Floatfest in Welland

What a great weekend.  Had a nice visit with my little mother on Saturday.  We went to visit our friend in the hospital (still improving!)  Then Mike and I went to visit my bestie at her house.  She’s so lucky as she lives very close to the airport.  Needless to say, Mike and I were frequently distracted by planes flying overhead.  We had a great visit and Mike really bonded with their dog, Bella:

Errrrrr……..maybe “bonded” is the wrong term.  Hehehe.  When we were leaving, he continued to sing the mini muffin song to me (which he had been doing all day and the day before).  Apparently he was seriously craving muffins.  So, we had to make a detour to Timmies and he came out with these bad boys:

I assumed he was just getting one.  Geesh

The next day we went up for an afternoon flight.  They were trying to break the World Record for the most water inflatables in a row, at the annual Floatfest event on the Welland Canal.  I emailed one of the organizers a couple weeks back to offer to take aerial photos and got all the event details.  I was right overhead for 3:00, which was supposed to be the time of the World Record.  Clearly from 1500′ up, this wasn’t the case:

All of the floaties need to be touching for the record, so it was pretty obvious it wasn’t happening at 3:00.  Kinda disappointing.  Grabbed a few pictures while we circled around, waiting for something to happen:

I didn’t go out of my way to try and get any great pics, since I wouldn’t be giving them to the organizers, as we discussed previously.  No record attempt pictures for me!  Nice flight though.

Mike snapped this pic as we came back over the canal:

As we were coming in to land, there was another plane up ahead so we followed him in:

We had to wait briefly after exiting the runway for this helicopter to land (no, he did not just land on the fuel truck):

Once home, we were both quite hungry.  We decided to go a place within a block from our homes, which we’ve wanted to go to for years.  Pho Dau Bo, which is a Vietnamese restaurant.  It’s always packed, so we went a little earlier (plus we had the hungries).  We both ordered the rice noodle soups, his with yucky seafood and mine with grilled beef:

We both loved it and managed to eat it all (there was a lot of food!)  We certainly recommend this restaurant.   Actually, I’m going back later this week for a visit with my friend.  Yea!

Since I haven’t mentioned the little goober in a recent blog, here’s a pic of Peanut from the other night:

He’s so cute.  Then there’s these two little cuties.  They rarely get along, but apparently Abby decided to tolerate Pinky enough to use her as a pillow.  She is pretty fat and cushiony:

Today’s symptoms: I’m happy to report I’m continuing to feel better.  The weakness is much better than it has been over the last month.  The headache has gone down quite a bit, but once in a while comes back quite strong.  More nerve pain in my left side, but nothing worth writing home about.

 

Holy Crap – Read ‘Til The End!!!

The main part of my mother’s birthday gift was High Tea at Prince Of Wales in Niagara-On-The-Lake.  I’ve been wanting to do this for so many years.  Our reservation was 12:30, so we arrived just after 10:00 and wandered around the town.  Of course, we had to stop at the Home Bakery to get Jan her usual Scotch Pies and mild sausage rolls.  Yum!  I also bought Moon Cheese.  I had never heard of it until I saw it on Food Factory last week.  It was delicious:

It was pouring rain while we were walking around so there weren’t too many people, which was nice.  We had no issue spending time until our High Tea.  Once we got there, all I can say is wow.  I completely recommend High Tea at Prince of Wales.   The atmosphere was perfect, the food was perfect – it was all perfect.  First, we each had to choose our tea:

I chose peaches and cream and Jan chose Heavenly Cream, which was an creamy earl grey (I looked it up).  Jan is not a big fan of flavoured tea.  I loved mine, and after a few cups, I tried Jan’s.  It was amazing.  Didn’t need milk or sugar.  Then our amazing food arrived.  I let them know this was a present for Jan’s birthday.  They did this:

So sweet!  The table looked like this:

The food was exceptional….warm scone, fresh pastry, homemade bread, wonderful desserts….perfect.  We had so much food, we couldn’t eat it all so they kindly brought us takeout containers for the rest.  We had a great dinner, sans the beautiful atmosphere.  Although, we had the pleasure of dealing with this:

And this:

Another perfect and highly memorable moment!

