Ghost Walk

In the spirit of Halloween, Mike and I decided to do the Niagara-On-The-Lake Ghost Walk around the town.   We arrived a couple hours early and first had dinner at The Irish Harp.  Yum.  We’ve never been disappointed with their food.  We wandered around the town after we ate, and visited the few stores that were still open after 7:00.  Fortunately, the candy store was open until 8:00.  We drooled as we admired the walls of sugar surrounding us.  Then Mike found the gourmet jelly beans:

One of the tour guides is a retired co-worker.  It was great to see him again.  He did a fabulous time being our spook guide.  There were 14 of us in our group.  The tour is a walk around the town for about an hour and a half.  The history of the area is amazing and apparently full of spooks!  Very interesting ghost stories, told in a spooktacular fashion.  Here is one of the homes that has it’s own ghost:

See anything in the pic?

The walk was great and certainly recommended!

Last weekend, I did the annual leafectomy of my mother’s gutters:

I love the gloves she gave me.  Geesh:

And in this pic, it looks like my head is smoking:

It looks like the nice weather is gone for the year.  It looks like this weekend isn’t going to be too pleasant.  I don’t think there will be a sunset like this:

Or waking up to joyous Toronto, glistening in the sun:

On a bright note, even if the weather is gloomy, I still have these sunshines to wake up to:

Pile of cute!

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty cruddy starting in the afternoon.  I was in bed soon after work and into the evening.  I don’t think I’m coming down with anything, just having a bunch of MS symptoms (bad fatigue, headache, nerve pain and just all over blahs.  I hoping tomorrow is going to be much better!

Flight To London

I had my follow-up appointment with the neurologist in London today.  Since the weather was decent, I decided to fly rather than drive.  My little mother joined me, which was very nice.  We arrived at the airport around 7:15am.  The Club cat took care of Donkay for me while I got things ready with the plane:

It was a tad windy today (headwind), so we made sure we had lots of time to get there.  I was surprised how smooth the flight was, which was great for my mother (she glares at me whenever I hit even a small air pocket).  There were small showers to the north of us, but mostly just small scattered fluffy clouds:

Also this cute rainbow:

Here is Highway 401, which we would have been driving on:

When I was about 15 minutes from landing, I called for a cab.  This was the only part of the trip I was worried about – that a cab wouldn’t show up.  Fortunately, soon after parking Vyctor, the cab arrived. This was our view while we briefly waited:

It was about a twenty minute drive.  It’s crazy how much cabs cost!  We arrived about thirty minutes early, which to me was kinda cutting it close.  My appointment was quick – only about fifteen minutes.  We went over my cognitive testing from last month.  She gave me some suggestions to help with the cognitive issues I’ve been experiencing over the last year or so.  She also suggested I take part in an MS study, which involves two MRI’s a year plus cognitive testing every two years for seven years.  I certainly wish it was closer than London, but I want to be able to help in finding solutions and/or treatment for anything to do with MS (because MS sucks!)  So I’m just waiting to be contacted to set up my first MRI appointment.  It’s crazy to think I’ll be having three a year!  My primary neurologist requests one a year too.  Anyway, I feel so good being able to assist them, so it will be worth the extra traveling.

After my appointment, I called up the same cab driver we had before. We passed this on the way into the airport:

We got a little worried, as it started spitting a little.  It was mostly clear at the airport and I checked the weather on the route – good to go!  Farewell, London:

The good thing was that we had a brisk tail wind going back.  The bad thing was that it was a fairly bumpy flight.  I got a few glares from Lil Jan.  She was a trooper though.

We were zipping along quite nicely.  It was surprising how quickly we hit Hamilton, then Grimsby Airport:

It was about an hour and twenty minutes to get there and forty-seven to get back!

I’m happy with how everything went today.  I’m quite pooped now, but flying always wipes me out.  Certainly worth it though!  Plus I didn’t have to deal with a stressful drive.

