My little Mya likes playing with hair elastics and rubber bracelets, so I bought her some from the liquidation store the other day.  I accidentally turned the cats’ ears into a ring toss base:

As you can see, Pinky REALLY enjoyed it:

Poor kitties.  Not sure how they tolerate me!

Mya is so tiny, she fits under my rather low couch.  Was typing away at my computer and looked down to see this:

Always meows non-stop while she’s under there too.  Very strange.  At least they are sometimes normal.  Here’s Boo and Mya having a cat nap together.  It’s funny because they were such enemies for a couple months after they first met:

Here’s a little action scene of Boo yawning, which basically turns her entire head inside-out:

As you can see, the cat breath in the last pic knocked Mya right over.

Zim and Peanut, the geckos, have been quite content lately.  My cricket breeding is going perfectly.  It’s so nice not having to run to the pet store once a week to pick them up.  I probably have about 50 adults from my last batch left and around 300 just hatched from my latest batch.  Here are just a few:

Happy and well-fed Zim:

My tiny mother recently celebrated her birthday.  I kinda got her a weird gift this year, but it’s something she really wanted and needed, as her old one was breaking often.  Meet Loocinda:

After watching a couple videos on the internet, the old one was easily and quickly removed and the new one installed.  The one we removed was over 40 years old and massive.  The tank was more than two times the size.  She’ll probably notice a little reduction in her water bill.

I had to go to an eye doctor today.  Because I went off the MS drug Gilenya for a month due to my surgery at the end of March, I had to have my eyes tested again.  Apparently this med can cause macular degeneration (as well as a few other potential yuckies!).  My mother and I spent the day at the PEN Center then went to my appointment.  I’m really glad she was there to drive me back home because my vision was horrible after the tests.  She texted me once she got home, but I realized I couldn’t see my phone screen at all.  I tried my best to text her “Oh good” then “I can’t see what I’m texting” but it didn’t quite work.  Oops:

Well, at least autocorrect tried!  Still not too sure what tulipwood is….

Last but not least (there’s no “least” to her)…..I was trying to watch a show while in bed last night.  Pinky decided that she would join me.  Out of the way, pork-o!

Looks like Ramsey is trying to eat her.  She does look like a massive slab of ham, so I don’t blame him.

Today’s symptoms: Feeling a fair bit better than over the last few days.  This horrible hot weather with my MS related heat intolerance has been just awful.  I spent most of one day in bed because I was just so weak and blah.  Looks like it’s going to cool off a smidge for the long weekend then the wretched heat and humidity is supposed to return.  Blah.  Oh well, it is what it is!

Holy cow, I flew in the Lancaster Bomber today!  It was absolutely amazing.  One of the great parts of my flight was seeing the amazing Lancaster fly over, soon after I left St. Catharines:

I landed at the Hamilton Airport around 11:30 this morning:

A Harvard was heading toward me soon after I landed and I radioed that I would hurry as he was burning a bit more fuel than my sputter-monkey:

We had to move my plane a couple of times, to accommodate the Lanc and a few other great aircraft doing flights throughout the day.  The ground crew was very nice and helpful.  Soon after we parked Vyctor, the Lanc came back from it’s first flight:

I assumed the big yellow tow truck was to maneuver my massive Cessna 150 Aerobat, but apparently it was for the Lanc.

We had a pre-flight briefing where I met up with some great flight crew folks I met previously.  After sloshing about a million gallons of fuel into the Lanc (they forget about filling mine for free as I requested), we were ready to head out.  A wee lass (my usual co-pilot, Donkay), joined me.

The flight in the Lanc was exceptional.  I was in tears as it started up.  To think, I was in one of only two flying Lancasters in the world!  It truly was a moving experience.

We headed over to St. Catharines, then across Lake Ontario to Toronto:

I wonder if their radios conked out like mine usually does when they were close to the CN Tower?  I heard it has to do with all of the other frequencies bouncing around that area.

We then headed south, back to Hamilton:

It was great to be able to wander around the plane during the flight, including up into one of the gun turrets:

Dang, that was terrific.  Once back, the more than helpful ground crew assisted me in moving Vyctor under the Lanc for some photos.  He looks like a little zit next to it:

I’m still totally buzzing from the day.  The flight was amazing, the crew was amazing….my jaw hurts from smiling so much.

Today’s symptoms: So happy to say I felt great!  The week of brutal heat took it’s toll over the last few days, but I made sure to keep the last couple days fairly low-key so I would have a decent amount of energy for today.  I know I’m going to pay for the excitement tomorrow (my MS symptoms always get worse after emotional ups or downs) but it was totally worth it! 

