After:

Yup, I have the smoothest Sphynx cat EVER!

Boo was shocked at the result:

Fortunately, my other kitties weren’t jealous and still looking rather cute themselves:

Abby looked shocked, but really wasn’t.  She always looks like this:

I thought Pinky would be a little more excited about the result, but she was kinda indifferent:

Mike and I were going to fly to Waterloo today for breakfast, but the runways in St. Catharines weren’t ploughed this morning.  Bummer.  Now we’re sitting watching Pushing Tin while eating some snackies from Bulk Barn.  This could be a good thing as I’m still feeling rather blah after my little procedure on Thursday.

Today’s symptoms:  Feeling ok, just a little sore.  I slept really well last night so that’s a huge bonus.  My fatigue level is decent, but my headache is a little worse than normal.

 

This snake was massive and looked like he recently had a good meal:

Once back home, we walked over to a store downtown, including a used bookstore on Queen Street.  I’ve walked past it many times but for some reason, never went in.  I was shocked at the number of books.  They used every square inch of that building.

Then we headed over to The Works for some burgery awesomeness.  Mike got one called Getting Piggy With It:

Bacon is our friend.

Back home, the kitties were keeping content and warm on the heater behind my bed:

Abby wasn’t being too social, but still very cute:

The weather turned out pretty good on Sunday so I flew Mike and I to Tillsonburg for breakfast.  It was a little bit bumpy on the way there but the landing was quite interesting.  It was pretty much a full crosswind landing.  I haven’t had to fight that hard to land in a very long time.  Fortunately, it was a nice touch down – which was a relief when we noticed how many people were watching from the restaurant.  We parked Vyctor just outside the door and headed in for noms:

As usual, Donkay joined us on the flight:

It was a nice flight home, after which we bid Vyc farewell:

I hope to see him again soon.

Today’s symptoms:  After a lot of running around this weekend, I’m much more fatigued today than usual – totally worth it though!  Aches and pains are average.

On Thursday, Mike and I went to the huge box sale at the Book Outlet.  I typically go each year and never have any trouble filling a box.  I didn’t want to get too many this time as I still have tons to read.  Mike and I just split a box between us.  We were there right for when it opened at 9:00 and it was pretty much packed within an hour:

Yesterday was Mike’s birthday so we went over to his parents’ house for dinner.  We gave his sister and brother-in-law this wonderful book that we saw at the book sale.  As you can imagine, they were thrilled:

It was nice to see everyone – the two-legged and four-legged types.  As usual, Coco stared at me while I was sitting on the couch:

And Blue hinted that I turn on the tap for him in the bathroom:

His cats are weird.  I’m glad that mine are totally normal:

Man, I love my four little freaks!

Today’s symptoms:  Really wiped out and just feeling very blah.  I’m going to make sure I get to bed early tonight so I have at least some chance of feeling better tomorrow.  Mind you, that doesn’t mean I’ll actually sleep well.

 

 

As usual though, she’s more than happy being snuggly with her sisters.  Like on this day that prevented me from making the bed:

You a little tired there, Boo?

It’s Roll Up The Rim time at Tim Hortons.  There’s an extra roll chance on each cup this year for their 50th anniversary.  The second spot is for a chance to win one of 10 Corollas.  I’ve been doing this in the shops just to mess with people’s minds:

I had to go to the St. Catharines hospital for my annual MRI today.  Fortunately the IV for the dye went quite well.  Just had an IV last Thursday too, for Tysabri:

Happily, that went quite well too.  Regardless, I’m kinda feeling like a pin cushion!

Mike was over this weekend – we watched some shows, played Call of Duty on the xBox, and dined on some amazing Velveeta yumminess.  Little Abby, being much less skitty, decided to join us.  I swear I taught her better than this:

Mya didn’t do much better when she stuck her head into Mike’s glass to have a drink of water:

Twits.

I’m really hoping for great weather tomorrow.  I was asked to be part of a “talk show” on Women in Aviation at the Waterloo Airport.  I would much rather be able to fly there than drive, so paws crossed for clear skies.

