RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

BRRRRR! See, it DOES get cold in L.A.!

 Since seeing “Bohemian Rhapsody” again for the second time, I’ve been humming a plethora of Queen songs. “Don’t Stop Me Now” has been my latest obsession.

 

Wednesday the 2nd – NEW YEAR’S LAZIES! – Even though I woke up at 3, I promptly came down with a case of the lazies. I gave the pets a treat, walked Roxy for a bit, but then came back inside and laid down on the couch until 6:30, when I got up to feed the pets dinner. It was a really cold night out, even as early as 7pm! When I got up I had a voicemail from my oral surgeon’s office that my Thursday appointment to install my implant would have to be postponed until next Tuesday the 8th (Elvis’ birthday!) because the doctor came down with the flu. So with the fire ablaze in my fireplace, I laid back down on the couch and slept until 10:30. I convinced myself that I had to get something constructive done, so I went to the garage in my improvised eBay studio (or I.E.S. to those in the know) and took some photos of stuff I’ll be listing on eBay soon. But as I worked I began to see my breath, so I figured it was best to go in around 1am. I did some work inside, made a Tombstone pizza and watched a few more Johnny Carson Tonight Show episodes on DVD. Then I hit the hay.

Thursday the 3rd – CUSTOMER CRAZINESS, COLOR, AND CARSON! – When I got up I called the Burbank Auto Doctor to see if I could bring my Gran Torino in to have an electrical issue with my dashboard lights looked at, but they were swamped after the holidays. They said to give them a call on Monday to see how they were sitting. So I decided to call AT&T to see if there was a way to bring down my “rather expensive” monthly home phone bill. Yup, I still have a landline, because the cell signal in my house isn’t very good. And since I occasionally do Voice-Over sessions out of my home studio, a reliable phone line is essential. Once I reached AT&T Customer Service it was obvious I wasn’t chatting with someone stateside. I said, “I’d like to look at ways to reduce the monthly cost of my landline service.” She soon replied, “So, you want to get rid of your landline?” After a long pause (I wish she could have heard my eyes rolling) I asked to be forwarded to a Supervisor; preferably in America. FINALLY, I got on the phone with a guy in San Diego who assisted quite capably. Come to find out, even with deleting certain features that I’m not using, my bill would still be pretty high because of close to $40 in monthly “government mandated” taxes and fees. He told me about a landline service that’s wireless-based, which would eliminate those fees, but with my spotty wireless service in my house it wouldn’t help matters much. He was able to lower it a few bucks, but I guess it’s just an expense I’ll have to endure for the foreseeable future. I called my water company to have my service discontinued. Arrowhead (now called “Ready Refresh” – who came up with THAT idiotic name?!) are not only raising their prices on water, but are starting to charge extra for paper invoices. I took that as a sign to move on to a different provider. Not everybody prefers to pay their bills on-line. The way my system is set up here, is all about paper invoices for my files. But since I still have two unused 5 gallon jugs of water, I need to keep the service going until I can transfer those jugs to my personal receptacles. Arrowhead, um…Ready Refresh…won’t discontinue the service until their jugs are replaced for recycling. I ordered two 5 gallon receptacles on Amazon, I’ll transfer the water once they arrive, and I can be done with Rocky Rejects, or Ridiculous Refrain, or whatever they’re called, once and for all. If a competing provider can’t offer a good price, I’ll just buy water at the store and keep in refrigerated. Not really any need for a water cooler any longer anyhow, since most people prefer their water room temperature anyway. I walked over to see my stylist Andie for a touch-up on my color, and then came home to relax. I got up later to do some work and record some auditions. I scampered off to Denny’s to get some food to go, and then watched a few more Johnny Carson episodes before bed.

Friday the 4th – PUPPET FEVER! – The day started with a trip to my seamstress’ house with my finished components for my new Rowlf the Dog puppet project. Shelley will attach the fur to his head, build a body (based on the foam understructure pieces I provided her with) and make the hands and ears. When he’s finished I’ll glue in the foam pieces under his fur to give him body, and attach the eyes and nose. I came back to my house to swap out my Mustang for my Gran Torino, drove to the bank to make a first-of-the-year deposit, went to CVS to get some supplies, stopped by the grocery store to get some items for Saturday’s movie night, came home to put the groceries away, and napped for a bit. When I got up it was clear that my subconscious had been working on a few problems I’ve been pondering about my next puppet project…Oscar the Grouch. So I sat down and started sketching, and sizing things up. I had some styrene plastic, so I cut out his upper mouth plate, and the piece for his lower jaw. Then I glued on the finger loops. This will be a fun one, but because of the “eyebrow mechanism” in Oscar’s head, I may need to call in some help from my pal Jim Ojala who does special effects all the time. I made some spaghetti and watched the bonus DVD that came with my Johnny Carson Tonight Show set. He was truly a master of comedy!

Saturday the 5th – DON’T LET THE RAIN COME DOWN (MY ROOF’S GOT A HOLE IN IT AND I MIGHT DROWN!) – After only a few hours of sleep, I woke up and drove the Torino in the rain over to Encino to meet up with my pal Pete in Encino. We went to a delightful, small café to have some tuna melts. The place is small but very famous, as Fabio came in while we were there. I went over to see the new items in Pete’s collection, and then hopped back in my Torino (which needs new wipers, by the way) and drove over to meet my pals Edi and Sara at Paty’s in Toluca Lake. I picked up my mail at my box and started home just as the heavy stuff started coming down. I got home and prepped for movie night. Since it was going to rain all night, I was expecting a light crowd. But my friend Cecille brought a few visitors from France, so it was fun showing them around Planet Wallywood. Just as we were getting into the movie, I noticed the couch was wet. I didn’t spill anything on it so how did it…just then it hit me. Oh no! A leak! I looked up at my sloped roof and there were little drops falling down! I grabbed a beach towel and put it on the sofa to catch the drops. Luckily it was a very slow leak, but still annoying nonetheless. The first Saturday of every month is “Dog Night” at movie night, so tonight we watched “Good Boy,” an old favorite from 2003. It was appropriate too, because by the time everyone left it started raining ‘cats and dogs.’ But as the night went on the leaking tapered off. The roofers won’t be able to get out to look at it until Monday, and more rain was on the way! When my guests left I napped on the couch. But I sprang awake at 3am when I heard it raining hard outside. I looked around to see if it was leaking again. I did some work around the house, cleaned up, made my traditional Saturday night Super Salad, and watched another episode of “SNL” from the season 3 DVD set. Once the sun rose in the morning, and the rain clouds were gone, I crawled out through my bedroom window, which overlooks my sloped roof, and put some plastic down. I hope it will help, as more heavy rain was expected Sunday night!

Sunday the 6th – NO SUN ON SUNDAY! – Later in the day I woke up in time for evening church. Roxy and I walked over, but because some awards show was on TV it was a light crowd. Plus the threat of rain didn’t help either. Shirley and I drove over to Barone’s to have a delicious dinner, and by the time we finished it had started raining again. I took her home and then came back to nap (with the beach towel ready to catch the drips in case my plastic covering didn’t work!). I got up for a bunch of auditions, did some work around the house, noticed that my plastic plan had NOT worked (as drops were falling again) and I put a bucked over the couch to catch the drops. I heated up my leftover Barone’s pizza and hit the hay to get ready for a busy Monday.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

Starting to think about how my Oscar the Grouch is going to come together

Love the rain, HATE leaky roofs