We are extremely excited. Except that I can never remember my mail passwords making setup a challenge. My wild guess have been unsuccessful thus far.

So – we got a Vitamix. It is pretty awesome. Here we are making our first thing – some sort of paleo “frosty” that I made up – it’s based on a chocolate ice cream recipe in the Vitamix cookbook. Can of coconut milk, 1/2 cup of cocoa, small amount of spinach (we were running out), some agave and 4 cups of ice. (The vitamix version uses milk, sugar and no spinach.) It was delicious.

Costco has the older model (5200) for $379 and a newer model (6300) for $499. The main difference is that the 6300 has presets for smoothies, frozen desserts and soup (yes, it can *cook soup*!). The non-preset model does all those things too – but you have to manually change levels up and down. We really wanted the presets, but didn’t want to spend $500. But – Vitamix sells refurbs. So, for $379, we got the 6300 model. Win-win-win! (It would have been like $40 more to get the silvery one I really liked, but I was not paying $40 more for that – so we have black)

From what I understand, the refurbs are generally ones that were returned during the 30 day money back guarantee window. They are looked over, the pitcher, tamper and cookbook are new. Ours looks brand new. It did take like 10 days to come – blergh. But now it’s here. And I love it.

I’ve been working a ton. Okay – not like an actual person who goes to work all day every day, but a lot for me. I have two standing contract positions – one I’ve had for almost 5 years which I really enjoy, and one that I’ve had for around 2 years that I only like. I like that I have it – the money, the time it fills, etc – but I don’t love the work. I’ve been ramping up my freelance work – designing/developing websites. If I get that going, I could give up the contract job I don’t love, but I don’t want to give it up til I’ve built up the other business – so right now it’s just a LOT of work.

But what I’m realizing is that, I think that maybe this is my passion. I am not doing anything amazing – I use CMSes and am not some coding genius (does anyone code by hand anymore?) It is the only think I have ever done in my life (and gotten paid for) where time just melts away. I don’t love every part of it – except I sort of do. Even the parts I act grumpy about. I don’t LIKE running into problems – but when I do, I won’t even realize that it’s been three hours of trial and error – and then it’s fixed and I feel like a rock star. So – I’m excited about all of it, but scared.

It will be nice when school’s out (4 more weeks!) because I won’t be spending hours every day on school stuff. Not that I’m complaining – I love it. But it IS a lot of time. Even if I’m not volunteering – just running over there to get her and sit in carpool line is an hour each day. Dance days it’s closer to two. It will be nice to have an early morning work block without having to pause to run to the bus.

In other news, eating is going well. I may have had half a pizza yesterday. I did not feel as immediately terrible as expected, but I definitely feel ick and know it is NOT something I want to do regularly. I have a new favorite breakfast/snack/dessert – courtesy of Kathryn (of course). You *must* try chilled coconut milk – it is SO good. Yogurt with fruit is something I’ve been missing – not the yogurt per se – but having some fruit with something creamy for breakfast.

My other big meal kick is smoothies. Dan’s too. Our blender is getting old and is not cutting it (16th anniversary next month – and suddenly everything we own is OLD and ick). Last weekend, we went to Costco, and I made Dan walk to the Vitamix presentation, and we watched the whole thing. And my Vitamix will be here on Tuesday. We went with the 6300 – which is only in Costco when the Vitamix people are in town. Costco also sells the 5200 all the time. They are cheaper at Costco – but still pricey. We liked the presets on the 6300, but it’s $120 more and did I want to spend $120 for three extra buttons? (While I am generally the spender, Dan went from “that is too much for a blender!” to “what’s another $120?” in a hurry). We settled on getting a refurbished 6300 for the same price as a new 5200. The refurbs are usually ones people returned during the 30 day trial. They are checked over, the pitcher and tamper are new. Warranty is 5 years not 7, but that’s still pretty great. The biggest drawback – the shipping time is SO SLOW. I ordered Saturday. Why did it ship TODAY?

I am now up WAY past my 10pm computer off time – but it’s for a good reason. It has been the toughest one of my original goals to keep. I’m not horrible about it – but 10:06 becomes 10:13 and soon it’s not really happening. But – I think this little bit of blogging time was much-needed for my sanity…

OH WAIT – I am squatting 90+% of my weight and bending 50%. Yay me! (That is 5 sets of 5 – not a single rep!)