Today’s symptoms: Actually feeling decent today.  My bladder infection is gone, the sinus infection is quite a bit better and my cold has departed.  Life is good!

They did well the first period and I think it was most of the second as well, but then fell apart and ended up losing in the third.  On a bright note, we got to watch the little kids play after each period:

They were so cute!  Especially as a bunch of them fell while they were skating along.

I didn’t do too much Sunday evening as I was starting to feel rather poorly.  It seemed like I was getting yet another bladder infection – less than a month after my last one.  I went to the walk-in clinic on Monday and got some more antibiotics.  Yippee.  This meant I had to cancel my Tysabri infusion for today (mini happy dance!).

While at home, vegging on the couch, little Abby watched over me:

She’s all droopy.  Tee hee!

That night while I was laying in bed, watching TV with the lights out, I looked over and saw this adorable scene between Boo and Mya:

Mya tolerated the licking for about a minute, and then “politely” told Boo to bugger off.

Today my mother, aunt and I went to the Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton for my cystoscope (bladder scope) appointment.  The best part was that I got to wear this sexy ensemble:

Really glad it’s over with.  Feeling rather drained mentally and physically after it.  The fact that I have a bladder infection, sinus infection and am getting a cold is making it a little difficult to deal with things.  Still trying to be positive and happy though!

Today’s symptoms: Energy was decent, but just feeling really lousy.  Not sure how much is the infections and which is MS symptoms.  Really looking forward to going to bed tonight!

 

The first part of my flight consisted of going up over the airport and doing some aerobatics:

As usual, my horizon indicator went all wonky with the different attitudes:

After a bunch of maneuvers, I flew over Niagara Falls, which I haven’t done in quite a few months.  It looked amazing:

Great flight – until the next time, Vyctor!

When I got home, little Abby was keeping my spot warm on the couch:

I moved her over and put her on my lap, then she got extra googly:

Meanwhile, Mya and Pinky hung out in the bathroom:

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good.  As usual, the flight completely wiped me out.  I’m going to spend the rest of the evening chilling and reading a book.

Farewell, my friends!  We had some good times together – good times.  So, I of course had to switch over to Windows 8 which I’m getting used to.  At least there is a way to put it back to the look of Windows 7.  Much more tolerable.

Carrying on with some wackiness, Boo is nuts.  She has to carry her toys around everywhere and drop them off at random places.  Here was the other morning:

I’m sure the other kittahs were really impressed.  However, speaking of putting things in weird places….I have this weird thing where I hate it when there is someone else’s bum warmth on my chair.  I mistakenly said this to a co-worker, who for years now has been sitting in my chair if he walks by and sees that I have stepped away from my desk for a minute.  I moved to a different part of the office from him, but he has managed to track me down.  I got up briefly last week and when I came back to my desk, a neighbour co-worker said that Rob recently came by and made sure that my chair was extra hot for when I came back.  Ugh!  I felt so filthy and soiled!  Less than an hour later, I had to get up and go to the washroom.  I wasn’t going to allow him to corrupt my chair again, so I brought it with me:

Needless to say, I had a few questions from coworkers who were already in there, but I explained the situation and they were totally supportive.

Back to the kittahs, there was this cute fight scene between Pinky and Boo:

Congrats, Boo.  Dorks.

In other joyous news, I have been watching the odd event in the Olympics.  Such a rush – the first medal ceremony that Canada placed in (and of course, there have been many since then):

I get goose bumps whenever I hear we’ve won another medal.  Just a tad patriotic.

I’m happy to report that our weather is finally getting a bit better.  I’m off Thursday so I’m hoping to go for a flight.  I wasn’t able to fly this previous weekend.  On Saturday, Mike and I went shopping in Burlington, then came home and ordered this enormous batch of poutine.  It’s from a food truck about a block away from my apartment:

We made the ultimate sacrifice and managed to nom the entire thing.  Burp.