That night, I continued reading my awesome book.  Here’s a little book review for you.  I’ve never read anything from this author, but I recently finished Nest by Terry Goodkind.  I loved it!  I think the reviews are lower than they should be.  Anyway, I started an earlier book by him called Law of Nines.   Loving it so far.  About a third of the way through.  There is a paranormal twist to it, so if you’re not in to that, this might not be your thing.  I’m enjoying it though.  I love it when I’m reading and this happens:

Or this:

Good times!

Update: went to visit our friend today.  He has been moved to a rehab hospital to get therapy for his strength and speech.  He’s doing so much better.  We had a wonderful visit and looking forward to seeing him again soon.

Today’s symptoms: Was a little weak this morning.  I took some meds that perked me up a little.  Helped with the nerve pain that was shooting down my left arm all morning.  Speaking of meds, I must share this with you.  Since 2010, this is what my medication claim has been:

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!  All I can say is being sick is expensive!

 

Birthday Mommy!

Yesterday was my little mother’s birthday.  Yea!  Mike and I decided to make her a cake.  She loves bunnies and has lots frolicking around her backyard.  Thus, I present to you Belinda the Bunny:

Not too bad, if you ask me!  I also bought her an enormous My Little Pony balloon.  I wanted to get a Sponge Bob one, but they were kinda expensive.  The Pony was on clearance for $4:

She loved the cake and pressies.  We figured it would be best to sample said cake:

After nomming some rabbit, we went to the hospital to visit our friend.  So glad that things are still improving.  We had a really nice visit.  It was a good day.

Mike and I went to the market on Saturday to get some flowers for Lil Jan.  We were a little surprised to see someone walking their pet pig:

I guess I kinda know what it’s like since I have Pinky.  When we got home, we watched a couple episodes of the Hammy the Hamster show.  My friend from work lent me the series on DVD:

 

Tee hee!  The one flying the orange airplane was pretty darn cool and cute! Almost as cute as this picture of Mya:

You may remember I mentioned in a previous blog that I attempted to give Mike an advantage at Call of Duty, by me donning my unicorn head.  I still beat him with it on so I had to try something else.  This time, I wore mittens:

  

Well, it seems the result was pretty much the same.  I’m Abby:

Poor Mike!

Today’s symptoms: Still feeling weaker than normal, but it’s certainly improving.  The headache is lessening each day too.  Yea!

 

 

Another Ambulance Called!

I mentioned in my previous blog that I had to phone the ambulance for a girl that passed out in the hall after I got my blood work done.  Last night at 2:00AM, had another incident.  I was all snuggly in bed, surrounded by the cutest kitties ever, when I was woken up by a bunch of screaming outside.  I looked out my bedroom window to see a girl screaming at this dude who kept falling over.  She was swearing like crazy and kept mentioning “bleeding,” which I didn’t know if it was him or her.  She stood him up and he fell back down.  Then she yelled “Then stay on the ground then – I can’t deal with this anymore!”  She started walking away and came back thirty second later, screaming again.  She got him stood up and this time he fell pretty hard (he was clearly drunk).  Half of him was on the road.  She left at this point.  Soooooooo…..I called 911.  I told the dispatcher that I was up on the 10th floor, watching with my binoculars.  She asked if he was breathing, which was a little hard to tell from up there.  I said he wasn’t moving.  She said she was sending an ambulance, and I told her I would run down and check on the dork.  Ugh.  And the street he was on was behind my building and I basically had to run half way around the whole block to get to him.  I got to him and asked if he was ok.  He mumbled.  Oh good – I didn’t have to touch him.  I asked his name and if he was hurt.  More mumbling.  I said I called an ambulance because I didn’t want to see him be the next passing car’s speed bump.  He then asked if I would just come closer and make love to him.  I said thanks for the offer but I’ll pass.  Ewwww.  I stepped away from him, said to turn on his side and go to sleepies.  Thankfully, he listened.  I saw the ambulance way down the street so I blinked my iPhone camera at them.  They got him sitting up and talking and hooked up to get his vitals.  Two cop cars then showed up.  I told the EMS the story and then again to the cops.  Dude started to get a little rowdy at that point.  They thanked me so much for calling.  The cop said she wishes more people wouldn’t just turn their backs on these types of things.  I told them that I never could and never will.  I bid them all adieu then went around the block again to get home.  Back home, I had my bedroom window still open and could hear the guy screaming that he was going to kill everyone there and their families.  Good times.  You can kinda make out a couple of the paramedics here, a bit of the stretcher they had just loaded him up on, and the cop car:

I took a sleeping pill, as it was now almost 3:00AM.  I also decided to take the day off today so knew I could sleep in a bit.

