Natural Chocolate

My friend Chip once told me a story where he was about 13 and went for a walk in the woods with two of his younger cousins. As in most NH woods you often come across droppings from deer and moose and things like that. So, one of the young cousins asked Chip what this small robin's egg sized brown sphere was.

Now you need to know that Chip is a story teller. Not a fibber or an amateur but a real professional story teller. He has written several children's books and at one point worked at LL Bean headquarters as their story teller in residence. He would put on story hours for kids where he would read work but also make up stories on the fly. He also has a mischevious side where he makes up voices and leaves phone messages--the most famous of which was when I had just moved in with new room mates and he left a message in the voice of the Concord sheriff saying that I needed to call immediately and then come down to the station. Needless to say my new room mates were concerned at that one.

Back to the tale. Chip told his cousins that what they had found was natural chocolate. And he even encouraged them to take a taste of the wonderful stuff. When they bit in and then scrunched up their faces Chip just let them know that natural chocolate wasn't quite as sweet as regular chocolate.

Why do I mention this? As many of you know while our bathroom is being remodeled we are staying with Grammy Perkins. Grammy has two wonderful dogs one of whom, Fudge, is nearly 14 years old. Needless to say a 14 year old lab has a little trouble with getting to the door in time to go to the bathroom. So from time to time he has accidents indoors. Tonight he had a little accident and I didn't see it. Amelia was playing on the floor in one room. I was trying to tune in the news and Yoda was barking to go out. You need to know that I had no idea Fudge had had the accident. So when I came back from letting Yoda out I noticed that Amelia had crawled a few feet and was holding one of her many toys. She was in a shadow and I didn't think much of it and I turned my attention to the news. But in the back of my mind (this is all happening in a few seconds) I thought, "Was that toy?" I quickly looked back and noticed that what she had was not a toy but a ping pong ball sized ball of....poop. I moved quickly to keep it out of her mouth and grabbed it myself--oops that wasn't great. Then I threw it out and moved to get antibacterial spray on her hands. But then I realized that that had alcohol in it and I used soap to get that off. The soap I used wasn't baby soap so when she put her hands in her mouth she cringed and cried at the taste. And on and on.....

Just another day in the Crumrine Household.