return of the aliens.... update

The week before Christmas break, I stopped by my son's school to drop something off.  I decided to give the lost and found one last looksie before break.  I figured whatever the contents of the large lost and found bin, they would be disposed of or donated to charity over break.

SURE ENOUGH... there it was.  The aliens were staring right at me! After many checks and re-checks of the lost and found bin, The alien laptop lunchbox had made it's way to the lost and found.  (pic above was taken when it was brand new)

Sheer joy and sheer horror all in one.

I took it home and opened it up.  UGH.  It had been missing for about a month.
Have you ever seen Mike Rowe in the show 'dirty jobs'?  He should have been hosting from my house that day.

Somewhere along the line, there must have been a smell.  I am guessing a teacher or custodian opened the lunchbox and disposed of the two smaller containers.  I was left with the awesome large green container, it's lid, and the two lids from the small containers.  The water bottle held water that day and was pretty funk free and the alien bag itself was not in too bad of shape.
Considering this (but apples in place of the broccoli) is the last lunch I packed in the lunchbox...  you can imagine the funk.

I soaked, then scrubbed, then used up all of my bleach to soak it some more in the hot texas sun, then re-washed, then ran through the dishwasher solo.

I have to say, I was impressed with the whole laptop lunchbox system.  It all came clean pretty easily... I just did triple duty to ease my germ-a-phobic mind.

If you've been following this pathetic saga, you know that during the MIA period, the wonderful people at Obentec, makers of the laptop lunchbox had also read my pathetic saga and sent me a new set of inner containers (buddies) and a great discount for the rest of my order.  After much back and forth, I bought a new carry bag with water bottle, and a new outer container.

So with the reappearance of the aliens, I had three large containers, three outer boxes, three carrybags, three water bottles,....   but only two kids.

SO, I gave my friend Michelle over at Foodie Footsteps the coveted large green inner box and the extra outer box for the 2.0 system.  I kept the alien carry case and water bottle as a back up.  Michelle, we expect great things from you now that you have the drool worthy big container!!