Finals!

Finals week officially starts Saturday (language finals are on saturday) and everyone is already going nuts. I know I'm definitely feeling the heat. Upcoming for me is a skit presentation in-class on Friday for French, Final on Saturday morning for French. Finals for Philosophy of Mind, and Philosophy of Science on Tuesday, and 10 page paper for Philosophy of Religion due on Thursday! It's going to be a while ride!

I've had some time to play with some drink mixes in combination with my sparkling (sparkle-y? :D) water. Here's two I made up for tonight's study session. They're also my sustenance for the night until I can get home and get some dinner.

In the black bottle is sparkle-y water with some Gatorade(TM) powder mixed in. See how low the line is? That's what results when you add flavor powder to the drink TOO FAST. It fizzes. It fizzed out of the bottle and onto the kitchen counter and some into the sink when I got it there. It was alarming, but made me laugh at myself. The water fill-line is between where the levels for the pink and black bottles are.

In the pink bottle is simply some vanilla syrup and some crushed grapes. You can see the red seedless grapes in the quart-sized water bottle that I brought for a snack. I crushed about 5 of them and then poured the exposed fruit and juice into the bottle. I didn't crush it very well. Here's a picture of the grapes as they float down from being shaken up for effect. You can bet that I'm not going to touch that bottle again for awhile, to wait for bubbles and all. :)

Good luck to all my fellow students that are suffering finals! You shouldn't be reading this because you should be studying! But I'm a hypocrite because I probably shouldn't be blogging during finals week either.

Sodastream

If you know me, then you probably know that I have a major carbonated water/soda addiction. Major major major. My friends know this and always scold me when I'm with them and I buy soda. Not only is it undermining my pursuit to lose weight, it's bad for my teeth, as my friend in dental school tells me all the time.

As a belated birthday/xmas/graduation present, two of my dear friends got me the Sodastream machine.

To say that it is a machine though is a bit unaccurate. In reality it is a plastic CO2 bottle holder that redirects the gas into a bottle of water. My first try with this soda water maker turned out well. I added the sample of diet pink grapefruit soda syrup for my first try. I like how I can control the level of carbonation and in all, also how much sugar and flavor syrup I add.

I'm told that all the sodastream brand soda syrups contain splenda, which I'm OK with, but I doubt I will be putting out the money for it. More often I will probably be adding juice concentrate to a bottle of fizzy water. My favorite drink is usually some orange concentrate, or fresh concentrated lemonade added to a bottle of Peligrino water. This will save me the trips to costco to keep buying the Peligrino water. I preferred the Peligrino, despite the price point because it IS carbonated water and not mineral water. One of the guys in my philosophy class has also said that a tea bag added to carbonated water tastes really good, so I'll probably try that. Now I can make carbonated water at home and not have to worry abut any added nasty tasting minerals.

To say that I'm grateful for this present is putting it lightly. I had been considering getting myself one of the Sodastream models, but the price tag always put me off. This is one of the older models, it's called "Jet". This is one of the cheaper models, but it is capable of holding a larger bottle of CO2, which will last me longer between refills. Apparently if I bring the empty bottle to Bed Bath & Beyond, I can get a discount on a new bottle. Otherwise CO2 refills cost $30. I still need to get this verified though.

My friend is convinced that in the long run this will cost me less money than buying cans of soda, but time and price changes will tell in the long run.

I am in no way affiliated with the Sodastream company, nor have I been asked to review this product.