Gearing Up

Tons of excitement coming my way tomorrow. Chancho turns 26! I've bought Yankee tickets for him, of course. His Sgt. made sure that he had his birthday off; he wasn't going to take it off. I have work until 9am so after I get out I'm heading over to have breakfast with him, then we'll head to the Bronx for the game. Once we get out of the game we're going back to his place for a family dinner, then finally out to the bars with friends. He's going out tonight with coworkers, they said they wanted to treat him to a few before he headed home. I'm on call for a pick up for whenever he needs to get home. I'm not sure how well that's going to work out when I need to be up at 4am, but it's his birthday so I can sacrifice a few hours of sleep for him.
Chancho had  an unusual night last night in that he was actually out on patrol. Instead of sitting behind a desk watching TV working on reports and complaints, he was told to suit up and head out into the projects with the housing group. It was a quiet night, thankfully, and he enjoyed himself. I think he misses being out on the streets with not knowing what's going to happen next. I could hear it in his voice that he had a good time. I don't miss those nights though. I enjoy him sitting behind his desk.

I got news that my old roommate and very close friend has plans to come visit in August. She's starting to plan her trip. I am crossing my fingers that all works out. She says that it might be hard to get the days off because a coworker is out on maternity leave, but we'll see.

Other news, my childhood best friend's sister gave birth to a little girl last friday. She is unbelievably cute and I'm not saying that because I'm biased, I really do believe she's cute. Last Sunday, my cousin got married. She's a year younger than me and had a little house on the prarie wedding. They married in a field of grass overlooking a valley. It looked very beautiful from pictures. She wore a blue patterned dress, very simple, which fit her well. She isn't a very dramatic person so it suited her well. However, now everyone is asking me when I'll be getting married. I'm wondering where they're thoughts of "Take your time, there's no rush" went.

This upcoming holiday weekend I'll be visiting my sister and BIL in Jersey again for a fight night. First we're going to eat at Harold's again. I'm not sure we can go visit and not go to Harold's anymore. Chancho has fallen in love with it and demands that we stop there now. Then Sunday, the 4th, after working all day (boooo) the family is visiting my parents. It'll be great to see everyone finally.

Quote of the Day: "Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress." ~ Alfred A. Montapert
Listening to: "King of Anything" by Sara Bareilles

Tuesday Tips

Yep, it's Tuesday again. I worked an overnight Sunday into Monday moving all of the Travel items back to their original homes and then setting up for the Happy Organized Home Sale which began yesterday. This sale goes on until Sept. 6th, which I feel is a really long time. There are a ton of things that I love that are on sale right now so I'm having trouble picking which to do first. This sale also goes along with the college kids. If you didn't know, I'm letting you in on a "secret" that The Container Store puts on a college night where the entire store is on sale. You can get whatever you want, but that night only. It's a really fun night where the store plays college age music, there are snacks and tons of people there to help you. Everyone that is employed is there to help out so that's about 60 employees. It's always a fun time. Anyways, my item today is the Countertop Organizer.

Why do I love this? There are 7 different holders for numerous items to fit into it. It's acrylic so it's easy to see everything. Plop it down onto your counter and you're set to go. You can put more than just make-up brushes, pens, pencils, paintbrushes, colored pencils, anything you can fit into it. The best feature is that the bottom pops out for easy cleaning. I hate that the bottom to all of my holders get gunky and are hard to clean, this just pops out and can rinse it off quickly. It's on sale for $8.99, originally $12.99. This one is found in the bath section. There are two other sizes, one that's larger, which is found in the kitchen section for holding spatulas, mixers, more larger items found in the kitchen. Then there is another medium sized one that can hold wider items, such as a hairdryer, curler, things like that. Those sizes aren't on sale right now.

Happy organizing!

