DimensionZ

Category: Random

Everything else: odds and ends, product tries, everyday moments and posts that do not fit anywhere else.

  • Halloween Crunch: Cap’n Crunch’s Spooky Seasonal Cereal

    Halloween Crunch: Cap’n Crunch’s Spooky Seasonal Cereal

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    Update, November 2026: Halloween Crunch is still made. It was back on shelves as a limited edition in fall 2025, with ghost and ghoul shapes mixed in with the regular pieces, a vampire Cap’n on the box and milk that turns green. Look for Halloween Crunch on Amazon, and see our hunt for its holiday sibling, Christmas Crunch.

    Halloween Crunch is a holiday themed cereal that I have unfortunately not had the chance to eat. I only heard about it a couple of weeks ago from X-Entertainment blog. Apparently it has been around since at least 2009! I don’t know how I missed it!

    I can’t tell you what it tastes like because I’ve been unable to procure a box. If I wanted 14 boxes of it I would be all set, because that’s how Amazon sells it. But considering when I manage to get a hold of Christmas Crunch I don’t even finish one box, 14 seems like it might be a bit wasteful. I’ll try to take one more look for Halloween Crunch when I go grocery shopping this weekend, but I’m not hopeful. I’d rather have Christmas Crunch anyway…

  • Hostess Strawberry Cupcakes & 10 days to Walt Disney World! Which is more exciting?

    Hostess Strawberry Cupcakes & 10 days to Walt Disney World! Which is more exciting?

    The other day while shopping in Wal-Mart I was excited to find these:

    Hostess Strawberry Cup Cakes

    Now that I look at the photo I’m doubting my ability to spell cupcakes. I’ve always thought it was “cupcakes”, but that box clearly shows “cup cakes”. No matter how you spell it the taste of these sucks. Hostess products never taste that great to begin with, I think it’s more the nostalgia factor that causes me to purchase them more than anything else. I had high hopes that strawberry cupcakes would taste ok, but they don’t. They smell very strongly of fake strawberry, almost like some horrible perfume. And I failed to taste even the smallest similarity to the strawberry flavor that Hostess used and a real strawberry.

    Much more exciting is the fact that in 10 days I will be in Walt Disney World in Florida! I went there last year shortly after I had lung surgery and had a lot of fun. This time I will stay for longer and I won’t be still recovering and I will have even more fun. I’m even heading to Universal for one day to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

    Here are some photos from last year’s trip:

    I’ll share some pictures from this years trip when I get back!

  • Pepsi Throwback vs Mexican Pepsi: Which Real Sugar Pepsi Tastes Better?

    Pepsi Throwback vs Mexican Pepsi: Which Real Sugar Pepsi Tastes Better?

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    Update, November 2026: Pepsi Throwback became a permanent product in the US in 2011, was renamed Pepsi-Cola Made with Real Sugar in 2014, and since 2024 has been sold as Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop Made with Real Sugar. Cane sugar Pepsi in glass bottles from Mexico still turns up at Mexican grocers and some warehouse stores. You can also find real sugar Pepsi on Amazon.

    I prefer my soda drinks made with real sugar. I may have mentioned this before, but there is a noticeably taste differences between beverages made with real sugar and those made with high-fructose corn syrup. Unfortunately since corn syrup is much cheaper than sugar, real sugar soft drinks are usually few and far between. I’ve written about real sugar soft drinks before, including a comparison of two different versions of real sugar Dr Pepper. Today it’s time to talk about Pepsi.

    When it comes to the Cola wars I am generally allied with Coca-Cola. If given the option between the normal versions of Coke or Pepsi I will choose Coke every time. My allegiance to Coca-Cola only wanes when presented with the option of real sugar Pepsi. Throwback Pepsi has been available sporadically since at least the summer of 2008. I always by a case or two when given a chance. Mexican Pepsi is something I’ve only found recently at one grocery store in Bellingham, WA that stocks a large amount of Mexican foodstuffs. I’ve been buying cases of Mexican Coca-Cola from Costco in Bellingham for years now, but I had never seen Mexican Pepsi until just last month.

    Pepsi Showdown!

    For pure appearance it’s obvious that Mexican Pepsi is the winner, glass bottles are superior to aluminum cans. Although for nostalgia the can does remind me a lot of the Pepsi cans I would see as a child. In terms of taste I’m still undecided, I’ve had a lot of cans of Pepsi Throwback but only have drank two bottles of Mexican Pepsi. They both taste much better than normal Pepsi, but I’m having a hard time declaring one the winner.

    Actually, scratch that, I already knew the winner before I even started:

    The Winner: Mexican Coca-Cola!

    I choose Mexican Coca-Cola as the winner of the Pepsi battle. I can do that because I made up the rules of my taste test. It has the classic Coke bottle look, and the best taste of any of the real sugar soft drinks I’ve had. Check Costco near you, or go to Mexico, to find some and taste for yourself.

  • Got milk? Magic Milk Straws!

    Got milk? Magic Milk Straws!

    I really want to post about something non-food related, but finding non-food items to blog about seems pretty difficult for me sometimes. So until I can think of something, here’s some more about consumables.

    Magic Milk Straws!

    got milk?

    These are plastic straws full of magic flavor balls, use them to drink milk and you have flavored milk. Simple. We have two flavors here, cookies & cream and cocoa. With the cocoa I was expecting chocolate milk, instead I got cold hot chocolate, or cocoa. I really should have expected that. As for the cookies & cream, I didn’t try it. They also had strawberry, but I didn’t get those because fruit flavored milk is just weird. I have my standards.

    straw full of flavor!

