My iPod is finally and properly restored. It's been synched and backed up, and now I'm running Time Machine to backup my laptop as well. It had been a couple of months since I'd been able to run a full backup of the laptop - far too long, considering the number of photographs that had no backup copies. I brought the Lacie Big Drive Extreme home on the bike today so I could do the backup. Looks like it survived the ride while stuffed in my panier...