I was nicely greeted when I got home.  Mya was excited to hear about my flights today, and had her little aviator jacket on:

I felt so loved!  Abby didn’t put forth quite the same effort as Mya, but was still adorable:

Today’s symptoms: Felt quite good after a decent sleep.  What a difference good sleep can make.  I’m still sore from my recent fall, but it’s much better than it was.  Nerve pain and everything is the same – still a fair bit more than I’ve ever had before, shooting down my arms into my hands.  It’s tolerable so it’s all good!

Elizatumble…

Well I did something rather silly last night. I went out onto my balcony to enjoy the weather and do some stretches. I hung onto the railing then I arched backwards, stretching my back. So my head was basically facing the opposite direction of my body and I was seeing everything upside down. While I was hanging like this, I thought to myself “Gee, what if my fingers were to slip. I would either smash my skull open or break my neck.” That’s when I decided to get up and as I lifted my head, my right fingers slipped. As I fell, I immediately thought of the large metal airplane planter sitting in the corner of the balcony where I was falling. There was nothing I could do as it all happened so fast. All I remember next was the huge bang of me hitting my head and back on this metal airplane. The rest of my bony bod hit the cement. Whoops! At least I didn’t knock myself out. By the time I got up and stumbled into the living room, some of the pain made its presence.  I said out loud (only me there) “I sure wish I landed on a sheep. Then it wouldn’t hurt as Baaaaaad!” And yes, I even made my voice sound like a sheep as I said “Baaaaaad”. Anyway, I sure am feeling it today! Bruised and sore all over with a lump on my noggin. On a bright note, my back feels nicely stretched – in between the welts. Tee hee!

I just couldn’t have a blog without kittah and/or Vyc pics (hehe):

Mya being motherly to her sister, Boo (or possibly performing an exorcism):

As Pinky looks on:

Today’s symptoms: MS symptoms are average today.  I’m so grateful because I’m already dealing with enough ca-ca after my little tumble last night.  Life is good!

The Three Amigos

Jan, Mike and I went to St Jacobs last Thursday and Friday. Our plan was to arrive for around noon Thursday and go to the farmer’s market and then the little outlet mall. Unfortunately we hit a pretty big glitch when we parked at the hotel and went in to get our parking pass. The garçon at the desk said that we booked four rooms. I said I booked two as there were three of us. He said I booked two and then two more a few days ago. I said that I only logged into my account and had my reservation info emailed to me again. I showed him my reservation email which had two rooms and three people.  He said it didn’t matter what the email showed because his system showed four rooms and that’s what I’d be charged for. I said I was going to cancel my credit card then and he said it didn’t matter because he already put all four rooms through and he already had the money. Seriously??? We argued for about ten minutes and he said I would have to call their head quarters. He wrote down their number and handed it to me. On the back of the paper, there was another guest’s name, address, email and account number. Lovely. I phoned and she said that the system shows the two rooms I booked plus the hotel put a third room on my card. She asked to speak with the person I was dealing with and he refused to speak with her. She ended up phoning him and spoke to him for over half an hour. Once back on the phone with her, she said this case has been escalated to the highest level possible and she would ensure those extra charges wouldn’t be on my card. She also said the person I was dealing with directly was extremely unprofessional and was very against me not paying for all four rooms. Wow. I did not expect this at all. I’ve been going to this hotel for years now and never had an issue. The whole process took around two hours. We ended up wandering around the market for a couple hours, then drove into town to have dinner at the Stone Crock. As usual, the food was delicious and we left with very full bellies. We walked off a bit of it when we strolled around the outlet mall. A couple of the stores we typically peruse were closed down, which was a little disappointing. We still had a great time though as we were all quite full of energy and rather giddy. One really neat thing is that my little mother had never touched a horse before, despite having a great love for them. Well, first time for everything:

It was so nice to see!!!! They were so gentle and docile towards us. It was a great moment!

