Shoulda Paid at the Pump

There's lots of things you can't do once you have a baby. You can't go to the movies, you can't go to happy hour and you can't stay up til 4 a.m. drinking beer and eating burritos from 7-11. Oh, and you can't just run into the gas station convenience store to check out their candy offerings, because to do so you'd have to unbuckle said child from his car seat, carry him into the place and wrestle with him like he's a wild beast grabbing everything and anything he can get his hands on. Unless, of course, he's with his dad and you're out grocery shopping/picking up dry cleaning/returning library books/making photocopies of important documents, a.k.a. "having free time."

So the other day, between stops at the liquor store and the jewelers (what do these errands say about me?), I had to fill up the car. And suddenly, I realized that for the first time in almost two years, I could walk into the convenience store. Wow! My heart was racing!

Naturally I was in "Ohmygosh, I'vegottobequick,gottogetbackhometotheSugarBaby" mode, so I grabbed the first two things that caught my eye: JuJuBes and Mentos Sours. Now, as far as the JuJuBes are concerned, I've had them in the past and was unimpressed, although I must say they have incredible filling-ripping powers. But I could swear I read somewhere that they had been changed, that they were bigger and softer, so I was excited to see this for myself. Wrong. They're the same. Maybe, just maybe, they were a touch softer, but they're still every dentist's ticket to early retirement.

The Mentos Sours were new to me. I was surprised that they seemed to be in a package rather than the typical Mentos roll; I was even more surprised when I opened it and found that, indeed, they were wrapped in a roll inside! Double wrapping. Hmmm.

I really thought I'd love these, but uh-uh. No ma'am. I think there's a reason for that double wrapper, as in-- they were stale-crunchy. Not soft and chewy like your typical Mentos. So it was like, crunch crunch chew, disappear. Yuck. The thing is, had I not been in such a rush and actually looked at the package, I would've seen that these were watermelon, green apple and lemon. I only like watermelon and green apple in Jolly Ranchers.*

Needless to say, it was quite a disappointing little trip out into the Sugar Baby-free world. The good news is, I'm acquiring quite a stash of uneaten candy that I'll bringing up to the von Schokolats in a few weeks.

*Note to self: do an entry on JollyRanchers and Mikey Pietrzak.

Mentos Geyser

Part of my fabulous Candy-O-Rama gift from Alex included a gen-yoo-ine "Steve Spangler's Geyser Tube." You might recall from a previous post that Alex had read about this invention in her husband's alumni magazine. Well, here it is folks!

You get a plastic tube and a package of Mentos in the kit. Apparently the tube helps make an even bigger eruption than if you just tossed a mint Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke.

The back of the package has an explanation of how this works. Something about how the mints have tiny pits all over the surface, so the carbonation from the soda gets in there and something happens and whammo! You've got yourself five seconds of sticky, soda fun! There's a website listed on the back for more information and pictures and such: http://www.geysertube.com/.

Mentos and Diet Coke: The Next Generation

I don't mean to be all-Mentos-all-the-time, but I'm trying to clear off my desk and I ran across this tidbit that Alexandra sent me about four gagillion months ago. She found this in her alumni magazine. For the life of me I can't remember where she went to school, so I can't give proper credit to the magazine, but apparently some dude named Steve Spangler who graduated in 1989 signed a licensing agreement to "create and sell patented devices that utilize the explosive power of [Mentos and Diet Coke]. Called 'Geyser Tube' toys, they will twist, fly and power other devices. 'This is the vinegar-and-baking soda experiment for a new generation,' Spangler said. Fun! And now my desk is one paper emptier. Five million more to go.

Mentos intern

I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for marketing crap. So check this out: www.mentosintern.com. It's a live webcast of an intern at Mentos and he'll do a task for you if you put it on his schedule. I'm going to ask him to come up with a craft project involving candy for the little von Schokolats when they're here visiting next week.

The Great Mentos Experiment

Being hopelessly behind the times, I was so psyched to read about the reaction that takes place if you pop a mint Mentos ("the freshmaker!") into a bottle of Diet Coke. Kaboom! It explodes into a great frothy fountain. Well, maybe "explodes" is a bit hyperbolic. It foams? That doesn't sound as exciting.

Anyway, I put my nieces up to the task. We sauntered down to the local general store and got two bottles of Diet Coke and a roll of Mentos. Here's the exciting result.

Now, of course, the next logical question is, what happens if you eat a Mentos and drink a Diet Coke? I tried to get my brother-in-law to give it a whirl, but he was feeling pretty humorless at the time. Or maybe he was just being a wuss.

KABOOM!

You know that annoying woman who sits in the waiting room at the doctor's office and rips out pages from magazines? I'm her. I used to be mortified that people would tear out articles or coupons or whatever from a magazine that didn't belong to them, until I realized that the office gets sent these magazines for free and they really don't care what you do with them. So I was reading Real Simple yesterday and there was an interesting article on food pairings. But the best part was the sidebar on foods that you shouldn't put together, like mint Mentos and Diet Coke. Maybe I'm hopelessly behind the times. Maybe this is common knowledge, like Pop Rocks and Coke, but according to the article, if you put a mint Mentos in a bottle of Diet Coke, you can create a geyser that can shoot up to 20 feet in the air! Holy cow! Apparently the carbon dioxide in the soda reacts with small holes throughout the candy causing a chemical reaction. This is so cool. I can't wait to try it. Yes, I should be packing. I should be out buying baby proofing stuff for the new house. I should be going to the post office and calling the utilities and all that garbage, but The Great Mentos Experiment is my next priority.