I finally acquiesced and bought an immersion blender.  Here are my thoughts on this one...1. You can not continuously let it run, it must be turned off every once in a while.  So you might have to do this several times if you're doing a big pot of soup.  2. I wish it had some sort of protection on the bottom where the blade is when you store it 3. I didn't think about cordless until I used it.  Doesn't really bother me, but decide what you want.  Otherwise, I am excited about it and have used it 3 times in the last month (a lot more than I thought and I would use it more if I cooked every night!)