Mike and I drove up to Trenton on Friday evening for the Air Show at the Trenton Air Force Base the next day.  The drive up was horrible – around four hours due to awful traffic.  We were both so relieved to arrive at our hotel, which had a rather nice display out front:

We were eating our dinner at the hotel restaurant when we heard “Hey Lizzy!”  It was a bunch of guys from Search and Rescue in Niagara and Southern Ontario who were also staying at our hotel.  They flew in to work at the static display.

We decided to head out the next morning before 10:30.  The air show started at 12:00, and we wanted to spend around an hour checking the static displays and booths in the hangar.  Wow, were we ever in for a shock.  We drove over to one of the parking lots near the base and hopped on the shuttle bus.  Everything was looking great until we arrived to see an enormous mass of people – I mean a sea as far as the eye could see.  We figured it wouldn’t be too bad since we already had our tickets (we spent a tad extra and got seats in the very limited photo pit – only 100 people).  No such luck as everyone was waiting to get through security.  Holy poop.  We were in the line for about an hour and a half!  One of our rare shade spots – this one lasted a couple minutes under a wing:

This major delay was very unfortunate as not only did it put us in a bit of an off mood, but we missed the start of the show.  Then, they directed us to the wrong area for our seats and we wasted over ten minutes more finding the photo pit.  There were no signs or anything and it was very frustrating.  The show opening planes were all from the Hamilton Heritage Warplane Museum, which included the Lancaster.  We made it over just in time to catch the last pass:

Caught a pic of the Lanc during landing:

Here are some of the other pics from the day:

One of my favourite pics was this of the F22:

C17 over the Snow Birds:

And a Heritage flight with the F22 and Mustang:

We decided after all the waiting we did that day at security, we would beat the rush back to the parking lot and leave before the end of the show.  We missed the Snow Birds performance.  On the way back to the bus, we stopped off at the parked Lancaster and met up with pilot Leon, who I’ve known for a few years.  After a little chat, we got in line for the bus.  We waited for about 20 minutes, which would have been at least five times that if we left at the end of the show.  We saw the Snow Birds in formation as the bus was almost at our parking lot.  Bummer we missed the full show but it would have been a major delay if we joined the mass exodus. We made it home in about two and a half hours.

After 17 layers of sun screen over the day, I was so looking forward to a shower.  Afterwards though, I walked out into my living room and almost had a heart attack.  I had let the kittahs out on the balcony, and looked over to the window to see this:

Geez, Boo!  At least the other weirdos were a bit more sane…..well, sorta:

I thought I was going to sleep pretty well, but I was fairly wound up from the day (and there were a few spots where I missed applying extra sun screen and are now quite burned and painful), so I didn’t sleep well.  I’m hoping tonight is much better as I have a longish week (meetings and two trips to Hamilton), so I need sleep!

Today’s symptoms: Felt fairly drained but kinda expected after a day in the sun and fairly long drive home.  Totally worth it though – it was a great experience!

Had a pretty good weekend.  Not sure what happened to the massive storms they predicted for yesterday, but what a let down!  Mike and I just walked downtown to check out the market, hit Timmies then a couple shops.  Today, we flew out to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at the Hamilton Airport.  It’s always weird to land such a tiny plane on 10,000 foot runway!  We headed over to the museum and parked out front.  I put my nice new sun shield up:

While we were eating our yummy breakfast, we saw a bunch of kids point and smile, saying it’s Dusty!  Even some of the adults in the restaurant said the same thing.  I think that sun shield was the best purchase EVER!  Tee hee!

After brekkie, we toured around the museum.

Mike (after some persuasion) stuck his head through this air traffic controller stand….looking very perplexed and deep in thought:

Saw the awesome Lancaster, which I’m scheduled to fly in next month.  Looks like it’s getting some engine work done:

The Lanc is almost as awesome as this cool Dusty replica:

After touring the museum then hitting the gift shop, we headed back outside.  There was a really high end car show going on out on the apron, including Alfa Romeos and Lamborghini’s:

Back out to Vyctor to head home.

Farewell, Hamilton!

We had another decent flight earlier in the week too.  We flew all the way (nine minutes) to Welland Airport for our COPA and RAA meeting.  There was a great spread of food (BBQ and potluck):

Then we watched a great presentation by someone from NAV Canada on aviation weather.  He was excellent!  Totally worth the exhausting flight there and back, plus the heartbreak of having to leave Vyctor outside all night back in St. Catharines:

At least my charming new “accessory” kept him company:

That was the same look I had on my face this morning when I looked at our jigsaw puzzle (which is on a puzzle mat and covered with a blanket), which was destroyed by two dorks:

Pinky has never been up on the table before either.  Ugh.