Put it on paper

I cleaned a few things out from under my bed today in hopes that it would get me motivated to actually get my real bed upstairs and out of the living room. In doing so, I stumbled upon my portfolio that is filled with my writings. Once upon a time I wrote, I wrote a lot. I wrote poems and short stories, but mostly poems. I'm not sure what happened. I think I stopped writing my sophomore year of college. I guess it just dwindled down with the more school work I got, the less I wrote. I also don't think my writing was anything more than just letting out my feelings, more of an outlet for me than anything else. I had a lot more drama in high school than in college. I have always found it easier to write something than to speak it. It just seems to come out smoother and more understandable than if I try and say it. A lot of the time I'll have so much going on in my head that I'll take out a pen and just start writing. It helps put things in perspective for me. Now that I've found this portfolio, I'm wondering why I don't start doing that again. One of the last things that I wrote was for my brother and his then, soon to be wife. I was asked to read at their wedding so I was thinking of what I could read for them and wrote a poem:

To Hold Forever

A knock on the door a quarter to one

A beat shakes the plastic cups

A smile upon a face

A night that holds the beginning

A look across the classroom

The first spoken words

Followed by a million more

Long walks and late night talks

Months that are confirmed

With a question down on a bended knee

A bark in the background

The noise of a lawnmower over ignored grass

A sewing machine hums in the back room

The days have entangled one another

He waits patiently in front of a loving family

She wipes tears away as she clings to her father's arm

She begins her steps towards her answer of I do

He expresses his words of commitment and faithfulness

They clasp hands that will be theirs to hold forver

Their first walk down the aisle

A quarter to one

With a beat that shakes the carpet

A smile upon a pair of faces

A day that holds the new beginning

~ TM

They chose to go with a more traditional route of reading something from the bible, which I was more than happy to do. There's a lot less judging done when you read something from the bible than if you read something of your own.

Quote of the Day: "Friendship means understanding, not agreement. It means forgiveness, not forgetting. It means the memories last, even if contact is lost." 

Listening to:  "Schism" by Tool

Tuesday Tips

A day late, but still good in my book. Today's tip is shipping on Travel items are FREE!!!! Yep, if you spend over $100 that is. But that can easily be done and so well worth it. Especially if you don't have a TCS near you, so head over to their website and shop away. When you're ready to purchase all of your fabulous items punch in the promo code TRAVEL and you'll get your free shipping! YAY! Sunday is the last day of the sale so you have to get to it sooner rather than later. Fear not though, we have another sale starting this Monday! The Happy Organized Home Sale or the HOHS sale.
I guess I'll focus on luggage itself today since this is the last tip of the Travel sale and you need luggage to travel. The majority of the luggage that we have is from Eagle Creek. I ordered a whole bunch of it this season because the color this year was blue. We always carry it in black on black, but this season it came in blue on black. I love it. I bought the 25 inch hovercraft. My mother owns one as well and is currently using it on her cruise. It's perfect for a weeks worth of traveling. The best part about Eagle Creek is that they have a lifetime warranty no matter what. So no matter what happens to it they'll replace it no questions asked. It weighs a little over 8 lbs. More weight can be put into more clothes! There are just enough pockets to tuck away what you need and the handle is super easy to hang on to. There's always a kick board on the bottom so when you're dragging it up over a curb or stairs it doesn't get scratched. It's regularly priced at $275.00, but on sale now for $219.00.

I also bought the bag that slides over the handle, travel tote, which can be used as an everyday bag, for the weekend or a carry-on. I love that bag too! I use it at least once a week now that it's summer. I bought it in the matching blue on black color so I match! It is originally $75.00, but on sale for $54.00.

If you go onto the Container Store website they have a luggage selector tool now that can help you figure out which luggage is best for your needs and it will also show you what will fit into your luggage for the best packing strategies.


Happy Traveling!

How Did It Go?

