Coffee-flavored Coke? It's been done

I've been trying to avoid cola this week because I'm running the Reno marathon (OK, the half-marathon, but saying marathon makes it seem cooler) on Cinco de Mayo. My goal is to get to May 7 without drinking any type of carbonated, high-fructose corn syrup beverage.

I'm allowing myself coffee. I wouldn't make it to work if I didn't. I recently heard about a new product called Coke BlaK. It's Coke with coffee, double the caffeine and half the calories, according to Consumer Reports.

It's sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and two artificial sweeteners: aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Each 8-oz. bottle has 45 calories. Regular Coke has 100. Coke BlaK is $1.70-$2 per bottle.

The testers at Consumer Reports describe it as having a sweeter, more caramel-like flavoring. The coffee flavor is but an essence. Cola tinged with coffee had a brief fling in the 1990s with Pepsi Kona, Java Cola and Café Cola. They didn't last very long.

Traveling to Paris to pop the question? Instead of stumbling over the words, communicate it on the walls of Notre Dame. The French agency ApoteoSurprise provides these scenario:

• project the declaration of love on the walls of Notre Dame de Paris at the time of a dinner-cruise

• an apparition of the declaration of love will appear on the wings of an airplane, or on the big screens of the Stade de France

• a 90-foot message written at the foot of a castle and visible from a helicopter

• a wax statue of St. Valentine coming to life at the Muse Grévin

• parchment delivered by a prince in the meanders of an enchanted forest

For more information about the ApoteoSurprise experience in Paris visit http://www.apoteosurprise.com/.

Each scenario has a little story, and a steep price. The prince in the enchanted forest costs 4,000 euros, which is a little under $5,000.

Business Bank of Nevada established a banking relationship with C Martin Company, Inc., a local government defense contractor that recently moved its headquarters to Southern Nevada from southern California. The bank also provided CMC with a variety of banking products and services, which includes a credit facility totaling more than $4.3 million in loans and lines of credit.

The bank also initiated a new Primetime Money Market account, which is tied to the Prime Lending Rate. It pays higher, more competitive interest rates on larger deposits than regular money market accounts.

Stormo Properties LLC plans to construct two or three warehouses on its 26-acre parcel abutting the Wal-Mart distribution center at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.

Stormo Properties has five different parcels of land in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and has built a 9,514-square-foot building on a three-acre site that is for sale or lease. A two-acre site next to the completed building will be offered as a build-to-suit property.

The Tahoe-Reno International Film Festival is seeking volunteers who are willing to dedicate their time to assist in all aspects of running the festival, including theaters, hospitality suites and filmmaker transportation.

The Aug. 23-27 festival is dedicated to enriching community culture through year-round events and raising awareness of quality films.

Visit www.t-riff.org for information on volunteering, or e-mail volunteer@t-riff.org or call 775-298-0018.

• Contact reporter Becky Bosshart at bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.