on a lighter note

"Nothing matters so long as I can get back home and deliver a bubbly, acidic shot of aspartame, caffeine and phosphorus into my bloodstream. I hand over the two dollars, the cap comes off with a hiss, and I can hear the soda sizzling inside. I take a sip, my pupils dilate, the Co2 tickles the back of my throat, the sip slides down my esophagus, breaking down into metabolites in my stomach and liver, spreading to my heart, my brains, my bones. "Ahhhhhh."

Sweet Juniper is a great blog written by a stay-at-home dad (aka Dutch) and his wife (aka Wood) in Detroit. Dutch also happens to be a great photographer - check out his flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetjuniper/

Today's posting was something I could relate to- a little TOO closely - the addiction to Diet Coke. (although unlike Dutch, I am very partial to Diet Coke - cannot substitute Diet Pepsi unless its a very dire situation - and prefer the fountain variety compared to 2 liters or cans). I was just talking to Kim today at work about how someday I was going to have to kick the aspartame habit. The whole post (including the quote above) is hilarious but here's just one snippet that kinda scarred me:

"According to a new study," she says, "Diet soda actually makes your body consume more calories in the end."

"According to a new study, you're a pain in my ass."

"Did you know Donald Rumsfeld was the one responsible for pushing aspartame-based artificial sweeteners through the FDA approval process without the appropriate testing back in the eighties, and he received a $12 million bonus from the company who developed it (he'd been its president)."

"Is that true?" I ask.

"Yeah, and you know how well he thought out the whole Iraq War."