Christmas lights in the pre-dawn

Thursday morning: 

I opened the drapes on the bay window in the darkness before sunrise.  Normally I do this to show off my own tree lights, but since Ember... well, I'm not putting up a tree this year, but my neighbors across the street have lit up their yard, and I enjoyed that sight, over top of my contented puppy chewing on her bone inside her X-pen.

It was a productive day.  I got my workout in with the trainer.  The weather was indeed frigid, but it was sunny, and that tends to make it "feel" warmer, especially when there isn't a lot of wind.

The workman called shortly after I got back from my trainer workout wanting to know if I was ready for him to come "now".  I said yes, of course, and shuffled Ember into her kennel.  She was a good girl the whole time he was here, and I was so proud of her.  She even did the crate games piece of letting me harness her up and clip on her leash while in the kennel!

After Eric left, Ember was most interested in what he had done, especially outside, and I kept on distracting her from too close an inspection of the fresh caulking on the underside of the house overhang where he had sealed the new insulation in.

Another early in the day photo, showing why I am going to have higher heating bills this winter!  My phone said it was 17 degrees, Fahrenheit.

Friday the 13th

It was even colder Friday morning.  12℉.  The new coat looked so nice and warm.  Planning went on in my head... do I hide treats in the pockets?  What about gloves?  Stage it in a changing room to put on and take off every time we exit the house, for a while?  I don't necessarily want her seeing all the rivets and zippers and such, as they are attractors.  I already zipped the hood off, for safe keeping.

In the end, I waited to put on the new coat until after she was down for puppy nap #1.  No sense triggering her "change" frenzy.  Despite this precaution, she managed to trigger anyway, on the dryer vent flaps opening and closing!  

Ember took the flaps off!  I called my local HVAC guys again... they must have a file on things my dog is destroying, month to month.  But they had an open slot on the schedule, and I was almost ready to let her up from puppy nap #1 when they notified me that they had someone ready to come out in the next 20 minutes.

Therefore, Ember stayed in the crate for an extra hour and a half while they came and replaced it.  I used the time to bake "Double Peanut Butter & Milk chocolate" cookies.

I palmed a few of them off on my HVAC guy that fixed the vent.  The rest are sitting in Frosty's belly until Sunday, when they will cross town for the Christmas gift exchange with the kids.  I did taste test them, and I'm sorry, but they just seemed too sweet to me.  Cookies in general are "too sweet".

As a reward for being such a good girl in her kennel, I took Ember out on leash for a neighborhood walk.  Darn near froze my hands, even in gloves, while acting as traffic cop to bring attention to Ember's presence in the street while the neighborhood traffic streamed by as she focused quite strongly on "something" spilled in the gutter and across the street.  No amount of tossing treats or entreaties on my part would dissuade her.

Eventually some dogs got let out into their fenced yard, and they barked enough to distract her, and we were able to get her to follow the treats home.    

We are under a winter weather advisory from 2 p.m. Friday to Saturday 9 a.m. We are right on the edge of freezing.  There were reports of multiple auto accidents on the 6 p.m. local news. Freezing drizzle and freezing rain, with glaze accumulations.  Good time to hunker down and stay put.  Try hard to keep your balance when taking the puppy out.  I do have giant-sized pee pads but have not put any effort into training Ember to use them.  She came close once or twice.  Fingers crossed.  

Go figure, Sunday is predicted to have a high of 51F!

Life is good.  Keep Sparking!