We were awkwardly greeted on the front walkway by Chancho's partner's son right off the bat. It was like he was stalking the windows waiting for a car to pull up. Which I have probably done before too. Anyways, he gave me a huge hug, which I'm not used to. Not a custom greeting around here, usually a handshake will be more than enough, but hugs are good too. He is 12? I believe. The house is beautiful, very open and nicely decorated. We were the second to arrive. Which I was so thankful for. I love being there before everyone else so there isn't a lot of introducing and starring and awkward hellos. I usually get glazed eyes when that happens. His partner's wife, LC, had family coming to the BBQ as well so her niece was there already. I walked out back onto the deck as we were given the tour of where we could find food and beverages. As soon as you step out onto the deck you could see their beautiful pool. Two kids were playing in it already, later found out it was his partner's daughter and her friend. His wife was out in the yard surrounded by a bunch of white poles and a tarp. She was attempting to put up a canopy so the kids would have shade to play in, but she lost the directions on how to put it together. I found my first opportunity to be sociable. I plopped down my purse and ran down the stairs and said "I'm here to help, lets start putting this thing together!" She, too, gave me a big hug and said thanks as we starred at all of the poles. We got it put together eventually and headed inside.
From there we started prepping all of the food. They had tons of it, pickles, olives, carrots, cookies, 5 different types of chips, salsa, and cheese. This was just for snacking before dinner. Then more people started to show up, by the dozen. First it was Chancho's Sgt and her family. She had a whole crew of kids, some from her own marriage, some from her sister's family (she passed away so she got custody), and some from another family, plus her husband. Right behind the Sgt was Chancho's other partner, her husband and kids as well. I was introduced to everyone by LC as we were still putting all the food out. They didn't quite get that I was Chancho's girlfriend at first, until he came into the kitchen to say hi and asked if we had met. Then their eyes lit up and they really looked at me. They must have had glazed eyes as they were being introduced to everyone when they first came in. All of the guys changed and once we took their picture on the front lawn they were off to play their game of paintball. I think there were about 12 guys in all.
I was left alone surrounded by the women. And I did just fine. We sat at the kitchen table, made more food and chatted away. I felt like the women really took me under their wing as the young one to guide. They kept giving me advice, about everything. They wanted to know a lot about Chancho and what he was really like. I didn't feel too out of place. I was able to go into the pool and get a tan while we waited for the guys to return. It took them close to 4 hours to play paintball. I'm so happy that they were wonderful ladies because four hours by myself could have been torture.
When the men came back it was time to eat and then more food came out. They had penne alla vodka, hamburgers, hot dogs, shish kabobs, pork, Spanish foods, and more desserts of donuts, coconut cake, cheesecake, ice cream, watermelon and pound cake. The guys took over the pool as they were sweaty from their game. I was able to mingle around with different people as Chancho chatted away with his partner the Instigator.
I cannot believe how well this day went. It was really a blessing to have it go so well. We were invited back for another weekend to just sit by the pool and relax. Which I am more than happy to take them up on. We have a few more parties that we were invited to, a baptism and a retirement party, so I'm looking forward to those now. I'm so happy that I was able to meet them all and that we got along fine. The cruise will be a blast with them. LC was saying that she can't wait to send her kids to the kids only deck so us adults can lay out by the pool on the adult's only deck. That made me feel great. I was so worried that the parents were going to want to spend all their time with their kids. But LC seems to be the parent that can't wait to get rid of them.

I've got a BBQ today here at my house that I'm throwing so I have to get up to get the house and food ready. I'm anxiously waiting to hear what Chancho's partners have to say about me.

Quote of the Day: "'We just have to accept that people are going to stay in our hearts even when they don't stay in our lives.'" - Starting From Square Two by Caren Lissner
Listening to: "All I Want" by Staind

Here We Go!

The parents are shipped off to Bermuda or the Bahamas, one of those B islands without me for the next few days. I made it to the family birthday party tonight. Met the cousins boyfriend and approved. He even played the guitar in front of the entire family. Bonus points. Now  for tomorrow. Dun Dun Dun.... I have work way early at 5am, but I'll be out by 10am. From there I'll be heading off into the NYPD BBQ land. All I know is that Chancho will be playing paintball during the morning hours while I mingle among the wives. (Please be nice to me!) I of course have the whole day planned out in my head and it of course won't go the way I have it planned. However, my mother, of all people, said something to me that has made me feel somewhat less anxious. She reminded me that I'm going to a BBQ full of cops. Cops love to have a good time. There has never been a party that wasn't a good time. Plus, we're bringing bud light lime, so once I throw a few of those back, I'll be having a good time regardless. I'll probably be driving home so by the time I sober up everyone else will be well into their own drinks that it won't even matter. I don't even know why I'm so nervous. I shouldn't be, but I guess that's just who I am. So here we go, into the NYPD BBQ land of the unknown. You know there will be a update once I get back. Stay tuned...

