Ok, I’m a little disappointed in the lack of participation in my previous blog post photo challenge.  Here is the picture I sent:

I had one response.  In all fairness, Karen, you did an awesome job guessing!  No, it wasn’t me wrapped in a blanket at the drive-in theatre, it wasn’t a nose, nor an elbow.  Even my mother didn’t get it – no, it’s not a pimply knee.  Ugh.  My co-pilot friend Bob was the only one to get it right.  Yup, that’s my little Pinky’s back!  See it now?  Look at how cute the whole Pinky is:

Happy Canada Day, folks!  Mike and I decided to spend the day in nature.  We first visited the Wainfleet Quarry, which we went to last year as well.  Due to recent massive downpours, the waters were just a tad elevated:

Before we got down to the floor, I yelled up to Mike “Get a picture, hurry!!!”  So he did:

Yup, Lizzy caught a snake and Mike’s girlfriend is whacked.  He smelled so bad (the snake, not Mike), but was adorable (both the snake and Mike)!  Thankfully, we brought hand wipes.  I offered to pass him off to Mike, but he declined.

We walked through quite a bit of slop before reaching the far wall, where we sat for over an hour, looking for fossils and cool rocks.  We had to climb up the wall to get where we wanted to go first though:

C’mon Mike!  You can do it!

On the way back, Mike got a little scared again, as we were following a bunch of horses out of the quarry.  I used to ride for over a year back in high school, so was quite comfy around the awesome animals.  Mike, however, has never been around them.  I followed fairly close:

Mike stayed about 16km back.  Oh well.

After the quarry, we went to visit my tiny mother.  On the way home, I decided to show Mike the St. John’s Conservation Area Trout Pond.  He had never been there.

The weather was decent and most people had the day off, so it was quite busy. Although looking at that pic, it’s doesn’t look very occupied.  We just wandered around for about 20 minutes before heading out.  We saw this awesome site on the way out:

Best country in the world, eh?  I thinkest so!

Today’s symptoms: After feeling pretty crappy the last few days, although progressively getting better, I felt ok today.  I’ve been very weak again, almost like my bladder infection was back (which I went through for over a year).  Not sure if I have another infection or just dealing with crapola MS symptoms.  Paws crossed they go away for the next few days (weeks, months or even years!)

Mike and I made the arduous nine minute flight to Welland from St. Catharines last week.  Our Recreational Aircraft Association group (RAA) joined up with Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) for our monthly meeting.  I like to call the group COPRAA.  We usually meet during June – September at the Welland Airport for a social gathering and BBQ.  Our membership is declining, as is COPA’s, so we thought it would be nice to bring the two groups together during the summer months.  It was a great night – awesome food and lots of folks.  I think Mike and I are the only ones that flew in.  We just stayed about an hour as we tried to get back to St. Catharines before they closed up the hangar.  After a yummola burger, sides then dessert, we headed back:

We didn’t make it back in time to put little Vyctor away in the Hangar overnight, so we tied him up outside:

Right before the flight, I thought I lost little Donkay again.  Man, someone is seriously going to call FADS (Family and Donkey Services) on me!  Fortunately, Donkay was located the next day.

I really need to start being more careful with the little dude.    Speaking of little, check out these adorable chicks:

Pinky is actually starting to grow fur!

She has been running around the apartment yelling “Fear the fuzzy!  Fear it!”

The other night, I tried to give Mike one of my tuna and cracker snacks to take to work the next day.  I put it in his bag before he left.  He thought he was so smart when he took it out and snuck it onto my counter.  Revenge is sweet!  Without him knowing, I went over to his apartment and returned the tuna.  I first took a pic of his doorknob and texted it to him once I was in the elevator.  He came out to see this:

Those are Lifesavers, a cheese slice, gum, peanut butter and of course, the tuna snack.  Who’s the ninja now???

Here’s a challenge for today.  Comment on this post and let me know what you think this is:

Good luck!

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty drained again today.  Yesterday was really bad though – I ended up laying down just after lunch and slept for over an hour and a half.  The poopy part was that when I woke up, I didn’t feel any better at all.  Thankfully it’s not as bad today and tomorrow (I hope!) will be even better!  I have to go to Hamilton to give a couple of presentations, so I really need to feel good for that.  Had quite a bit of crushing pain in my hands over the last few days, and my legs really went into spasms when I walked.  Paws crossed that’s better tomorrow as well.

