thermos insulated lunchbox

 late in the afternoon i went to the office max in eagan looking for inter-office envelopes. there weren't any, and the comparable ones were kind of expensive. i still looked around to see if there was anything else i needed. in the clearance section i saw some lunch bags. one of them was made by thermos, black, depicting constellations and planets. i knew it would be a nice reminder of my time living in suburban chicago as i know the company's home office is in schaumburg. it was a good deal, got it for 3 dollars, marked down from 14 dollars. the lunch bag i had, made by tupperware, had seen its better days. but it had a good run, not sure how long i had it but it had been in use when i was at a job i was laid off from more than 4 years go. i saw it abandoned in the breakroom so i claimed it. not sure if i had bought any lunch bags before, usually they have been given to me by the employer. of course this doesn't count the charlie brown lunchbox, as it is being used for storage of charlie brown items. i ripped up the existing lunch bag and tossed it in the trash. the new one has two sections, so i will have the soup can in the lower part and the plastic container for the soup in the upper part. the tag said it is a canadian product, and i did search it online where i found out thermos products are sold by canadian tire. it was hard to find the same one i had bought in online searches, but similar ones were found and it was considered to be for kids. it looks like a little backpack, and this is no accident. based on my findings, there are some product offerings where a backpack and lunch bag are sold in a set. i took a picture of the old and new bag together, and kept two things from the old one. one was the strap, but as i recall it wasn't an original part of it. i moved the strap to another bag. the other thing was the label saying 'tupperware' on it, an this was sent to the plastic bag with the user guide. i am hopeful it lasts for many years. the wikipedia article bout the company said there was a smithsonian exhibit called 'taking america to lunch'. the company's website does depict various themes for the lunch bags they sell, consistent with the metal lunchboxes from many years ago with movie and TV show themes. 

another place i stopped at in the early afternoon was jc penney, to get a shirt with a collar for work and some socks. it was the one at the mall in roseville and while there i got a dairy queen blizzard as well. i did an open-mic in the evening, same venue as the one i do on most mondays. later on i went on a walk and found 51 cents, shortened due to the snow.