I confess right off the back that I am baking and blogging tonight in order to procrastinate packing. I leave tomorrow for a long weekend adventure that I am thrilled about! However, I have never been a fan of packing.

So, eager to enjoy one final (this makes me sad) batch of my blueberry zucchini bread, I hurried home to get a couple loaves going. I started with a clean slate - all dishes washed, dried and put away, counter cleaned and ready. The process was smooth, and I even remembered a lot of the recipe by heart, including my healthy changes!

Once in the oven, I decide I needed to pull out my blender.

A couple weeks ago I realized I had a lot of fruit and decided I would make a fruit salad. While at the Mexican market downtown, I made sure to grab a mango to add to the salad. I have a newly found passion for the fruit. Unfortunately, by the time I finally put my fruit salad together a few days later, my mango was over ripe and was so soft I couldn't cut it. It was just mango mush.

Suddenly the thought of a mango smoothie came to mind, so I saved all the soft mango in the fridge, got some recipe ideas from my friend Sarah (who I shared my first mango experience with 13 years ago - when I actually disliked mango), got the necessary ingredients and finally put it together tonight. It was only the 2nd time using my blender. The first time was under supervision with Josh.

Prior to that, . . . well, I don't want to throw anyone under the bus, but let's just say that there was an unfortunate incident involving boiling pumpkin puree soup in the blender that ended up all over the kitchen. I won't mention any names. No, it was not Josh. If this person chooses to come forward, so be it. If not, oh well.

So, I kept testing the smoothie and adding things as necessary. A banana, some honey, some of my homemade black raspberry jam, some ice cubes (heart shaped of course)... Finally I decided it was perfect. I found a glass and adjusted the lid of the blender pitcher so that it would pour out.

It was pouring slowly. Very slowly. But I was patient. Unfortunately, the smoothie was not. All of the sudden, it ALL went towards the top of the blender (as it was at the bottom, and that's how gravity works). The force of the thick smoothie was so great that the lid completely came off, flipped up, flew out, landing hard in the trash and splattering smoothie throughout the kitchen as it did so. The rest of the smoothie poured out on my hand, overflowing the glass, landing on counter, dripping down the edge, and onto the carpet (yes, my kitchen has carpet - bad choice, not mine).

I just stood there, observing, taking it all in, and wondering where to start first. I wasn't freaking out. I guess I was barely even surprised. It was more of an "eh" reaction and trying to decide where to begin.

Of course I immediately thought of the previous blender incident and couldn't wait to share my story. I thought to myself "blenders just don't belong in my kitchen."

Fast forward past all the cleanup, past visiting with my neighbor Sarah while I was taking out my trash, past the bread baking, past me finding time to heat up some leftovers for dinner and enjoying 20 minutes of a Friends episode.

I decided I'd better get the blueberry zucchini bread cooling completely. I had my ceiling fan going on them (yah, I have a ceiling fan in my kitchen - good choice!) for awhile, and I figured it was time to flip them out of the pans and let them cool completely on the counter.

I can only shake my head right now... I think I lost about half of a loaf as it flung out and fell apart. I'm thinking now that it needs hours to just cool in the pan. So, I'm already learning and decided to just let the second loaf be.

However, it was about this point, that I started thinking, "Maybe it isn't just the blender that doesn't belong. Maybe I just don't belong in the kitchen!"

I'm trying. I'm learning. None of this domestic stuff comes naturally to me, but I'm doing it anyways. It's the only way to learn and actually get there.

So, maybe some day I will get the bread right, I will get the smoothie right. And I will be able to enjoy them without having to stop mid-way for a kitchen cleanup!