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.

Getting better!

January 27/12.

Got sick for 24 hours. Not fun. Didn't allow anyone to take pics in the state I was in, so will just use some
from OTHER days (instead of looking horrible in bed).

(this is NOT what I looked like yesterday, that's for damn sure!)

Here's what happened. Likely all my own doing. So many people have been concerned about my plumeting weight lately (down to 90 pounds), that I decided, OK, I'll just start eating and keep going. Not a wise move. Had perogies and later a big bowl of Shreddies with milk and fresh strawberries. A few hours later, I started to get really cold. Put my coat on and fell asleep on the den couch. Then woke up, shaking and absolutely freezing. Went up to bed, wore a bathrobe over my clothes, was under the Duvet and a big blanket, but NOTHING could stop the shaking. It was insane. Woke Sam up (which I never do), and told him I'm sick. He was thinking about calling an ambulance, but after about an hour, it started to subside a bit.

(I kinda looked like this.....not!  Had more of a half green/half blue hue).

Figured that after the many months of no appetite and then suddenly, piling on the calories - put my body into some kind of shock syndrome. By morning, I was still going in and out of major league cold flashes. My fingers turned white with cold (as it does in Raynaud's syndrome). Looked it up, and Raynaud's is usually related to exposure to cold. Also read this syndrome can be related to stress. (seems EVERYTHING can be related to stress!) At any rate, was very weak all day and spent most of my time in bed, sleeping or reading, (while shaking with cold). Weird or what? (thank you Shatner).

Sam went out and bought me a bunch of cans of Ensure (as recommended by my GP). Had my first one today....chocolate. Man, that stuff is heavy and dense and I'm not used to that at all. But I've promised everyone I'll gain weight, so I'm going to try to keep drinking it.

Maybe that way, I can get back to normal one of these days!

In the meantime, Carrie and I are taking our cousin, Kevan, out for his birthday dinner tonight to a restaurant called Sauvignon.

It will be the first time in our lives we've done this - just the three of us. (the original "stocking kids" as Carrie calls us) - since we spent every Christmas together as kids and ALWAYS opened our big red Santa stockings on the floor, as a team.

We have a lot to talk about. Kev is among the best men I've known in my life! He's like a brother to us, but also, a great friend. Glad I'm feeling better today. Here's to a great evening!!