I'm thinking I'll just wear a black swing skirt und put a tank top under it to make it lighter and then I can wear stockings with the seams up the back and some tall shoes, put my hair up in a twist, and I'll be all good!

Oooh. That will be lovely.

This is what I do every day!

Yay! So that, with lots of mascara, and a dark red/berry lipstick.

I have seen the aforementioned eyeliner on Allyson, and it rocks.

I'll be all good!

Nuh-uh. You'll be all HAWT.

Aw, thanks Robin! And Jilli. Will send e posthaste.

Okay, I've looked at the dioxin data, but since it doesn't sound like they know if splenda becomes this in the body, I will take it under advisement that splenda may not be totally benevolent. They went back and forth on a lot of the other artificial sweeteners for years and most of them are still on the market. The only thing I was really worried about was my Crystal Light, but it uses aspartame, so I'm good to go. I'll still keep splenda in the house for my dad and others who like it in their coffee. I only use it when I run out of raw sugar for my coffee. Which happened recently, but I'm now all sugared up and happy.

What does it taste of?

Well, the easiest way to know is to do a taste-comparison with sugar. That said, here's what I recommend:

If you live somewhere near our southern border, you can probably find a specialty soda store that sells Coke in 500 mL glass bottles and smaller, with an English label pasted on top of the Spanish label. Heck, the convenience store at my school had it sometimes, in Pasadena. I believe the local BevMo (Beverages and More) did as well. This is imported Coke, from Mexico, and is made using cane sugar (sucrose) instead of high fructose corn syrup (which, to be totally technical, is also sugar, with a tad bit of extra stuff. It's just fructose instead of sucrose.) You can probably also order the stuff from somewhere on the internets.

Buy such a bottle. Buy a bottle of American Coke (preferably in a glass bottle.) Chill both to as cold as you possibly can, because mmmm... cold coke. Then drink some of one. Wash out with water and cracker. Then drink the other. Then you will see.

They DEFINITELY taste different. I personally prefer the sucrose, but if the coke is cold, and served in a glass bottle, it's a close call. Since I've never actually had warm or plastic-served Mexican Coke, I can't compare in less ideal Coke-drinking situations. And since I've never tasted cane sugar Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper, or Sprite, or so on (though many of these are also available at said specialty shops)

And I'm fairly sure the sugar price is high because of something to do with our Cuba boycott. At least, that's what I hear.

Where's my kickback, Stoneyfield??

Oh my god I've been saying this for YEARS. I proselytize out the waz about their fatfree yogurt. SO good. I'm so very in love with the lemon and the smooth (no seedy fruit on the bottom) blackberry.

I almost quit drinking Coke in Brazil because it was too sweet for the temperature (and they aren't big on ice so I could never get it cold enough).

I've given up Coke (and all soda, actually, except root beer) while nursing, but today I broke down and had about 3 oz of Coke over ice. It was SOOOOO good.

t tangent

When I rule the world, sellers who add the term "boho" to Victorian and goth or gothic in their item descriptions will never, ever be allowed near a computer again. That is fast becoming my #1 eBay pet peeve.

t /tangent

We've been spoiled by going to Yum and getting original formula Dr. Pepper made with Imperial Cane Sugar. Mmmmmm.

They also have imported Coke from Mexico also made with cane sugar. That's not that hard to find in San Francisco, though. I can get that at my local tacqueria.

In fact, none of their sodas are made with corn syrup.