This past weekend was kinda poopola weather-wise.  Mike and I had planned on flying to Tillsonburg for a fly-in, but it was a no-go weather-wise.  Oh well.  I was still feeling kinda blah since recovering from my bladder and kidney infection.  I rested quite a bit over those two days, which was good since we bought tickets for Marineland for Monday.  Neither of us had been there for years.  The park opened at 10:00, and we arrived around 10:15.  It was very overcast that day and rain was forecast for early afternoon.  We showed up to an almost empty park:

It was so weird!  We decided to walk around the park and scope things out.  After about ten minutes of walking, we arrived at the Dragon Mountain roller coaster.  We noticed the height requirement sign.  There is no way my tiny mother would have made it on this ride.  See below:

The awesome part was we were the only ones on the ride!  Our first trip was in the back car.  Notice the lack of patrons:

Good times.  I was a tad disappointed as I did not get even the slightest rush from the ride.  It’s like when I do aerobatics in my plane – no rush, just fun.  I’m not sure if that’s from one of my MS lesions on my cute little brain that disrupted this part of me, or I just got rushed-out over the years.  Regardless, the roller coaster was still fun.  We got off the ride, walked back around (as instructed) and got in the front car.  Again, the only people on the ride.  Good times!  Afterwards, we hit a few more rides.  The most on the rides with us were about ten other people.  No wait times at all.  One the way to the next ride, we checked out the cute bears:

We also checked out the belugas:

We then walked over to the Sky Screamer, which is where they shoot you straight up then drop you down.  Mike wasn’t too struck on riding this one, so he took pics.  So, I rode it with a young little dude.  The sweetest thing happened – we had to wait over half an hour before a ride operator showed up and started the ride.  The boy wandered away with his mother to find an employee.  When he came back, he brought me a daisy.  So sweet!  You can see it on my left hand:

Could I be any paler?!?!  Good grief!

After this ride, it started to rain.  Mike and I decided to head home.  Before leaving the park, we both bought a season pass for $5 each!  Nice!

Once back home, we told the cats about our day.  They weren’t too thrilled.  Abby and Mya just sat there like dorks:

Mike then decided to give Abby another kitty friend:

Something we haven’t done in a while is play Call of Duty.  Mike and I are an awesome team.  As you can see from our score (I’m Abby), we kick butt (tee hee!):

In all fairness, I was in the Army for eleven years.  I have more experience!  The main thing is we always win. We rock.

Today’s symptoms: I felt better today than over the weekend.  I didn’t do too well yesterday – very fatigued and lots of MS aches and pains.  I’m hoping tomorrow is at least a tad better!

My youngest sphynx Abby has been a totally couch hog lately.  Mind you, it’s cute that she’s being so snuggly.  The only issue is when she gets gas, she shares it with me while I’m sitting next to her, then she runs away.  I typically regain consciousness within a couple minutes, but it’s still pretty traumatic.  I think this is where we see the other side of Abby:

I have renamed her Lucifabby.  Still cute though!

The other week, I flew over the charity golf tournament for Heartland Forest, which is based out of Niagara Falls.  Thankfully the rain held off until later in the afternoon, so the flight and golfers were good to go.  I was invited to the dinner after the event.  I met up with hockey legend Marcel Dionne, who has done MS charitable events with me in the past.

I ended up bidding on a Montreal hockey jersey, signed by Larry Landon:

He actually ended up bidding on my flight, so it was great to help raise money for the event.

Mike’s mom did something really nice for me – she made a little scarf for Donkay!

How cute is that?  He went with Mike and I to Branford last weekend for breakfast.  Little Vyctor looked so cute sitting outside, patiently waiting for us to finish breakkie:

There was a nice little surprise back at the airport in St. Catharines – it’s my plane’s low-wing twin:

Almost matching wheel pants on Vyctor and this American registered Piper.  Cute!

Now that were on the topic of cute, little Mya decided to crawl under my couch the other day.  She looked a little possessed when I took this pic of her:

Calm little Abby, in the meantime, was just chilling with her buddy Zim:

Must have been a full moon or something as Pinky was really weird yesterday.  First she stood at the halfway opened balcony door, mewing to get in.  Hello – it’s open, if you would just move to your left a foot.

Then she got into my mitten drawer, which also contains my earmuffs.  She must have jumped through my blingy ones, as she ran out with them still on her.  It was hilarious – she ran around the whole apartment with them on:

Very strange children I have.

Today’s symptoms: I’m quite tired and weak today.  I’ve been dealing with another bladder and kidney infection for the last couple of weeks.  My sleep has been off as it’s quite painful to lay down on top of sore kidneys.  Hope this clears up soon.  I still can’t believe I went through a year of these wretched infections.

There was almost a complete travesty this past weekend.  I lost Donkay!  It was horrible – I ended up searching every square inch of my apartment for almost three hours, but to no avail.  I was just about to put these up across Niagara:

It was so hard to go to sleep that night, knowing he could be out there anywhere, cold and alone. I was also afraid someone might report me to FADS (Family and Donkey Services) for being a bad mother.  He was the first thing I thought of when I woke up in the morning.  Then, for some strange reason, it hit me.  OMG – I had put him up on my airplane light in my bedroom a few nights previous!