I had a good day today.  Still feeling better each day, and even the headache is improving.  Mind you, I took some Tylenol this morning so it wasn’t quite as bad.  It’s been almost migraine strength for three weeks now.  Getting a wee bit tired of it.  At least the pills took the edge off.  I hate taking anything because I’m always afraid of getting rebound headaches.  Sometimes you gotta though.  I relaxed most of the morning then went to the airport for before noon.  I couldn’t believe what happened when I was leaving my apartment though.  I made it down to the elevator when the smell hit me.  My dearest Abby took a big, wet poo on the floor then tried to cover it up by knocking my flight bag over on it.  I didn’t notice when I picked it up and put the bag over my shoulder.  I looked down and had poo smeared all over my shorts, shirt, purse, phone and hand.  Ugh!  I ran in and changed, scraped what I could off my bag and phone and raced out the door.  Running a tad late now.  Even the guy in the airport tower noticed that I was taxiing a little fast and made a funny comment over the radio.  Fortunately, made it over Lookout Golf Course on time to do a little fly-over for the awesome Wise Guys Charity golf tournament, before the shotgun start.

It was a fun but very tiring flight.  It was hot, humid and I had full tanks of fuel, which adds a great amount of weight to the plane, making it harder to pull it through the maneuvers.

On the home front, I’m happy to report that Sarge came back home from Mike’s:

It was so good to see him.  Mya, on the other paw, wasn’t too thrilled and avoided him by jumping up on my bookshelf and engaged her laser-eyes.  Pew-pew!

Today’s symptoms: Energy was actually decent considering the night I had.  I’m glad the headache is slowly improving, but still has a long way to go.  ***sigh***

New Website

I decided to switch my full www.lizzymcfly.com website from GoDaddy over to WordPress.  Took quite a bit of time to figure out how to get everything set up, but I like it so far.  Right now the content is very similar to my old website, so I have to think how I can spruce it up a little.  The main thing is still going to be my blog.

Finishing off the events I discussed in my last blog……  I had to utilize my first aid skills (took the two day course every year for 11 years when I was in the Army) last week.  I was just purchasing a parking token after my blood work Monday when I heard the elevator doors open behind me followed by a large thud.  I looked back and there was this girl laying face down on the floor.  I told the token guy to go to the blood clinic and get someone to help me and to call an ambulance, then come back and tell me he had done so.  I checked her breathing and pulse – good to go.  I got her into the recovery position and kept checking her vitals.  Tried to wake her up, but she didn’t come to for at least five minutes.  Once she was conscious again, she was very spaced out.  I eventually got her sat up, but couldn’t get her to say anything.  I went in her purse and checked her license for her name.  She finally started focusing once I used her name.  The ambulance folks showed up within another five minutes or so.  During that time, I was asking her things such as if she had a seizure disorder, diabetes, history of passing out, etc.  At least I had some info to give the EMS.  So glad I was there to help her out.

I’m happy to report that I’m finally starting to feel better.  Clearly the increased B12 and iron doses are doing their job, as is my bone marrow, pumping out more cute, little red blood cells.  I’m sure it will take another week or so to get back to feeling like I did before (which is still cruddy due to the MS, but at least not double-whammy cruddy!) but I’m looking forward to it.

I went to my mother’s house today and we went to the hospital to visit her friend.  We were so glad to see how much better he was doing.  We stayed for about an hour, then went over to Walmart and Canadian Tire to look for a new mat for my balcony, which was just painted.  The previous owner had that green outdoors carpeting out there.  I figured it was time for a fresh new look, so I’m not putting it back down.  Need a mat for the kitties to lay on when they go out there.  They’re so spoiled.

