October 19 – October 25 (2015)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

What a great shot of a Golden Retriever and a mouse. Is the dog the mouse’s pet? Or is the mouse the dog’s pet?

Ever had one of those days when you’ve been “up the creek and through the mill?” I love that line in this song. It’s “Four Seasons In One Day” by Crowded House, and it’s been on my mind all weekend!

Monday the 19th – DOWN TO THE WIRE! – When I got up at 11 my contractor Electric Bob and his assistant Ernie came over to finish up the remodeling on the Puppet Room bathroom. The past week I was having a new shower put in, as the old one was just…well…old. And since my parents would be coming to town on Tuesday this was my motivation to get it all fixed up nice. I helped Bob and Ernie clean up the Puppet Room and straighten things out again to restore it to the condition it was in before we tore it apart to do the work. I ran out to the hardware store to get some towel racks and robe hooks. Before they left I wanted to have new hardware installed on the walls that was more durable than the previous hardware. But when I got home I realized that one of the towel racks was too short. So, back I went to the hardware store to return it and get the right size. After they finished up and left, I got busy and replaced all of the displays that I had removed so they wouldn’t get accidentally damaged during the work. It took several hours to clean and replace everything, but it ended up looking really great! And the new shower turned out great! As I was making up the Puppet Room bed for my folks, I realized that both comforters that fit that bed were dirty! So I called the cleaners to see if they could clean them within 24 hours, before my parents get in. They told me I could pick it up at 9pm Tuesday night…right about the time they arrived! Perfect! I jetted over to the dry cleaners to drop off the comforters, checked my mailbox, and then met my assistant Sara for dinner at Ernie’s Taco House. I came home and washed some clothes, did some organizing around the house, did my auditions, and wrote Wally’s Week. WHEW! I hit the hay for an early session on Tuesday morning at Disney.

Tuesday the 20th – THE FOLKS RETURN! – The alarm went off at 9:30 and I was on my way to Disney to do a super-secret Marvel project. It was very exciting and I saw things that I wish I could talk about, but I simply cannot. But suffice to say it was VERY cool! When we finished the session around 2 I headed to my seamstress’ studio to pick up a Tony Clifton tux she had been working on. I wanted to get it finished so I could get it up on eBay in time for Halloween, in case anyone was doing Clifton for Halloween and was in the market for a dead-on replica tuxedo. The tux was originally made for me, but it’s just a little tight in the shoulders so I’m going to sell it to a Clifton impersonator who is slightly smaller than me. I hit the post office, and then went home to meet up with Sara so she can take my cat Spooky over to the groomer’s to get his nails trimmed. Sara put the Clifton tux up on eBay, and then my pal Brittney Powell came over for a quick visit after she wrapped up an audition in the area. I did a few voice tracks for Go 96.3 in Minneapolis, and then I got ready to go get my folks at the airport. I got in a quick hour-long nap and then got up to head to the airport. The folks were glad to be back in town, and we went over to Denny’s to get some late dinner. I stopped by the dry cleaners to pick up the comforters, and then we got a few grocery items. We got back to Planet Wallywood and they unpacked. We hit the hay because we have to be up early the next morning for a session!

Wednesday the 21st – A WILD WINGERT WEDNESDAY! – My folks and I got up at 8 and we walked to Studiopolis for a “Sonic Boom” session. They had a great time watching the gang at work. We walked back home after the session wrapped at noon. It was getting quite warm out! Electric Bob came over to swap out showerheads in the Puppet Room bathroom. The other one didn’t have much pressure, but my folks seemed to like the one he replaced it with. I put Roxy in the back of my Mustang and we all drove over to Panera to enjoy lunch on the patio. I was going to go get my Sons of the Desert fez at Mr. Stitch, and then I had planned on taking the folks shooting at the range, but they were still a little tired from their trip, and I was still a little groggy from the whirlwind days leading up to their arrival. When we got home my folks grabbed a nap, and I did some work on-line. I fed Spook and then napped on the couch for a little bit. I did some work around the house, and then we all hopped in the Gran Torino and drove over to the Coral Café for dinner. We got back home, I did my auditions, and then we all packed up for our trip to Palm Springs. I have another early session on Thursday!