I’m so glad he’s back!  I’ll never be so careless and forgetful again!

Last Friday, Mike and I went to see another Monster Truck Show.  This one was a around a fifteen minute walk downtown St. Catharines at the Meridian Centre.  We bought really good seats.  The sad thing was how few people attended.  Apparently it was like that on Saturday too.  Regardless, it was an awesome show:

Another great thing that happened recently was Zim the gecko being initiated into my family.  All of my non-human loved ones must be dressed up for a quick photo shoot.  I used the same hat I had on Peanut a few weeks earlier.  He’s so charming!

I was surprised he stayed so still while it was on him.  I’m sure Peanut warned him that it was going to happen and to just suck it up and get it over with.  After the pics were taken, Zim wandered over to see a couple of his sisters:

I held him up for Pinky to see – she’s always so interested as soon as I take them out of their tanks.

And her after face:

I would say that Boo is the least of the four interested in the geckos.  So she wouldn’t feel left out, we played a little game of Where’s Boo???

There she is!

Looks totally thrilled, doesn’t she?

Last week while walking to work, I stopped in my tracks when I saw this awesome hawk perched on a parking metre.  Check out the slightly terrified looking squirrel on the tree above him:

Today’s symptoms: Felt really poopy.  I’m not sure if it’s more from the bladder infection or the antibiotic I’m on for it.  I had no energy at all today and lots of MS-related aches and pains.  I can’t wait to feel MUCH better tomorrow, so help me Hannah!

Had a pretty neat experience this weekend.  I’ve flown over many charitable events but not one of this magnitude.  This was the 10th annual Rankin Cancer Run here in Niagara.  I was asked to fly photographer Andrew Fisher over the venue, to get some aerial shots.  Over 12,000 people took part in the run, which started and ended at the Grantham Lions Club in north St. Catharines.  Here is the amazing view of the folks we spent about thirty minutes flying over:

And once the run was underway:

Truly amazing – they raised over $900,000 which all stays here in Niagara!  Sweet!  I feel so honoured to have been able to contribute to this event.

Andrew was kind enough to take some wonderful shots of Vyctor before we took off.  Here are some of them:

Thanks again, Andrew!  You truly brought out Vyctor’s good side – which is every side!  I mean look at him – he’s absolutely adorable!  The cutest plane ever!

Today’s symptoms: Haven’t had the greatest week.  My stupid bladder infection is back.  I still don’t know how I made it through a year of having these infections, which were finally put to rest after starting a daily low-dose antibiotic in December.  My urologist didn’t want me on it long term, so I ceased the med about a month ago.  Ugh.  May have to go back on it.  The infections exacerbate many of my MS symptoms, the main ones are the fatigue and weakness – much worse.  Fortunately I was feeling decent on Saturday morning, but the flight wiped me out and I spent the rest of the day in bed.  At least I had the kittahs to keep me company!

I’m so thrilled that Vyctor is all fixed – this meant Mike and I could fly over some Victoria Day fireworks.  The weather looked kinda meh for Monday, so we decided to lift off yesterday.  The show over Niagara Falls was scheduled for 10:00pm.  I almost showed up at the airport in my jammies!

We got little Vyctor checked out and ready to rock:

The flight was great – very smooth and clear.

We tried to get pics of the fireworks but they didn’t turn out too well.  Take my word, they were awesome! Here’s a shot Mike took of the Falls though:

We came back in for a landing after about an hour long flight:

The timing of the night worked out perfectly.  There was another Flying Club plane flying after 10:00pm, so there were still folks at the Club.  This meant little Vyc got to be put back in the hangar before we left:

I have to admit something – I committed a terrible act of terribleness this weekend.  I’m super sensitive when it comes to animals, to the point where I can’t even harm an insect.  However, I noticed my little gecko Zim was looking a tad peckish.  I thought I could fix this by offering him some noms:

I thought he would just say “Hello!  I’ll maybe snack on you later.”  Nope.  Chomped him right out of my fingers.  Looked quite content after:

Poor cricket dude.

There was another more innocent offering the next night, with wee Abby:

I swear I raised her to be a lady.  Not sure what happened.

Another classy lady is Pinky, who decided to freak Mike and I out while we were watching a spooky movie.  The balcony door was open and she jumped up on the air conditioner and did this:

Really?  That’s totally creepy.  Thank goodness she’s so cute.