Sunday, we went to the birthday party of one of our Recreational Aircraft Association members.  He turned 90, however, he looks and acts like he’s in his 70′s.  This is what I wrote in his card:

Today’s symptoms: Had some serious fatigue issues – went home from work a bit early and soon after my work day was done at 4:00, I fell asleep on my couch.  Had some really bad aches and pains today too, but tomorrow is going to be much better.

 

That one plane is being pushed back into the hangar – not coming out to play.

Another great reason I went to the airport was to be reunited with Donkay.  Yes, I’m a horrible person – I left him in my plane after my last flight.  Please don’t call FADS (Family and Donkey Services) on me!  Fortunately, my good friend at the airport took him out of my plane and into the warmth of the Flying Club.  This is Donkay meeting the Club cat:

After my flight, my friend Mike, Donkay and myself went for a coffee to warm up at Tim Hortons:

Slurp.

I told Abby about my flight and she shivered at the thought and desperately tried to release herself from my grasp:

Boo on the other paw had her little mouth hanging open as she slept next to us:

Despite the cold, Mike and I decided to wander over to the Market on Friday night to enjoy the Winterfest thing going on there.

There was food and wine to purchase, plus a pretty good live band:

Mike and I sat at a table and had some pizza and a glass of wine.  A few folks joined us.  I was a tad speechless when I heard the woman next to me say she hates vodka.  If I wasn’t still frozen, there probably would have been a little tear trickle down my cheek.  I eventually said something and asked if she really meant that.  It turned out to be a nice chat with a really friendly group of folks.  While I was still blabbing, Mike brought us a piece of sticky toffee pudding.  I don’t think either of us ever had it before.  It was much larger than I thought it was going to be:

Nom nom nom….it was VERY good.  I’m really glad we attended this event.

This weekend, I started to back up some of my old files and stuff that I’ve had on CD’s and DVD’s since I was in university to present.  Wow:

Mike helped me to get all of the other files (tons of them – about 250G off of my now dead external hard drive.  Words of Lizdom: never trust an external hard drive for your really important stuff!  I’m so glad I had a lot of it on DVD’s, as we didn’t think the files on the drive were going to be savable.  I always used to back up my pics and important documents on a few DVD’s and put them in our safety deposit box at the bank.  Silly me hasn’t done that for years.  Needless to say, I’ll be visiting that nice little box at the bank very soon!  Fortunately, Mike was able to extract my files off of the hard drive using his Linux system.  I’ve since bought a 32GB flash drive and put everything on there.  Plus I’m going to create some DVD’s of the most important stuff soon.  Continuing with my Words of Lizdom: Always back up your cherished pictures and documents on a non-mechanical device like a DVD or flash drive, and make extra copies!

So that’s my excitement for the week.  Abby had a thrill of her own when I told her Donkay was back.  She yelled like a little school kitty:

Now they’re sitting pretty:

Today’s symptoms:  I actually had a really good day until later in the afternoon.  Just around 4:00ish, it felt like I was run over by a bus.  The fatigue was really bad, pain everywhere and I just felt altogether lousy.  It’s probably still this bladder and kidney infection, which does seem a lot better than a few days ago. I can’t seem to get warm, either.  Hmph. 

I had planned on doing a blog last night but completely forgot. Wasn’t feeling well so we’ll blame it on that.

 

Then over to Chippawa:

Nothing like showing up to an event, surrounded by fire and rescue trucks and personnel:

I raised almost $100 through folks at work, my mother, aunt and Mike.  The funds went to St. John Ambulance and Chippawa Public Docks.  Thanks, everyone!

This cute, shivering polar bear was standing next to the registration tables:

Here are some of our joyous rescuers (hopefully not needed):

The water rescue team got into position.  It was kinda good to see the water level:

I decided yesterday that my goal was just to go in up to my waist, then get the heck outta there.  For some reason, I changed my mind while I was standing with my fellow dippers, that I was going to put my head under.  Go big or go home.  Here’s the four of us, getting psyched to run forth and freeze:

Could I be any more pale?

