I Freak Myself Out

So, I'm home alone right now while James is working overseas. I've got the Frenchies, but lets face it, they are merely guard dogs, not attack dogs. I have no doubt in my mind that they would alert me to an intruder. But they would totally let the intruder murder me. 

That fact aside, whenever I am home alone, I tend to freak myself out. Frequently. 

I was really afraid my house would be haunted when I moved in. It's on base housing, a lot of people have lived here. I don't know the history of this place! Who knows what crazy stuff has gone down here. So far nothing of a haunting nature has happened. Thank God. Because I don't think housing would take a haunting as a reason to break the lease with no penalties. 

But I still think about it a lot.

For instance, when you sit on my couch and look over at the stairs, there is a black triangle that is the upstairs. But it's just an ominous black space.

To which my brain will fill with horrible things when I glance up there. At first, I saw person. Which is horrifying as is. But then the human became a ghost face. And now its a demon face. Specifically the demon face the flashes through out the movie The Exorcist. I would post a picture of it here, but I don't want to look at it. I just can't. If YOU want to see it, you can click HERE. Just looking up that video freaked me out.

I always do this right before bed. Ugh... 

Been Snowin'

It's snowed a few times in Fairbanks. But just today I actually got my butt out in the -10 degree weather and took some pictures. I just went over to the park that is adjacent to my house on base in the middle of the day on one of my random days off. 

I didn't think I would get such cool shots. Since I know nothing about photography.

I posted the last picture on my Instagram (frenchie_mom) and a professional photographer asked if he could use it for magazine print. I don't really care either way if he uses is or not, or if he gives me any credit. I just think its cool that I was out taking random pictures in freezing ass cold weather and when I looked to my left, the sun was starting to set and it was just BEAUTIFUL shining through the trees. I barely even know how to use my nice Canon camera,

#nofilter

Of course, the sun was setting at like 3pm. So it was easy to be out and about to be available to catch it. 

I'm trying to get proficient at taking photos of the aurora, or the Northern Lights. James bought me a new lens for the Canon that is more appropriate for capturing the lights. I need a tripod and a remote switch to take the photos without touching the camera. I promise someday I will be able to post beautiful pictures I've taken of the aurora on my blog. As of yet, I've only seen it with my eyes. 

The Frenchies Wear Boots

Since it has snowed, and the temperature has stayed averaging 0 or below, the frenchies are not too keen on going outside to potty. Picasso is a trooper and he has just reduced his bathroom frequency requirements. Gertie has chosen to just use the restroom in the house in places I cannot supervise completely. Apparently she thinks I will like to find random dog poo in the kitchen or on the landing upstairs. 

She's wrong. 

I know it's cold. It's averaging 0 lately....

I just started to plug my car in while I work all day. By the time I'm off work, my car has sat over 12 hours out in the elements. Now that it's below 0, I need to be concerned that the battery will be too cold for the engine to start. Most of the parking spots at the hospital (and all around Fairbanks) have little towers at the head of parking spots that have outlets for you to plug your car in to. 

Anyway, this is not good weather for french bulldogs. They require pretty moderate temperatures to flourish-- not too hot and not too cold. This is too cold, FYI.

I was prepared to dress the frenchies with coats before we moved to Fairbanks. Each frenchie has 2 coats each, 2 NICE coats each. I bought one set and their wonderful Aunite Rosie purchased their second set (how much does she LOVE them; there is a reason she is their gods mother). I had to purchase booties for the frenchies once I got here. This has been... interesting.

Neither of them like their booties. I bought color coded booties (purple for her, red for him) while up here because it was brought to my attention their feet will be really cold. I didn't think of that for some reason. I thought about their bodies, but not their little paws!

They both loathe their booties. I tried their booties on each dog on different occasions. I tried Gertie first, mostly because she is more easy going and agreeable to weird things. If someone was going to kidnap one of my dogs, it would be Gertie. But she was so embarrassed to wear her booties that she kicked Picasso's ass for simply being present. Nothing is more sad than seeing a dog fight while one is wearing small purple booties.

A few days later, I tried Picasso's booties on. He is not a fan of his feet being touched, which is why I didn't start with him in the first place. He has historically been a hater of his feet being touched.

So I was super wary of touching his feet. He didn't really have much of an issue with me physically putting boots on his paws. He didn't try to bite me or anything. 

Taking the booties off was another story. He tried to bite me with each paw I tried to disrobe. He was so embarrassed that he wouldn't take another step further off the back porch,

I don't think the outlook of bootie wearing is positive in the DeGraf-Buckley household. This winter should prove to be interesting.

#firstalaskanwinter