Speaking of cute, check out this pile of adorableness:

Mike and I had to stop off at the pet store this weekend, as I needed more crickets for the two geckos.  I accidentally left with crickets and a cool platform for Zim’s tank.  Oops:

Needless to say, after the platform and ramp we installed last week, Zim’s tank is full out awesome.  No more room for anything else…..or is there?

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good but sorta drained.  It’s been a long but wonderful weekend and kinda took it’s toll.  It’s all good though – totally worth it.

Oh the joys of vehicle ownership, as we all know.  I mentioned there was a tad of a problem with my plane a little over a week ago.  It turns out that I need to replace Vyctor’s alternator and voltage regulator.  Ugh!!!!  Oh well, what more can go wrong.  Wait – I know!  I could go to my little mother’s house on Sunday to spend some time with her for Mother’s Day.  It was a very nice visit.  However, when I walked outside to get into my car, I noticed this massive tear in my tire tread.  In the seam close to the hubcap, there was a very deep rip that went almost half way around the tire.  You could actually look into the tire – I have no idea how it didn’t blow!  I called Costco to see if I could come in, thinking it was one of the tires I purchased from them last year.  We dropped off the car, walked across the street to the Fairview Mall, then got a call from the Tire Centre.  It wasn’t the tire I bought from them last year – it was one of the originals (it’s a 2009).  Ugh, so there’s almost $400.  I figured I might as well get her an oil change while she was up in the stirrups.  Ok, so in the last week, I’ve had to replace a couple very expensive airplane bits on Vyctor, which includes two skylights, plus new car tires and I had to pick up my MS med from the pharmacy today, for a wonderful $2800.  Oh well!  What can you do!  Here’s my cute plane all naked and vulnerable:

Poor little dude!  Fortunately, something good came out of this weekend, besides visiting little Jan for Mother’s Day.  I have acquired a new family member.  You may remember that recently, I adopted the gecko Peanut – please meet Zim, the Leopard Gecko!

Mike’s sister and brother-in-law have had this adorable little fella for the last seven years. He’s a desert-type gecko, unlike Peanut who is tropical.  So, this little guy needs sand and boring things (no joyous greenery and fun-stuff.)  He has been introduced to each of the kitties:

So far, so good!  Mike and I have kinda upgraded his aquarium, which the kitties love checking out:

Since it’s more of a vertical tank, we though we would make some adjustment to give him a little more room to frolic.  Here’s the construction phase:

Then the final product:

I think he’s happy!  He’s still a tad skittish but he’s in a new home with four hairless freaks.

Today’s symptoms: I’ve felt pretty good for the last three days.  This never happens!  It’s been absolutely amazing.  I would give anything to feel this good (like a normal person!) all of the time.  Hope it stays around a bit longer.  If not, at least I’ve had this amazing experience!

The annual Walk for MS was this Sunday and fortunately, the weather was perfect.  The St. Catharines and Niagara Falls Walks both started at 9:00.  As I do every year, since it usually has the most Walkers and is the closest to the airport, I fly over the St. Catharines site first.  Here’s a shot of everyone before the Walk started:

And once the Walkers headed out for their trek:

Then I headed over to the Niagara Falls site, which was only a few minutes away:

The Welland site Walk didn’t start until 10:00, so I had some time to kill.  I noticed a slew of windmill blades fairly close to the school where the Walk started:

Kinda neat!  I heard from a friend who was doing the Welland Walk that they were quite behind with their start time.  I had been flying around the area for about 20 minutes when my cute little plane started to have some electrical issues.  I decided it would be best to head back to the St. Catharines airport and land.  I feel bad that I missed flying over the Welland Walkers, but had to play it safe.  So, now I’m just waiting on my aviation mechanic to see what wrong with poor Vyctor.

Regardless of sick Vyctor, the MS Walk flyover went great.  Looking forward to next year!

When Jan and I were in the States last week, I accidentally picked up a shirt for the kitties.  I guess I accidentally put it on them too:

Oh what the heck…Peanut, would you like to give it a whirl?

Classy, n’est-ce pas?  Tee hee!

I had a bit more to write about, but it’s getting close to beddy time.  I shalt continue with the blog soon – stay tuned!

Today’s symptoms: Actually had very few symptoms today.  More energy than normal, which is always my hope every day.  Paws crossed it continues!

