Don't Quit Your Day Job

Ah, the wondrous concoctions one can create when left alone with a soda maker for four hours. I got bored yesterday and decided to really put my soda maker to the test. And yes, this is the same soda machine that I raved about back in December and then never brought back up again. Procrastination is my middle name.

Anyways, these are the creations that I came up with yesterday:

Diet Cranberry Raspberry with a Dash of Diet Root Beer (Gosh, that one was NASTY!)
Diet Orange and Grapefruit (Not bad if I do say so myself)
Diet Fruit Punch with a Dash of Lemon Lime (Strange yet delicious)

My lucky boyfriend had the amazing opportunity to taste-test all of these new products for me, and I am quite sure he no longer wants to be my boyfriend anymore. He actually turned green after the second batch.

All in all, this machine is really cool. You can experiment and create your own favorite sodas (diet sodas for me). It was lots of fun but not all that edible. I think I need more practice…

The Wacky World of Carbonation

One of my coworkers found this Web site and it’s pretty cool. The language is a little scientific for me, being I’m a English and History not Science and Math type of person. I’ve provided my interpretations of these explanations but maybe y’all will understand it better than I do.

Q. To keep soda carbonated, is it best to keep it cold in the refrigerator or outside in the room? Also, why does soda fizz more when you pour it over ice than when you drop ice into already-poured soda--is that just because the falling liquid has more kinetic energy?

A. To keep soda carbonated, you should minimize the rate at which carbon dioxide molecules leave the soda and maximize the rate at which those molecules return to it. That way, the net flow of molecules out of the soda will be small. To reduce the leaving rate, you should cool the soda--as long as ice crystals don't begin to form, cooling the soda will make it more difficult for carbon dioxide molecules to obtain the energy they need to leave the soda and will slow the rate at which they're lost. To increase the return rate, you should increase the density of gaseous carbon dioxide molecules above the soda--sealing the soda container or pressurizing it with extra carbon dioxide will speed the return of carbon dioxide molecules to the soda. Also, minimizing the volume of empty bottle above the soda will make it easier for the soda to pressurize that volume itself. The soda will lose some of its carbon dioxide while filling that volume, but the loss will quickly cease.

One final issue to consider is surface area: the more surface area there is between the liquid soda and the gas above it, the faster molecules are exchanged between the two phases. Even if you don't keep carbon dioxide gas trapped above soda, you can slow the loss of carbonation by keeping the soda in a narrow-necked bottle with little surface between liquid and gas. But you must also be careful not to introduce liquid-gas surface area inside the liquid. That's what happens when you shake soda or pour it into a glass--you create tiny bubbles inside the soda and these bubbles grow rapidly as carbon dioxide molecules move from the liquid into the bubbles. Cool temperatures, minimal surface area, and plenty of carbon dioxide in the gas phases will keep soda from going flat.

Translation: Keep your diet soda refrigerated. Keep the bottle sealed tightly. Don’t shake your bottle of diet soda because that will introduce liquid-gas surface area.

As for pouring the soda over ice causing it to bubble particularly hard, that is partly the result of air stirred into the soda as it tumbles over the ice cubes and partly the result of adding impurities to the soda as the soda washes over the rough and impure surfaces of the ice. The air and impurities both nucleate carbon dioxide bubbles--providing the initial impetus for those bubbles to form and grow. Washing the ice to smooth its surfaces and remove impurities apparently reduces the bubbling when you then pour soda of it.

Translation: I like the bubbles and I’m not particularly prone to “washing the ice to smooth its surfaces” so I think I’ll continue pouring my diet soda over ice (and very rough, jagged ice at that).

Update: My comments from the last post were acting screwy and then up and disappeared on me! I'm not quite sure what happened but I wanted to express my appreciation for everybody's support. You guys (and gals) are the best! Diet soda and and light ice cream (Mmm, to Dreyer's Light Cookie Dough, Jacynth) really seemed to help too. Have a wonderful and safe Memorial Day!

The Aftermath of the GMAT

Well, after studying for weeks for the GMAT and then putting in serious overtime to study last week, my body has shut down. I think my body had an allergic reaction to studying because I've got the GMAT bug. Fever, aches and a generally bad disposition. I'm not a happy girl but at least the GMAT is over. The test went really well and I thank my lucky stars I'll never have to take it again. For today, I'm on a diet of Tylenol, diet soda, soup and ice cream (hey, a girl's gotta indulge!). By the way, there's a bunch of light ice cream varieties out that not only taste great but are reduced in calories. Diet soda news tomorrow, I promise.