Today’s symptoms:  Felt pretty darn good today!  My energy was better than normal, which was great for our adventure today.

 

 

Glad today was nice weather-wise as I had another charity fly-over to do.  This one was for Heartland Forest here in Niagara.  The shot-gun start at the golf course was to be at 1:00 so I arrive at the airport for just after noon.  I was surprised to see a big pile of youngsters there.  I guess they were there on a class trip.  I had a little time to kill so I asked them through the fence if they wanted to see some aerobatics.  Heck, the adults and the kids all screamed yes!  I got up to a little over 3000′ over the airport and started the show.  I could only do stuff for about 10 minutes as I had to get to my next event.  After my last maneuver, I did a low and over and rocked my wings – it was so awesome to see all the kids waving at me!  I then headed over to the charity event, about ten minutes south of the airport.  Did my aerobatics then took pics of everyone on the greens:

I’m just doing a quick blog before heading (via car) to the golf course for dinner tonight.

On my flight today, I seemed to have almost hit almost 6g’s!

Good times!

Speaking of good, that would not explain my kitty Mya.  She started destroying yet another puzzle yesterday:

I ask you, how is anything this cute so naughty?

Then we have this cuteness – little Pinky lightly tapping her bro Peanut:

Needless to say, today was awesome.  I’m so glad I could do those fly-overs for everyone.  Now I get to mingle with a bunch of neat folks, including Hockey Hall of Fame legend Marcel Dionne.  He has so graciously helped me with fundraisers for the MS Society in the past, and I’m very grateful.

Today’s symptoms: After a not-good-at-all day yesterday (really bad fatigue, MS aches and pains) I wasn’t sure if I was going to be up to doing today’s fly-over.  Fortunately, I slept quite well (first time in over a week!) and felt pretty good today.  I have a new symptom which started about a month ago (feels like my left foot is always in hot water) but it’s been stable.  So glad not worse!  I see my neurologist at the end of the month so I’ll see what he has to say about it.

Just had an amazing experience today – as last year, I flew over the Rankin Cancer Run in St. Catharines.  I must admit, flying over 10,000 people is an overwhelming sight!  Check it out:

Really takes your breath away to see how many people are coming together to fight such a great cause.

An aviation friend of mine was kind enough to take these pics of my plane, as I did a little aerobatic show over the canal for everyone prior to the start of the run:

Tee hee!  Pretty neat to see!

What an amazing experience!  To make it even better, I heard they raised over $1,000,000!!!!  I’m so honoured to have played a small role in the event by giving people a little show then taking some pics!

Once I got back to the airport, I installed my awesome new windshield sun cover thing.  Everyone always tells me how much my plane looks like Dusty from Disney Planes.  Well, now he really looks like him!

It’s a little big so I have to do some trimming and folding, but I think it looks pretty good!

Had a great flight last weekend too.  Mike and I planned to fly to Tillsonburg, but as we switched the radio over to their frequency about 18 minutes out, we realized how many planes were heading there.  We didn’t want to risk not getting a seat at their restaurant, so we detoured 6 minutes north to Brantford.  Mike got a dish that contained pretty much everything:

We were a little bit heavier flying back, but we made it!

Since I don’t want to deprive anyone of pics of some of my beautiful children, here you go:

You’re welcome!

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty decent this morning despite barely sleeping last night (had a bad stomach ache all night).  Quite tired this afternoon, which isn’t surprising after the amazing but very hot flight.  Totally worth it!

I’ve been looking forward to this Friday 13th since last year.  I usually fly over Port Dover on Friday 13th for the mass biker gathering.  There is only one of them this year, so I was really hopeful the weather would be decent.  As of the day before, it was looking really bad – rain was pretty much guaranteed, which totally sucked for the tens of thousands of bikers and moi!  Fortunately, there was some clear weather in the morning, so I headed to the airport.  In less than 40 minutes, I was over Port Dover.  I don’t think there was quite the turn-out as other years, but it was still a pretty neat sight:

Typical bike parking lot:

Good flight!  The weather totally turned yucky soon after I got home, so I’m glad I made it out when I did.

Once I landed, I headed up to the tower for a visit with the Flight Service Station folks.  Brain was thrilled to see Donkay again and greeted him accordingly:

And then:

I’m pretty sure they were love stabbings!

One of the FSS dudes came in for his shift not long after I arrived.  On his way into work, he had picked some wild asparagus which apparently grows freely throughout Niagara – who knew!

Yum!  (minus the smelly aftermath!)