I had an awesome day today.  The weather was perfect, I was feeling great….I was asked to fly to the Burlington Airpark to speak with about a dozen Girl Guides to help them with their aeronautics badge.  I took off at around 12:30 from St. Catharines, landed at Burlington and waited for everyone to arrive.  We did a little lesson on basic aviation, safety, rules of flight, airplane components and surfaces, etc.  What a great group of kids.  They were especially excited when we went out to Vyctor to check out how he flew and to sit it the cockpit.  All the while, giving little lessons and pointers:

And the excitement of sitting in the cockpit, headset on, seat-belt fastened, radio of local flight traffic airing over the speaker:

A very nice person from the Spectrum Flight Training took this awesome group photo:

I was graciously presented with this awesome certificate (signed by the Girl Guides) and a yummola box of Girl Guide cookies (which accidentally fell open after dinner tonight, and a cookie or two ended up in my belly):

Totally great day!  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  I hope I feel this good tomorrow.  I have the Walk for MS, starting at 9:00.  As with the last eight or nine years, I’m going to fly over all three Walk sites in Niagara as they take place.  I can’t wait!  I’m so appreciative of everyone who supported me with my fundraising goal.  Thank you again!

Ok, where are the kitties you ask?  Well, I went to the States the other day with my mother and I accidentally bought this little outfit for them.  Oops:

I swear Pinky enjoyed me putting it on her:

See??? Thrilled like her sisters….and brother, Peanut the Gecko:

Afterwards, I put Peanut back into his aquarium and asked him if he enjoyed the clothing experience.  Clearly from his expression, he did:

You like it Abby?

Too bad she doesn’t have more expression in her face….tee hee.

Today’s symptoms: Felt so good after feeling really poorly yesterday (weak, lots of MS aches and pains….blah).   I’m pretty sure tomorrow is going to be good – yup!  Gonna feel good….no prob.

Mike and I went to the Monster Truck show in Hamilton yesterday at the First Ontario Centre.  He had never been to this type of show before.  I used to go to them quite often as a kid.  We drove up there for around 1:00 as the show started at 2:00.  We wandered around Jackson Square for a bit to kill some time, then over to the event.  We had front row seats for the awesomeness.  It was great to see my favourite there – Grave Digger:

Great action with only one flipped vehicle:

There was a neat quad race as well:

We enjoyed it so much that we bought tickets for the event in St. Catharines at the end of May.  At least we’ll be able to just walk over to the Meridian Centre.

Back home, Mike decided to play a game on his phone.  Peanut helped:

He then decided to have a closer look at Mike’s face:

Meanwhile, Mya checked out my new Airplanes ottoman:

Boo looked on, totally enthralled:

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good today – maybe a little more drained than normal, but that was a long day yesterday.  Still dealing with these rotten bouts of insomnia.  I see my neurologist in a couple weeks for my annual MS check up, so I’ll see if he has any suggestions.

Mike and I both took a couple days off of work and headed to Toronto on Wednesday.  We decided to take the bus rather than drive.  The bus terminal is about two blocks from the apartment and booking through Megabus, we only paid $11 for two one way tickets there!  We bought tickets for the Faulty Towers dinner show at the Sony Centre for Wednesday night.

It was excellent with the shenanigans starting before we even got seated for dinner.  Mike got a couple insults thrown at him.  Then we had a peanut (not my gecko named Peanut!) thrown at us, which I gracefully caught.  Here’s Mike getting heckled by Manuel:

Then Basil and Sybil began their typical arguments while in front of us:

After a little show in the bar and waiting area, we were summoned to our tables.  It was a very interactive show, with the actors doing their thing around our dinner tables.  All three of them were spot-on with regards to their characters:

Manuel danced and sang up on our table at one point:

I cant’ remember if that was before he combed my hair with my fork, to which Basil told him to stop as there was no hope for me!  Tee hee!

Along with the show, the food was excellent:

We would both recommend going.  Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel for the night.  The next morning, we headed to Timmies for breakfast and then to Ripley’s Aquarium, which is next to the CN Tower.  We made it there just before about seven school buses came, so it was relatively quiet while we walked through the amazing exhibit.  Here are a few shots:

We got to pet the little…errr…..I forget what they’re called.  Brown, flat fishie dudes:

Of course, being a total whack job, I had to do all of the kid activities and things.  Like pose under this jellyfish dangler:

And crawl on my hands and knees through the kiddies tunnel, where I did this lovely pose for Mike:

Great couple of days!  Needless to say, I was totally wiped out today – I always seem to have to pay for these things but it’s worth it.  You gotta live!  Life it too short, just like my mother.

Today’s symptoms: Really pooped and lots of bad MS aches and pains.  I’ll feel better tomorrow though.

The weather this weekend was great.  Mike and I had planned on flying to Guelph on Saturday, but I was feeling really lousy (weak and fatigued) that day.  Sunday was nice but very windy and gusty.  What the heck – I like a challenge.  We made it to Guelph in around 35 minutes.  The landing was quite interesting due to the rather small runway that was in use and dealing with the windage.  I had to come in a little faster than normal to fight the gusts which is rather interesting on a small runway.  Fortunately, the landing went well:

We taxied over to the restaurant.  Not surprising due to the high winds, we were the only ones that flew in.

