It’s wicked cold this morning.  Wouldn’t usually thing much of it, but you notice the cold when just a few days ago it was warm enough to rain.

I think that it’s a good day for Minestrone Soup.  I saw a new recipe that sounds good to try today.

I had a Ninja blender and I totally disliked the thing.  It made way too much noise.  Literally sounded like a chain saw.  The blades were sharp and so many of them that they were very hard to wash.  Then the cheap plastic jar cracked from the power of the thing throwing ice against it.  I threw the thing in the garbage.   It felt good to do so, too.  So I really like having a blender for smoothies.   And I did not have $500.00 to spend on one of those really expensive blenders that also have a plastic jar.  So I did research and to the best of my ability and what I could afford, I bought a $50.00 blender which is a Black and Decker fusion blade blender that has a glass jar that also comes with an individual blending jar.  I love it.  I tried it out and it’s quiet for a blender, yet has the power to blend frozen fruit really nice.  Best smoothie I ever made with it.  Prevention magazine did a review on blenders and said this one was the best one to get if you didn’t have a lot of money to spend.  Plus I read reviews on it and people loved it.  Four stars is good enough for me.  I would give it 5 stars.  And it looks nice on my counter and doesn’t take up a huge amount of space like the Ninja did.  I found it on line at Amazon.  Worth the postage added on to it.  Did I say that I love it?  Best $50.00 I ever spent.  I will get sooo much use out of it.  I like to make home made tomato soup out of canned diced tomatoes with fresh ground Italian herbs, a half cup of milk and a half cup of chicken broth.  Tastes like something from a restaurant to me.  A little sea salt and fresh ground pepper over it and a pad of butter melting on it.  Yum.

Three people won the Powerball lottery last night that was 1.6 billion dollars.
They each get 500 million dollars.  Can you imagine that???  I got one powerball number which was 10 and the powerball, so I got $4.00.  Feel lucky to get the $4.00 back that I used to buy 2 tickets.  To make up for it being cold outside, and not particularly a relaxing time of year, I will try to do some yoga along with my regular aerobic walk exercise.  I like how some people have a yoga space in their home.  They put a nice candle going and favorite things all around them for inspiration.