Friday, August 14, 2009

Review: Root Jack Orange Flavored Root Beer


Can't get enough of Talk Like a Pirate Day? Do you wear a patch on one eye? Maybe you have a wooden leg, or a hook for a hand. If so, then this is the beverage for you!

Get ready to talk like a pirate and drink some pirate Root Beer - Root Jack is a orange flavored root beer with added vitamin c to ward off the scurvy that comes with months at sea, or those non-stop gaming sessions! It also has guarana to keep you awake for your high seas, or LAN adventures!!



I picked up this tasty energy drink at the 7 Eleven over on Main and Mishawaka in Mishawaka, IN. I was not sure how much orange flavor to expect. I was pleasantly surprised at the smoothness of the root beer and orange flavors combined. It is a little shocking to ones taste buds to have orange flavor combined with root beer, but it is a good combination. I'm sure the flavor will end up growing on me. I can just imagine this poured over some good vanilla ice cream to make a float. Sort of like a root beer orange creme float. The drink also has guarana and vitamin c added to it. The guarana provides a good energy kick that will help keep you going, whether playing video games or swinging from one ship to another being a pirate! The vitamin c is added to help "fight scurvy". This is an easier sell than the other soft drinks that say they are vitamin fortified, but you end up wondering why they added them. As a pirate out on the high seas for months on end, or a malnourished gamer who doesn't eat right, this is a very valuable aspect of the drink!

As a fan of root beer, especially ones with guarana in them, I really enjoyed this beverage. It has a taste that takes a little getting used to since orange does not usually come with root beer, but as I said before, it is a good combination. I can see myself buying more in the future, as soon as some "merchant ports" are available elsewhere across the U.S. It is currently only available at select locations in the Northern Indiana, the Chicago area, and just outside of Detroit, MI. Check out their site for specific locations. The locations keep growing, so be on the lookout for new ones in your area! If you own a convenience store, cyber cafe, etc. you might want to see about carrying Root Jack. It's a great beverage that seems to aim towards gamers and pirates! My only complaint or thing I noticed is that I would like to see the logo of the orange head skull and swords, possibly sans words if necessary, on the lid. Currently it has no logo on the lid of any kind.


http://www.rootjack.com/

Sunday, August 9, 2009

This is it... the last few days...

Meh.

Stressed about this upcoming week.

Packing.

Traveling.

Driving for hours and praying that nothing decided to break on my car while I'm traveling since I can't afford for ANYTHING to happen to it right now.

Hoping I find someplace to stay each night while I'm up north. I know I have one place for one night with a friend. But not sure about the other two nights - Wednesday and possibly Friday night...

Also hoping that I can get away with wearing khakis to a wedding... is that an OK thing to do or not? I don't have any skirts or anything that fit... meh. I hate being fat...

I hope that my stuff I want to bring will all fit in my suitcase. It's hard packing for approx. 10 months on the road when you don't have any idea what you'll need in what climate or situation.

Speaking of situations, I want to get some Mechanix (or however you spell that brand) gloves and some flares once I get out there, if we don't have any with our van... at least some of the gloves... just for routine maintenance stuff like checking oil and other engine things, or if it breaks down or something... Yes, I'm a prissy girl who doesn't like to get junk under her fingernails, and can't stand her hands to have grease/dirt on them... Yeah, maybe college spoiled me a little bit, but I don't like it... I don't think I ever really could stand having dirt and grime on my hands...

I tried to get most of what I'm packing in my suitcase this last week.... and I have a few things I want to take that I don't think are going to fit... It's gonna be a tight fit with my pillow and sleepingbag in there. I decided to put those in there. I do need to unpack it and repack it though to make everything fit. And I need to get my backpack packed up.

I might try to look for a new cell phone so I can have one with a full battery that will last longer than two minutes at a time. Although the battery might be the only problem with my current phone. I need to get it or the phone replaced...

Not a lot else to say right now... I don't think. Not that I can think to write here at the moment anyway...

Monday, August 3, 2009

About one week out

Next Wednesday I'm planning on heading up to South Bend to visit with friends before heading to Jana's wedding on the 15th, and coming back home to fly out of E-ville on the 16th! It will be a long weekend, but worth it! I am just looking for someone to stay with for one or two nights during my travels! I probably should have been planning this a few weeks ago! I know I will have a place to stay for one night, but the other two are up in the air... and I'm not even sure which night I will be staying at the one friend's house. I'm sort of flying by the seat of my pants on this whole thing!

Anyway, I am going to do a packing trial run this week and see what I can get in my suitcase and how it will all fit. This should be interesting. I might do one of those "what's in your bag" pics like the ones that are pretty popular on Flickr. I also need to do a trial packing of my backpack and see if all my stuff I want in there will fit...

OK, I am almost tired beyond the ability to type or think straight, so I am going to bed.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Time Keeps On Ticking Ticking Ticking...

Two more full weeks and part of a week until I will be reaching the beginning of this upcoming adventure. I looked at my little calendar on my computer and rechecked it to make sure it was correct.

I am still trying to figure out when I should leave to go north... if I want to try and visit friends in South Bend or what, prior to going to Jana's wedding. I need to look over the invite for the time and location again, so I can print out a map before I leave out for it. If I had printed a map any sooner it would have gotten lost amongst all my insanity in my room!

My only problem with leaving any earlier than Friday is that my Dad's birthday is on Thursday. And I want to be here for it, but I would also like to be able to see friends in South Bend, if at all possible... I would love to be able to get up there on the Wednesday night so I can go to SouthGate to the youth group and to see others there.

