Despite the strong winds on Saturday, Mike and I took to the skies and slowly (due to a direct headwind) headed to Brampton.  It took us about 45 minutes to fly there.  We only heard a couple other small planes on the radio, since most people prefer to fly in calmer weather. An employee of the Flying Club said I was crazy for flying and the fuel guy said he would bet me the price of fuel that I wouldn’t make it to Brampton.  Then when I was taking off, the Tower said “It’s going to take you a week to get there!”  Well to all of you, I say NYAH!!!!!

Landed safe, sound and hungry!  We bundled up Vyctor’s little nose (to keep the engine warm) and headed in for breakfast noms:

I had my usual egg white omelette and Mike went for the waffle with tasty fixins:

Donkay initially told me he didn’t want to fly with us today because it was cold and yucky, but I was able to persuade him.

As we were flying back, we noticed some yuckola weather to the North:

We kept a close eye on the weather on the way there, during breakfast and heading back, so we knew it wasn’t going to be an issue for us.  With the tail wind, we were back in St. Catharines in less than 35 minutes.  Sweet!

Back home, I decided to take a picture of the new little lesion I noticed on my brain, from the MRI images I picked up from the hospital last week.  Here’s what it looks like:

I see my neurologist next week and I’m going to ask him if he took a really close look at the lesion.  I’ll then show him this:

Then this:

Tee hee!  I always try to make light of the crappy things in life – it makes it much easier to cope.  The lesion isn’t something I can change, so there’s no point in getting all bummed.  At least it’s just one – and it’s adorable!

Another thing I did this weekend was go through some old letters I found from elementary and high school.  I actually kept a huge stack of them.  It’s so weird to see old style texting!  I was actually going to toss them, as I’m kinda in purging mode, but decided instead to sort them by writer and date.  Will be neat to go back and read them in a few years:

Since the kids were sick over Christmas, Mike and I were unable to see the nephews and nieces and bring them their pressies.  We were able to see them last week, and they were all thrilled with their gifts (Lego for the boys and My Little Pony dudes for the girls).  I think Mike was jealous and he wandered around like this for quite some time:

Oh well, he’ll get over it.  Maybe I can get him his own for his upcoming birthday.  He likes the colour green.  Are there green My Little Pony dolls?  Hmmmmm……  Speaking of green, I walked into the spare room and little Peanut was posed like this:

Gosh-darnit-all-to-heck he’s cute.

Today’s symptoms: I actually had a really good day today.  I had an all-day meeting in Hamilton, then an appointment with my doctor in Welland.  My energy was decent (for a nice change!) so I didn’t have any issues with all the driving and running around.  Life is good!

I went about a month without flying.  Weather, health – just everything yuckola.  Fortunately, things became partially flyable on New Years Eve.  I’ve been dealing with really bad sinus and tension headaches for the last couple of weeks.  Stupid me took a sinus pill the morning we decided to go flying a couple days ago.  I normally don’t eat breakfast and I forgot how much those pills hurt my stomach and make me nauseated when my tummy is empty.  We attempted to fly to Brantford for breakfast, and the pill finally hit me about 25 minutes into our flight.  It usually takes about 40 minutes to get to Brantford, but with the strong, gusting headwind, our ground speed was only about 65 knots.  I felt too sick to keep going.  We turned around and were back at the St. Catharines Airport in about 15 minutes.  We didn’t hear another plane in the air the whole flight, as it was quite windy (25 knots gusting 31).  A tad cold too:

It was still a fun flight, especially the landing in those winds!  I love a challenge!

Going back a few days, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  My mother came over on Christmas Eve and we had some noms then watched the movie Bad Moms.  It was the second time I watched it in three weeks.  Very funny!  We opened pressies the next morning then went to Mike’s parent’s house for dinner.  We did Secret Santa with their family this year.  Mike’s younger sister had the absolute pleasure of buying for me.  She got me this awesome incense burner, which was pure white.  She bought me markers so I could have the pleasure of colouring it.  Starting to look quite nice:

I actually spent about three hours on it one night…it was so relaxing, I completely lost track of time.  As you can see, Boo was thrilled to watch the event:

Pinky was equally enthused:

New Years Eve was quiet.  I didn’t quite make it to midnight….oops.

The weather was nice today so Mike and I made another attempt to fly to Brantford for brekkie.  It was so calm today that it almost made the flight boring (I like it better when my plane is bouncing all over the place!)  Things were a little less frozen:

I was quite hungry by the time we landed, and ordered this yummy egg white, ham and cheese omelette:

After eating, I ran to the little pilot’s room and came back to this:

Mike said something nasty to Donkay and scared him into my mitten.  Bully.

Mike then had to visit the little pilot’s room and I was so tempted to take off while he was in there, after what he did to my little gray friend:

Luckily for him, I resisted temptation and decided to fly him back home (not that he deserved it).

I think my propeller was on LSD during the trip home:

It was so clear when we left St. Catharines this morning, but some snotty weather moved in by the time we came back:

We made it safe and sound.  Whenever we park, I try my darndest to get my nose wheel right on the centre of the yellow T.  I thought I did it this time….SO close!!!

I was devastated:

Great flight!  On the way home, we stopped at the hospital to pick up my MRI results.  I had either my 13th or 14th (I lost count) MRI on Boxing Day.

I’m happy to report, I checked out the disc when I got home and I still have a brain.

Back home, Boo subtlety suggested that we play badminton with her:

We declined her offer.

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good today minus the headache, but I’ve been dealing with a worse-than-normal one for a couple weeks.  Again, it’s tension and sinus issues.  Still trying to find a new head on eBay…..

Had a neat experience this morning – the four cats and myself were snuggled in bed when we heard a noise outside the window, which is at the head of the bed.  They all sprang up like shots and checked out our visitor.  A rather large hawk had perched itself up on my 10th floor window sill.

He stayed there for about ten minutes.  Right after he flew away, I got this pic of Boo and Pinky:

Mya and Abby lost interest after a few minutes – I guess they didn’t want a winged friend.