Another good time during last week was during a Mary K party a friend from work invited me to.  I was able to bring a friend, so I brought bestie Laura with me.  We showed up at the Bed and Breakfast – Lily’s House on the 12 around 6:00pm.  Wow.   All I can say is wow.  This place was gorgeous.  It’s right on 12 Mile Creek  in St. Catharines.  The owner, Lily, has done an amazing job decorating and used her father’s beautiful artwork, such as this:

She even has artists come to her business and provide art classes.  Laura and I both want to sign up for one of these classes soon.  Here’s her schedule: http://bbonthe12.wix.com/bbonthe12#!calendar/mxdeo

Prior to our Mary K session, Lily cooked us a delicious dinner:

Followed by dessert:

What a great evening!

Back home, I took little Peanut out of his cage and let best bud Pinky spend some time with him.  They were both thrilled, as you can see:

Today’s symptoms:  Feeling on and off physically over the last week or so.  Been pretty down and that always has a negative impact on how I feel and my MS symptoms.  Hopefully things turn out and start to pick up!

The other day, I noticed quite a site.  Poor little Boo had a lose tooth that stuck out of her adorable, little mouth:

I phoned the vet right away and got her in to see her the next day.  Unfortunately, the tooth had to be removed surgically.  At least they were available to do it on Saturday, so poor Booser didn’t have to wait until Monday.  The surgery went very well and I was able to sit with her as she came out of the anesthetic:

When we got home, I let her out of her carrier but quickly had to put her back in, as she was running into things and falling over.  She stayed in her carrier for about another hour.  Since Mya has had dental surgery three times, with about 15 teeth removed, she was quite sympathetic of Boo’s situation.  Although, she did laugh at her a bit while she was in the carrier:

Boo was able to eat soft food that night and she’s been doing so much better.  I think that tooth may have been bothering her for a while, but it wasn’t showing any issues when the vet checked her teeth a few weeks ago.

Soon after she got out of her jail cell, Pinky jumped right in.  She’s weird:

I asked Abby if she felt bad for Boo and she yelled “Heck no!  You how many times I’ve been to the vet in my lifetime!?”

It was amazing to see how the two enemies, Abby and Pinky, are more than willing to be tolerable of each other when food is involved:

Back to Boo – she went for a follow-up appointment at the vet’s office on Monday.  She is healing fine and can go back to crunchy food in a week:

I was sitting on my couch today when I heard the dreaded sound I heard once before – a cat jumping up on the table and sliding the jigsaw puzzle right off.  Another bites the dust:

It wasn’t Boo this time though.  Little, sweet, innocent Mya was the culprit:

Kinda hard to get mad at an adorable face like that.

Today’s symptoms: Felt kinda blah today….lots of aches and pains and fairly more fatigue than usual.  I think it’s from the MS, rather than the surgery.  Recovery from that is still going great – yea!

I’m happy to report that my recovery is still going well.  I was able to go up for a little flight this weekend.  Obviously no aerobatics yet though as they put way too much strain on my body.  Mike and I just headed around Niagara, such as over Merrittville Speedway:

My old high school, E.L. Crossley:

I flew over my mother’s house and I saw her out back, filling the bird feeders.  Mike took a pic of my turn as we circled over….tee hee!

Nice, gentle 90 degree turn!  It was a great flight and it was so good to be back up in the air again:

Afterwards, Lil Jan came by and the three of us went to Cora’s for breakfast.  The line up was out the door, so we had to wait about 15 minutes.  Totally worth it though.  Mike got this monster breakfast hamburger dish:

It was kinda amusing watching him trying to eat it, as it was a tad messy.  Speaking of messy, we got back home and I inadvertently left the mitten cupboard open.  Mya always jumps in and starts burrowing.  She sat there for a few minutes after making a total mess.  Then Pinky took her spot (you can see her adorable little head and part of her porkish body):

As usual, neither of them offered to clean up the disaster area.  Dorks.  After that, it was a little sunbathing on the chair:

And Abby out on the balcony:

That’s always one of the first signs of good weather – a cat that ventures outside.  Another sign is pool noodles!

Mike got whacked by one the other day too, so I feel much better now!

Due to my surgery last month, my neurologist took me off my MS medication Gilenya.  For the first dose you take of this daily oral med, you have to be medically monitored for seven to eight hours.  Blood pressure and heart rate needs to be checked every thirty minutes.  Because I was off of the med for a month, I had to go through this again for restarting it today.  Blah.  So I spent all day at a medical clinic.  Rather boring but I got a fair bit of stuff done on my computer, plus a bit of reading.  I was so tired when I got home that I had to lay down for a couple hours.  Who knew sitting on your butt all day could be so exhausting?!