Thursday the 22nd – BATMAN AT LAST! – A long-held dream came true today! I FINALLY got to be the voice for Batman! I got up at 8:45 and hopped in the Torino and headed to Voice Trax West. A major toy company is making a Batman action figure that will say about 15 things. I auditioned and got the job! It was amazing and fun! I’m counting the days until the toy is released in 2016 so I can add it to my collection! It was fun talking to the director from the toy company, and he promised to come by and tour Planet Wallywood soon. I drove over to Mr. Stitch to get my Sons of the Desert fez. I had the “tent” name and location stitched on the back. Now when I go to the next Sons of the Desert meeting in December, I’ll be stylin’! My SUV was reserved at Enterprise at noon, but they called and said it was getting new tires put on, and I wouldn’t be able to pick it up until 1pm. The setback was going to put us on the road an hour later than planned, so we decided to grab lunch. My folks like DuPar’s so we got some food while we waited to get the SUV and head out of town to Palm Springs. I went to Enterprise at 1pm and the SUV was still not there. They phoned the tire place and they said it was “in transit.” Great…the SUV should be there soon. But after waiting around 20 minutes, I asked the Enterprise associate to please define “in transit.” So he called the tire place back and they said the SUV wasn’t “in transit,” but rather the TIRES for the SUV were “in transit.” WHAT!? It’s going to be the rest of the afternoon before it’s ready!? I was miffed! Now they want me to go to another location to pick up another SUV. So I dropped off my mom at home, and my dad and I drove the Mustang to the OTHER Enterprise to get the SUV. Tick tock tick tock tick tock. Now we’re going to be TWO hours behind, and the LA freeways are beginning to clog with traffic. When we got the other Enterprise location, the SUV was FILTHY! I didn’t care about it not being washed, but it needed vacuumed very badly. Potato chip crumbs and dirt were all over the floor. I just didn’t want to drive around in somebody else’s filth while in Palm Springs. It took some real persuasion to get them to expedite the vacuuming process. Now we wouldn’t be hitting the road until 3pm, a full THREE hours after our target. As expected the traffic was horrible all the way to Palm Springs. Thanks Enterprise. During the drive I was composing the complaint letter and Trip Advisor review I planned to write when I got back. And this is the SECOND time this Enterprise has done this to me. But this was the worst. We got to Palm Springs by 5:30 and we checked into the room. We all ate some dinner at the Bar-B-Q trip tip place downstairs from the hotel, and then my folks got to try a Dole Whip! They loved it as much as I do! The last time I went to the Palm Springs street fair, two weeks ago, it was too hot to take Roxy along. But tonight it was nice and cool and Roxy was having a blast! We stopped at Waykey’s booth and I bought another CD. My mom loved watching him play. And it was a gorgeous night. We went back to the hotel and I grabbed a nap from 9:30 until 12:30. When I got up I picked up an NYPD pizza and ate it on the balcony while watching stars on the balcony. I saw an amazing shooting star! It was SUPER bright!

Friday the 23rd – JOSHUA TREE-RIFIC! – At 11 I woke up and grabbed the folks. Roxy, the folks and I walked over to Ruby’s Diner on Palm Canyon Drive for lunch. Then we got some t-shirts and headed back to the hotel to get the SUV. We all drove over to Joshua Tree as the day started to end. It was stunning at night when I went a few weeks ago, but it’s even glorious during the day! Amazing and scenic! And it’s so QUIET! When you get out of the car and walk around the park, it’s so quiet you think you’ve lost your hearing! We hit KFC on the way back to the hotel for a snack, and drove into an amazing sunset! The sun was throwing amazing light through the clouds and even creating some prism-like colors in the sky! Stunning! We got back to the hotel and I slept for about 3 hours. When I got up I took the folks over to Denny’s for a late dinner. When I got back I was privileged to watch a mostly-full moon set behind Mount Abe outside my hotel room. There were lots of clouds, but it was still really pretty. We had originally planned to leave on Saturday, but we’re all having so much fun we decided to extend our trip a day and leave on Sunday.

