Lain's Log: Catching up!

January 18/13.

Last blog entry, I left out a couple of events involving my fab fam. Shortly after we shuffled into the new year, my sister, Carrie, was invited to attend a special Polka Dot Door reunion party at a downtown restaurant. She was one of the talented co-hosts of the TVO show for many years. (Fabulous singing voice and an amazing puppeteer, if I do say so myself!)

She had fun catching up with one of her fave co-hosts, Johnie Chase at the reunion bash.

Here's Carrie doing her best to drum up big bucks for TVO!

Check out Carrie singing the infamous Polkaroo Flying in Space! (and at the end, you'll see Johnie, too!)

The reunion event was organized by Travis Doucette, (a young man intent on archiving every episode)! He spends countless hours posting Polka Dot Door clips on YouTube for the thousands of diehard fans of the old show!

The Polkaroo wasn't there for the get-together, - (you mean we missed him again???), but here's a shot of Carrie with the popular character from a previous occasion. When asked why he didn't attend, he responded simply, in his usual fashion, - "Polkaroo???" Alrighty then!

Carrie shoe-horned the reunion into her life in between singing gigs, other time-consuming jobs and shuttling her son, Lee to baseball games and school events.

She has one very busy life.

And Lee has been mucho busy too with his glamourous girlfriend, Emily!

Meanwhile, my sister-in-law, Carolyn, and her hubby, Neil, (not pictured here!) are on a fabulous South American cruise. They've been to Chile, to Ushuaia, Argentina (the southernmost town/city in the world), the Falkland Islands, rounded Cape Horn and visited the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile where they encountered condors, rheos (small emus) and this big guy - a guanaco (like a llama). They say the weather has been great, the locations beautiful and the food, delicious! The lucky ducks have missed some mighty cold temperatures here!

Here now is a pic of my cousin Kevio when he and his fam first got their new Weimaraner pup, Kalou. (Kev was trying to teach her how to sleep, to no avail!) They became good pals pretty quickly.

Now, Kalou has grown a lot! She's about a year-and-a-half old and has been taking extra good care of her owner as he triumphs over a few health issues. (nothing like a lick on the head to make you feel better!) Sheesh.

As for me, I've had more follow-up appointments at Princess Margaret Hospital. They monitor my medical condition every few months to make sure I'm OK. This day I was visiting the shrink, who helps me cope with the ups and downs of life.

I read the inspiration board while I was there. (City TV reporter Cynthia Mulligan, who went through her own public battle with cancer, always encouraged me to, "Check the board!") This time it reminded me of the mind/body connection,

which led to me Druxy's, the hospital deli in the lobby, where I had a grilled cheese sandwich on toasted multi-grain bread and a cup of Earl Grey tea! Cheerio!

The next day, (in my continuing quest to gain some weight!), I had lunch with my old pal, Rob Davidson. We first met back in the '80s as radio reporters, when I was at CFTR (680 News) and he was upstairs at CHFI, and then we spent more years working together as entertainment reporters at Global TV. He is a very good guy and always makes me laugh! (And when HE lets loose that laugh of HIS, it actually makes you feel as though you are funny)! Thanks for making the trek, Rob. Great to see you! (Rob has his own company, Lunchroom Productions and also works with ex-Globalite Dave Hatch for his company, WhistleStop Productions, and spent the morning interviewing blues musician Danny Marks before heading to The Friendly Greek to meet me).