Create a virtual USB drive?

So, I have a new acer netbook, and I would like to get off of Windows7 onto ubuntu netbook edition, but I have some problems with installation: 1) No CD drive, 2) I don't have a USB stick, and it's really far to go buy one that is big enough

I do have a desktop running Ubuntu, and a cable that could plug the netbook into the desktop. Is it possible to set up a virtual USB drive on my desktop, such that when I plugged my netbook into the desktop, I would be able to boot the netbook(assuming a bootable image existed on the virtual drive)

I realize this isn't quite n00bish question, but I didn't want to muddle up r/linux with tech support and didn't know where else to put it.