Jan was showing me her amazing gardens in her back yard, while little Chippy munched away next to us.

I’d say that living in this apartment building, I miss seeing all the little critters, frolicking about outside.  But at least I get things like this to look at instead:

We had our monthly Recreational Aircraft Association meeting the other night.  Our summer meetings are held at the Welland Airport.  Unfortunately, the weather was yucky so we had to drive instead of flying in.  Bummer.  Still a great turn out:

Someone brought pickled beets to the pot luck.  I hate beets.  They are just wrong.  I ate one though:

Then I mock-kicked the guy that brought them:

Tee hee.  While there, a member of COPA (Canadian Owners and Pilots Association) gave me a copy of the local Port Colborne and Wainfleet newspaper.  He very nicely used my aerial pics of the Rankin Cancer Run:

I’m so glad I can do this for them every year!

Speaking of the RAA, I found this picture of me slightly altering this dude’s results while he weighed himself at a previous meeting.  Hehehe.  He was all upset because of the added weight he thought he gained.  I told him “No more donuts for you!”

I’m so mean.

Today’s symptoms: I’m SO happy to report I’m starting to feel better.  The only thing that doesn’t seem to be improving is this nasty headache I’ve had for weeks.  It’s nice that it wants to be friends and stick around, but I think I’m all friended out!

Elizablogless!

I’ve been feeling really cruddy over the last month.  I’ve had to lay down for a few hours every day because I’ve been so weak, fatigued and with a pretty bad headache.  I had blood work done on Monday and it shows my red blood cell count is down.  Since getting the results, I’ve upped my iron dosage (I was taking very little before) as well as my B12.  Hopefully things will start to improve soon, because I’m getting a wee sick of this silliness!

I was feeling well enough last Sunday morning and took up a passenger for an aerobatic flight.  He had been in a small plane once before (and subsequently jumped out of it), but never did aerobatics.  As always, I get my victim used to the plane and flight by first heading over Niagara Falls to see the spectacular view.  We then went back over the Niagara District Airport at 4000′ and did some maneuvers.  He did very well with everything – didn’t get too queasy.  He really enjoyed the flight, as did I!  I love being able to give people such an awesome experience.

I thought I posted this in a previous blog, but apparently I didn’t.  When at the airport for a flight the other week, the jet carrying Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider and David Spade took off:

The were performing at Casino Niagara.

The last few weeks have been a bit of a blur with how lousy I’ve been feeling, and I don’t even remember where Mike and I flew that day.   I did find these pics from either that one or the next one we did though:

This is either Crystal Beach or Sherkston:

While we were approaching Lake Erie, we saw a large plane which looked like it was flying low and slow over our side of the lake.  Turns out, it was the Good Year Blimp on the American side.  Pretty neat that we could see it so clearly that far away.  I had Mike look it up on his flight radar app.  It’s the red plane symbol and we were directly across from it.

It’s been so therapeutic to be doing these flights during the short periods of time I’ve felt decent over the last month.  I can’t wait for things to start improving.  Yea!

Mike brought me some small York peppermint patties the other day.  When he left, I tried to give him one, but he kept throwing it back to me.  I asked Sarge to run over to his place with one:

 

I texted Mike that he had a visitor:

I haven’t seen Sarge since:

 

 

 

At least he seems happy.

Had some really cruddy news the other week.  My mother’s very good friend became ill and has been in the hospital for two weeks now.  We’ve been to visit a few times.  While in the emergency department with him, I made him his first Mr. Handy:

Unfortunately, Mr. Handy was left downstairs when he was moved to ICU so I had to make him another one:

So glad that he’s improving and we hope to head there for another visit very soon.  I would have liked to have gone today, but had a neurologist appointment in Hamilton.  Blah.

Today’s symptoms: Felt a bit better today than the average day over the last month.  Yesterday was awful though – had to lay down for one to two hours three times!  Yuck!  Hopefully the increased doses of iron and B12 kick my cute and squishy bone marrow into popping out more red blood cells.  Always nice to have a little extra oxygen transported to the important things, like organs and brain!  Since I’m a little behind on my blogage, I’ll post another one within the next couple of days.  Stay tuned!