Mike and I just had a trip to St. Jacobs last week.  I got him/us the trip for our recent anniversary.  Apparently the area was blasted by winter the day before and shut down the town.  It was mostly cleared the next day when we arrived, but there was hardly anyone in the downtown area.  It was so nice to not bump into anyone on the street or in the stores.  When we went to the Stone Crock for dinner that night, we were the only ones there until we were leaving.  The next day we went to the market and there were people milling about but nothing like during the nicer weather.  It was a great trip.  I only bought myself one item….these charming unicorn socks:

Finished up my Christmas shopping, so that was great.   We also picked up a gift for the cats:

As you can see, they were all thrilled.  I’m sure Pinky was devastated that she was in another room during this amazing photo shoot.  I was going to put it on Peanut too, but he was too busy doing this cute pose:

Due to the crappola weather lately, I haven’t been able to fly for a few weeks.  I miss little Vyctor:

Had a cute experience the other night.  Mike was on his way home and as usual, a couple of the kitties followed us out into the hall.  Pinky was rolling on the ground in front of my door (at one end of the apartment), when the woman who lives at the opposite end came out of the elevator. This is typically when the cats scatter back into my apartment.  However, Pinky went a’running down to her.  She had never seen my kitties before so she was a little shocked at this big, pink, naked cat running at her.  I said “Our Christmas ham escaped!”  Pinky rolled over right in front of her and let her pet her for a few minutes.  It was so cute.  Then she went down to her apartment and Pinky followed her.  Pinky sat outside her door after she closed it:

Mike had to walk down and bring our ham back.

Today’s symptoms: I was very drained and fatigued after our trip to St. Jacobs, which was totally expected (and worth it!)  Happy to report I’m feeling quite good today.  Having bad crushing pains in my hands though, which has been going on for a couple weeks now.  Also still going through a rather lengthy stretch of insomnia.  I’m having a very hard time getting to sleep (even with the prescription sleeping pill Sublinox) and usually wake up after a couple hours.  Then I’m up for at least a couple more hours, if not the rest of the morning.  Yuck!

Jan and I had our awesome annual trip to Rochester last week.  It looks like Boo wanted to join us:

We drove down to Rochester on Thursday morning and hit the Marketplace Mall.  I think we ended walking about 10,000 steps that day.  We were a wee bit pooped by the time we left the mall.  We had some snacky foods at the hotel restaurant (included with the cost of the room).  Nothing special, but yummy:

Jan was pretty excited about the cheese and I had to go back and get her another small pile.  After we manged, we walked over to The Christmas Tree Shop (it’s like a discount store with all sorts of items, not just Christmas stuff), and Five Below.

The next morning, we went down for brekkie then drove over to Eastview Mall.   We had another good day, but there was some disappointment.  I only buy clothes once or twice a year, and it’s almost always at Buckle (everything is fairly blingy).  For the first time ever, I left empty handed!  I’ve never not found at least one item before.  Oh well, next year.  About part was through the day, we decided to split a cookie to keep us fueled (neither of us typically eat lunch).  We got this bad boy from Mrs. Fields:

It was so good but a tad rich and we were kinda feeling it for a couple hours after.

After getting back to the hotel, we watched TV for a bit, let the big cookie settle more, then drove a few blocks over to Five Guys for burgers and fries.  We were on a very busy road (about seven lanes as the freeway was just ahead), first in line at a red light in the left turning lane.  There were cars behind us and cars in every lane next to and in front of us (coming the other way).  We sat for almost two minutes, then we got the advanced green arrow.  We pulled ahead and I was just starting to turn left, when a car coming straight through in the opposite direction decided he would start going on his red light.  He was almost half way into the intersection when I laid on my horn and hit the brakes (even the ABS kicked in).  Fortunately, the car behind me stopped in time too, so there were no impacts.  What an idiot – he almost caused a head-on collision.  It was so close!  Once we got around the corner into the Five Guys driveway, at the three way stop (I didn’t have a stop sign), I starting turning left and the car coming the other way ran their stop sign.  Geesh!  What a stressful few blocks!  We were so relieved to get our noms and make it back to the hotel.  Not sure if y’all have had Five Guys before – the burgers are amazing and probably the best fries we’ve ever had.  Doesn’t look like much but trust me:

We drooled through most of the meal.

Our plan for Saturday was to get up around 8:00, casually get ready, go for brekkie then over to Walmart.  We had a nice little wake-up call just before 7:00am when the fire alarm went off.  We grabbed our purses, put on our coats and headed out.  I’m quite sure that less than half of the people staying at the hotel even left their rooms, because there were only about 30 people outside.  Within minutes, a fire truck pulled up.

We never really found out why it went off, but we were let back in after about 20 – 25 minutes.  Everyone was pretty calm, except for one jerk (who smelled like booze), walked around swearing and bitching about the situation.

Once back inside, we got ready and then went for breakfast.  It was sad being our last day, as were having such a good time.  We went to Five Below again, Marshalls, Kirkland then Walmart.  The drive home was less than two hours and quite uneventful.  Can’t wait to go back next year.

Back home, Abby was being a typical angel (in this lovely halo Mike made for her):

And Mya was being a goof:

All the other goobers did great too with Mike looking after them.  The main thing was I came home to four live cats, two live lizards and a slew of live crickets.  Good stuff!

Today’s symptoms: I’ve been recovering from the trip for the last couple of days.  Not surprising at all, I’m still quite drained, but I knew that’s how I would feel and it’s totally worth it.  Jan had a great time too. 

I had the day off today and my mother came over for a visit.  We desperately needed coffee so we hopped in her 2002 Mercedes Crossover and headed to the Tim Hortons by the Fairview Mall in St. Catharines.  There is one really cruddy part of Geneva St. just before the mall that I (and apparently many people) hate.  It’s a weird series of two traffic lights, only about five car lengths apart, right under the QEW overpass.  The two right-most lanes go straight through from before the first light to after the second light.  A left lane forms before the second light for left turns.  We were in the middle lane and there was a red car directly to our right.  There were cars in front and behind us too – the traffic was pretty heavy.   We were second in line at the first red light.  It turned green and the next light up was also green.  We stayed in our lane, however, the red car directly next to us decided he wanted to be in our lane, so without any warning at all, he drove into our car.  Fortunately, I hit the horn the second I saw him come over and that made him quickly veer back to the right lane, but not before hitting us.  He pulled around the corner at the intersection and we parked behind him.  We hopped out and could not believe how little damage was done to my mom’s car (named The Dude).  No paint scratches, just a small dent (about the length of a finger) near the headlight.  His car was a different story:

We’re still trying to figure out how The Dude isn’t scratched at all and there is absolutely no red paint anywhere.  The guy’s first words to me were “I’m sorry – I was distracted and wasn’t paying attention.”  My mom looked over at him when we were back at the red light and he wasn’t texting or anything.  I figured we may find damage to her car later so I got his insurance info, just in case.  Apparently there was a pretty bad accident at that exact spot yesterday.  The intersection has also been in the newspaper a few times recently due to the number of close calls and incidents there.  They really need to do something about it.