Regardless, the restaurant was packed.  We even had to wait about ten minutes for a table.  No complaints – it’s great to see an airport restaurant so busy.  Soon after we ordered our food, we figured out why they were so crowded:

The food was delicious.  We would love to go back!

While heading out, we waited for a gyro-copter to do a touch and go:

We couldn’t believe they were out flying in those winds!  Good for them!

It was a nice flight on the way home, which was about fifteen minutes longer due to the headwind.  I let Mike fly for a bit while I took in the scenery, such as the slightly packed Ikea parking lot:

And the Skyway Bridge:

One of the best parts of the trip was how great I felt in the morning.  I haven’t had that much energy in a very long time.  It was so amazing – I would give ANYTHING to always feel like that.  Unfortunately, a few hours after our flight, I was back to my normal feeling self.  Blah.  Oh well, I’m least I had the break from feeling yucky!  We spent the rest of the day just chilling with the kitties.  Abby didn’t really want to be disturbed (she’s disturbed enough):

Boo spent some time in the tub:

I think she decided to hide out there after being smushed by Mya:

Pinky decided to look far less miserable than she normally does:

And Peanut did this adorable little pose:

I have the cutest family ever!  I proudly symbolize them on my car, which really needs a bath:

It rained quite a bit overnight on Sunday and into Monday morning.  That left this amazing double rainbow, which I took a panoramic shot of:

I wasn’t too stable with the horizontal sweep, which is why St. Catharines is looking a little wobbly across the horizon.  Oops!

Ok, back to cats.  I like to call this Mya pic Myla Monroe:

Abby being her typical googly self:

As soon as the weather turns nice and I open the door to the screened-in balcony, this is usually the view from inside:

Can’t leave them out there too long though or they get sunburned.  Go figure!

Today’s symptoms: Didn’t feel too good today.  Finally slept a little better last night but the fatigue and weakness are still with me.  How rude!

Ok, just in case you ever thought I was normal, check out the first video on the Videos page of my website:

http://site.lizzymcfly.com/Videos.html

A screen shot of the video.  Yup, I’m whacked.  Doing a hammerhead (aerobatic maneuver):

Check out the background of the video – went straight up until the plane couldn’t climb anymore and then I flipped it over and we came back down to the joyous earth.  Good times!  And I think it was J. Lo singing On The Floor.

Today’s symptoms: Felt really good today.  So glad I was able to go up and do aerobatics.  Haven’t done them in a couple months.  I was actually able to do them for around an hour.  Felt good the entire time.  What a blast!

I have taken a clip of the Cogeco interview I did the other week.  I posted it on my website here:  Cogeco Interview for the Walk for MS.  I really wish I could have posted the entire interview, which I did with Jennifer from the MS Society, but it was just too big.  She did a fantastic job talking about the Walk coming up on May 3rd.

This weekend, Mike and I went hat shopping.  We really had time a hard time finding what we were looking for.  We’ve actually been looking for over a week.  However, we found the perfect hat at the hobby shop downtown St. Catharines.  Here’s how it looks:

Nice, eh?  It came with a little cane and umbrella too.  We need to set up a photo shoot with all the props.  Stay tuned!

We walked by Beechwood donuts on the way to the hobby shop.  It’s this new donut shop downtown, which is doing a killer business.  They typically sell out before the end of the day.  I actually went there during my lunch break last week and picked one up for Mike – chocolate peanut butter.

I’m not a big donut person, but did have some.  Really good!  The nice thing was when I went, there was no line.  Unlike when we walked by it on Saturday:

I counted and there were about 50 people in line (including inside).  Crazy.

On Sunday, we flew down to Tillsonburg for breakfast.  We met up with a couple friends from my work.  One is a pilot and her parents own a plane and the other is dating a pilot.  So three planes flew in to meet up for great food and conversation.  Heading back, we saw a pretty big brush fire in a field.  Of course, I had to head over to check it out:

Great flight that day.  The weather was perfect and both St. Catharines and Tillsonburg were very busy.

Here’s a good one – my kittah Pinky is a tad….errrr…..miserable looking.  She just has one of those faces.  Kinda ironic that she decided to sit on my Grumpy Cat pillow:

Then there’s Mya who’s now into selfies:

Yup, my cats are weird.  And so are these pics Mike’s dad sent us:

Back to normalcy, we had an awesome Recreational Aircraft Association meeting last night at the St. Catharines airport.  We had the Base Manager of National Helicopters give a chat about being a chopper pilot and working for National.  It was a great presentation and our members had tons of questions.