    I found these at the grocery store, so keep your eyes open if you want to try some. Just don’t buy the strawberry because it’s weird.

  • White Castle Cheeseburgers & Christmas wrap-up

    White Castle Cheeseburgers & Christmas wrap-up

    Welcome 2011, please treat me nicer than 2010. Actually so far this year has been about a billion times better than last year, although the bar was pretty low. I stayed home last night and fully avoided being anywhere near the roads and drunk drivers.

    Time for the first post of the year. Starting with frozen cheeseburgers:

    White Castle Cheeseburgers

    Now most people have at least heard of White Castle, most people from the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. White Castle is the oldest fast-food burger chain in the US. They only have 422 location across America, mostly in the Midwest. For everyone outside the 11 states featuring actual White Castle restaurants they produce a line of frozen burgers. They are the same as the fresh ones minus the pickles (pickles do not freeze well apparently).

    Cheeseburger!

    They taste better than they photograph. I used to get these all the time when I was a teenager. The Cost Cutter in Blaine, WA used to only carry the Hamburgers and I would have to add my own cheese. Sometimes I would use spray cheese. The best part about White Castle burgers are the little onions, they taste delicious.

    Christmas Wrap-up:
    Christmas kind to me this year. I got an amazing back massager. It is a shiatsu massager with heat. Feels so good for my back.

    Back Massager

    I was going to write more but it took me like twenty minutes to get that last picture to appear correctly, so I’m going to call it a post.

  • Growing Reindeer & Christmas Crunch (2010)!

    Growing Reindeer & Christmas Crunch (2010)!

    Well, I found Christmas Crunch again this year! Last year I was so excited when I found it I bought three boxes, this time I managed to rein in my exuberance and settle for just one box.

    Continued…

    (more…)

  • X-Mas Stuff!

    I don’t really feel like typing that much today, but I’m getting a backlog of holiday photos I took to use in blog posts. Since American Thanksgiving has come and gone and it is now officially the holiday season I better get sharing. So without comment, some photos of holiday related stuff I have picked up so far:

  • Hickory Farms!

    Hickory Farms!

    I love Hickory Farms stuff. You may remember from last year. Actually I just really like gift boxes/baskets. I like the little assortment of goodies you get with them.

    Well the other week was my first sighting of a Hickory Farms gift box, and of course I bought one:

    First Hickory Farms of the year

    Looking at the photo I realize two things, 1: It is a crappy photo, 2: It is the exact same assortment I photographed last year, right down to the not featured in this year’s photo spreader and strawberry candies.

    Last week I ate it all for lunch:

     

    On Remembrance Day I went to Bellingham and checked out the Hickory Farms kiosk that is temporarily in Bellis Fair mall. Of course I had to buy something, so I got this:

    Second Hickory Farms assortment of the year

    I haven’t eaten this one yet, but I can’t wait to use the mini cleaver when I do! If you will notice I also have a new tablecloth featured in the background. It was one of my many purchases from Target’s holiday selection. The rest I’m saving for a future post.

    Christmas Crunch Update:
    No sightings yet this year. I’ll be checking again soon. If I find any this year I will be buying fewer than three boxes this time. I didn’t even finish one box last year.

  • McRib

    McRib

    Yesterday I went to the US, and during this trip I had lunch, and during this lunch I ate a McRib.

    If you haven’t heard of the McRib, where have you been? I mean it’s even been parodied in a Simpsons episode.

    So I ordered one:

    McRib box

    And then I ate it. I liked the pickles on it, a nice contrast to the flavor of the barbeque sauce. The meat tastes extremely processed, which I’m sure it is, but it doesn’t even taste like meat. The bun was ok though.

    McRib

    Go get one if you want to be able to say you had a McRib like I did, or if you just like heavily processed food stuffs.

  • Book Review: Behind the Bell by Dustin Diamond

    Book Review: Behind the Bell by Dustin Diamond

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    Behind the Bell by Dustin Diamond

    So this is my first post about a book (I think). And the book I choose to write about today is “Behind the Bell”, the tell-all memoir from his time on Saved by the Bell by Dustin “Screech” Diamond.

    If you are of a certain age, you probably remember Saved by the Bell. The saturday morning live action series that was then syndicated to death in after-school time slots. You may even remember the short-lived Saved by the Bell: The College Years. I have fond memories of Saved by the Bell and my perverse curiosity drew me to Dustin’s book.

    The book is all over the place, jumping forwards and backwards in time while telling the story of what was happening behind the scenes on the Bell. Mostly it’s entertaining and lightweight reading. Dustin gets a little confused about dates, which leads me to believe the book never had a thorough fact checking read through, which causes me to question the rest of the book.

    The biggest piece of Saved by the Bell dirt that Dustin dishes (other than Tiffani-Amber slept with it seems everyone but him) is that Mario Lopez allegedly raped a girl in the guest house on his parent’s home and NBC lawyers paid the girl off and kept it all quiet for a paltry $50,000 pay off.

    Other than that he mostly complains about the gay innuendo between Screech and Belding that was written into scripts of Saved by the Bell: The New Class.

    If you liked Saved by the Bell and see this book in a bargain bin, buy it. Just do not pay full price for this, it’s not worth it (trust me).

    If you want to read it yourself, you can find new and used copies of Behind the Bell on Amazon. Used copies are usually the cheapest way to get it.