Finally, our wave was given the signal to go.  Mike took a video, which I will be posting in my video section.  One of us females kept saying “Oh God, oh God….”  When my feet hit the water, it felt like blades going into them.  I have very sensitive skin, especially to extreme temperatures – just an MS thing.  I knew I had to keep going as I would never forgive myself for not going all the way.  I got in just past my waist then stuck my head in.  My hair kinda floated on the surface:

Wow, that hurt!  Kept smiling though:

Poor Mike told me after that he thought I tripped at first, as I said I wouldn’t be putting my head under.  Sorry!

Unfortunately (again, MS related), my leg muscles seized up and I had a hard time straightening up then walking forward.  Was able to force them to move, although I did grab onto the arm of the rescuer to help pull me up.  Then a cheerful wave to the crowd (gave me another second to get my legs working again):

Wow, that was crazy!  I went back to Mike and we headed over to the changing trailers.  One for females and one for males.  The only thing that really bothered me was a guy that walked into the female’s trailer.  He said he was getting his clothes from his wife who was in there. Not impressed, as were most of the other girls.  Anyway, after changing, the shivering really kicked in.  The pain in my hands and feet was really bad.

All of the polar bears were given free noms at the Boat House restaurant, just down the road.  I was quite happy to pose with a rye and diet Coke:

They had a great  DJ and entertainer there, Robert (I think he said Tanis, but I could be mistaken – my bad!)  Good times.  I had pizza and Mike ordered this awesome omelette:

So that was my joyous experience today!  Took about an hour to thaw, but totally worth it.

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good minus some pretty sharp pains in my hands.  Needless to say, I was very fatigued after my little dip today.  I’ll feel better after a good rest.

I said goodbye to a great year (minus health issues) – hopefully 2014 will be just as good, if not better.  Mike and I had a quiet New Year’s Eve, stayed home to watch a movie and then some TV.  We sent a few pictures of my kitties to Mike’s father, who decided to art-erize some of the pics of Pinky (his favourite):

 

And this great Happy New Year one with Mya:

The only thing that bothered me a bit about this one is Pinky’s neck.  Kinda looks like she’s decapitated, rather than just a cute, floating head (I’m sure there’s a difference!)  I decided to fix it up:

Much better!

Since there’s really only one place open in the Niagara Region on New Years Day, we headed down to the Factory Outlets on Lundy’s Lane.  Our first stop was Timmy’s though.  Mike drooled a little when he noticed they got a couple new muffins, including this red velvet one:

Quite yummy!  Once we finished nomming, we headed over to the outlet mall.  We got there soon after it opened at noon, and the parking lot was already about half full.  We only spent a little over an hour and didn’t buy much at all, but it was a nice time.  Of course the best part was the chocolate store:

While leaving the outlets, I thought of Lapennaco’s Liquidation Centre, which was just around the corner.  It was open so we wandered around there for a bit.  I ended up getting two huge boxes of my Stevia sweetener (800 packets per box) for only $13 each.  Typically the 100 packet boxes are $7, so it was a sweet deal.  On the way back home from there, we noticed Target was open, so we headed there.  It was a rather productive day!

Looks like we’re having another spell of bad weather.  I’m glad I was able to get in one last flight for 2013 last Saturday.  I made fudge and brought some up to the tower at the St. Catharines airport and to the Flying Club.  My friend was working at the Flying Club in Welland that day, so I decided to make the arduous seven minute flight out there and drop some off to him:

I also met up with my mechanic and his son, so had a nice little chat with them.  Then it was back to Vyctor, although I really didn’t know where I was going to fly next.  On the way to my plane, I passed this sign:

Good to know!

Time for take off:

I decided to just fly around Niagara then over Lil Jan’s house.  I phoned her (blue tooth – hands free, no worries!) and she came outside to wave.  I think she’s really going to like this picture as her shadow makes her look really tall:

After that, I headed back to land at CYSN.  I decided to leave my Christmas decorations on my plane for a bit longer:

Until next year, little Vyctor:

Once back home, I figured it was time to take down my Christmas tree.  Fortunately, Mya helped tying the tree box together:

Meanwhile, Boo and Pinky just kept to themselves in the bedroom:

Little Abby didn’t come out until it was dinner time.  She sat on my lap while I ate:

So cute and googly.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the end of the week already!  Sweet!