Despite the minor setback, we had a good time out at the mall then over to Home Depot to replace an item I broke recently.  As you may have read in my last blog, I broke my iPhone case, screen and two shoes last week.  I figured I’d keep the destruction going by breaking a couple more things.  A couple nights ago, I had a dream that my mother asked me to come over to her house to fix her toilet seat.  Right after my alarm went off that morning, I walked into the washroom, and while I was lifting my toilet seat, I hit it with my leg and snapped it off the hinge.  What are the odds of that?  Wish I dreamed about winning the lottery!  Sooooo….I had to replace that today.  I was going to buy this one:

…..decided that I just wasn’t willing to pay that much for a toilet seat at the moment.

Elizadestruction continued as I also snapped the hinge on Zim’s tank lid.  Geesh – enough already!

Speaking of lizards, check out this grossness – little skin “glove” from Peanut’s last shedding:

Gross!

The old Goodwill office and Legion across the way from my apartment is being demolished.  Kinda neat to see, as I have a perfect view:

Jan and I drove by the back of the building on the way home:

With my destruction bout I’m going through right now, I should offer to go over there and touch the building – the whole thing will probably crumble in a second!

One last thing – I was doing an online survey today through a financial institution.  I wonder if I went a little off topic with my final answer:

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good today.  Still having those awful crushing pains in my hands.  MS symptoms can be so rude!  My energy was pretty decent this week though, so I guess I shan’t complain!  Life is good!

Ok, you’ll never believe this.  Mike and I took the day off of work today so we could take advantage of the amazing 19 degree weather and go for a nature walk around the Wainfleet quarry.  I should have known what a crappy day this was going to be when I pulled back the sheets this morning (while Abby was next to me) and I noticed the poop streak down my sheet that was up against me.  No, I didn’t poop the bed – Abby must have cut the cheese and accidentally discharged.  I then went to get cleaning supplies and came upon more of her poop and a pile of barf on my floor.  Good times.  So, Mike came over, we went down to my car and it wouldn’t open with my key FOB – it was dead.  I had to run upstairs and get my spare.  I came back down and we drove out to Jan’s.  Everything was good – nice visit then we drove out to the quarry:

As we were climbing up the wall in the back of the above photo, that’s where everything fell to poop.  I thought I had my beautiful iPhone 5s in my deep pocket, but apparently it wasn’t so deep at all.  I watched it fall in slow motion – watched the case break apart then the phone bounce and land on it’s face.  Yup, it was bad:

Ugh, I felt so sick.  My case broke apart too (it was a nice case – more than one should spend on a case, but I’ve had it for almost three years).  It took a few minutes to find the little corner part:

While still standing there where the tragic event unfolded, I phoned Best Buy.  They said they don’t replace screens but mentioned Wintronics in St. Catharines.  I phoned them and they said they replaced the screens.  Ok, this is good.  I said I would be there soon.  As we climbed back down the wall and toward the car, I felt something off with my right shoe.  I’ve had these shoes since university (so like 67 years now)..  Well, I guess shoes rot over the years.  Half of the sole on my right shoe fell off!  Regardless, we drove to the phone repair shop, as I attempted to walk in my rotted shoes:

I told the guy in the shop that I was truly having a “rotten” day and slumped my way over to the repair department.  They said they didn’t have any screens on hand and would have to order one, so it could be repaired Monday.  They said I could check out Miki-Wireless on St. Paul, which is close to where I live.  I was pretty impressed that they would refer me somewhere else!  I called Miki and they said they could repair it today.  As we headed back out to my car, my sole gave way:

I felt like I was driving in slippers.  We got back to my apartment and started walking up to my unit.  That’s when I realized my other shoe had also rotted.  So I had a “slipper” soleless shoe on one foot and a flopping sole on the other.  I looked like a real winner!  We got upstairs, I changed my shoes and we walked over to Miki.  They said they would do it in an hour.  About thirty minutes later, they called Mike on his cell and said my battery was old and started to expand, and therefore needed to be replaced.  I’m not too surprised as it was seriously starting to lose performance over the last couple of months.  I said to replace it as well as the screen.  I must admit, I’m SO impressed.  They replaced my screen and battery and it came to $163.  I won’t mention any names, but there’s a place in the PEN Centre that would do it as well, but my bill would have been $374 and they would have had to send out my phone for about two weeks!

I thought I was done being a klutz for the day, but when we got home, I dropped the handi-wipes I brought with us to the quarry, and they spilled everywhere:

Mike just had his own little bad moment.  We were watching a movie and Abby was on his lap and apparently let a big one rip:

I must admit, it was pretty rank.  Even Abby was gasping a bit!

What a day – I think I need to go to bed for a few days!

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty decent today despite sleeping fairly little last night (fell asleep after midnight and woke up just before 4:30).  Yuck!  Still having the crushing pain in my hands but I think it’s getting a bit better.

We had some pretty nice weather this weekend so Mike and I went for a fairly short flight Sunday morning.  I hadn’t done aerobatics in a couple of months and assumed I would be quite rusty.  I’m happy to report that I was actually rust-less!  Check out a couple of these nice attitudes:

Mike and I were giggling like school girls for much of the flight!  It was kinda sad when we landed:

We visited with Jan after our flight. I told her I wanted a new Christmas centre-piece for my dining room table.  Jan, being quite creative and skilled when it comes to flower arranging, came up with this perfect number:

Tee hee!  I love it!  It’s SO me (you know, weird, whacky and far from normal).  After our visit, we headed home to chill with the kitties.  Mya was sleeping like an angel (since she IS a perfect angel):

Boo looking like a monk:

I also brought the geckos out for a little a bit:

At least my animals are completely innocent and would never get into mischief (cough, cough)…unlike Mike’s reckless fish who maliciously knocked over their adorable (I helped pick it out – go figure!) aquarium decoration.  Before:

After:

Clearly they have no appreciation for high-class decor.  Humph!

