Repairing the blender:
My guess: You worked the motor too hard on your last blending session and it overheated. That will cause a thermal fuse inside to cut off. The blender won't work again until you replace the fuse but otherwise it should be fine. The fuse looks like a white diode and it will be attached tightly to the motor with a nylon strap (so that it can pick up the heat of the motor). The leads to the fuse are shielded with heat resistant nylon wrap. You will need to remove the rubber drive gear in order to remove the plastic house so you can work, although if you are really handy you might be able to at least test the unit by only removing the plastic bottom on the base unit.

To remove the plastic housing, remove the little rubber feet and then remove all of the screws on the bottom of the unit. You may need to buy a bit set for tamper resistant screws (I ***hate*** those), I don't remember. When the bottom is removed, you will see that the there is a screw head on the bottom of the central motor shaft. You can use a screw driver here to hold the motor from turning, then you can carefully use a pliers to unscrew the rubber drive gear on the top of the base unit (try not to damage the rubber). With the gear removed you can get access to the wires.

To test the fuse unit, just check its continuity. Short=good, open=bad. To further test, short out the fuse with a jumper cable and your blender should work.

EPO (Electronics Parts Outlet) in Houston, TX, has the replacement fuse unit. I don't know that they like mail order.

Mine quit also.  
I put in a toggle switch that bypasses the circuit board and now it works fine.  Only one speed now, but what the heck.
It only took a few minutes.
Mark