Fighting the Good Fight for Prevention of Friday Night Dish Mountains

I did dishes this morning. This may not exactly sound exciting, but it should mean that Friday night I'll only have a few dishes - more than you'd expect with a clean looking kitchen as of Wednesday morning, but I figure I'm going to try a few short dish washing episodes rather than face an epic task at the end of the week. Part of the motivation for frequent small dishwashing jaunts is that I recieved my Magic Bullet this morning. Woot!!! I really like smoothies because they are a healthy and easy way to get low fat dairy and fresh fruit into myself in the morning. I've been using a Braun hand blender with a smoothie attachment for a number of years, but the plastic housing on blade in the smoothie maker has been cracked for years and the dark shadow in the crack (largely due to berry stain) just makes me worry about what bacteria are living in there too. So, when a good opportunity came along to replace it I did since it is a kitchen device I used to use weekly. I was nervous because I don't like ordering from as seen on TV ads, but it came highly recommend by at least 2 collegues and it has been on the market for years. Its made in China and after the series of scandels about toxic materials used in Chinese made toys, dogfood, baby food, medicine..... I'm hoping that the Magic Bullet people do serious quality control.

So far I'm impressed. It seems very thoughtfully designed and its much better at making smoothies that my Braun was. The instructrion manual was easy to read, clear and has a couple of great sounding recipes obviously not made in China known for producing some pretty weird sets of instructions. Its easy to clean and being able to drink out of the container that the food is made in definitely reduces the number of icky smoothie dishes. The quality of the workmanships and materials seems pretty decent - it has a pretty solid look and it it seems to work really well. So, I'm crossing my fingers I stay impressed. In the mean time, its been nice to be able to make smoothies again. It also has a juicer attachment, so I might try my hand at fresh carrot juice. My dad used to make it when were little. I can't remember if I ever tried it, but it sounds like its worth a try. Can you tell there is no movie theatre here since I'm enthused about making carrot juice?

I did finially see the northern lights. It was just after sunset and the western sky was still tinged pinky-purple, but there they were a nice arch right accross the sky. I didn't have my camera at the time (I'd just dropped it off to run down to the post office) By the time I got home, with greatly appreciated help from a friend with a very nice ride.) the sky was already quiet. But there is a coronol hole and elevated solar wind expected for this Friday, so I still hope to get a few more nice pictures before the end of the year.