I was going to ask if I could borrow his model as I think it’s a good size for Peanut.  You know, when we do the photo shoot.  We could get him a little headset and everything.

Today’s symptoms: Didn’t feel too bad despite the busy day yesterday with the meeting.  Did go through a weird sensory issue early this afternoon, where I felt like my chair is leaning back and my hands feel huge.  Like I said – weird!  It’s very rare that it happens and it usually lasts only an hour or two.  It’s quite distracting though and makes it hard to work. 

I was really happy to see the recent Cogeco interview I did, along with Jennifer from the MS Society.  It went really well – the interviewer Carrie Zeffiro, was awesome.  It will be airing on the “What’s New?” segment on the Cogeco (Niagara) station on: Sat. April 11 at 6PM, Sun. April 12 at 1PM, Wed. April 15 at 6PM, Sat. April 18 at 6PM and Sun. April 19 at 1PM.

To celebrate the interview, I decided to make Mike a gourmet meal that night….you know, the kind like from those extremely high end, classy restaurants.  It’s “poulet au wheat thin avec a mustard, relish and sautéed tomato glaze, au jus from maple tree and key lime confectionary topped in nerd crumble”.

Just call me ElizaRamsey!  As you can see, Mike thoroughly enjoyed it:

Actually, I can’t tell if he’s analyzing the gloriousness of the food or trying not to hurl.  You want some, Abby?

I’ll take that look as a no.

Today’s symptoms: Actually felt pretty decent.  I slept more last night than I did in the last two nights combined!  Hopefully this is the end of my current bout of insomnia.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend!  The weather was nice on Saturday and I was feeling pretty good, so Mike and I flew to Brantford for breakfast.

As we were coming back into St. Catharines, Mike decided to take a pic of the two dorks in the cockpit:

As my mother would say, “Good grief!”

After we got back home, we made some key lime squares to bring to his parent’s house for Easter dinner Sunday night.  We decided to add a special “touch” to the dish:

The ironic thing is that stupid moi forgot to bring them with us on Sunday!  Duh!  Probably a good thing as I tried them today and they didn’t come out of the pan very well.  Must have been the extra weight of the kittah that walked over it.

My mother joined us to the dinner.  Soon after we arrived, Mike’s dad showed me the flight simulator program he has.  I played for a bit, using an Extra (aerobatic airplane) and the St. Catharines airport landscape.  I figured this would be the only time I could legally fly under the St. Catharines Skyway bridge.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t in the program, but the very low Homer Bridge was.  I flew under it twice:

It was quite a feeling of accomplishment, especially since I didn’t crash.

Another great moment of the night was meeting Mike’s new niece, Piper.  This is his sister’s fourth kid (two boys and two girls).  She was passed around to everyone, including my mother, who then passed her over to Mike.  It kinda looks like she’s saying “Noooooo!!!!!  Don’t pass me to that dude!”  But the pass-off went great and Mike got to hold his niece (who wasn’t much bigger than my mother.  Tee hee):

What a great night with wonderful conversation and delightful noms!

Speaking of noms, as I mentioned in my last blog, I have to sort out the new hypoallergenic dry cat food from the stuff I usually feed my goobers, as it’s making Pinky sick.  I’m happy to report, Mike and I finally got all of the new food picked out of the old stuff, kibble by kibble:

If the food wasn’t so expensive, I wouldn’t have worried about it, but at around $60 a bag…

After sorting the food, Mike and I went to the pet store and bought some more crickets for little Peanut:

Once home, I washed out his tank while Mike babysat.  Ugh, this is what I walked out to:

Ugh!  Although, I guess I really shouldn’t be saying anything.  This is what I did the day before:

Oh how we torment the kitties sometimes!  Like during their baths.  Even though Mya is the oldest and supposed to be a role model, she is a total screecher during her bath.  As you can see, she wasn’t impressed:

Boo has been a bit of a klutz lately.  She fell off the bed twice in the last few days and just a couple hours ago, she rolled over in her sleep.  This is how she ended up:

Then she had the nerve to look at me like I did it to her!  Geesh!

Today’s symptoms: Very tired and weak today.  Also, been dealing with the infamous MS hug starting yesterday.  I haven’t been sleeping well lately which isn’t helping with things.  Paws crossed things change tonight!

I haven’t had too much to report lately.  Mike and I were all excited to fly to Waterloo on Sunday for breakfast, which would have been great to blog about.  We were all ready to rock in my freshly fueled plane – everything checked out great.  After making sure the area was clear, I turned the key, waiting for the prop to spring into life.  Meh.  There was just a little moan from the electric system.  Yup – battery el’dead-o.  Bummer.  We could have had the plane jump started, but what if I couldn’t get it restarted after we landed and tried to take off again in Waterloo?  Not worth the risk.  Grounded!  We ended up going to a local restaurant for breakfast instead.  Not quite as fun but still yummy.  I think one of the best parts was how a piece of my scrambled eggs looked like my gecko:

It felt bad to eat it but I managed.  Striking resemblance, eh?