Today’s symptoms: I felt pretty good this weekend and today.  Not too many MS issues, other than the usual fatigue, aches and pains and headache.  The pain for the surgery continues to get better, but gets fairly sore if I remain in the same position for too long, which kinda happened today.  Tomorrow will be better!

So the puzzle saga continues.  Mike and I were working on one for three days.  It was quite challenging yet we got about 3/4 of the way done.  Well, I was sitting on the couch one afternoon when I heard Boo jump up on the table, the puzzle slid across and then I heard dozens of pieces hitting the chair and then floor.  Ugh.  Here is the result – thanks Boo:

Yup, was bound to happen.

Despite this horrific event, Mike and I pressed onward and decided to start a new one.  Mya didn’t care at all that we were utilizing her sun spot:

On a bright note, it was Pinky’s birthday on the 7th.  She turned eight.  Happy birthday, Pinky!

Mike got her an awesome catnip pickle, which she loves:

She looks much thinner in this pic – nice!

On another bright note, and this is going to thrill y’all to tears – everyone in my apartment building got a new toilet for water-saving-measures.  I felt so sad saying goodbye to Looise.  However, I welcomed Loocy to my humble abode.  At first, I thought they were installing her in my hall for easy access:

However, she was eventually installed in the loo, where she belonged.  Isn’t Loocy adorable and so high tech?

Today’s symptoms: Still recovering from surgery but feeling so much better.  Pain is much less as is the general achiness, plus my bloat-a-roos is certainly down.  Had a few bad MS days in there – never enjoy those.  I don’t know if it’s from the surgery recovery or something else but been a bit more down emotionally the last few days.  I’m sure things will get better though.  They always do!

Surgery recovery is still going well, although boring at times and I miss being in the office.  Thankfully I have the amazing kitties, lizards and Mike comes over most evenings.  My four little angels were lined up ever so proper for breakfast this morning.

As you can see, Pinky is getting quite porkish.  I’m sure she’s over ten pounds now:

Mike and I are still on a jigsaw puzzle kick.  They can be very tricky to do when you have monkeys for cats.  We’ve seen this enough times:

And this:

And of course, this:

Oh well – adds an extra challenging layer to the experience!

I got out the other day, as I’ve been going stir-crazy at home.  Jan came by and the three of us went to Timmies then to Fairview Mall for a quick look around.  It was quite nice to get out.  I got a little teary eyed when I saw a kid’s ride, because it was an airplane.  It’s been at least three weeks since I’ve flown and am seriously missing it.  I thought this would temporarily fill the void, but it didn’t help as much as I hoped:

Actually, it kinda hurt being scrunched like that, so the “flight” didn’t last too long.

So since I’ve been mostly home-bound, I really don’t have too much else to report.  You know, other than things like this:

Porky…..errrrr…..I mean Pinky being silly in my laundry bag:

And Abby getting a tan:

Today’s symptoms: Felt really weak and tired today – much more than since the surgery.  I’m sure it’s just a bad MS day though and tomorrow will be better.  Still quite sore and achy from the surgery, but getting better each day. 

It’ll be a week tomorrow since having my surgery and recovery is going well!  I finally took a little trip out of the apartment yesterday as Mike and I walked two blocks over to the Giant Tiger.  It was great to get out but the trip totally wiped me out.  I was able to get a smidge of energy back after nomming on part of the amazing gift the folks from the St. Catharines Airport Tower gave me – an incredible chocolate covered fruit tray:

It was such a wonderful and heartwarming surprise, delivered by Brian, one of the Tower guys on Thursday.  The strawberries were enormous!

It also included chocolate covered bananas (my fav!) and apples (so yummy!)

I’m still so touched over the gift.  🙂

For the last week, I’ve just been chilling.  Mike has been with me every day.  When we were at Giant Tiger, we picked up a few puzzles to do.  We finished the 500 piece one in a few hours:

Now we’re working on a 1000 piece one.

We’ve been watching quite a few movies.  One was so bad, I had to ask him to stop it about 20 minutes in.  So far, the rest have been good including Daddy’s Home and Slender.  During the last movie, lardy Pinky attempted to get her flubby butt up on the cable box.  Check out the flub dangling down:

Mike said she was licking as a way to lubricate herself in order to fit.  Poor Pinky!

The other animals have all been very supportive with my recovery, including smiley Peanut:

Zim and Mya:

And CEO Abby:

And last but not least, Boo:

Not sure what I would do without them.

Symptoms for Today: Felt a bit more weak and tired than the previous few days, probably because of our little outing yesterday.  Still glad I went though.  I’m just going to spend tomorrow on the couch, watching TV and movies.  Good times.