Quote of the Day: "There is nothing more important than friendships that endure, especially in a world that insists on changing." – Desperate Housewives
Listening to: "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven

FlashBack Fridays

This picture comes from maybe 1989. As students there was always the egg hatching part of the year in school. When those eggs hatched there were always the baby chicks left over that were shipped off somewhere, well my mother thought that maybe they could come live with us. So from the year that my sister had the first baby chicks, we've had chickens living at our house. This picture is the very common scene from when they were first brought to the house. We'd spread out the newspaper so that the poop wouldn't get on anything and then sit with our legs open so the chicks couldn't escape us. I think this picture is from my first chicken circle. I look a little scared and not sure as to what the fluffy white thing is. We still have chickens in our backyard and this well after the elementary years of having them in our classrooms. They seemed to have found a place in our life.

In a Nutshell

Yeah, I guess I'll post something. I haven't really been in the mood to post, whether it's because I'm sleeping, seeing Chancho or I just don't feel like I have something worthy to say, but I'm ending that now. Lately, it's been all about work. Since I've gotten back from Toronto I've been busy with The Container Store. We had an all store meeting, last Sunday, which they asked me to come in 5 hours earlier than I was supposed to. It was nice because I was able to leave 5 hours earlier. Then Monday I was babysitting Buster all day. I'm working on getting him to walk. He's very stubborn. He won't do it. He knows that if he cries long enough someone will a. give whatever he wants to him or b. he'll get picked up and carried. After a day of babysitting I headed in to work for an overnight. It was a huge night. We switched every single aisle around in the office and collections section. Which is about 6 aisles. I was beat. I was also up for 24 hours by the time I got home. Which lead me to sleep for all of Tuesday. Then I was up again this morning for more work. But good news! I am now a leader on mornings that there are trucks. This means that I am in charge of at least 13 people. I'm directly in charge of 3. It's a little odd, but I think I'll adjust okay as I do it more. I'm finally off for the next 2 days.
Then we start up with more happenings. Starting Saturday, I have work and then straight from work I'm driving the parents to their cruise. They'll be gone for a week in the Bahamas. I'll also be attending a cousin's birthday party that night. Chancho lovingly was able to switch around his schedule so that he would be able to attend it with me. I switched my schedule so that we could go to the NYPD BBQ on Sunday. Oh lord that is coming up quickly. I am nervous as usual to meet everyone. All the guys will be out paintballing while I'm left with the wives at the house. I'm not one to get along with women all that well. So we'll see how it goes. It always takes me a while to befriend women. I just seem to get along better with guys, that's always how it's been. This will definitely be a big step outside of my comfort zone.

Chancho made an arrest in plain clothes the other day. Very out of the ordinary. He was heading to go home when a couple came in and complained about being conned out of money and an apartment. Turns out that they met a woman to put a down payment on an apartment from Craigslist. Then they researched the apartment and it was a senior citizens home. No apartment. The woman was wiring the money to a man in Florida. So Chancho had them set up an appointment with the lady again at a Dunkin Donuts. He was there inside the Dunkin Donuts with them sitting across at another table and arrested her when they were handing over the money.

That seems to be my life in a nutshell. As you can see not much going on. Waiting for the weather to get a little bit nicer so we can go to the beach. I'm dying for the sand between my toes!

Quote of the Day: "I miss you, and I want things back to how they used to be. I need your friendship more then ever. I need you in my life again. Tell me what it is that went wrong, and I'll do what it takes to fix it in a second if it means having you by my side again."
Listening to: "Stellar" by Incubus

Tuesday Tips

The Love Your Luggage Travel Sale is still happening. So here's another sale item that I've fallen in love with. It is the Expandable Shopper Bag. It comes in two sizes, small and large. The awesome thing about this bag is that it expands and when I say expand, it really does! The small size goes from 11" to 14". That's 3 more inches that you didn't have before. The large size goes from 14" to 20", 6 extra inches! Holy moly! The way that it expands is easy. The middle section of the bag has a zipper and all you have to do is unzip it and re-zip it to close it back up. It has handles for easy carrying and it also has a padded shoulder strap if you need hands to carry something else. It's made out of nylon and there is an inside zippered pocket.
Here's why I love it. It's a great everyday bag. You can shove your things in there and then if you make a sudden stop to pick something up you have room for it. Or say that you start out your day early in the morning when it's cool out so you have a sweater on. Then by mid day the sun is blazing and you have to get rid of the sweater. Well your handy bag has that extra room for you to tuck it away. If you're traveling, you know you always come home with more than you left with. This bag can help with that souvenir baggage. The print on the bag isn't too bad either.
The price of the small one is $14.99, originally $19.99. The large one is priced at $21.99, originally $29.99. Right now both of them are backordered, but they can still be found in stores. If you buy them now, you can still get the sale price. I'd say the average backordered time is 3 months. However, it could be more or less time depending.