I have two weeks to finalize my plans... and get my stuff packed... and remember to print vital info out - like a map to Jana's wedding, and my flight info so I can pick up my tickets (they give you a sort of "password" I guess you'd call it). Also, in the middle of trying to get everything else in line I will be moving most of my stuff that's in boxes and whatnot into a storage barn that my Dad got for me to put my stuff in so they could "have use of the house". Oi vey.

So...... yeah... Sorry for anyone who actually sat and read this whole post... It's mostly my pointless trying-to-figure-things-out post... Well... maybe not so pointless, but fairly useless information... I guess.

OK... I'm gonna quit while I'm ahead, sort of, and not babble on anymore. I don't even feel like this post is making any sense, and all I'm talking about is how indecisive I am being at where to travel when... except for that weekend, which is pretty much set in stone. The week is pretty flexible yet...

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Three (3) More Weeks

Yep, three more weeks is about all I have to go until the grand adventure begins. I must admit I'm kind of nervous. I will be driving up for Jana's wedding, but might also be going earlier in the week so I can go to South Bend, and maybe see some people there, and close my bank account there. Probably should have done that when I left after graduation... or prior to graduation! Oh well.

Not sure what else to say... I'm not sure how I'm going to pay for my travels up north and back. I'm still trying to raise support for the month that I'm going to be traveling without a paycheck until the end of the month. I'm still working on what I'm going to pack. I've never been on any trip longer than 1 week, or 3 weeks or so coming home from college for breaks... and I have no idea what I'm going to need for 10 months... from what I have right now that I know I should pack it should all fit without any problems in my suitcase and backpack.... I hope...

I'm babbling... it's late... I should go to bed so I don't sleep in any longer than usual... It's been nice to be able to sleep in... but I kinda want a routine again...

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Trying to find things...

So, I was looking for my charger for my old cell phone so I could take the pics off the memory card, since it was damaged by a jank camera that I had one time - You see, I had the bright idea of using the camera to get the pics off my memory card... and it practically ate my card... not in a literal sense, but in a very digital sense. I could not reclaim the pictures on it that were there prior to the tragic experience by my memory card. The only thing able to read the pictures on the card? My old cell phone. It is only a 512MB card, so fairly puny considering I have a 2GB in my phone now. But I decided to try and get the rest of my pics off of the phone/memory card by moving them from the card to the phone's memory. Then putting my new card in the phone and moving the pics from the phone to the card. Then I can use my current camera to get the pics onto my computer, since my computer's card reader doesn't want to work for whatever weird Dell-ified reason... (it simply makes the hardware attatched/hardware removed noise, and does nothing, when I insert a card... I've tried downloading a different driver, and still nothing, so I gave up and am just using my camera/USB cable to get my pics off my camera...)


All of that to say that I think my charger is in my box of old desk stuff that is currently burried beneath and behind a bunch of other boxes in the big room... And guess what is in those boxes... brown recluse spiders... I also think my passport is in that box of desk stuff, though I could have sworn I had my passport in my stacker drawers... Guess not since I looked today and didn't find it... not good. So... I think I'm going to go to the store, buy one of those cheap painter coveralls, some rubber gloves, safety goggles, and maybe a respirator, and a roll of masking tape to seal all the edges... and go hunting for my stuff... And maybe a can of Raid to carry with me...

I wish there was something simple and natural that brown recluse either didn't like or were immediately vaporised upon touching...

Can we say arachnaphobia?? Ummm, yeah....

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Flight Information!!

Hey, I was able to purchase my plane ticket today with what money I have received! To those who have helped to support me financially, THANK YOU SO MUCH!

My flight info is as follows

Sun, Aug 16, 2009 Evansville, (EVV) to Los Angeles International Airport, (LAX)
Depart: 11:40 AM
Arrive: 12:55 PM

Evansville, IN (EVV) to
Chicago, IL (ORD)

American AirlinesAmerican Airlines
Flight 4324 operated by
AMERICAN EAGLE
(on Embraer RJ145 Amazon)

Requested Seats: 6C
1 Stop - change planes Chicago, IL (ORD)
Connection Time: 2 hrs 15mins
Depart: 03:10 PM
Arrive: 05:28 PM

Chicago, IL (ORD) to
Los Angeles, CA (LAX)

American AirlinesAmerican Airlines
Flight 455
(on Boeing 767-300)

Requested Seats: 34A
Total Travel Time: 7 hrs 48 mins

It looks like I will be flying on one of those Boeing 767-300's. That model was in the news yesterday for having weak points towards the tail of the plane. Not a good thing, but the airline I am flying with is also NOT SouthWest, which is the airline that has had the problems with that.

I will have a long layover in Chicago, but unless I wanted to leave at 6:30am I am going to have to take that! I would prefer a longer layover, within reason, and two hours is reasonable, to a short one, like the half hour layover I had in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport when I flew out to California before. That was intense... wait for the plane to park, then wait for people to get off in front of me so I could finally get out, then try and find a restroom, then try to find my gate, have to stop to ask directions and have to jump on a little shuttle tram thing that ran around the airport. I will probably be looking at maps of O'Hare and LAX before I get on the plane to leave.

I just picked up a set of cheap luggage tags at Walmart today. I am still trying to figure out what I want/need to take, and what I need to purchase either before I leave, or when I get out there. Anyone have suggestions??