I survived my joyous surgery on Monday morning.  I had it done at the Welland Hospital at 8:00am.  Mike drove me there for 5:45 and we met up with my little mother.  The nurses were so nice the entire time we were there.  I got hooked up with some calming meds and an IV around 7:00.  Despite being a bit nervous, I was still a goof:

Just before 8:00, I was wheeled out to the surgical ward.  After meeting a couple of the residents and other doctors for the surgery, I hopped off the gurney and was escorted over to the operating room.  I passed about six doctors and nurses in the hall so I did the queen wave to all of them and thanked them all for being there.  I then walked into the room and there were even more people in there.  “My fans!  I love you all!” I said as I continued with the queen wave and blew a few kisses.  They were all laughing and said that was quite the entrance.  I was nervous but being silly helped to keep me nice and calm and it was good to hear people laugh before going nighty-night.

I was wheeled out of recovery back to the room where I was originally.  I remember seeing Mike in the hall, so I said in a rather squeaky voice “Hey Michael!” then I fist-bumped him.  He said the nurses thought it was kinda amusing.  I can’t be normal, even before and after surgery.

Everything went really well and I could have probably left around 1:00.  However, I had a a rather fast heartbeat so they kept me until almost 5:00.  I felt so bad for Mike and Jan having to wait around the hospital so long.  Even making glove balloons wasn’t enough to keep us entertained for hours.  (We put a party hat on it when we got home):

It was such a relief to get home.  Had to stop off at the drug store to pick up my meds.  Then I spent the rest of the evening and night in bed.  In case you’re wondering what I had done, let’s just say that the world won’t have to worry about any little Lizzy Jr’s running around.  I’ve been having issues for years and tried everything out there, including ablation surgery, so this was the last resort.  I had to do something with my leftover products, so I made this lovely bouquet for my friend:

Her reaction to it was priceless.  Tee hee!  Then she called me some choice names because I would never need one again.

My recovery is supposed to be about six weeks.  I’m trying to rest as much as possible.  I’m glad we have a four day weekend coming up so I have less work to miss.

Today’s symptoms: Obviously very sore and feeling pretty blah.  My big bloated, bulbous stomach is starting to get a little annoying but I know it will deflate eventually.  Looking forward to going to bed tonight.

Tomorrow is the big day!  I have to be at the hospital for 6:00am.  Yuck!  Surgery at 8:00.  Since I won’t be flying for a few weeks, I took advantage of the good weather on Thursday and went for a nice little aerobatic and scenic flight.  First, I dropped off some fudge I made at the tower:

There weren’t a slew of planes out, I think because it was rather windy:

Vyctor was looking all dapper with his wheel pants back on.  I always have them taken off in the winter in case there is snow on the runway – it may build up inside and interfere with the brakes:

Unfortunately, because my MS med lowers my immune system, I’ve had to quarantine myself for the last few days.  I ended up missing Mike’s niece’s one year birthday party on Saturday.  I just couldn’t risk getting sick before the surgery.  They were kind enough to send Mike home with a couple of yummola cuppy-cakes and a grab bag.  They also got an awesome suit tie for my kitties!  Check these out:

Aren’t they great?  Tee hee!

Today’s symptoms: Haven’t slept too well lately.  Not sure if I’m nervous about the surgery or just going through a spell of insomnia. Feeling pretty drained.  Really looking forward to getting tomorrow over with!

I think Spring is in the air!  Weather has been so nice lately.  Mike and I were able to head out to Tillsonburg for breakfast last weekend.  As usual, the restaurant at the airport was packed.  We even had a hard time finding a parking spot for Vyctor and had to wait for someone else to leave.  Then we covered him up and headed in to find the last table.

The meal was great, as always, plus we met up with some folks we knew from Welland.  Good times.  Most of the other planes were gone by the time we left.  Vyc looked so tiny next to the Harvards:

On Friday, we went over to MJ’s Munchies in St. Catharines for their fund raising event for the Rankin Cancer Run.  We had never been there before.

It was quite good and to top it off, all of the proceeds from their fries that day went to the Rankin fundraiser.  Mike just couldn’t help himself and ended up getting a deep fried Twinkie.

It wasn’t bad!  I certainly couldn’t eat too much of it, but it was kinda good.

We took advantage of the good weather this weekend too and went for an aerobatic flight yesterday.  Unfortunately, I had very full fuel tanks so pulling the plane around the maneuvers was very tiring.  Still, got the rust off of a few things and we both really enjoyed the flight.

