The Test

Momentous occasion number one today: shopped at a Wal-Mart for the first time in my life.  I was really trying to go without ever having to do it, but the warm weather and the fact that I'm dying for a smoothie, was going grocery shopping RIGHT NEXT TO THE STORE....All these factors came together today.  I had to do it, but I still haven't recovered.  I tried to be fast.  I ran in.  Had complete sensory overload for 30 seconds.  Found the label that said something about "kitchen" over the top of the aisle.  Rushed quickly in that direction.  Picked the nicest blender they had.  Ran to check out.  Left store.  Phew.  Maybe it wasn't that bad, but I seriously couldn't tell you.  On a Saturday with all three kids in tow, there wasn't even a second to look around, or even an inkling of a desire to do so.  I had my mission.  Mission completed.  (Kristina and Alexis, consider me christened.)

And now the test begins.  We have had three blenders in the three years we've lived here.  Every summer, we blow out the motor on it and have to get a new one.  (Or we end up taking the not-being-used basement blender from friends and blowing out the motor on that too!)  What I'd really like to do is get a Vita-mix or something comparable.  But I just can't make that leap (cha-ching!) until I've tried a middle-of-the-road blender first.  We've had three cheap (we're talking the under $50 ones), we have a moderately priced one now, and if this one fails then I am totally giving up.  We will end up "doing the Dyson" on it.  If you don't know what "doing a Dyson" is, it is the new label I'm giving to the process of trying many, many cheap versions of something (in our case, it was vacuum cleaners), until you finally realize that by the time you've broken all of them, you could've spent the same money getting the higher end product and saving yourself the hassle.  (Yes, this did happen to us, and now I LOVE my Dyson, which we've had for three years!)  I have the sneaky suspicion that I am going to end up in the same situation about this blender, but I'm willing to give it one last shot.  Consider this the throw-down.  It's us vs. the "Ninja Professional" blender.  Stay tuned for the update.

(P.S.: so far, we've made a wonderful smoothie and a not-so-smoothly blended icy strawberry orange drink.  I'm sitting near 3.5 stars right now.  Could've been better at crushing the ice.)