Today’s symptoms: I’m finally feeling a bit better after another little bout of yucky symptoms that started a few days ago.  It’s only happened once before (a couple months ago) where my hands became extremely, almost unbearably itchy.  They also felt like they were on fire and being crushed right down to the bone.  I’m happy to report most of the itch and burning is gone and now I just have the crushing pain.  It’ll keep getting better, I’m sure!

After almost a month of not flying, Mike and I were able to fly out for breakfast on Saturday.  Our plan was to go to Guelph, but about fifteen minutes away, we realized the weather (low clouds) weren’t lifting like we hoped.  So, we called the Hamilton Tower and let them know we were heading south-west to Brantford.  Just before arriving in the Brantford circuit, we heard four other planes coming into land.  Oh geez!  The restaurant there is always so busy as it is.  I spoke with the other planes to get their positions, and followed the fourth guy on the downwind.  We taxied like crazy to get over to the restaurant.  I booted Mike out to get in line as soon as the propeller stopped.  Darn – no tables left.  Fortunately, there were a couple seats at the other end of the six-seater that two guys were at, so I asked if we could sit at the other end.  The whole time we were there, other folks kept coming in.  They have amazing food so many folks drive in to eat.

While we were there, Ornge Air Ambulance landed to drop off a patient to a waiting ambulance.  Mike took this shot while we were heading out:

We took off and had a nice tailwind on the way home:

The new arch over the Burgoyne Bridge in St. Catharines looks pretty cool from the air:

As we came in to land, we noticed the Homer Bridge by the St. Catharines Skyway was up.  Mike got a couple of nice shots:

It was a great day and a pretty nice weekend.  I started feeling pretty lousy on Sunday though.  The glands in my neck have been very sore and swollen and I have a bad ear ache and killer headache.  Not sure what it is, because I don’t have any other symptoms of a cold or anything.  Weird.

On Sunday, we did manage to make it out for some shopping.  I needed to get more crickets for breeding.  I’m not sure if the last batch was successful – the eggs (if there are any) are still incubating.  The apartment has been colder than normal and I know crickets don’t breed much in low heat.  I decided to add to their under-the-tank heater with some overhead lighting and I insulated the bottom and sides of the tank.  Hopefully this batch will yield a bunch of babies:

Today’s symptoms: Still feeling pretty punk, but fortunately not much worse than Sunday.  I’ve already made the decision that I’m going to feel better tomorrow!

This is Halloween for most people but for me, it’s the birthday of my youngest daughter, Abby.  My mother sent her an E-Card, so I picked Abby up and showed her:

She loved it!  Then, Mike bought her this amazing cake (and by her, I mean us):

She loved it!  And by her I mean Mike and I.  We were forced to eat it on her behalf.  Tragic.

Mike and I were watching a movie the other night.  Here’s a screen shot.  Yeah, classic Christmas zombie movie:

It wasn’t too good so I tried to distract myself with this awe-inspiring idea.  Y’all know of Lee Iacocca.  Well, Mike’s parents have three Siamese cats, one is named Coco.  For some reason, I thought of this and went through with it’s creation:

After creating it, I decided it would be best to send it to Mike’s dad.  His response:

Yup, that’s his son as a hamster…and some Pinky editing:

Meanwhile, it took me about fifteen minutes to create my Coco photo and he sent me about seven Pinky recreations in less than ten minutes.  Clearly I need to update my software.

So here’s another little tidbit on my life recently.  Mike has been collecting the Disney Planes diecast characters.  I have found and picked up at least 80% of his collections (because I go over to the States more than him).  Jan and I went over the river last week and I kinda found three new characters, and they were all Cessnas, just like my Vyctor.  There was only one of each so I kinda had to acquire them for myself:

I already had the one on the left.  I pointed them out to Mike and here was his reaction:

I had to dash his hopes and dreams and tell him I was selfish and bought them for moi, but I would look for the same when I go to Rochester next month.  He’ll stop crying eventually.

In more wondrous news, we have been faithfully watching 60 Days In.  What a great show.  One of the Sheriffs totally reminded me of someone all this time but I didn’t figure it out until the other night:

It finally hit me, he’s Bobby Hill from King Of The Hill:

So now you’re up to date.  You’re welcome!  And4 please get your Flu Shot:

Even Boo is thrilled at the thought:

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty decent today.  Life is always better when you wake up covered in kitties.  My energy has been close to MS-average for the last few days.  I’ll take that over MS-yuckola any day!

For some reason, there has been no heat in our apartment building yet, so we’ve all been a tad cold.  I’ve never before had to use a space heater or heated blanket here.  I’ve also had to drop to an all-time low and put my naked kitties in clothes.  As you can imagine, they have been quite cold (sans hair).  Little Sponge Paw Square Pants Mya:

Pinky was seriously squeezed into this outfit so I didn’t keep it on her too long:

Actually went out and bought her a new coat.  Say hello to Santa Pinky:

Boo didn’t last two minutes in anything I tried on her.  Just growled the whole time and didn’t move.  Abby, on the other paw, was quite content in her little green knitted sweater:

I eventually transferred Mya into a warmer sweater, since the Sponge Bob was quite thin (despite looking this adorable):

I had to bring the space heater out.  A couple of them took a number and got in queue for a spot in front:

They were even more snuggly while resting:

Mike and I watched the movie Don’t Breathe (it was excellent!) and had some crackers.  Mya just couldn’t help herself and kept begging for them:

Then the ultimate cat pose – this is the best pic EVER!

Could a mother be more proud?  I think not!  Precious.

I would write a longer blog but I’m too cold to type anymore.  Hopefully the heat comes on soon!

Today’s symptoms: Have had a really bad headache for the last four or five days now – worse than I’ve had in years.  I think it’s just been a very stressful week and that’s what did it.  Also had that stupid MS Hug symptom a few days ago, which seemed to have had some lasting effects.  Tomorrow will be better….

Ok, continuing from yesterday’s blog about our Manitoulin Island trip….

Mike and I planned on going on our hike on the Cup and Saucer Trail on Saturday, since we couldn’t do so on Friday, due to the weather.  We headed out toward the trail around 10:00 in the morning, to showers and small down pours.  Ugh.  This wasn’t looking good.  What the heck though – we would start the walk and if it got too bad, we could turn back.