More Random, Useless Information

Well, it’s Friday and I’m completely worn out. I’ve been cramming for the GMAT, which I will be taking tomorrow so I think my brain has pretty much left the building. When I sleep, I see multiple choice questions, #2 pencils and mathematical equations swimming around my dreams. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. Anyways, random factoids always seem to make me feel a little better. I've inserted random comments - I'm sorry if they don't make sense but I'm incredibly sleep-deprived and grouchy. Happy Friday everyone!

While not considered a country, Antarctica had the highest mortality rate in the world in 2003. This was due to a single death among the small permanent population

Despite Billy Joel's claims, the good do not actually die young. According to U.S. Census data, on average, clergy members live about 11 years longer than those who have been convicted of at least one felony crime.

The Sierra Club uses approximately 47,000 tons of paper per year for their fundraising mailings, almost none of which is printed on recycled paper kinda ironic, huh?

One out of 15 Americans don't know the order of the months. January, February, uh...

The music of Elvis Presley is banned in seven different countries across the world

Kids who first bite the heads off of "Teddy Grahams" and other animal-based snacks tend to show violent behavior later in life. I used to do that!

By number, Americans constitute 4.6 percent of the world's population and seven percent by weight. Drink more diet soda!

Bees are more likely to sting on the neck than anywhere else on the body. Turtlenecks anyone?

James Bond was based off of a real secret agent of the Crown by the name of Henry Reisinger. Reisinger died in the line of duty before the first Bond book was published.

Operators for Disneyland's "It's a Small World" ride have a higher suicide rate than any other profession. I can see why - that song is annoying.

Source: www.gullible.info

Diet Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream

The newest diet flavor to come out of the Dr. Pepper factory, Diet Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream, had me a little worried at first. When it comes to diet soda, I like to keep things pretty simple. I like the basic flavor as well as lemon-lime orange, root beer, etc. I typically do not like it when a myriad of flavors are combined. So, when I heard about Diet Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream I was understandably hesitant. The flavor of Diet Dr. Pepper infused with hints of berries and cream? I certainly wasn’t rushing to the store to pick up a 12-pack.

Before I tried this new product I decided to do an informal survey of my trusty coworkers. The guy in the cubicle next to me, I’ll call him Bob, loves the new flavor and went on and on about it. He is a devoted Diet Dr. Pepper fan and pretty much loves all of their flavors. Then I talked to another coworker, we’ll call him Joe. Now Joe is the person at work whose opinion I trust the most when it comes to diet soda. He’s always up on the newest flavors and often knows more about them than I do. Imagine! Joe does not care for the flavor. While some people said it tastes like cream soda, in Joe’s opinion it tastes like grape. He prefers the Diet Dr. Pepper Cherry & Vanilla flavor. To make matters more complicated, he referred me to the BevNet forum where people were raving about the new product. The majority of the people love the new label as well as the taste.

What’s girl to do? Try it, that’s what! After trying Diet Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream, I came to the conclusion that I did enjoy this new flavor but probably only occasionally. It was like a dessert, creamy and fruity with the slight spice of Diet Dr. Pepper. It isn’t something I will likely drink on a daily basis because I’m a simple girl at heart but overall, I would say it’s pretty good.

Soul Searching, I know you’ve tried it so what did you think? Anybody else tried it yet?

The Mystery of Mentos and Diet Soda

Have you ever put a handful of Mentos in a bottle of diet soda before? If you haven’t, trust me you need to try it. I’m not quite sure what it is in the Mentos that makes the diet soda go flying but it’s awesome! Check this out:

Here's the tame version

Here's the strange yet amusing version with background music

The key thing to know is that once the Mentos have been deposited into the bottle of diet soda, YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF THE WAY! My friend and I tried this the other day to make sure it worked (I would never give my fellow bloggers false information!) and it does. Unfortunately, my friend decided to look into the bottle right as it started spraying and she was drenched. I would advise using diet soda because it doesn’t have all the sugar and it’s a lot less sticky.

Good luck my friends. Have a great weekend!

Camping + Rain + Hail = Disaster

This weekend was certainly interesting. In an effort to transform me into more of an “outdoorsy” person, my boyfriend decided that we should take a camping trip with a bunch of friends. Mind you, I am not what you might call a girly girl. I enjoy the outdoors (especially when I’m rowing), I like good beer and I’m a college football fanatic. But, for some reason, I just can’t see the attraction of camping when you won’t be doing any hiking or kayaking.