Happy Traveling!

487 Miles One Way

All the way to Toronto, Canada, just to see the Yankees lose. How disappointing. It was a great trip, after the delay, everything went great. Here's my trip through photos, as you all know I love pictures!

The beginning of our trip...7:30pm

 Crossing the border into Canada at 2am. Oddly enough there were tons of people on the road once we crossed over. It seemed like it was only 9pm there with the amount of people driving around.

 Yep, we were in Toronto, the sign proves it.

 We stopped because we saw a cool bridge, turns out we started walking on the Trans Canada Trail. It's the longest trail in the world, which crosses through all of Canada.

 We then continued on into downtown Toronto. You can see the CN Tower.

 The Rogers Centre is where the Blue Jays play.

 And here it is!

 This is some French arch.

 The government building. We just happened to drive passed it.

 Chancho needed me to take a picture of this car. Their license plate was hanging by rope from the back windshield wiper.

 We chose to go to the Metro Toronto Zoo for our sight seeing adventure. This was my favorite picture from there.

 They had a shark petting tank. Too bad there weren't any sharks. They lied. They only had sting rays. We paid $3 to pet sting rays.

 Finally, game time. This was a statue that they had outside of the Rogers Centre. Thought it looked cool.

 Inside the stadium at 7pm. The first time inside of a dome for a baseball game.

During the 7th inning stretch they had the "fastest grounds cleaning crew" come racing out onto the field. It was pretty interesting to see.

 We drank. We drank a lot for $9.75 a cup.

 After the Yankees lost, we headed out and found this place that gave you half off your meal with a game ticket.

 Saturday morning we were supposed to head back. However, we ran into a hotel staff member who informed us that the Yankee game was at 1pm instead of 7pm like we had thought. Chancho automatically looked at me and said "We're going." So off we went to the second game of the series. This is the view of the Rogers Centre with the dome open during the day.

 As you can tell the CN Tower is right next to the stadium. We thought about going to it, but it was pretty expensive. Plus the game went into 14 innings, only for them to lose.

 6pm Saturday we crossed the border back into the USA.

It really was a good time. It was very very clean there. We didn't see any liter any where. I would not suggest getting a hot dog from a street vendor. They are nothing like the hot dogs from NYC. I almost barfed all over the side walk after my first bite. We got back in the wee morning hours of Sunday just in time to sleep a few hours before work. Now we're back into the grind of things for a few months before our next vacation.  That's all folks!

Still counting down

Still here. Just as predicted. I swear all of our vacations/trips always start late because of some NYPD thing. Today's reason being that there is a strike. A simple strike is what is stopping us from leaving. He was sent out early this morning and was supposed to be relieved around 4ish. It is now well pass 4pm. His relief came in at 3, but they still haven't showed up to their posts yet. This morning he told me that he had a friend that would be able to come take his spot if he needed to leave early, so I thought oh hey this would be the perfect time for him to call in that friend. Nope. His friend left for the day. So there he sits waiting for the second batch of officers. No news as to when they'll show up.
As a result of this, I won't be able to see my friends from college as I had hoped for, but that's okay. We'll be getting in much, much later than expected, but that's okay. We'll be driving all night, in the dark, but that's okay. I have been able to pack my bag. I've showered. I've even cleaned the bathroom. I have charged both my cell phone and camera's batteries. I watched the entire Yankee game (which they won). I have even made plans for babysitting Buster next week. It has been productive, I mean that is the only thing that I can turn this day into without becoming miserable and holding resentment.
This just in: The men on strike have made it to their final staging area. I am assuming that they will be wrapping up after a few speeches. I'm thinking another 2 hours before Chancho can head on home. Yay! a sign of something good!