We wanted to do the whole 12.5km trail, but it was so cold and dreary.  Fortunately, the sun started coming out soon after we started.  We were surprised how quickly we made it up to the first look-out point this time compared to last year.  It literally felt like half the time.  Perfect time for a photo shoot:

Mike is proud to have such a normal girlfriend.

My energy was ok so we decided to attempt the whole trail.  We passed many a’mushrooms along the way:

Donkay wanted to enjoy this one:

This one looked like turkey, which was appropriate for Thanksgiving:

Even a nearby leaf was shocked at the turkey shroom:

We finally came around (after about three and a half hours of walking) to the Adventure Trail.  This included a neat little cavern, which I eagerly jumped into (and my unicorn head accidentally slipped onto my head):

I eventually persuaded Mike to come on down too:

Soon, after, we set up the timer on my camera and got this nice shot:

After almost four hours and about 15,000 steps, we made it back to the van (and collapsed into a heap).  Fortunately, I had enough energy left to drive us back to the cabin, where we collapsed into another heap (right after we snapped a pic of the owner’s one dog):

The worst part of the trip was having to leave on Sunday morning.  Bummer.  I was kinda hoping the weather would be yucky so we were “stuck” there for another day.  It was quite nice though, so we headed back to the airport around 11:00.  It was nice to see little Vyctor again:

After having a nice chat with the airport manager, Robbie, we filed our flight plan then hit the skies.  We flew right over Wolsey Lodge, where we spent the last three nights:

When we made it over to Tobermory, we got to see the Chi-Cheemaun ferry pooping out cars, with plenty more waiting to board:

We made it home safe and sound.  It was great to see my awesome little kitties and lizards again, but it was sad the trip was over.

Today’s symptoms: Actually felt pretty decent.  Been going through a bit of an insomnia patch again, but last night was a bit better than most over the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully tomorrow is even better as I have to drive to Hamilton to work.

Mike and I just had a great vacation.  We flew up to Manitoulin Island on Thursday.  It took less than two and a half hours to get there.  It was a fairly smooth flight, but came into some cloudage around Wiarton and up to Manitoulin:

I typically prefer to have land under me when flying, so the flight over water from Tobermory to the Island was a little nerve-wracking.  It was comforting to hold Donkay’s hoof:

We called Robbie at Gore Bay Airport and he let us know there were clear skies overhead there:

I decided to accessorize once we landed:

We were again so grateful to be allowed to use the Gore Bay Airport courtesy van for our stay on the Island.  Robbie even drove it over to the ramp next to Vyctor so we could unload.  After tying down Vyc, we bid him a fond farewell – felt bad leaving him all alone but we knew he would hook up with other planes there for hangar parties and such.

Our first stop was the grocery store in Gore Bay to pick up some noms, then we head over to the same place we stayed last time – Lake Wolsey Cabins.  We had such a great time there last year.  Here is the cabin we stayed in:

Right on the lake – it was perfect.  One thing we really love about staying here is the games room.  We both suck at pool but have a great time playing:

Our plan for the second day there was to hike the Cup and Saucer Trail.  Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas.  We were totally shocked when we pulled up the radar for the Island.  Do you think Mother Nature was trying to tell us something?

Geesh!  Such a rude gesture!  Oh well, we decided to just go into town the next day, include a short drive over to Manitoulin Chocolate Works.  We then went up the road to Bridal Veil Falls:

Perfect time to bring out the accessories:

I have no shame – there were at least a dozen people there looking at and taking pics of the Falls:

After checking out the Falls, we headed to our favourite restaurant, the Twin Bluffs.  When we were there last year, burger-connoisseur Mike had their Twin Bluffs burger and said it was the best burger he has ever had.  Not surprising, he got it again and said it was still the best:

On the way back to the cabin, I had to pull over the van for another photo shoot:

I think Mike said something to the effect of “Man you’re weird” when I climbed back into the van.

I shalt continue with Part 2 of this blog very soon!  I don’t want to overwhelm anyone with too much awesomeness….  Stay tuned!

Today’s symptoms: Feeling pretty drained today but that’s to be expected after the trip and how much we did.  Getting a weird MS symptom again where it feels like my face is on fire.  Really annoying and increases my fatigue level.

Mike’s dad found a rather amusing app, and went nuts with my kittah and gecko pics.  Check these out!

Tee hee!

This weekend was Mike’s mom’s 31st birthday.  We celebrated with his family at the Mandarin.  Of course, I had to be a dork and pose with the large stuffed panda (which was previously mauled by about 600 kids and probably covered in Pink Eye and Strep):

On behalf of his mother, I toasted her with the most vile, disgusting food on the planet – a beet:

Oh the sacrifices I make!  Managed to choke it down in her honour.

When I got home, I told little Peanut about our great dinner:

Slurp!  Boo, on the other paw, was less excited:

I think she actually meowed the word “Meh.”

I am happy to report I am feeling so much better than last week.  Not sure if I went through a little MS flare-up or what, but man I felt awful.  Due to “good” health and what looks like (so far!) good weather, Mike and I are going to be able to fly up to Manitoulin Island in a few days.  Can’t wait!  We had such a great time there last year.

Today’s symptoms: Far more energy than I had last week.  Still dealing with the start of the new sinus infection season (which for me, seems to start around September and continues on until the following September!).  I plan on getting some good rest so I’ll be in good shape for our trip. 

I’m still having fun with my new unicorn head.  I thought I would be creative and combine it with my banana costume.  This is “art” by the way:

Strike a pose!

Like I said in my last blog, stay tuned!  More shots on the way.

Mike and I had a really nice weekend.  As the Grape and Wine parade was right around our homes, we couldn’t really get our cars out Saturday so we were forced to watch the parade.  I used to march in many parades every year when I was with the E.L.Crossley Marching Band (as a drummer)  I haven’t seen Crossley in the Grape and Wine parade over the last three years. I don’t get it.  Oh well, we just sat on the steps of City Hall and watched – great seats:

Ice Dogs hockey team float:

It was a good parade but there was only one actual float, but I guess that’s due to budgets and stuff.

Later on Saturday, we spent some time playing Call of Duty on the XBox.  As usual, the score showed me being a tad ahead in kills (I’m Abby):

Poor (Sammytard) Mike always seems so shocked:

After I accidentally kicked his butt (typical), we decided to try another fine Pierre product, like the bacon cheeseburger (purchased at Giant Tiger – see previous blog).  This time we had the breakfast sandwich:

Took less than two minutes to heat up:

And then the nomming:

Wow – yet again shocked over how good it is. So there’s my product review for today….stay tuned for the Pierre Chicken Burger sampling!

