Every once in a while, I start feeling kind of dehydrated. It is usually at that point that I think back and realize that I have had nothing but Diet Coke, to drink for the last several days. Is that bad? I guess it must be, since I start to get dehydrated. I have tried to stop drinking cola on previous occasions, for this very reason. I was afraid that I was going to develop some sort of painful stone somewhere in my system. Other than that, is there really any reason to quit drinking it?

So often I will read about people who are trying to give up drinking Diet Coke, or soda in general. I can understand giving up soda, for those people who find themselves constantly imbibing the sugary variety. I mean, empty calories are going to catch up to anyone, at some point. But what about diet soda?

I guess there is the cost factor. But that rarely applies to me. I would estimate that I only pay for about 1/3 (or less) of the DC that I consume.

There is the addiction factor. I love Diet Coke so much it is crazy. But I wouldn’t exactly say that I’m addicted. I can go for a weekend, sometimes without having any. Ok, maybe I’m in denial about the addiction thing. I don’t know. I mean, there are plenty of other drinks that I also enjoy. For example: water with lemon (evidenced by the photo above [and, no, I did not fill up that cup just to pretend like I drank it]); pretty much any flavor of Gatorade; most energy drinks, and water with lime.

I guess my question is: If I don’t have to pay for it; I supplement my DC intake with water, often enough that I don’t become dehydrated; and I’m not additcted to it, is there any good reason to stop drinking it?

I’m not just being asinine, here. I am really curious if there is some sort of medical (or other persuasive) reason for me to give it up.

Who else thinks that the new silver colored DC lids are great?

The bad: I just finished doing our taxes, and because Reagan doesn’t have withholdings, we have a massive IRS payment to make by April 15th. Yuck.

The good: I received an email from Coke today, telling me that the “10 code per day” limit, at mycokerewards.com will no longer be in effect after Feb. 16. Woo hoo, that means that I can finally get rid of all of the lids that have been piling up on my desk and around the house.

Today I found out the hard way that Coke has a “best before” date. I noticed when I was pouring it in the cup, that it seemed like it wasn’t fizzing as much as usual. But the real distinction became apparent when I tasted it. Yuuuuuccckkk. I looked at the bottle, and it had expired on March 31. I thought that soda had a shelf life of at least 50 years. Nope. I’m going to have to dig through the stash and purge all of the old stuff.