But I Want *THAT* One

Reminder: Tonight is your last chance to enter my giveaway here!

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I'm one of those people who knows what she wants. And once I know what I want -- even if I haven't seen it -- that is what I want. This is part of the reason it took us a year and a half to find our home. I have criteria and think about what something should be like, and then I create that magic image. And I'm just not satisfied until I get that.

I sound really spoiled, don't I? Fortunately, this doesn't happen too often.

But this year Mister Man goes to kindergarten. And because we're going to the private school, it's a full day kindergarten, and he needs a lunchbox. Strike that -- I was talking to another mom today who informed me that we actually need two lunchboxes because they bring a snack in kindergarten, and snack has to be in a separate lunchbox.

*sigh*

The snack lunchbox? I really don't care about that one. I'm going to put something together -- a granola bar, a piece of fruit, something -- and all I need to do is have something to contain it.

For the lunch lunchbox though... that's where my problem comes in. I want something that is large enough to hold a sandwich, a side of veggies or crackers or granola or something, some fruit, and his drink. And I want it to be relatively green. I hate the idea of going through 300 plus baggies that are thrown away to encase his food over the coming school year. I want to do something better, better for him (no BPA) and better for the environment.

It finally dawned on me. What I want is a bento style lunchbox. But I don't want a traditional one completely, because I want it to have lids for each compartment so that the applesauce won't spill, for example. And I want the compartments to be removable, so that if I want to only send three things instead of four, I can do that easily.

Hmmm.

That lunchbox doesn't exist in the land of Target, Wal-Mart or Lands End. I found something sort of like what I want online at Amazon called Laptop Lunchboxes. But being me (remember that part about enjoying research?), I looked up customer reviews. And I realized that the lid issue is one that a lot of people face. Because only one or two of the five containers have lids. And several people reported issues with the hinge on the lunchbox breaking.

Great. Now I know just about exactly what I want, but with a few tweaks. And unlike my house, a) I don't have a year and a half to find it and b) the exact features don't appear to exist anywhere.

So what's a girl to do?

Well, I'm headed down to Mitsuwa Market to see if I can find something there. And I'm going to go look at Whole Foods to see if I can find something there. I may track down a Tupperware consultant, as it looks like they have something that would work -- including a lifetime guarantee on wear and tear. Of course, the Tupperware lunchbox isn't sold in their online store. That would be too easy.

And come Thursday, the first day we really need to send lunches because it's a full day of school? Well, let's just hope I have something for the poor kid!

On the plus side, I did finally find the Crayola Broad Tip Classic Colors markers. In the eleventh store I looked in. I bought literally the last package of those markers in the tri-county area. And had there been two or three packages, I would have bought them all.

I'm so over this school thing. This isn't a good sign, considering I have fourteen more years to go, is it?