On Sunday, the weather was quite nice so we decided to fly to Guelph for breakfast.  We landed and had an amazing experience (at least for me!).  A man that had a plane based there came on the radio and said “Hey Lizzy McFly, I read your blogs!  Welcome to Guelph!”  It was so neat to hear!  He then met us in front of the restaurant after we parked.  He told me how he wanted to buy a plane a few years ago but was able to talk himself out of it (as I did, because I thought “what if I have an MS flare-up and can’t fly…what a waste!)  He thought he was old (only in his 60’s so not old at all) and said my battle with MS and how I handled it inspired him to purchase a plane!  He bought a Challenger ultralight.  Wow, that was such an amazing thing to hear and I was so touched!  Like I always say – life is way too short to talk yourself out of your wants and dreams.  Make them happen!

After our awesome chat, we walked over to the front door of the restaurant.  The line was around ten people deep.  Ugh.  We were both rather hungry and knew it would be at least a half hour wait, so we decided to head back out and try Brantford instead.  We had just lifted off and I noticed that the Kitchener Waterloo Airport was just off of our right wing.  I called up the Tower and was cleared into the circuit.  By the time we took off from Guelph and landed at Waterloo, it was about ten minutes.  We parked, headed into the restaurant and were served within ten minutes.  Both airports have amazing restaurants, so we were glad we were able to have brekkie at one of them.  It turned out to be a great day and an awesome flight:

Good times followed by good cats, once we got home:

It’s good to see Pinky and Mya having a slurp together.  “Did you enjoy it, Pinky?”

That’s not her stunned face – it’s her “of course I enjoyed it!” face!  Meanwhile, Boo watched on from the tub:

On Friday, I went for my three month Gilenya (MS medication) blood work, as this medication may cause liver damage, lower your white blood cell count and there’s a very slight chance it may cause the fatal brain infection PML, so you must get checked regularly.  Through Life Labs, you can now get you lab results online.  I checked on Sunday and my lymphocytes dropped quite a bit again (they were below normal three months ago and are even lower now).  It was a little bothersome to see, but it’s somewhat typical with this medication.  The main thing is they watch over it with the regular testing.  I decided to take the news in stride by sprucing up a picture of lymphocytes I found online:

You gotta either laugh or cry about things!  Life is too short (kinda like my mother)

Today’s symptoms: Been feeling quite weak over the last few days.  I think I’m dealing with another bladder infection plus I thought it would be fun to also have a sinus infection.  Weeee!  Unfortunately, these infections really wipe me out.  This is pretty crappy timing as we are leaving soon for our flight out to Manitoulin Island.  It’ll be better by then though!

I designed my next car!  It’s a multi-million dollar Bugatti teamed up with one of my adorable speckled sphynx cats (Boo).  Introducing:

…the Boogatti!  Isn’t it awesome!  You get a discount in insurance due to it’s overwhelming cuteness (and the insurance agents feel so bad that your cat Boo is so funny looking).

Mike and I decided to “treat” ourselves with an amazing burger – this little gem can be found at your local Giant Tiger store in the frozen food section.  We kinda bought it as a joke, thinking how good can something like this actually be?

Takes a little over a minute to nuke in the microwave.  It’s going to be horrible!

Holy cow!  It was way better than we expected!  I even read reviews online and most people were so shocked with how good it was….seriously!  We shalt try the chicken burger next and I’ll report back…..stay tuned!

My bestie asked me to help with her super slow laptop the other day.  A little hobby of mine is to help folks fix and clean up their slow running computers.  After a bunch of hours cleaning, updating and tweaking, I had it running much better.  I also enhanced her computer experience by giving her a wonderful new desktop background:

She was SO thrilled to see this image!  You’re welcome again!  (I think she changed it within four seconds of seeing it….I don’t blame her).

I was off Thursday so Jan and I decided to go to the PEN Centre, here in St. Catharines.  We went into the Dollarama and were shocked to see:

Good grief, it’s not even October yet!!!  The Christmas aisle was right next to the Halloween supplies.  Next week – Easter!

On a bright note, I found something that I’ve wanted to buy for quite some time (amusement factor x 1,000,000!)  I found one in Winners!  Dream Purchase!

I had to try it on before I bought it, of course.  Jan was all too thrilled to take the picture.  I snapped another one once I got home:

“Do you like my new head, Abby?”

She’s thrilled!  I have lots of plans for this, so check back soon.  Tee hee!

Today’s symptoms: Dealing with yet another yucky bladder infection and decided that both ends should suffer, so have a sinus infection too.  Good times!  Totally draining, I feel really yucky and drained.  Hopefully the antibiotics kick in VERY soon.  Enough of this silliness!  Tomorrow will be awesome!

Not too much has happened over the last week.  We didn’t end up going flying this past weekend, as the weather kinda pooped out Saturday.  Then we just didn’t feel up to it Sunday.  Our next planned flight is near the end of the month as we’re heading back to Manitoulin Island – can’t wait!

I created something a little weird this weekend (not surprising since I am just a tad weird).  Check out this incredible decor:

Yes, that is in fact a bunch of little Dusty’s flying among the clouds.  Tee hee!  I must admit, the artwork I received in the mail last week is much better.  Elliott (Mike’s oldest nephew) coloured this and sent it via snail mail!  Awesome!

Thanks again, buddy!

Mike’s dad also sent me something that he created – here is the original pic he used:

And from that, these were created:

TEE HEE!!!!!!!  Love it!

From one funny looking creature to another – if noticed lately that Pinky’s mouth tends to fall open a bit when she sleeps:

Boo LOVES baths:

This pic shows how tiny little Mya is (and that she poops money):

Make sure y’all hit your local Tim Hortons this week.  It’s the best time of the year!

Make the ultimate sacrifice and have a few cookies – the full amount goes to local charities.

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty decent.  I’m trying to get back into exercising and I have noticed a slight increase in energy recently.  Just need to keep motivated, which isn’t always easy when I’m feeling blah from the MS symptoms.

