A Plea From a Frustrated Housewife

I bought a new blender today. My old blender served us well – it was a wedding present when we married 15 years ago. It has been time to retire the thing for over a year – the plastic jar has a crack in it, so when I go to make a milk shake or something, I have to move really fast to get my blending done before the liquid seeps out the crack in the side. I have lived with this situation for quite some time, never mind the fact that blenders are relatively inexpensive and easily found in many, many of the stores I frequent. Clearly, Martha Stewart I am not.

Anyway, I broke down and bought a new blender today because I also bought some powdered Slim Fast and I want to add strawberries and ice to it to make a nice shake for lunch today and I’m tired of the mess caused by my old blender. We’ll discuss the merits or non of Slim Fast at a later date – or not – depending on whether this move of desperation results in any movement of the scale toward the left or not. Though I am quite conservative, I would rather a more liberal bent to my scale needle, to be demonstrated in a marked leftward shift. But that is not the point of this post at all.

No, the point of this post is to make a plea to manufacturers to please take into account who the likeliest person is to open a new product. The reason being, I have unpackaged the layers and layers of cardboard and plastic wrap to finally get to my new blender. The thing came with the jar thingy assembled. I am one of those germophobe, clean freaks who washes new dishes before using them. However, the jar is so tightly assembled that I CANNOT get it unscrewed. It’s not budging. I’ve tried and tried, but I’m just not strong enough. I’m wondering what kind of industrial strength tool they used to screw the jar onto the base. And what kind of Hercules did they expect would be opening the box and trying to use the blender? Sigh.

So, please, manufacturer people, help a girl out. Does it have to be fastened so tightly that nothing short of a bomb blast will detach it?

And while we’re at it, could we also discuss the plastic tie wraps and screws that hold every stinkin’ piece of children’s toys in their impenetrable boxes? And how about that thick plastic box stuff that is much thicker than shrink wrap and is nigh unto impossible to open - even with scissors? And shrink wrap. Don’t even get me started.

I’m off to try again to detach my blender jar from its base. Just needed to vent. And apparently when the blog drought ends, it results in this. I do apologize.