Today’s symptoms: Had a bad headache but my fatigue didn’t really start getting bad until a little later in the afternoon.  Can’t complain about that!

 

I called the other kittahs for a little lick but no one rushed over.  Pinky wasn’t even remotely interested:

Just like last year, we watched Home Alone after dinner.  Love that movie.

On Christmas morning, everyone had the pleasure of opening pressies, including my four little freaks.  Their grandma even got them each a little stocking:

Even shy little Abby came out to investigate:

Every year I buy Pinky a new catnip rainbow, which is her favourite toy.  She was pretty excited to sniff it out:

Jan and I happily sipped Bailey’s while opening our presents from each other.  We were both quite happy with our newly acquired loot.  Check out this awesome shower curtain and bath mat Jan got me:

After cleaning up, we watched a few shows, finished off our meals from the night before, and Janski headed home before it got dark.  She got me quite a few new tops, so I decided I would get rid of some of my old ones that I haven’t worn in a while.  I filled a garbage bag, then started cleaning/sorting other areas of my apartment.  Well, it kinda turned into an obsession and I was cleaning non-stop from before 5:00 to 10:30pm!  I still can’t believe how much stuff I cleared out.  I threw out a good chunk of stuff plus have a few bags of things to donate.  Spring cleaning done!

Yesterday I walked into my bedroom yesterday and got a rare photo of all four kitties sitting fairly close together:

Could they be any cuter?  I think not!

Flipping back to Christmas – I forgot to mention this in a previous blog.  My mother was in Florida a couple weeks ago, so I went by her house every few days to check on it and water her plants.  I was rather surprised to see that she didn’t put her Christmas tree up this year, so Mike and I decided to do it for her.  Thought it would be rather amusing to put it up in the middle of her bedroom:

We then took this pic and had it put onto a Christmas ornament (through Wal-Mart photo centre):

Now the memory will live forever!

Today’s symptoms:  For the last few nights, I’ve been sleeping quite a bit better.  Feeling pretty good with the extra sleep, just still dealing with bad daily headaches.  My fatigue level has been a bit more tolerable than normal, which has been very nice!

 

On Thursday, I taught OneNote at our office again.  I was done at 12:45 that day and went for my Tysabri infusion.  Blah!  Never a truly enjoyable experience but it’s all good as the drug has done me well over the last few years.  I was tested for antibodies for the JC virus, which can lead to progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), which is a fatal brain infection.  I’ve been negative for this virus since starting Tysabri, however, I got a not so great call from the MS clinic in Hamilton last week, stating I am now positive.  The test is indexed and my reading was quite low, so I can still keep getting my monthly infusions.  I will be tested for it again in six months and we’ll see if the numbers have changed.  Paws crossed it doesn’t go up because I really don’t want to go off Tysabri.  Anyway, at this infusion, I had to have more blood work done.  I brought my own heating pad to warm up the spot before the dreaded needle.  Worked quite well and was cute!

After the infusion, Mike and I went over to Antipastos to pick up the turkey dinners my mother and I will be having on Christmas Eve.  Had them from there last year too – very good!  Soon after we got back to my place, my little mother arrived.  We were all going to Betty’s Restaurant in Niagara Falls for the MS Society’s Christmas dinner.  Jan was rather excited that there were other folks her size there:

It was really nice to see everyone from the MS Niagara Chapter of Hope.  What a great venue – I hadn’t been to Betty’s in years.  They are famous for their fish and chips and their awesome lemon meringue pie:

I didn’t have enough room so I gave mine to Jan to take home.  All three of us had a great evening.  We were also glad the weather held off for the drive home.  They called for freezing rain that evening and night.

