Happy Birthday Charles

Well, the title about says it all! Unfortunately, Charles had to work today at Sunday River, but that left me home to cook the cake he really wanted to try this year- a Chocolate Stout cake.

I haven't sampled the finished product yet, although I did try the Sam Adams Cream Stout that I used for the cake... and have affirmed that I am NOT a beer drinker. The rest of the recipe involves a lot of chocolate, a lot of sugar, and a lot of butter, and the batter was quite tastey. So it was baked, it was cooled, and it was frosted and garnished, and I am waiting patiently for the birthday boy to arrive so we can have it for supper!

For those of you who would like to see the recipe, here's the link

http://thebittenword.typepad.com/thebittenword/2009/03/chocolate-stout-cake-revisisted.html

He's home! Off to eat!

School's Out For Winter

Yes that's right- winter. And that's dog school. Charles managed to get as picture himself with Desi at dog class in Naples. We've finally found a dog trainer that gets Desi's breed and isn't intimidated by him, so they've been going to Amys classes for two summers. Amy runs Boulder Ridge Kennels in Otisfield and breeds Mastiffs. She also has been really good about not reacting to Desi's rabid dog immitation that he does when either I or Michael is around. Neither does anyone else in the class, mostly because this class is geared toward dogs that are "reactive" in different situations. By reactive, I mean act like an idiot. Desi's previous class instructor didn't get this behavior, and it made other people with rude dogs in the class nervous so he was asked to leave instead of dealing with the issue. In this class, all these dogs and hmans get together and do things like go out for ice cream, go to the beach or the park, walk up and down the causeway, and encounter other people, dogs, and all sorts of situations. Desi, I am please to say, has been an almost perfect gentleman. He still has issues with the rest of his pack being around and his need to defend us from almost everything, but he is learning that when he's on the leash and we're out in public, we can handle ourselves without his help. And should we ever be in a true situation where somone should try to do something to one of us, we have the utmost confidence that Desi will scare the life out of them.