Now, I'd had to struggle to get it done up around her belly, which has been looking a little tubby recently, but no big deal. In the evening, she was making noises breathing. She's been doing that for a few days, and I even had a vet's appointment for Wednesday to check it out (both the vets I wanted her to see were in surgery or out of the office until then), but she seemed a bit distressed. Great. We packed everything up and took her to the emergency vet, where an X-ray showed that they couldn't see her heart for the fluid in her chest cavity. Great, a pleural effusion. They shaved her sides, and used a catheter to drain out almost a litre of fluid. This was sent off to be examined, but showed no sign of a bacterial infection.

She got to spend the night at the vet.

The most irritating thing is always my Toshiba PDA, that proudly tells me that it's changed the clock all by itself. I'm so proud if it. The PCs are all set up with NTP, so I don't have to deal with them all telling me how clever they are.

After breakfast, Vic and I headed off to Apple Hill to look at the leaves falling, eat apples and be merrie.

We weren't too late home, so managed to watch the last MotoGP race of the year. It was a bit of an anti-climax, to be honest. It was nice to see Bayliss win his first MotoGP race, I'm OK with Hayden winning the championship, overjoyed that Pedrosa didn't do better than 5th, but saddened that Rossi crashed out of this race. It was looking to be a really good race, but I ended up doing interminable sums to see what could happen if this, that or the other happened - none of which did. It was a bit of a procession to the line.

Anyways, after that, we were pretty wiped out, so had an early night.

In the evening, we watched Battlestar Galactica , but I'm having an increasingly difficult task getting Vic enthused, as it's still dragging. We want explosions and space battles, damnit!

Of course, I only thought to take a picture when I was half way through cutting branches to get some weight off the roof. Doh :o)

I suddenly remembered that the clocks go back this weekend, so this is my last week of being able to fly after work, bummer :o(

I looked at Jack's electric starter kit, but it's for a 582, so it won't fit. It's also a GPL kit, and I've read some bad things about tolerances and cracked cases, but the Rotax kit doesn't look like it'll fit, so maybe I'll shelve that idea...

After a few hours' sleep, I went to the airfield and did a few circuits in the Rans. The wind was calm when I took off, but the last 2 landings were in a 3mph crosswind, and weren't overly exciting, so maybe I'm getting back into the swing of things. There was a brief moment with a Piper Seneca who didn't hear me on the radio, and joined the circuit in the wrong place, but I had him in sight the whole time, it just made him jump :o)

I've been offered a deal on an electric starter for the plane - I just need to see if it's the right one (it was bought for a 582, and I have a 447). I like the idea of an electric start, even if it means rewiring everything :o)

The MotoGP debate runs along, after the weekend's crashfest. We also saw this posted online. The mind boggles.

I spoke to Stephan about the van, it seems that they opened the crate with the engine in it to find the head was cracked, so we're waiting for a new one to show up. We're hoping for something in the next week or so...

I wonder if that includes illegal immigrants, as, depending on who you listen to, there could be between 20 and 30,000,000 of them. Stupid politicians.

Chloe got me up again, but didn't even go out :o)

It's interesting to read some of the other comments about the weekend's MotoGP excitement :o)

During the day, I put the new fork seal in the Hawk, it went straight in without any sort of fuss. I then set about filling the fork with oil, with it back on the bike, so I didn't have to worry about it falling over or anything silly. The manual says 502ml of oil, leaving a 128mm air gap at the top. So, I put 502ml in, and got, at the back of the fork (ie less than at a level point), 104mm. Even after bouncing the forks a lot, I couldn't do any better than that, so I gave up and set the other fork (not just rebuilt to 104mm - it lost a bit of oil when I fired the fork cap across the garage, chipping the paint on the tank a while back. It wasn't until later on that I remembered the cartridge emulators... they were still in the forks, and you'd usually measure the air gap without them. Doh.

In the evening, Vic came over and we watched the MotoGP race from Estoril. Egads, what a race! So much for team orders... one race to go, and it all to play for :o)

Of course, I didn't have any of the stuff at home, so I went shopping. I bought a 5lb bag of rice, thinking that should be enough. I boiled up 2 cups, which looks like it'll be enough for the next week, and stirred in some cottage cheese. I'm keeping the chicken separate, as I can use that as treats on the few times a week she does something good.

I got home pretty late, but Vic came over on her way home from work, cleared up the explosive diarrhea again (sorry, dear) and fed Chloe.

I decided to investigate my mailing / hosting problems, and found out at dnsreport.com that my domain registration had expired. I paid the bill, and magically everything started to flow again :o)

After work, I went to the airfield and looked at the wind there. There was the occasional crosswind gust, but it was basically calm, so I took my time inspecting the Rans and went for a few circuits. The engine started a lot better than I expected it to, and the plane flew really well now it's not so hot (it was around 100F last time I flew, nearly 3 months ago, and it's around 80F now). A good time was had by all. My (4) landings weren't the best ever, but they were all good enough to walk away from, so I was happy :o)

In the afternoon, Vic and I went for a little bicycle ride, which turned out being about 11 miles or so, on some of the trails that you can still get to - there's a bunch of building going on, meaning that I can't get to a load of my favourite dirt trails :o(

In the evening, we rolled Vic up a World of Warcraft character, and got her to level 6 :o)

There was a little airport day, the first. There wasn't an awful lot there, but hopefully next year it'll be a bigger deal.

In the evening, we caught up with Battlestar Galactica , and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out.

In the evening, South Park had an episode about Warcraft, so Vic and I watched it. Other than a few mistaiks (you can't kill millions of boar to go up levels, they stop giving XP when you're about level 10, and Stan's Dad was wielding the magic sword, so it would have been soulbound) it was pretty accurate :o)

Later in the night, it rained. Finally... the weather's been all screwed up recently, as we've been waiting for the rain to come along. Maybe tomorrow I can try and get some time in the Rans :o)