Quote of the Day:“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”  
- Buddha

Listening to: "Found Out About You" by Gin Blossoms

600 lbs lighter

I've got less than 24 hours before I'll be heading off towards Canada. We leave tomorrow after Chancho gets out of work. We all know that an exact time is near impossible to receive from him so we're just playing it by ear for when we leave. However, we would like to be on the road, the latest, by 3pm. I have a feeling that we'll be leaving more towards 4 or 5. That's just a hunch that I have. I'm really hoping to stop in Buffalo to see my old roommates, but I think it might be too short notice for us to get anything together in time. Another thing that we'll just have to wing. If everything goes as planned, or close to as possible I'll be in Canada by 11pm. Wooohooo! We'll spend the night in our hotel, then depending on how we're feeling, Friday we'll take the tour of the CN Tower and then go to the Yankee v. Blue Jay game at night. Saturday, I'm thinking we can go to the zoo before heading home. Or we can switch the days for the CN Tower and the zoo. I'd just like to do some sight-seeing before we come back. We both have work on Sunday so we have to be back by at least Saturday night. I'm pretty pumped for it.
In other news, I think our house lost about 600 lbs today. We donated a shit load of "treasures" to a local church for a tag sale. I really love that someone's shit is another man's treasure. It makes it a lot easier in getting rid of stuff that we don't use anymore. In all honesty I never thought I would see some of it go. It has been in this house for 35+ years. My mother is a closet hoarder. She can't let go of anything and has the excuse of  "I could need this in the future." Well by the time you'll need it it'll be so out dated that you'll have to buy a new one anyway! I understand her thinking, but I am the type of person that can't stand clutter and that's all that we have in this house. If it were organized, that would be another thing, but it's NOT! My mother used to sell Longaberger Baskets from home while we were still too young to go to school, so we have tons and tons of baskets around our house. We have an entire room and half an attic full of baskets. So if anyone would want to purchase a basket, please contact me! Then we have all of the stuff that just isn't used anymore because we've out grown it or it's from my parents childhood and they just haven't dumped it yet. It's a true disaster. Today though, we sent a SUV and a pick up truck worth of stuff over to the church and we have our front porch filled with stuff waiting for their truck to come pick up. I'm very proud of her for actually taking the time to go through it all and finally say good-bye.
This weekend is my sister and BIL's 1 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year already since they got married. How quickly time flies. They're spending the weekend in Atlantic City. Then the following weekend we'll be celebrating Father's Day since my parents will be on a cruise during the real Father's Day. We'll be having a BBQ at my parents house. It will be the first time we have all gotten together since Christmas. Definitely over due.

Quote of the Day: "You can't always control the circumstances in life, but you can control your attitude toward those circumstances." -Alexander Lockhart 
Listening to: "Carry Out" by Timbaland ft Justin Timberlake

Tuesday Tips

The Organized Traveler Sale is still going on at The Container Store. Which means that you must being going somewhere at some point, even if you're only going for an overnight, I have something that you may want to consider looking at. Today's tip is about our Microban® products. We have a few items that are made with plastic, which has Microban in it to prevent the growth of bacteria.
The first one is our toothbrush cover. 

You can see that it's small and compact enough to just cover the important part of the toothbrush. It has ventilation holes on the top to all the brush to dry out when not in use. It comes in clear, blue, green and purple. They are on sale for $1.49, originally, $1.99

 

The second item is the standing toothbrush holder. This one covers the entire toothbrush. It stands on the counter by itself and it is in two pieces. It may look like the bottom part folds down into itself, but it doesn't. This one also has ventilation holes to air out the toothbrush. The same four colors are available for these as well. They are on sale for $2.19, originally $2.99. I believe they are backordered, but you might be able to find them in the store and if you can't you can always order them and get the sale price now.

 The third item is the soap dish. It comes in the clear, blue, green and purple colors just like the toothbrush holders. If I can remember correctly it is two separate pieces, instead of it being hinged. The bottom has ridges to lift the soap up and away from the excess water to allow it to dry out. They are on sale for $2.19, originally $2.99.

The fourth item is the collapsible cup. I love it and own one. This also has all four colors. It collapses up into itself for storing and transporting and when you're ready to use it just pull it out and drink away. In the lid there is a pill capsule holder. It is on sale for $1.99, originally priced at $2.99.


 There are a few more items that are made out of Microban, but these are my favorite ones and the ones that find to be the most useful. We have these same items made out of regular plastic without the Microban and those can be found here. They are not on sale, but they really are cheap enough that you don't need a sale.

Hopefully this helps in your traveling :)