orichalcum

You have passed out of your irresponsible tweens and are now at a very respectable age. You are as nice a young woman as one could hope to meet, and I am sure that there are many adventures lying ahead on your road, wherever it may take you. Hopefully, though, no Ringwraiths. :)

Hershey's Chocolate has decided to take the chocolate out of various candies, including Mr. Goodbar, Milk Duds, Krackel, and Hershey's Kissables. They will now be made, as of today, with vegetable oil rather than cocoa butter and referred to in small print on the label as "chocolatey" or "chocolate candy."

And on ladybird97's birthday, too! Shame on you! I guess I just really have to start being an elitist about all my chocolate, now.

Mmm...Leonidas.

Eowyn's gotten short shrift from the Baby/Dog Show lately, so this post is going to be all about her. (Also, Mac's only recent accomplishments have been escalations on the block-hitting front. sigh.)

My plan for Eowyn's evening walk was to take her to the nearby park and do some off-leash training with her, now that she knows the area fairly well. So we set off with a bag of treats and an energetic dog...only to discover that it was parent-teacher night at the park, which is a school park, and there was also soccer practice going on. The park was, um, busy, to say the least.

So instead, I decided to keep her on-leash and train her in ignoring distractions. We walked along, regularly sitting and focusing, and eventually got to the far end of the field, where we found two women, both with extremely short haircuts, rolling up their mats and walking towards us. Eowyn's tail started helicoptering and she bounded towards them, sitting in front of them and leaning in for petting.
"Well, at least someone's glad to see us," one of the women commented, with a wry and slightly regretful note in her voice.
"Well, she really likes young women," I answered, "because she thinks they're more likely to pet her."
"Well go her for liking women," the other women chuckled. "She's totally right!"

We said goodbye, and they walked back towards the school. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that the couple had not gotten the best of receptions from other parents or teachers. I'm glad that Eowyn was able to cheer them up a bit.

Eowyn then got her own reward as we walked back across the park and she was charged by 6 8-year-old girls plus some toddlers, all of whom wanted to pet her. She got a bit overexcited and spinny when they surrounded her, but otherwise was very good and happy to roll over and get belly rubs.