Saturday the 24th – MY DAD WAS WOUNDED BY A B-17 BOMBER! – Again, like magic, I woke up at 11. The folks and I stopped at Sherman’s Deli for lunch. We were headed to the Palm Springs Air Museum, and there it was! A sign with the two loveliest letters in the English language…D Q! A Dairy Queen! We made a quick pit-stop and got some ice cream. Then we headed to the Palm Springs Air Museum to spend the afternoon looking at some superb aircraft. My dad was particularly interested in seeing this, and it was fortunate that we ran into some of the people from the museum in their booth at the street fair. We even got coupons for $2 off admission! Sweet! We had a great time seeing the vintage aircraft, and I had a great time photographing a stray Roadrunner that wandered into the property. He seemed very tame. Dad and I took the tour of an actual B-17, and if you’re at all claustrophobic you should never go in one of these. I can’t figure out how these guys ever got into these things! I guess back then guys were a lot smaller! We walked up a ladder and crawled through a little tunnel to get to the first area. To the left was the cockpit (which you couldn’t enter) and the area to the left was where the bombardier sat. The catwalk to get to the back of the plane was very tiny, and I actually had to walk through it sideways. I was too broad to get through! Those guys who served on those planes back then were REALLY brave! We went into the radio room and sat on the chairs there. Then we went back to where the ballgunner and tailgunners sat. When we got out of the plane I noticed that my dad’s leg was bleeding. Apparently somewhere on the plane my dad nicked his leg. I went to find an attendant to get access to their first aid kit. But their kit seemed to be very dated. It didn’t have any alcohol pads to clean the wound. So all I could find was a huge bandage. The attendant said that they were going to address the first aid kit situation that night! I guess they haven’t checked it out in quite a while. As Dad put the bandage on we joked that he was injured by a B-17 bomber! We went back to the hotel to relax, and then we met my friend Edi and her fiancé Elliot for dinner at Las Casuales. We didn’t get the famous “Elvis” table, but it was fun nonetheless. After dinner we went back to the hotel, I packed up a few things and took a short nap. I stayed up all night watching stars on the balcony, but with lots of clouds and a full moon, the stars were few and far between. But it was still very pretty out and neat to look at.

Sunday the 25th – HOME AGAIN! – We checked out around 2pm and hit the road back to L.A. We stopped at the Wendy’s drive-thru on the way out of town. The traffic on the way home was awful. It seemed like there was some sort of wreck or obstruction about every 30 miles. When I drove back home on a Sunday afternoon two weeks ago, the traffic was beautiful! We got back around 4:30 and got settled for a bit. We walked Roxy over to evening church at 5:30, and when we got back we did some unpacking. I checked some e-mails and we all took short naps. When we woke up we ordered pizza, relaxed and chatted. I did some auditions and hit the hay. Whew! What a week!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

The Puppet Room was in full disarray while the bathroom was being remodeled.

Mom and Roxy relax in their hotel room in Palm Springs.

Dad seems to really like the Dole Whip!

Roxy meets a Sheltie friend named Spencer at the street fair!

A rock climber scales one of the unique rock formations in Joshua Tree National Park

Mom enjoys photographing the stunning scenery with her tablet.

Some of the remarkable views in Joshua Tree.

Wild cactus…beautiful!

As the sun sets in the west, the moon begins to rise in the east over the mountains.

In Yucca, they have an old drive-in movie theatre. Unfortunately the land is being used for a swap meet, but it was fun to drive around and see where it used to stand. And the vintage sign was a bonus!

It looks like a painting, but it’s real! The nearly-full moon through an amazing patchwork of clouds

A terrific array of vintage hand-guns at the Palm Springs Air Museum.

MEEP! MEEP! A real Roadrunner. But he’s not purple and he doesn’t say anything that resembles a horn. Strange.

Here’s Dad reenacting a time when he was 19 and in the Army. He was flying on an aircraft called the Flying Boxcar. He got airsick and had to…ahem…chirp into his helmet. At the Air Museum they have a replica of an interior of a Flying Boxcar, so here he is humorously reminiscing about those “good old days.”

It’s amazing these things ever flew!

Dad ascends the ladder into the B-17 aka The Flying Fortress. By the way, back in World War 2, these planes didn’t have a ladder to get in. The soldiers had to leap up into them!

Here’s the cockpit of the B-17.

As you can see the quarters are VERY cramped. These soldiers would have to be up in these things from 7 to 10 hours each mission! And in 65 degree below zero temps!