My mother and I always fly out to Stratford every year.  It’s a little less than an hour flight.  I know – you’re all envious because we flew to our nation’s pride….yes, Justin Beiber.  Fortunately, the flight there was very smooth.  When my mother flies with me and I hit the slightest air pocket, my mother glares at me and says “You did that on purpose!”  Yes mother – I see those invisible air pockets and plan my route right towards them, just for you.  Just remember, little bumps in the air are less damaging than some of Niagara’s greatest pot-holes!  Here we are coming up on the Burlington Skyway:

And when we finally spotted the Stratford Airport:

My propeller is blocking a bit of the main runway, which we weren’t landing on.  Of course, the winds were favouring the little dainty runway you can hardly see in the centre of the photo.  I think we also had to land on that one last year too.  Fortunately, Vyctor is equipped to handle such situations and hardly needed half of the runway before we were stopped and turning around to head back to the terminal.

The terminal folks there are so accommodating.  I asked them to call us a cab while we were just turning downwind to base.  We had just parked the plane and started talking to them in the terminal when the cab showed up.  It was so nice that one of the terminal folks remembered us from last year:

(notice how happy Vyctor is that he’s parked behind a fellow Cessna).  He was, however, the cutest plane there:

So we climbed in the cab and headed into the greatest place on earth – Tim Hortons.  We needed coffee and sweet noms.  You know when it’s within 200 days of Fall when they start selling Pumpkin Spice items at Timmies:

After our amazing noms and coffee, we headed into the town to check out all the great shops:

I’m happy to say I got a good chuck of my Christmas shopping done.  We had such a great time.  We saw so many great things, including these nom-tacular socks (which I regrettably did not purchase):

And it tis the town of our national pride and joy, Justin Beiber, we saweth these T-shirtsesth but thines mothereth did not want to purchaseth:

A cute moment of the trip was while we were in one store and saw this adorable little dog:

We left the store and walked into the next, only to have him run in behind us.  I thought he looked familiar when suddenly his owner ran down the street yelling “Bella!!!!”  We called her into our shop and said he just wanted some of the jam they were selling.  Soon after we left that shop, things got seriously weird.  My mother is cute as anything (and really short), but a complete klutz.  We had been walking around for hours and decided to head to a nearby restaurant before heading back home.  I had a vision in my head and tapped my mother and said “I just pictured you tripping!  Seriously – pick up you feet and don’t fall!”  I pictured it perfectly and within five seconds of me telling her that, down she went!  Since I somehow saw it coming, I caught her as she was falling.  She said her jeans barely hit the ground.  It was so creepy to have seen it coming, for no reason, then to watch it happen and react.  After the near tragic event, we made it a block to the restaurant and split a totally yummy order of fries.  Great day – and nice flight home.

I had another good flight a few days earlier.  My Army friend from 705 Communications Squadron in Hamilton, took the bus down to St. Catharines to meet up for a visit and flight.  The weather was really nice and smooth – something I always try to plan for with my passengers.  We took off and immediately headed over Niagara Falls:

We headed around the scenic circuit twice, then south to the Lake Erie shoreline.  I eventually convinced him to try flying the plane, which he did quite well.  We then came in for a landing and I caught this perfect shot of him in front of my plane with a nice little image in the background:

Mike, him and I then went to Kelsey’s for a late lunch.  It was such a great day. A couple days later, the winds picked up a bit.  Since I live in a corner apartment, I get a bit of a cross-breeze.  There was a massive one that day.  Check out my hair:

And my emoji poo pillow:

I was going to stick Mike up there but he was too squirmy.

If anyone is up to seeing a family flick – I’m not sure how much longer it will be in the theater – see Secret Life of Pets.  We went to see it and really enjoyed it – so cute and funny.  AND there was a pink sphynx (much skinnier than my Pinky):

Aww looks, like Pinky (second in line for the sink):

Yes, clearly we have a water shortage here and everyone needs to get in line.  Dorks.

Today’s symptoms:  I was fairly drained from the awesome, perfect day yesterday.  Totally worth it though!  Still felt decent with hardly any pain or other MS yuckiness, just fatigue and that’s about it!  Yea – it’s Friday!

Despite the weather forecaster folks predicting thunder storms for the last week, today was nice and clear.  Mike and I headed out to the St. Catharines Airport just after 9:30 this morning and hopped into cute little Vyctor.  We flew out to the Waterloo Aviation Fun Day.  I thought the flight was around an hour but we arrived within about 45 minutes.  The air traffic heading in seemed very busy and we figured everyone was heading to the event.  We were one of only four planes there.  Weird!  The nice thing was that one of the marshallers came up to me and said that he remembered me from my presentation at that airport about two or three years ago.  That was just awesome.  We then walked over to the static aircraft and cars and display booths.  It was awesome to see how many drove into the event today!  When we walked into the terminal building, Mike was THRILLED when I noticed the “free souvenir photos” with Star Wars folks.  I dragged him there and it turned out great!

Aren’t we adorable????  Mike was a little bothered when I asked if that was Darth Vader.  What the heck – so I’m a little behind!  The worst part of the photo is that the brown, Ewok-looking, Wookie-ish dude left before we got there.  Fortunately, I tracked Wookie-Sand-Dude down and got my pic taken with it:

Ok….just wondering why it has C3PO’s….or R2D2’s head…..(I always get them mixed up)…why does he have his head??????  So disturbed but so wanted my pic taken with it (and the decapitated head).

We wandered around and saw a bunch of plane and classic car displays:

(above bug looks so sad….Mike thought he looked kinda smirky).  I think he’s sadmirky.

It was a really great day.  We spent around and hour and a half wandering around and had an awesome time.  Fortunately, the flight back was as equally as awesome.  We took off nicely then headed toward Hamilton.  Even though I didn’t fly through Hamilton airspace, I always call them to say that I’m going to be close to their zone.  I called when I was about 15 miles South-West of the most Northern point of their airspace.  The tower responded and said “ok so fly over to the intersection of Highway 5 and 6″….  I was all “errrrr….I recognize one of those highways…”  He said “Ok, fly directly to Waterdown”  I responded “I’ve heard of Waterdown but am not too sure where it is”  He said “Oh dear!”  It was awesome!  He told me my heading and what to look for.  He was so fun to talk to (but still so professional and serious as far as where I needed to be and constantly advising me of other traffic).  Mike and I then flew toward the Burlington Skyway as he instructed, then we eventually flew over the Waterdown water tower.  I was so excited and Hamilton didn’t seem too busy at the time, so I radioed him and said “Oh wow!  I think I just found Waterdown!”  He replied “Affirmative – that’s Waterdown!”  I said thanks for teaching me something today and he said “Now you have to find the waterfall”  I said you’re kidding, right?”  He said “That’s what the town was named after so good luck!”  I flew over this water-fally looking spot and realized that there was no water.  Either I missed the spot (most likely!) or that dried out area was the dried up falls.  I called the tower and told him I regretted to inform him that the falls had dried up and they needed to rename the town.  He asked if I had any suggestions and I suggested “Water-is-no-more”…he suggested “Waterless?”  He was so great to talk to.  Very professional but had a sense of humour!  Hamilton has always been good that way!

