I have a dessert recipe for Death By Chocolate, it is one of the all-time favorites on my holiday table.

I won’t share the recipe here (but if you want it, send me an e-mail and I’ll shoot it over to you) but I will say it involves chocolate cake, a variation of chocolate pudding, Skor bars and cool whip.  And yes, it’s good.

When I was attending college in my Effective Speaking Class, one of the required speeches was a ‘Persuasive Speech.”  Being the oh so clever being that I am, I decide to try to persuade people to choose their death, by chocolate.  I enlisted my friend’s help to carry in the HUGE bowl of DBC.   I also had paper plates and utensils and while I was giving the speech, my friend was passing it out.

I started by saying something along the lines of, “If you could choose the manner of your death, what would you choose?  Would you choose death by hanging, or heart attack”  well you get the idea.

I then went on to say, “I would choose my death by CHOCOLATE,” at which point I whipped off the covering from the bowl and revealed the decadent dessert.

When I stated I wanted my death to be by chocolate, I meant the chocolate sweetness of dessert, not death by the paws of a chocolate lab named Delilah.

If you are my friend on facebook, you know I spent part of New Year’s Eve in my local emergency room.

Here’s what happened.

It was cool, not cold on New Year’s Eve.  We had fog hanging around all day and as the afternoon waned the fog got a bit thicker.

The dogs and I headed out to the trails shortly after 3:00 pm, because of the thickness of the fog and the moisture on the ground I decided to stick to the upper trails and not venture onto the steeper ones.

I kept hold of Delilah’s lead because the fog was so thick and dense and I was afraid to lose her in it.  We had just completed our first pass and were heading down from the woods via the large rocks.

I told Delilah, “Easy” and “Wait” which she did.

I had reached the bottom of the rocks with my feet on good old Terra firma when I said, “OK, good girl, good wait.”

Delilah took the “OK” as her opportunity to explore the field (which she should.)

She took off at a dead run giving me a really hard tug.

It happened so fast I didn’t have the opportunity to drop the leash.  I remember my feet moving quickly as I was propelled forward and a very hard SLAM as my shoulder hit the ground.

I sat there for a minute looking across the field at my dogs who were frolicking about.  My right shoulder and upper arm were in agony.  I wasn’t sure if I had broken my arm or dislocated my shoulder.

Thankfully although all my pockets were full, I didn’t land on anything.  My right arm instinctively moved into the Pledge of Allegiance position which put it in close proximity to my cell phone, which was in an interior pocket on the left-hand side of my jacket. I managed to get my cell phone out and by holding it close to my right hand, I dialed Hubby’s number.

Meanwhile Delilah decided to come back to check on me and managed to dance around me to the point that I was now tangled up in her leash.

Hubby said, “Do you need me to come and get you.”

But the longer I sat there getting my bearings the better I felt.

I said, “No, I am going to finish this walk.”

And we did.

Once we were all back at the house I immediately iced my arm.

I’m not usually an alarmist when it comes to illness or injury and tend to err on the side of caution.  I know my body and I normally know when it needs medical attention.  After about an hour I decided it did.  So I drove myself to emergency and had an x-ray.

Thankfully there was nothing broken or dislocated and while the Physician’s Assistant send me home with a sling, she preferred I didn’t wear it, opting instead to use my arm, which I did.

The more time passed, the better my arm felt and I am happy to report I have almost 100% mobility again, and only about 5% pain.

I can’t say 2011 left me without a whimper.

By the way, I did get an A on the speech.