Breakfast in London

I have been looking forward today for over a month.  A friend of mine from work and I flew out to London to see a co-worker who works out at the London CRA office.  Mary has flown with me once before – almost five years ago soon after I got my pilot license and was still renting from the St. Catharines Flying Club.  She texted me around 8:30 and asked if we were still good to go today.  I said the weather looks fine.  She asked if there would be any snakes on the plane and I responded “of course not!”  Naturally, I then grabbed my two plush snakes to bring with me:

Yup, I’m a dork.  She found it amusing though.

Despite it being a very calm day, there weren’t too many people out flying around.  We attempted to take off around 9:35.  As I taxied over to the runway and added full power to take-off, I noticed my oil access door wasn’t fully secured.  I powered down and told the tower I had to head over to the taxiway to shut down and close my door.  I felt a little silly, but I’m quite sure that people have done much worse.  Ok, door secure, I’m back in the plane, start him up and I call the tower to say I’m going to take off.  Full power again, we just lifted off when we heard a rather loud sound just outside the passenger door.  I’ve heard this sound before – it’s when the passenger closes the seatbelt in the door and a chunk of it continually whips against the plane.  Weird though because I mentioned to her to check that the seatbelt wasn’t hanging out when she closed the door.  I asked if she could check her belt and she held it up.  What the heck???  I told the tower that I had to land as I was experiencing issue number two.  There was no wind so he said that I could simply land at the opposite end of the runway that I took off from, rather than go around the whole circuit.  Mary was totally calm and collected through all of this.  I landed and asked her to open her door.  A-Ha!  The culprit!  The belt of her coat was hanging outside the door!  I told the tower I was going to taxi back to the proper end of the runway and attempt to take off for the third time.  He said that he would halt all traffic to accommodate me – tee hee!  Pretty easy to do since no one was flying or taxiing.  We headed back over to runway 24 and the tower said “third time’s a charm…..and do you want us to have the emergency vehicles ready for you this time???”  Oh geez!  I said that my passenger decided to hang some of her clothing outside of the airplane.  He then requested we do a fly by past the tower!  I guess that would be called a flash by.  Fortunately, the third time was a charm and we were off to London.  It was very smooth on the way there.  We landed within an hour of heading out and met up with our friend.  As usual, the three of us had tons to talk about and were happy to get caught up on everything.  Also as usual, the food at the Katana Kafe was great:

After noms and an hour long natter, we all headed out to my plane to help me push it back onto the apron.  After parking and shutting down, I had planned on pushing the plane back a bit and use the chalks.  Well, didn’t have a chance to do that as he rolled backwards within thirty seconds of me taking my feet off the brakes.  His little tush actually pinged off the grass.  It was rather amusing.

I thought it was going to take more effort to push him back up the little hill onto the pavement, but it wasn’t an issue.  After bidding our friend farewell, we headed back to St. Catharines.  It was a little bumpy on the way back, but Mary didn’t seem to mind at all.  She really enjoyed the flight and said that she would even like to try aerobatics sometime.

When I left the airport, I headed over to the grocery store to pick up a few items and then to Fonthill for a short visit with my short mother.

Had another fun experience this weekend.  It was my boyfriend’s nephew’s fourth birthday.  I got to meet more of his family and friends of his sister and brother-in-law, which was really nice.  I think the most amusing part of the day was when little Elliott decided to inhale his cake.  We couldn’t figure out what he was doing because he had his face right in his plate.  Mike decided to stick his camera next to his face to get a true picture of the action:

Man it was priceless!  The cake didn’t stand a chance!  Also, notice the word PILOT on his shirt.  We picked out really cute future pilot shirts for the two boys while we were at Sun N Fun in Florida the other week.  It was such a fun day!

