I’ve been experimenting with a Starbucks Frappucino recipe over the last couple of weeks. The original, if you’d like to give it a try, is here.

I was envisioning a frozen drink sort of thing, like what you get at a Starbucks counter. I even added extra ice because 2 cups didn’t sound like enough.

The first time I made it, I pretty much followed the recipe. I substituted Half & Half for the lowfat milk, though. And I had to make my own chocolate syrup because we had none on hand. Oh yeah, I added some Baileys, too, just because I could.

Did I ever tell you I have a Baileys addiction?

I told you I’d been experimenting. The recipe was just a starting point.

Back to that first time… since I’d been envisioning a thick, milkshake-type drink, I over-blended it and ended up with way too much thick foam. Once I got past the foam, I really enjoyed the drink. Under the foam, it was sorta like a bottled Frappucino beverage.

The next time I made it, I skipped the chocolate altogether since I hadn’t gotten around to buying Hershey’s and just didn’t feel like making my own syrup again. No Baileys either. It was yummy.

The other day, I made it using Whoopie Pie-flavored coffee. I still added chocolate, too. It was good, but not the best.

Today’s variation was a stronger-brewed cup (as opposed to the 3/4 cup in the recipe) of the Whoopie Pie-flavored coffee. And chocolate. Still no Baileys, but I’ll be sticking with the Half & Half instead of lowfat milk.

And you know what? It really has that devil’s food cake flavor of a classic whoopie pie. Very good. But I think I’d get tired of it pretty quickly.

I honestly think my favorite has been the blend without chocolate and Balieys. Just the straight coffee flavor. It’s good stuff.

Now, for a quick Belle update.

She’s doing very well. She had her drain and sutures removed on Monday. Yesterday, she was allowed to have the e-collar off in spurts so she could lick at the wound. The vet said I should think of it as a form of physical therapy. And today, we got to do away with the collar for good. She’s not supposed to do steps until Friday. No walks, either. And we’ll have to keep the young’uns from wrastling until the wounds are completely closed (I can just imagine a toenail getting stuck in one of the holes… YUCK and OUCH).

She’s not real happy about the walk restriction. She was all ready to go on Monday and Tuesday. But I left her home with Hubby, who fed her some vanilla ice cream (her absolute favorite snack) and an Oinkie pig-skin treat.

I’ve been wonder if any of the dogs were negatively impacted by the attack. While walking with Meg and K last night, there was a guy with a BIG white, fluffy dog heading toward us. We approached carefully. Neither of the girls hesitated, even though he was twice their size. And that’s a good sign. Of course, he was a sweetheart in a completely calm state. The real test will be approaching other dogs that are tense or fearful or even slightly unsure. K picks up on that very quickly and will go on alert. She’s never attacked another dog, but will bark at them. I’d say that 80% of the time the other dog has instigated by barking or jinking toward us or something.

Because I was well-trained, I always key-in on approaching dogs and can usually tell if there will be a problem.

You know what the worst encounters always are? Small dogs on retractable leashes. Small dogs are uptight in general. And retractable leashes are never recommended as the dogs are never really under control. Put the two together and it’s a recipe for disaster.

We encountered an oblivious woman with two yappy, mop-type dogs on retractable leashes. The dogs were zig-zagging willy-nilly across the sidewalk. She didn’t even bother to shorten their leads as they approached. I reined my girls in, and we stepped off the sidewalk to “wait.”

They all just watched the yappers approach. All was fine until one of the mops lunged a little toward us, which set K to barking. Luckily they moved past pretty fast. I was AMAZED to hear the oblivious woman say “good dogs” to her pooches.

“Good?” I said to myself. “Really? We were all walking along just fine, minding our business, until you and your ill-behaved yappers with attitudes passed.”

There really is truth to that “calm, submissive state” Cesar Milan always talks about. Our local dog trainer told us that, too, way back when he trained Hubby and me how to be good dog parents. We’re still not perfect, but at least we can walk around town with relative ease.

If you have a dog, can you generally tell from afar which dogs are safe and which will be problematic?

Funny, a lot of people walking their own dog or dogs will switch sides of the street when they see us approaching. I mean, we do make a pretty wide footprint and sort of hog the sidewalk. But I always shorten their leads when people and people with pets approach. It’s just the right thing to do. And I always watch approaching dogs carefully, never letting my girls approach another dog until after asking the other owner if it’s okay.

One funny thing I have noticed… we stop and talk to lots of folks. I’ve learned the names of several local dogs. But I tend to know or at least recognize the dogs and sometimes the dogs’ names before I know their owners’ name. Is that weird?