I just wanted to add an update.

I did get around to purchasing the Blendtec, and it's pretty fantastic. It puts our old KitchenAid blender to shame, that's for certain. No matter what, our old blender never got all the ice we'd put into it, and every time we'd end up with tons of tiny chunks of ice. The BlendTec gets every single bit of it.

I've tried a bunch of the recipes in the book that comes with it, and frankly those are very hit or miss. Some of the smoothie recipes are just plain weird and don't taste good at all. So far, my favorite is the following:

2 cups white grapes
3/4 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 banana (I just eat the other half)
2 cups ice (I actually do one cup ice one cup water)

That's it, and the BlendTec does a fantastic job on the grape and blueberry skins, which is pretty difficult.

I've also made batter for waffles, and that went really well. There's some things I'd still do with a food processor, but this is easier to use (fewer parts) and has more capacity, I think.

So far I've been thrilled by how easy it is to use. It really is as easy to clean as filling it about 1/3 of the way with water and putting a drop of dish soap** in. I then repeat that without the soap to rinse it and I'm done.

I'm extremely happy with the end results.

FYI, I ended up buying the BlendTec at Bed Bath & Beyond! They don't sell it in their brick and mortar stores, but they do sell it on their website. The great thing is, you can use one of those dozens of 20%-off coupons they send all year, and bring it into the store to order things from their website. I ended up getting $80 off, which made up for the purchase of an additional Wildside carafe which I highly recommend.

**tip for anyone thinking of getting one of these: when you pulse with the water/soap combination, HOLD THE LID! I didn't yesterday and ended up with an explosion of soapy water all over the countertop, stove, cabinets, and floor!