On Friday, I started to feel pretty punk.  I thought it was more than just the effects of the Tysabri, but I wasn’t sure.  Just felt lousy all over.  I made it through the full day of work though.  Felt much worse on Saturday.  Mike and I had plans but I ended up spending the whole day on the couch or in bed.  He was nice enough to stop by with a coffee and croissant though:

The kitties kept me company, when they weren’t being naughty:

And the naughty, such as Mya trying to get in the bag of Christmas pressies my mother brought over:

Then Boo trying to get into the cabinet:

I decided to check out the bridge traffic for Saturday.  It was over an hour wait going into the States on the Queenston Bridge:

Ugh, glad I wasn’t anywhere near that!

For the last few nights, my insomnia has returned, which really hasn’t helped with how I’ve been feeling.  From last night (and this morning), I took a pic of my clock about 20 minutes after I woke up:

I very rarely ever update anything on Facebook, but I decided to put something on the news feed:

I then finished a totally awesome book (the second part to Pillars of The Earth, which I mentioned in previous blogs):

Then I played some games on my iPad, took another chunk of my sleeping pill, and fell asleep soon after this:

Needless to say, I’m a wee bit tired today!  I will feel better tomorrow though – I’m not going to feel this yucky for Christmas Eve and Day!

Today’s symptoms:  Tons of bone crushing pains all over and a really bad headache.  My sinuses are bothering me again too, but I think they feel a little better today than they did yesterday.  At least that’s what I’m going to keep telling myself.

We all really enjoyed our lunch and would certainly go there again.  Actually, when I got home, I mentioned the great grub to my cats.  Two of them tried to make a run for it out of the apartment.  Fortunately, they weren’t tall enough to reach the elevator buttons.

My friend and I got together for lunch later in the week.  We didn’t actually go anywhere for food, but stopped at the consignment shop just down the block.  I had dropped off a really nice red dress that no longer fits me (I guess I shrank a tad).  We looked through the rack of dresses, but didn’t see it.  I was kinda hoping it was sold.  It wasn’t but it sure made a nice window display!:

Abby seems to have developed a fixation with TV’s.  This has been her the last couple of days:

Speaking of weird cats, I inadvertently left a plastic bag on the couch.  Pinky found it within seconds:

I had an awesome day yesterday.  Went out for dinner and a movie in Oakville.  After noms at Boston Pizza, we saw the Cirque de Soleil 3D movie.  It was amazing!  I think it was the first 3D movie I’ve seen since I was a kid.  I’ve seen Cirque live before and I was just as blown away with the screen version.  It’s a must-see.

I’m so relieved we had decent weather this morning.  I haven’t flown in about three weeks.  I headed over to the airport around 10:30.  As the fuel dude was fueling my plane, a group of about seven people wandered up on the observation deck.  There was at least one kid (can’t remember if I noticed more than one).  Before hopping in my plane, I walked over and asked if they wanted to see a little airshow.  They said yes so I headed up above the airport and did a bunch of loops, rolls, snap rolls, combos and spins.  I did a low and over before landing.  I wanted to speak with them and ask if they enjoyed the show before heading out for the rest of my flight.  They thought it was quite neat!  The one man had a huge zoom lens on his camera and said he took a bunch of pics – can’t wait to see them!

I headed back out and flew over my friend’s house which is currently being built.  It’s rather neat to see how it’s progressing.  There’s a roof now!

Back at home, I finished wrapping pressies (which I thought I was done already but apparently wasn’t).  Now I’m sitting here debating whether or not I want to work out on my exercise bike.  I’m kinda pooped so will likely just stay on my couch like a blonde blob.

After work tomorrow, Jan is coming over and we’re going to have a few drinks and eat our Christmas dinner.  She’s going to stay the night then we’ll spend most of Tuesday opening about 347 presents.  I can’t wait!

Today’s symptoms: I felt very good today.  Actually my fatigue level has been less than normal over the last few days.  Still have the headache, but it’s getting a bit better.  Also, still lots of sharp aches and pains in my hands and forearms, but they’re livable.