Puppy Smarts & Blending iPads

We recently bought some new toys for Pepper. They are toys designed to make your dog smarter, and we are happy to report that, based on Pepper's performance, he is smarter than he was a week ago.

One of the toys is three squeaky squirrels stuffed inside a furry log, and the goal is for the dog to figure out how to dig the squirrels out. Pepper's method is somewhat unique, in that he grabs the log in his mouth and viciously shakes it until the squirrels fly out. We don't know how that would translate into real-world effectiveness, but we are confident we will not be attacked by squirrels anytime soon.

We also got him a squeaky "invincible" hedgehog, guaranteed to keep squeaking even if it's punctured. With the hedgehog emitting a low squeak and the squirrels high-pitched squeals, it sometimes sounds like a squeak symphony in our house. Hey, if having a noisy house means our dog is developing his intelligence, we figure it's worth it. Hopefully that will directly translate into fewer potty accidents.

On a different note, we were over at our neighbours for dinner the other night and one of the couples there were raving about their new Blendtec; essentially, a blender on steroids. There are YouTube videos of the president of the company blending things like iPods, hockey sticks, and shoes, and the blender is so powerful it reduces everything to powder.

I always thought the Cadillac of blenders was the Vitamix, but this couple assured me that while that may be true, the Blendtec is the equivalent Ferrari in the market. To prove their point, the husband mentioned he had blended chocolate milk with a slice of Hawaiian pizza. Not my tenth choice for tasty mixtures, but the Blendtec converted those ingredients to milkshake-quality smoothness. He admitted it tasted awful, but his point was sound - the Blendtec can pretty much convert anything into either a smoothie, or powder. The YouTube videos are entitled "Will it blend?", and having watched a couple, are fascinating and hilarious at the same time. The price tag, starting at $450, is understandably steep, but while our current blender sometimes struggles with ice cubes or even frozen strawberries, leaving a clump at the bottom, the Blendtec is virtually guaranteed to eliminate those problems. I guess if it can chop an iPad into plastic powder, ice cubes would be relatively simple to grind by comparison.

I am looking forward to coming over to their place sometime soon to see this electric marvel in action. If it's as good as they claim, we might have to save up for it, or *coughChristmasgiftcough* something like that.

-J