My instruments enjoyed the ride, as you can see by my totally side-ways horizon indicator:

You can tell by Mike’s face that he wasn’t too thrilled to be back on the ground:

I woke up this morning to Boo chewing on her toes….such a lovely sound:

Meanwhile, Abby was just chilling:

Mya was being her usual precious self:

And Pinky was just big and blobby:

Just to put it out there, I’m having major surgery next week.  I’ll be heading to Welland Hospital and can’t wait until it’s over with.  Apparently it’s a six week recovery period, but paws crossed it’s less.  I’ll have to report how it goes….especially since I’ll have all the time in the world to blog and will need to do something to keep from going stir crazy!  At least I’ll have lots of company between the Mike and Jan visits.  Like Abby and her brothers….like this:

Or Mya, who likes sitting over her food dish, begging desperately for a second breakfast:

Today’s symptoms: I’m so happy with how I did energy-wise.  I went through about five nights of yucky insomnia but the last couple of nights have been getting better.  Life is good!

Had a bit of a potential situation the other night.  The crickets I’ve been breeding are finally at a good nomming size for the geckos.

I put a little pile of them in Zim’s tank.  About an hour later, I went by to see how everything was going when I noticed something a tad disturbing.  All of the crickets were in a little pow wow, talking smack about Zim and clearly planning something.

You can kinda see Zim at the top of the pic in his cave.  Well, soon after I saw this gathering, two of them went over to his cave, positioned as look-outs.  I was really nervous for Zim at this point, as it was obvious they were planning an attack.  I was extremely caught off guard when I zoomed in at one of the crickets and saw this terrifying sight:

Dude appears to be from the Bloods gang (with his red do rag) and packing heat.  I was so afraid Zim was going to get capped.  I yelled “Police!  Everyone get down!” and they all scattered.  I think this did the trick as all do rags have been shed and I was able to retrieve seven fire arms (pistols, a sawed-off shot gun and an uzi).  Everything seems to be good since then.  Crisis averted!

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good.  Fatigue level was a bit less than normal and despite some spasms in my legs in the morning, there were no major aches or pains.  Good day!

Despite the insane winds today, Mike and I decided to be rebels and fly out to Brampton for breakfast.  We didn’t hear another plane until we got to Burlington.  I guess most people don’t like flying in around 50km/hr winds.

Mike decided to order the Lancaster Bomber breakfast.  It seemed like a lot of food – eggs, home fries, pancakes, toast and bacon, ham or sausage.  We were a tad shocked when it all arrived and it was actually bacon, ham AND sausage.  Good grief!

I can’t believe he managed to get it all down, except for the toast.  Unfortunately, he weighed so much after that I couldn’t fly him back with me.  He would have exceeded the weight and balance of my plane.  Tee hee.

Look how cute little Vyctor looked, all cold and blowy:

We passed this rather amusing sight while taxiing back to the runway:

While heading back to St. Catharines, we took a little detour and flew over the winery where my friend Laura, my mother and I visited for an awesome wine tasting experience.  It’s Kings Court Estate Winery in St. Catharines.  I told the owner that I would snap some pics of his property next time I flew over.  The big green roof really helped with locating it from the air:

The landing back at St. Catharines was a little hairy due to the insane wind, but it turned out well.  No other planes at all when we were coming back, as the winds had picked up even more over the couple hours we were gone.

As always, I show pics of my wonderful family in these joyous blogs.  Here’s one of Pinky, with fur.  When the weather gets colder, she will literally start growing fur overnight:

Cats with fur – freaks.

Speaking of freaks, little skinny Mya crawled under the couch for some reason:

Then we have Zim having a bit of a drink:

The little dickens actually got out of his aquarium the other day. There is a small hole at the top of his tank for air.  I still don’t see how he could have jumped from the upper platform to the hole, but he did it!  I walked into the bathroom that morning and found Pinky and Boo staring at the corner, and there was Zim!  I’ve since put screen over his tank lid.  Geesh.  Good thing his sisters protected him.

Since Abby is Mike’s favourite, I tried to get a nice pic of her this morning to send to him.  This is the result:

So there are a few of my weirdos for you to enjoy.  You’re welcome.

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good today.  Much better than I was feeling yesterday, where I was more fatigued than normal with lots of yucky aches and pains. 

The weather finally cooperated enough that Mike and I could fly to Guelph for breakfast last weekend.  This was our third attempt – the first two we had to turn back due to weather.  It was a very windy day when we flew in, so it was quite bumpy.  My mother would have had a fit if she flew with me in weather like that.  Wuss!  Anyway, we were the only ones who flew in yet the restaurant was packed and we had to wait for a seat.  Typical, since their food is amazing!