Today’s symptoms: Feeling quite good!  I’m surprised how good my energy level is today.  I’m not positive, but I think those spasms/clenching in my thighs may be subsiding.  Hope so!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/28/2013 5:16 PM

Weird Cats, Good Noms

It’s been an interesting week thus far.  I’ve just started my fundraising for the Walk for MS.  I usually start about a month before the Walk, but it’s actually in a week.  If you want to check out the details of the Walk and if you would like to pledge me, please check out my pledge page at: Pledge Me For the Walk for MS.  Everyone who pledges me will be entered into a draw for one of three flights in my Cessna 150 Aerobat over Niagara!  I set up my pledge forms at work.  A good friend of mine actually went around to some of our coworkers today and mentioned the event.  She received quite a few pledges.  I’m so touched that she did that!

 

I’ve had so much support over the years for this event.  Like I mentioned in my blurb on my pledge page, I think about a cure every day.  I can’t even imagine the feeling of hearing the words “A cure for MS has been found!”  Awesome!

Ok, coming down off my dream high, I would like to bring up some of the freaks in my life.  I was taking a pic of Boo until Mya photobombed her:

Boo forgave her and snuggled in for the cuteness kill:

When I told Mike about this situation, he told one of his cats.  Here was his reaction;

Poor little cross-eyed Samtard.  So cute!

Ok, change of topic.  Mike was driving me to work one morning and we passed the scariest sight I’ve ever seen since living in St. Catharines.  Mike actually had to brake as a friggen ghost walked in front of his car!!!!

How creepy!  Not sure if I want to live here anymore!

Although, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t be able to walk to Sahla Thai.  It’s one of my favourite restaurants.  I brought Mike here for his first time tonight.  As usual, I got the Crazy Chicken, which is two amazing BBQ’d chicken breasts and veggies in the most amazing sauce ever:

I suggested to Mike that he get the Pad Thai, which my best friend Laura always gets. Almost everyone else that goes to this restaurant usually chooses this dish:

He loved it.  We both cleaned our plates and are more than happy to go back.

As we walked back to my apartment, Mike noticed this license plate and instantly thought of my little mother:

This was our second outing for dinner this week.  The first one was after my Tysabri infusion on Tuesday.  He went with me to the new clinic with the new nurse – apparently with the last clinic had their contract run out so the Tysabri folks were taken over by Bayshore.  I was quite impressed – the nurses were so nice and thorough.  She did the IV perfectly – hardly any pain.  The best part was that they wrapped my IV tubage with orange wrappage:

You always want your bandage to match your plane!

Ok, after almost a week of insomnia, I think I’m going to try to sleep now!  Wish me luck!

Today’s symptoms:  After multiple nights of less than four hours sleep each night, I was obviously quite tired today.  I’m still experiencing the symptom of spasms and full blown clenching in my thighs.  It’s really frustrating and quite painful.  Hoping I sleep well tonight and start feeling better tomorrow!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/26/2013 8:29 PM

Windy Weather

I was supposed to take someone from Waterloo up for a flight yesterday.  Unfortunately, the wind was insane so we had to reschedule for next week.  It’s still quite gusty today so I will probably be flightless again.  Paws crossed for tomorrow though.

My boyfriend came over the other night and we decided to wander over to the Entertainment Overload store, just about a block away.  We seem to have an addiction to Wii games, mainly shooters.  We were able to find three games on our list we wanted.  That should keep us entertained for many hours!  I was shocked to see the one clerk’s phone.  Check out this bad boy:

Still works!  The funny thing is she said she dropped it multiple times on hard surfaces and it never broke.  It wasn’t until she dropped it on carpet that it totally shattered.  Weird.

We had a food extravaganza day at work last week.  This is the first time we’ve ever had one office-wide.  Wow, what an amazing turn out:

There was another huge table of desserts in the other room too.  Man, I ate so much.  It was all excellent.  For dessert, I brought in some chocolate chip cookies and fortune cookies.  I made this sign for the fortune cookies:

Needless to say, it was rather entertaining!

An interesting little scene in my bathroom this morning.  It’s not too often that I see all four freaks up on the counter at the same time:

Bunch of dorks.

