Sleeping with a Rockstar, sleeping with...

This is not some schmoopy post about life with my husband. Although, before him my only experience with energy drinks was Josta way back in the day and a Red Bull and Vodka that I never finished. My other half is quite the purveyor of drinks that have heart attack warnings or as he calls them "Strength".

I remember the first time I had strength. He finally convinced me to try one when we were in Cincinnati over Memorial weekend in 2007. I don't remember what I had only that it took me the better part of the way home to finish it...and that I was up until four in the morning that night. Since then, I have been known to have one on occasion. If something new comes out that comes highly recommended by him, then I'll give it a whirl when I feel like not sleeping sounds like a good idea. 

You can imagine then the excitement generated when we saw Rockstar Relax a few weeks ago. It wasn't a night for relaxing, plus we weren't where the deals are at so we passed. Few days later, he and I split one. I slept well that night.

I wanted to try it because it does not have Melatonin. Me and melatonin do not get along, and I try to avoid it at all costs. Unfortunately, just about every other mellow mood, relaxation tonic contains it.

So, last night, I thought I'd try one again. This time, I drank the whole can myself. I should have known I was in trouble when I went to the bathroom and noticed what a dopey grin and sleepy eyes I had. Yes, I most certainly relaxed. However, in the future, I will not drink more than 1 serving aka half a can.

It was a bit disturbing, much like my usual melatonin experiences except I didn't wake up at 2 in the morning unable to get back to sleep. And by disturbing, I mean pretty f'd up. It was as if Syd Barrett and Quentin Tarentino collaborated on a screenplay for Stanley Kubrick to direct. I'd be afraid to even try to analyze the dream because it was just that grotesque.

Overall, it's a good tasting drink and I didn't have problems with the single serving size. There is nothing in the ingredients that jumps out at me, so my best guess is that it was too much of a good thing and that my overtiredness of the past week worked against me. I have another in the fridge, and I'll probably give it another whirl tonight. However, if there is more facial debridement in dreamland, I will just stick to chamomile.

Not for Mammals: A vacuum review that doesn't suck which is more than I can say for this Shark

So it occurred to me that I don't need much to start doing reviews. Goodness knows that I own a bunch of stuff and I have opinions about most of it. I have wanted to get this off of my chest for awhile, too.

Back over Christmas, I worked at a department store. After Christmas, I had some rewards burning a hole in my pocket and coincidentally I killed a vacuum cleaner. It wasn't on purpose, I swear. There was a suction issue and after a thorough examination and a little bit of hose cleaning, I thought the problem was solved until my living room was filled with that horrible smell of deceased vacuum. Anyway, I did some looking online and called the store where I worked to see if we actually had any vacuums in stock.

Later that evening, I dragged my husband to the mall and we became the new

owners of a Shark Navigator Lift-Away Vacuum. At first, I really liked it. I liked that there was the option to run the vacuum without the brush roller on. I liked how it seemed to do a better job cleaning my carpet. I certainly enjoyed how much easier it now was to vacuum the stairs and the weird multi-level landing in our house.

My enjoyment of my new vacuum was short-lived, though. Seems about every two or three uses, I have to give the brush roller a haircut which is why I have deemed this vacuum unfit for mammals. Ironic because every review that I ever read of it claimed that it was great for pet owners. My best guess is that every reviewing pet owner was bald, balding, or sporting a buzz cut because there is no way any human with hair would have ever given this machine thumbs up...well, unless of course all of the reviewers wrote their reviews in the honeymoon stage of ownership.

My daughter and I usually sport shoulder length hair or longer, and I worry that we may have some sort of health issue as much of our hair as I have cut out of the roller brush. It's disappointing really because I didn't spend as much as I did to become a vacuum cosmetologist. 

It's an adequate vacuum...for Lex Luthor. Otherwise, I can't say that I am happy with this purchase. I have never encountered this level of hair clog with any other vacuum. At one point in my life, I lived with two brothers, two cats, three dogs, a long-hair mama and wooly-bearded dad. If our vacuum had ever experienced that level of maintenance, the menagerie would have been re-homed.

And now having owned this vacuum for 4 months, can't help but wonder if some of the reviews aren't akin to the same phenomenon as when people start using those colon cleansers and think they are seeing amazing results but it's a combination of being hyperfocused on their poop and what not that causes them to overstate their results. My next vacuum will come carefully recommended to me by the boys at Fussneckers 'cause the internet can not be trusted ;)