Okay, I have a few spare minutes (it's been a crazy weekend).

The long and short of it is this: the Blendtec is not the magical device that the internet and Costco displays make it out to be, but it's still a damned fine blender.

I do use the "Wildside" jar instead of the regular jar, which probably isn't necessary for most of our purposes. If I blend up about 2/3rds of the Wildside jar for smoothies, It's far more than my wife and I want.

Smoothies are a cinch for this thing. My basic recipe is to throw in half a banana, a few frozen strawberries, a handful of frozen blueberries, and about a cup of frozen peaches. Then I fill about half-way up the fruit mixture with water and blend on "Smoothie" mode, which makes quick work of it and does a complete job at liquefying all the fruit. You still tend to get the strawberry seeds and some blueberry skins, but that's pretty tough to get rid of, though a second cycle might do it.

We've used the blender for other things, but I haven't done enough experimenting. For a few things, I just prefer a real food processor, especially dry stuff. But we use it to make dressings and sauces pretty often.

We don't tend to use it for soups because we have an immersion blender which is a better tool for that job.

All in all, I'm very happy with the purchase. Like I said, I need to do some more experimenting. I still think it's a little overpriced, but with that Bed Bath and Beyond coupon the price was much more manageable. I'd highly recommend the Blendtec.

ps- oh, and I've made milkshakes and they're awesome