My little mother is coming over in about an hour so we can do our taxes.  Blah!  Tonight, Mike is coming by and we’re heading over to the St. Catharines Flying Club for their rib night.  I don’t normally eat ribs so I’ll probably just suck back a Shmirnoff and mingle.  Of course, I’ll have to go out to the hangar and give Vyctor a hug.  He’s so cute.

Today’s symptoms: I don’t have the greatest energy level today, plus tons of aches and pains.  For some reason, over the last week my thighs have been going into almost constant spasms, mostly when I’m just sitting.  Weird.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/20/2013 10:18 AM

Sun N Fun

I had an absolutely amazing blast over the last few days.  My boyfriend and I went to Sun N Fun in Lakeland, Florida.  Our flight left out of Niagara Falls, NY on Thursday afternoon.  It was great to fly out of such a small airport.  Everything went very smoothly.  We were smacked in the face with heat after stepping off the plane in Clearwater, Florida.  It was almost 90 degrees!  Ugh!  The bad news was that there were thunderstorms forecasted for the two days we were going to be at the aviation expo.  On a good note, they never happened.

We hit the expo around 10:00 the next morning:

It was overcast all day and VERY windy.  We first hit a couple of the hangars with tons of exhibitors.  In the second one we visited, we ran into another Recreational Aircraft Association member and his wife.  Before heading to Florida, we said that we would meet up and have dinner on the Friday night.  It was just so convenient to run into them like that.  They recommended that we take one of the the tractor tours of the flightline and planes on display.  Sounded like a great idea.  After wandering around for another hour or so, we headed out to the tour which consisted of a tractor pulling a trailer with benches.

It was awesome – thirty minute ride all over the grounds for only $5 a person.  I managed to get a ton of great pics during it:

When we drove toward the front of this plane, we noticed the hammock:

After the tractor tour, we wandered around a bit more then went over to our seats to watch the air show.  It was amazing.  I managed to get some more decent pics:

While the above planes were flying, they had simulated bombs going off below them:

Then there were some aerobatic performers:

It was nice that it was so overcast, so we weren’t looking up into the sun.

Everything during the first day at the expo was fantastic.  We met up with the other RAA member and his wife at 5:00 and they followed us over to a great pizza place that Mike had been to before.  Actually, Mike and I went there the night before for dinner too.  Probably the best pizza I’ve ever had (ABC Pizza):

The next morning, we got up and went downstairs for breakfast.  Mike was thrilled when I pointed out the pancake maker.  We were both surprised to see that all you had to do was push a button and two pancakes magically spewed forth after a few minutes:

How exciting!

Back at the show, we stumbled upon this helicopter that is the perfect size for my little mother:

I brought Donkey with me and he was enjoying the show and exhibitors as much as we did:

Check out this cutie we saw on the cart of one of the volunteers:

Mike and I also admired the gun tower the Police set up:

Ok, so they just called it an “observation tower” but whatever!

We watched another over two hours of air showage on our second day there.  Both were amazing.  I still can’t believe that I lasted over six hours each day at the expo, especially with my heat intolerance!

We both had a total blast and were sad to go home on Sunday.

I really wish that I had slept in this morning to help recover a bit.  Stubborn ol’ me set my alarm for my normal 6:23 time.  Ugh.  I ended up having to leave work at 1:45 today, as I was not feeling well at all.

Today’s symptoms: Felt totally drained, weak and quite a bit of pain all over.  Basically, it felt like I had the full-blown flu today.  I kinda expected this would happen after everything I did during the previous few days.  Totally worth it though!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/15/2013 7:37 PM

Sun N Fun – Here We Come!