To avoid conflict, I agreed. Boy was that the biggest mistake of my life! It rained, it poured and then…it hailed. In case you’ve ever wondered, cheap tents don’t make good protection from golfball-sized hail. Nope, not even a little bit. We spent most of the weekend in our tents playing Scrabble. I love Scrabble but not for eight hours straight. Why didn’t we go home you ask? We’re “outdoorsy” and “outdoorsy” people do not go home because of a simple thing like hail.

Cooking food also proved to be difficult because we couldn’t keep a fire lit and our camping stove ran out of fuel or whatever keeps that thing hot. Have you ever had cold baked beans from a can? If not, I suggest you try them because they are rather delicious although I would never admit this to my boyfriend. At the end of the weekend we were all pretty sick of each other and ready to retreat home to mope in solitude.

Summary of the story, if rain is expected do not go camping. In addition, if you are going to go camping don’t bring a cheap tent.

Say Goodbye to Soda Kiddos

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Things have been crazy at work and at home. This weekend was an interesting camping adventure. What do you get when you combine 20 inexperienced campers, torrentual downpour and hail? I'll let you know in my next post. First, the latest diet soda news:

In an effort to stop rising rates of childhood obesity, schools are yanking sodas from their vending machines, according to the Associated Press. Under the new agreement, elementary and middle schools agree to sell only water, unsweetened juices and low-fat and non-fat milk. The high schools will allow diet sodas and sports to drinks to remain in the vending machines. Why only high schools can sell diet sodas I do not know.

The agreement was initiated by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a collaboration between former President Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association. Even the nation’s largest distributors such as Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo support the soda ban in schools. The companies are quick to point out that it is not an admission on their part that full-calorie sodas are bad for children.

Apparently this deal won’t have an effect on the profits of the beverage industry. “The sales of sugar-carbonated sodas in schools is a tiny, tiny part of their overall volume,” said Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest. “Financially, on the big companies, it will have virtually no impact.

I’m kind of wishy-washy on this agreement. On one hand, I think it’s great that they’re trying to do something to combat the childhood obesity problem in the U.S. We need to stop ignoring this problem and actually doing something about it, and I think this is a first step.

On the other hand, will this really fix the problem? Are full-calorie sodas the problem? I think it’s more about teaching kids about proper nutrition and encouraging exercise. In my experience, cutting something out of my diet usually leads me to binging on it later. Why not bring physical education back into the schools? Removing full-calorie sodas doesn’t get rid of all the candy bars and sugary sweets still in the vending machines.

What do you think? Will this help fix the problem?

Did You Know...

More random trivia courtesy of Gullible.info. You never know when these random facts will help you out!

Taipei, Taiwan has the largest high school in the world, with 32,000 students

St. Filan is the patron saint of skydiving

One in eight highway accidents is caused by a muscle twitch.A spider's legs will stop functioning if it stops moving for more than an hour.

Red is the color in nature that most commonly indicates that a fruit or plant is edible.

It is estimated that at least one-third of baby twins had been accidentally mixed up by the parents at least once

In Moss, Montana, it is illegal to be seen in public with shoes on your hands.

Starbucks is the largest landowner in New York City, surpassing both the Catholic Church and Columbia University.

The amount of chewing gum trampled underfoot in the city of Manila accounts for an average altitude increase of one millimeter per year.

The most popular Jello mold is cat-shaped

Diet Orange Soda Chicken

As part of my effort to lose weight before the beginning of summer, I have decided to make a sincere effort to prepare nutritious, low-calorie meals for myself this week.

Now, this is huge for me because I’m not exactly what you would call a Julia Child or an Emeril Lagasse. I can make a delicious omelet and my macaroni and cheese is out of this world but that’s about where my talent stops. The recipe below is great for me for a couple of reasons: (1) I love Chinese food and this recipe has all of the flavors of Chinese food (2) It’s low-calorie because diet orange soda is the prime ingredient (3) It’s so easy a two-year-old could follow it.

Diet Orange Soda Chicken

3-4 chicken breasts
1 can diet orange soda
1/4 c. soy sauce

Remove skin and fat from chicken. Mix soda and soy sauce in 9 x11 inch baking dish. Place chicken in soda mixture and bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour or until tender. Baste a few times as chicken cooks

Be sure to baste as it cooks to ensure your chicken comes out juicy and delicious. Pair this with a salad and some rice and you’ve got a low-calorie, healthy meal in a flash!

Happy Monday everyone! Random trivia to follow tomorrow.