After a good night’s sleep, we had brekkie then drove into town. We hit almost all the stores, which are considerably less in number than just ten years ago. To be honest, it’s a bit disappointing. So many of the shops we loved are gone and many of the ones there have the same things as the one a couple doors down. Again though, we still had a great time and it was a wonderful trip. We’ll just take the hotel incident as a learning experience and not let it mar the memories of the trip.

I worked at the Hamilton office today to help out with the Wellness Fair they have every couple years. We have ours in St. Catharines the opposite years. It’s a nice break on one’s lunch to come see about the various resources and service in the region. I met so many great people and gathered a fair bit of info from the many “vendors”. They had a bit of a super hero theme going and I got to meet Batman and Spidie:

I met two very nice ladies who were promoting the registered charities we could donate to through payroll deductions. One of them was the MS Society. I let her know that I enjoy giving my motivational and entertaining presentation to any type of group that wants to learn a bit about MS, depression, adapting to or overcoming life’s obstacles and living life to the absolute fullest. She said they often need guest speakers so I’m hoping to hear from her in the future. While chatting with her, she made me this awesome bracelet:

Love it! And of course, it’s orange to match my plane.

Today’s symptoms: After three rather cruddy nights, last night was decent. I felt okish today. My pain pills really helped. Lots of nerve pain today. It seems to be getting worse in my right side, both area-wise and intensity. I see the neurologist in London again in a couple weeks, so I’ll mention these symptoms to her. It’s certainly starting to look like an MS flare-up.

PEI Trip – This and That

I was going through my pics from the recent PEI trip and came across these two classy photos.  When we got to the hotel on our arrival night in PEI, I was the first to use the washroom.  I felt bad that I deprived Cheryl of the first washroom use, especially the little toilet paper triangle thing.  I decided to fold it again for her.  She then redid it for me, and so on.  The next morning, I really didn’t feel like folding it again, so I tore it off:

And used some stick-tack to securely fasten it to the wall:

So now with zero effort, we are able to have that “first-time use” experience for the rest of the trip!

I’m not a big seafood person, apart than just your “normal” fish and chips type, especially when it’s just grilled.  I don’t think I had tried lobster prior to this trip, but I’m not positive.  If I did, perhaps it was not all that memorable to me.  I decided to give it a whirl, as I snagged a little piece from one of my table mates:

It was nice, but I didn’t enjoy it enough to ever purchase a lobster entree.  I’ll stick with my steak.  I had tried mussels before and did not enjoy them.  I figured I’d give them another try:

Meh.  I liked it more than I thought but not enough to eat another one any time soon.

It was the night of the lobster and mussel nomming that we were all given our nice certificate and rally patches:

My mother has since very nicely sewn above patch on my fav coat – thanks again, Lil Jan!

I’m still smiling (and recovering!) from that trip.  The company made it perfect!  I loved how no one was outwardly competitive.  No one cared if one person had more expensive equipment in their plane or if it could go faster.  Everyone discussed their weight and balance and endurance openly and came to decisions on which extra passengers would go in which plane.  Also, there was quite a bit of luggage reshuffling so that everyone was in safe and efficient limits.

I have gone up a couple times in Vyctor since being home.  I gave him a little belly rub when I first saw him.  The first time was when Mike and I flew to the Welland Airport so I could use the tandem sky-diving gift certificate he gave me.  Unfortunately, there were low, poofy clouds all over the place, and I want to see ground when I’m jumping.  So, we ended up flying home all dejected:

But at least we got to go for a quick flight.  I’ll hopefully be able to go back soon.

Today’s symptoms: I feel really punk today.  Very fatigued, tons of nerve pain shooting all over the place, like a bunch of nervy jerks!  Bad headache and just all over blah.  I went on a mini-trip Thursday and Friday and then had a long (and very good) day Saturday.  My body is just recovering from doing more than usual.