I was really enjoying the nice weather we’ve been having, but it seems to have come to an end.  I flew Mike and I to Tillsonburg on Saturday morning.  It was a very clear day, but a tad bumpy.  Not something that bothers us though.  It took about 45 minutes to fly there – an airport Mike has never been to before.  They have a nice little restaurant in the terminal building.  We touched down, taxied over to the restaurant, and fortunately noticed the “Restaurant Closed” sign before shutting down.  Ugh!  I went through this once with Jan a couple years ago, but had phoned prior to landing to find out whether it was open or not.  It wasn’t.  Guess I should have phoned this time too.  Oh well, we took off and headed over to Brantford about 15 minutes away.  It was very busy there and we followed a few more planes in for landing.  The restaurant was really full and we had to sit with someone else at his table.  It took quite some time for our food due to the mass peopleage, but it was nice to sit and watch the planes coming and going.  When we walked out to my plane to leave, we were totally shocked to see two jets land.  I didn’t have a chance to get my camera out for the first one but did get a shot of the second:

 

It’s an Aero L-29 Delfin.  Obviously.

I was able to fly again yesterday.  I took up a friend of my brother’s, whom I’ve known for over 20 years.

Kevin loved the flight.  He wanted to try aerobatics, but I took him up over the Falls first.  He took some great shots:

After the Niagara Falls tour, we headed back over to the St. Catharines Airport and started doing some aerobatics.  He loved it!  Actually, so did I – but that’s pretty much always the case.

On the note of flying, Mike and I are going to the huge aviation expo in Lakeland Florida on Thursday.  I’ve been to Sun N Fun once before and can’t wait to go back.  I’ll certainly have great bloggage either during the four days we’re there or soon after I get back.

On the note of Mike, here is a classy picture of his cat he sent me:

Too cute!  Weird, but cute!

Today’s symptoms:  Had a somewhat bad day today.  I was hit with some pretty bad fatigue and had to go home a couple hours early.  I had really bad pains in my forearms and my legs were also quite stiff and crampy. 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/9/2013 6:30 PM

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a great Easter!On Friday, Mike and I went to the All About Pets show in Mississauga.  It was close to Pearson Airport, so it was nice to see all the jets coming in for a landing:

 

 

Once we arrived at the International Centre, we were a tad overwhelmed at the size.  We ended up walking around more than half of the buildings before finally arriving at the pet show.  The amount of people there was insane.  It was hard to walk around from one vendor/exhibit to the next.  Fortunately, what we were able to see was great.  Check out the cute Savannah cat:

Over in the cat show section, I of course sought out the Sphynx kitties.  Chatted with the owner of these two cuties:

I think the fluffy one is a Devon Rex.

We checked out the birds:

Little owl dude:

I really started to feel sick after less than an hour.  There were just too many people, sounds, smells…..being pushed around plus my balance was really bad that day.  I felt bad that we couldn’t stay longer than we did.  I had to sit down in the food court for a bit, just so the room would quit spinning.  After a brief rest, we checked out the horses:

It was a really great time, just wish I didn’t start feeling so sick.  I feel like I kinda ruined it for Mike.

The next day, Jan came over and the three of us walked over to a nearby restaurant for dinner.  I was really surprised how dead it was in there.  Oh well, good food and good company.

Yesterday, I went to Mike’s for Easter dinner.  As with the previous meals I’ve had there, this one was great too.  His mom made the cutest bunny cakes:

She’s such a great cook and baker!

It was a wonderful evening that unfortunately had a bad ending.  I’ve had McRosenkrantz the Betta fish for over two years now.  He’s been rather sickly for a few months – spent most of the time at the bottom of the tank with a swollen chest.  He ate well at least.  Poor little goober passed away last night.  I don’t have it in me to just flush him, so I wrapped him up and stuck him in the freezer.  I’ll take him to Jan’s on the weekend and bury him in the garden with all my previous pets (hamsters, mice, gerbils, turtles, birds, etc.)

Tomorrow I have to give a “motivational” presentation to the Air Cadets in Port Colborne.  It’s the same presentation I’ve given to other groups in Niagara, such as John Deere retirees, Air Force Association, Zonta Club, plus to an aviation group up in Sexsmith.  It takes me about 45 minutes to get through and I show a PowerPoint presentation throughout.

Today’s symptoms:  Feeling fairly decent today, although a tad more fatigued than normal.  Mind you, I had a busier weekend than usual so it’s all good.  Really bad aches and pains in my forearms and hands too.

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 4/1/2013 7:43 PM