W/E rush flips to "Mundane Monday" in snap of a finger!

January 30/12.

Time flies when you're.....too busy to notice!
After recovering from my sudden illness, (which had me bedridden on Thursday), I luckily felt well enough to join my sister, Carrie, to take our cousin Kevan out to dinner for his (belated) birthday, on Friday night.

He chose Sauvignon in the Beaches, one of his fave restaurants. Carrie and I had never been there, but - nice selection! (restaurant, company and wine)! We shared a light & fruity Pinot Grigio - very good year!

We split appetizers - a salad and a heap of sizzling sweet potato fries. Main course - for Carrie and I? - pickerel. For Kev? - lamb chops. Carrie & Kev shared an unusual chocolate/chili dessert. (I couldn't partake - just a bit too much for me after Thursday!) But, ALL great. Every morsel, every second! It's the first time in our lives just the three of us have gone out for dinner together. (It's always been at family dinners in the past). But we had a LOT to talk about. Among a million shared stories over the decades, we also added, (of course), the loss of Kev's Dad, (our Uncle Ev) in the past year, and our Mum (Kev's Auntie Jill), all which happened within the span of just two months of each other. Plenty to commiserate about and compare notes on. Here's to those we loved and lost, to surviving the year gone by, to happy, healthy times ahead and to Kev, for his birthday! Cheers!

A lovely lady named Donna, who works at the restaurant, recognized Kevio from his Rough Trade days, came to our table and mentioned her memories of the night the band played out east in New Brunswick. Kev clearly recalled that night and said it was a great evening out there. I snapped a shot of him with his "long lost fan"! (in return, Donna kindly took the restaurant shots of us!)

With Carrie -

Only a couple of months before, Kev was laid up for 46 days at Bridgepoint in rehab after the horrendous fall off his cottage roof.

He's come a LONG way baby, and has made a miraculous recovery! Thank goodness!

On the way out, had to laugh as we waited for the ten-second autocam to click. Carrie's camera clicks twice with TWO flashes and fools you EVERY time!

Carrie had some leftover Christmas gifts to give to Kev and fam, plus some birthday prezzies for him. Don't believe she was giving him sexy undies, (so that black bag MUST be leftover from one of MY recent sizzling shopping trips)!  Hoo haw!

Thanks for joining us Kevan. (and as you have often been known to say to us, we'll throw it right back at ya, - "You da BEST!!")  Kev wants to make this dinner an annual event, and we agree!

The next day, over the weekend, I had to start work on creating character voices for my 4th Find Your Voice session on Tuesday night. Our teacher, Jason Deline, has given each of the students a homework assignment to create five different voices from various suggestions he's made. It's a challenging and nerve-wracking thing for me, as it's right out of my element/comfort zone.

Luckily, enter Carrie again (Polka Dot Door expert/voice Queen/puppetry master), who sprang to my aid through SKYPE to give me some tips! By Tuesday night, hope to have SOME kind of voices in good enough shape to perform and record them.

Here's an example of the kind of thing Carrie can improvise her way through! When she discovered a squirrel had chewed a hole in the screen outside her apartment balcony window, she brought in her most realistic puppet - Prickles the porcupine to provide some incentive to get the squirrel to vacate the premises.



Sadly, her plan didn't succeed, but the video is a riot, and is on youtube! SOOOOOOOO funny! (she also said I could steal the voice for class! - I would, if I could DO it!)

On Sunday, drove uptown to take my parents-in-law grocery shopping at Lawrence Square.

They are very shy about having pictures taken, so my Mum-in-law took an "exciting" one of me (Corn Flakes and all) at Fortinos! Took Jean & Ben back to their condo and then drove home to do more voice prep. Still have Monday & Tuesday to try & turn myself into "animated mode". - Shouldn't be TOO tough. (I mean, afterall, - I've been Looney Tunes a LONG time now)!!

P.S. - Happy birthday to my oldest friend, Karen (Robbie) Hall. Today, she finally catches up to ME!!

(at least, AGE wise). In real life, I became a radio & TV reporter. She became a doctor. (U do the math!)
I'll be seeing you Saturday, Karen, when you come into T.O. for your late Dad's Celebration of Life.

Roderick Robbie, Canadian architect extraordinaire, deserves a HUGE send-off on Saturday afternoon.
Amazing man, incredible work, fantastic life.