Anyway, Mike and I had a couple of laughs heading over the QEW.  Ewwwww….look at this traffic (that we just flew over in a rather fun matter):

What a wonderful day!!!!  It was so much fun!

I always have to include a kitty in my blog so check out this awesomeness.  I pulled little gecko Peanut out of his cage and held it up toward Pinky.  Her typical reaction:

I swear she doesn’t want to eat him – she’s let him crawl all over her.  But she gets so goofy looking when he’s in sight.  So Cute!

Today’s symptoms: Felt fairly good today.  The last few were a tad off (minimizing!!!) because of the wretched heat.  I think almost everyone with MS has a heat intolerance.  Before MRI’s and joyous spinal taps (trust me, they suck!)…they used to put potential MS patients in hot baths to see if the heat would bring on their symptoms from the heat, then voila – you have MS!  Crazy, eh? So bring on the Fall and Winter!  I can’t wait to post a pic of me laying in snowbank.

Wow, Boo is really enjoying this heat!  Every time I walk into a room, she’s striking some sexy pose:

As you can see, two different backgrounds, two different days.  Oh well, she’s happy!  Mind you, she was also a little weird when I stepped out of the shower today to this:

Which then turned into this:

Ugh  Maybe she felt safe in the sink during the very brief storm we were having:

Certainly no where near enough rain to do any good for the drought we’ve been having this summer.

We have another weirdo to speak of….Mya climbed under my slightly ripped blanket.  I came in the room looking for her and calling her name.  She tried to escape through one of the holes, which got slightly more stretched:

I mentioned in my last blog that we flew up to Edenvale last weekend.  I checked their facebook page recently and found a couple links to a bunch of aircraft pics from that day, including these of Vyc (http://www.airic.ca/html/ecaf2016.html  and  http://gusair.com/htdocs/html/edenvale16.html ):

We were able to fly again two days later all the way to Welland for our joint RAA and COPA event (I like to call them COPRAA).  Our two groups meet at the Welland airport during the summer months for a social gathering and BBQ/potluck.  The item we brought was a Farmer’s Market brand blueberry pie.  I attached a note:

I don’t think anyone bought it.  Mind you, I didn’t really care because I was too busy taking a couple people up for aerobatic flights.  It was an awesome night and we flew back to St. Catharines with the sun setting:

Landed safe and sound:

We will be heading out to the airport again tomorrow for the annual St. Catharines Flying Club corn roast.  Yum!  We then hope to fly somewhere for brekkie on Sunday.

Today’s symptoms: Was not a good day as the heat just completely zapped my strength.  I was so friggen weak almost from the time I got up.  Needless to say, the air conditioner has been running non-stop all day.  Paws crossed I’ll get some strength back tomorrow!

Had quite the night last night.  I was all snuggly in my bed, surrounded by my adorable hairless kittahs, when I was suddenly woken up by this rather intense itching in my hands.  I scratched away but it did nothing to help.  The itch was so wide-spread, across the entire bottom side of my hand.  Isn’t an itch supposed be quite localized and relieved when you scratch it?  Within a couple minutes, the same sensation was in my other hand.  Then in one foot – then the other…..then the other sides of my hands.  The sensation was so irritating and uncomfortable.  After about 15 minutes of it, I went to the bathroom and stuck both my hands under cold water.  It didn’t help.  It was so intense!  I went into the freezer and rubbed my hands against the inner walls.  I took the frozen pizza box and practically sliced my skin with the cold corners….  I just couldn’t believe how overwhelming the feeling was.  After about an hour and a half, I took a full prescription sleeping pill just to knock me out.  I woke up around 7:00 am to about half the itch of the previous night.  Mike and I had planned on flying out to the Edenvale Gathering of the Classics.  I was feeling better and despite missing a couple hours of sleep, felt decent.  I figured the discomfort would be the same while out today then sitting home on the couch feeling sorry for myself.  We headed out to the airport and just the thought alone of the fun day helped to distract me from this strange new symptom.  I did some research online and it is a neurological symptom of MS.  I had never heard of this before.  I’ve heard of and experienced similar-ish symptoms, such as pins and needles, numbness and burning, but the intense itching was so new to me.  I’ve heard of the saying “I wish upon my enemy to have the worst itch ever, and arms too short to reach it”…..I now understand how wretched that would be, because right now I’m dealing with it.  I’m sure it will get better though and hopefully this isn’t an indication of a flare-up.

Ok, now back to today’s awesomeness!  It was a little over an hour of flying before we flew just East of Canadian Force Base Borden – a base I went to quite often when I was an Army Reservist.  Good ol’ firing range:

We had to fly over Minesing, a town just east of Edenvale, before heading west to our joyous destination.  There were tons of aircraft heading in before us, so we really had to keep watch.  Then the lovely Edenvale runway appeared:

Once we touched down, we had a volunteer marshaller guide us over to our parking spot:

I put my awesome new sun protector up and instantly had a few kids running over yelling “Dusty!”

After talking to a few folks, we headed out to check out the other planes and classic cars (and get out free pilot coffee):

We met up with a few folks we knew from back in Niagara, wandered around a bit more then headed back to Vyctor.  Another great time at this event:

We had another marshaller guide us out, behind a few other departing aircraft:

After taxiing down the grass runway, we got into position on the runway and headed back home.

We laughed a little at all the traffic around Toronto below us:

Great day and I must admit, all of the other things to focus on really helped to keep my mind off this rather yucky new symptom.

Today’s symptoms: Well the rest of my symptoms were decent – fatigue wasn’t too bad, pain was low, but this new “itching” symptom is really frustrating to deal with.  I guess that’s just the nature of the beast.  Paws crossed it doesn’t last too much longer!  These paws are itchy!