huggable Hangers!

Based on Google's shopping engine the going price for this type of item is $20 or so with some less pretty models available at under $10. The simple math is a little scale like this is paid for the first time you use it and repack.

You can thank my wife.