So, in the process of cleaning up my room, I found my old Nalgene bottle I used to carry around when I was in grad school. I’ve been trying to drink more water, so I’ve gotten back in the habit of carrying it to work:

But this has its problems. If you’re not familiar with Nalgene bottles, they have a wide mouth. This is great for filling it, but not so great for drinking from it. Also, the only way to attach it to a bag is to weave the cap through a strap. Both of these are problems, so I went to REI yesterday to fix it.

The attachment problem is simple: I now have a carabiner on the cap loop to attach it to a bag. (Okay, technically, it’s a carabiner keychain. It’s even stamped “Not for climbing” on the side. But the REI guy and I both figured that a real carabiner would have been overkill for the situation.)

But the coup is the little piece I bought to fit in the mouth of the Nalgene bottle and make it easier to drink from. It covers most of the mouth, and it looks like this:

Yes. It always gives me a bit of a smile when I open the water bottle.