I asked Abby if she thought the two images were similar.  She was so impressed, she actually applauded:

She then asked for a close-up view of little Peanut.  Since they’re buds, I obliged:

No lizards were harmed during the making of these pictures.

The annual Walk for MS is coming up on May 3rd.  I was asked by the organizer of the Niagara Walks (St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland) if I would join her on Cogeco TV to promote the event.  I have been interviewed by them a few times before – my favourite being the video on the homepage of my website.  We met at the studio for 4:00 today and were interviewed soon after.  I think it’s going to air for two weeks, the Cogeco News station, starting next Wednesday.  I’ll have to record it and post it – stay tuned.

I’m going to see if I can get on air with the best radio station in Niagara – 105.7 EZ Rock.  I’ve been interviewed by them a few times in the past to promote the Walk.  I would love to go again.

I mentioned less than a year ago that little Pinky was getting sick almost every day.  I recently attempted to put Abby on a hypo-allergenic dry food, as she’s been having digestion troubles since I’ve had her (she’s over 5).  My vet decided we try this food.  I’ve had the kitties on it before, and during the last time, Pinky was sick.  I didn’t think it was that food that was causing it.  We had her to the vet multiple times, including the emergency clinic.  They couldn’t figure out the issue.  Soon after switching the food recently for Abby, Pinky started getting sick again.  I’m starting to think it was that hypo-allo food.  So, since I’ve mixed it in with their regular food, and both are very expensive, Mike and I started separating the food, so it wouldn’t go to waste (although I guess I could donate it).  Wow, hours of fun:

The kitties helped:

She’s been off of it for a couple days and was still sick today, so we’re going to hold off on sorting until we’re sure whether or not it’s the food that’s causing it.  Man, I love my kitties just a tad too much.  But how can I not – I mean, look at this face:

Close up:

Precious.  I have four absolutely precious hairless freaks.  My life is perfect.

Today’s symptoms: Didn’t feel too bad today.  Had a rough couple days where I had really bad sinus headaches, plus bad fatigue after not sleeping well.  Today is good other than the crushing pains in my hands. Yuck and ouch.

I had a great visit with an old bud last week.  I had to go to a meeting at the airport and ran into this adorable dude:

I sorta, accidentally mentioned to everyone while we were passing him that he is kinda the cutest plane ever.  They were all, “Duh!”

I mentioned in my last post that I surprised Mike with a trip to St. Jacobs for his birthday earlier this week.  I knew, as usual, that I was totally going to miss my kitties.  It appears three out of four of them wanted to join me:

I asked Boo why she didn’t want to go (as she never climbed in my suitcase) and this was her response:

Anyway, Mike and I both took Friday off and headed “out West” around 9:30 Friday morning. We actually planned on leaving at 9:00 but my little Pinky decided to be sick in my linen closet – all over everything – at about 8:58.  I had to text Mike and tell him to “stand at ease” while I cleaned up the mess. Fortunately, it didn’t take too long and we were on our way to our destination (plus a stop at Tim Hortons two minutes into the trip).  The drive was only about an hour and a half, which was quite tolerable an a very sunny and fairly warm day.

We toured around the town of St. Jacobs on Friday, stopping at the Stone Crock restaurant for dinner.  We were kinda excited to be in this room:

My youngest sphynx kitty Abby often has her name shortened to EB, thus the perfect room name at the restaurant.

After dinner, we headed to our hotel which was right near the market.  It was a really nice hotel, so I don’t want to put it down at all.  However, there was one minor issue.  What’s wrong with this picture:

If you were any shorter than me, you would literally have to be standing in the shower to turn it on.  Yeah, that’s fun during the first minute while the water is warming up.  Ugh!  Not sure who was the designer of such a disfunctional shower.  On a bright note, they did put the floor numbers at eye height for my mother, if she were to ever stay there:

We spent a few hours on Saturday at the market.  It’s going to be much better once the new vendor barn is open.  The old one burned down last year.  Overall, a great trip!

Back home, Pinky greeted me with this lovely pose.  If she could talk, she would clearly say “rub it!”

Today’s symptoms: After an awesome but busier than normal weekend, I was pretty spent today.  Very drained, especially after not sleeping much last night.  Still dealing with insomnia.  When I don’t sleep well, my MS symptoms always seem to be worse, such as more aches and pains and headaches.  Totally worth it though!