We watched little Vyctor bouncing around in the cold, all snuggly with a sleeping bag keeping his engine warm:

Since it was a south-west wind, we were flying on quite an angle both ways just to keep going in the right direction.  Fun!

Mike snapped this pic of my amazing new 17-bladed propeller as we approached the Burlington Skyway:

The weather was great today so I made it out for another flight.  I haven’t done aerobatics in a couple of months so decided to do a bit of a rust remover flight.  Man, that first loop made my head go a little wobbly for a couple seconds after.  I then did my normal rolls, snap rolls, hammer head, cuban 8 then a bunch of combos.  After that, I just did a brief tour around the drained Welland Canal.  Looks pretty neat from the air:

Then saw this, which I’ve never noticed before (despite countless flights around there):

I don’t think they have to worry about any swimmers for a few months.  I guess those white marks on the posts are the water lines.

Short but nice flight today:

Back home, I had a nice little visit with nice little Jan.  Then I spent the rest of the day preparing for our Recreational Aircraft Association meeting tomorrow night.  I also chilled with some of the critters:

I think I’ve mentioned in previous blogs how my angel Mya kinda likes to sit (out of love, of course) on her sisters.  Well, this morning on the heater behind my bed was no different….and she stayed there despite Pinky’s growls:

You can see the love in Mya’s eyes!  Poor Pinky usually has something on her.  I was walking by the bathroom the other day and threw my hair scrunchie onto the counter, not knowing she was there:

You can see the love in her eyes, too!

Today’s symptoms: Have been quite down the last few days so the fatigue has been a bit worse than “normal.”  This has caused more headaches and aches and pains too, but I plan on feeling just marvy tomorrow!

Good news – finally flew again for the first time in a month and a half!  Mike and I were hoping to head somewhere for breakfast on Sunday, but the weather was only good enough for a fairly short local flight.  Still, it was great to fly again (I was starting to go through withdrawal!)

Donkay was quite excited to go up as well:

The visibility was dropping from the time we took off, so we had to stay close to the St. Catharines airspace.  The ice formations along the Lake Ontario shoreline were pretty neat to see:

After flying around for about 20 minutes, we decided to head back and land.  Since the in-flight meal was cancelled, we headed out to an eatery on the ground.  It was our first time to the Good Eats Diner, just around the corner from the airport.  Mike always has a hard time deciding whether to get pancakes or eggs, but they had an item on the menu that had both.  Dang, that’s a lot of food, dude!

Very yummy – I would recommend this place.

We just watched some movies once back home.  I also checked on my crickets.  The breeding is going well.  With the last batch, I think it may have gone a little too well.  I  have over 150 babies from it.  Here’s a small sample:

My geckos are going to get very fat over the next couple of months.  Oink.

Today’s symptoms: I developed a lovely cold over the last couple of days.  I’m not too impressed since my New Year’s resolution was to not get sick this year.  Since New Year’s Day, I’ve had a bad stomach bug, a cold, sinus infection, bladder infection, this cold and tomorrow I’m seeing my doctor to be tested for H. Pylori (it’s a bacteria in the stomach).  Geesh.

 

Still not done with them googly eyes!  Mike decided to try them out yesterday:

Tee hee!  Abby tried them too but since she’s naturally so googly, she looks the same:

Stay tuned for Mya and Boo.  So far they’ve been too squirrely.

I have been breeding crickets for a few months now.  With two geckos, I’ve been having to make weekly trips to the pet store to buy more.  So far, it’s going quite well!  I decided to pick up a 10 gallon aquarium the other night (only $15 at Petsmart) to give the breeding crickets more room.  I have the incubating habitats up on the table (with the small bin on top with a handful of young crickets from a couple batches ago) and the aquarium fits very nicely below:

The nice thing about the tank being down low is that it provides entertainment for the kitties.  Mya really loves watching them scurry about:

Saw an interesting site last night – I thought it was a ghost cricket:

Apparently crickets shed their exoskeleton and are white until the new one grows.  There’s your fun fact for the day!  You’re welcome.

Due to the recent snow, I put a mat next to the door for soggy boots.  It stayed in place for about 13 seconds.  Both Boo and Pinky seem to get great satisfaction from running full speed into the hall, jumping on the mat and sliding across the floor into the closet door.  Dorks.

I swear, I can’t have anything nice there.  Not even a stinkin’ boot mat.  Oh well, they’re worth it…..spose….

Today’s symptoms:  Dealing with yet another bladder infection and as usual, it’s done a number on my fatigue level.  Been quite weak over the last few days.  I don’t normally get a stomach ache with these infections, but I have a pretty bad one this time.  It’s starting to get annoying.  Grrrr….