April 28 – May 04 (2025) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Lots of things to love and remember about going to K-Mart. But the sub sandwiches were amazing, and I can still taste them!

“Tonight I’m gonna break away. Just you wait and see.” Love this song, “Crazy Love” by Poco!

Monday the 28th – THE SPRAY WHO LOVED ME! – My ol’ pal Sergio Lopez stopped by Planet Wallywood for the second day in a row to finish styling the wig on the head of my Roger M00re James Bond life-size figure. He was over on Sunday to attach the wig and get it prepped, and today is styling day. We worked all day and when he finished up we went to Ernie’s Taco House for dinner. I got back home and started obsessing over the hairstyle. While Sergio did great work I think I may have given him some misdirection. The holding spray we used on the wig was plentiful (which was needed to ensure that the style would hold until we get to Monsterpalooza later in May), but it darkened the wig too much. The wig we bought was a gorgeous medium brown, which was very similar to Sir Roger M00re’s hair (when he wasn’t enjoying copious amounts of time in the sunshine) in the majority of the James Bond movies he did. I was hoping there was a way that we could deconstruct it in such a way that we could bring out some of those great medium brown tones again. Also, the part on the left side of his head seemed to be about one inch too far to the right. The style wasn’t quite looking right. I looked at the reference photos again of Sir Roger from “The Man With The Golden Gun,” and realized that his part actually starts in the far left corner of his forehead. I took my pinkie and put it in the corner of his forehead and moved a clump of hair over to the left. THAT looked correct! I shook out as much of the style as I could so we could start again. It was starting to look better already. I called Sergio and said we needed one more session to nail the style, and we needed to wash out all the product to bring back those brown tones. He said he’d be over on his next day off (next Monday) and we’d get it finished up. I relaxed for a bit, and then tackled all the auditions in my inbox and sent them to my agents. I typed out Wally’s Week for a bit, suited up and took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and came back in the house to finish up Wally’s Week.

Tuesday the 29th – A VERY EXPENSIVE DAY! – My home and auto insurance policies were coming due in mid-May, but I wasn’t happy with my company. The company I had been with for decades had recently “spun off” their car insurance business to another carrier that had a very low J.D. Power rating. And since I got a discount for bundling my home and auto insurance, I just decided to dump the whole thing and find a different company altogether. Last week I had a meeting with an agent at AAA and I was very pleased with the coverage, the price, and the agent himself. So I headed in to chat a bit, go over the final numbers, shake his hand, (VERY important to me – as opposed to the impersonal on-line service), and sign the paperwork. Oh yeah, and cut the check. It was a very expensive proposition. But the day was about to get expensive-er! Satisfied with the work I had accomplished so far, I went next door to Little Caesar’s and got some Crazy Bread and Crazy Sauce. YUM! I stopped at my box to pick up a package, mailed off a few bills, and stopped by the local wig place. I wanted to find some hair strands that would be a good match for the medium brown wig we had on the Roger M00re head. This is so Sergio could have some fill-in hair pieces to add into the wig, just in case he needed them when he restyled it. But they didn’t have anything close to the color, so I headed home. Looking forward to having a nice, cold Milky Way ice cream bar, I headed to the freezer to relax. But the ice cream bar inside the wrapper was loose and floppy. What had happened to my ice cream bars? Then I noticed it. A lot of my popsicles and frozen confections had melted and dripped down into the freezer. MY FREEZER WAS DYING! When I checked the refrigerator side, I noticed that it was warm too. I couldn’t be too disheartened though, as this refrigerator had come with the house when I bought it 25 years ago this August. So the fridge lasted over 25 years; not bad at all! A few months ago, when I needed a new dishwasher, I made friends with one of the guys over at Best Buy (a “Bleach” fan!) named Juan. I dug out his card from my file and gave him a call. “Juan! It’s Renji. I need a new refrigerator!” He said he would be leaving work in about 20 minutes, so I hurried right over. Luckily I caught him at the store and he introduced me to a few of his colleagues (also “Bleach” fans!). Juan asked me what brand I wanted and I said, “The brand that can be delivered as soon as possible.” Some of the delivery dates of the refrigerators were next week, but I needed one soon – as I had food spoiling. Luckily, the one that could be delivered in less than 48 hours was a GE Profile. A GE Profile was the same brand that just died – and that lasted a quarter of a century! SIGN ME UP! That’s a good brand. Unlike the refrigerator that was dying in my kitchen, the new model I was looking at came with an ice maker and a water dispenser. I phoned two of my neighbors to make sure we had the water inlets in the kitchen to accommodate that technology. Both of my neighbors assured me that the plumbing was there and ready to be used. I guess I’m kinda moving into the 21st century! Or at least the 20th! I paid the money and arranged for the delivery of my new stainless steel side-by-side fridge on Thursday. Now I just needed to keep my food and frozen items cold as long as I could. I drove home feeling like I had accomplished a lot, but my wallet was feeling a lot lighter! I got home and continued working with the part on the Roger M00re wig, and recorded some auditions. The wig was looking better and better the more I worked with it. My pal Amanda happened to be in town so we met at Bob’s Big Boy for dinner. Then I got home and relaxed for a bit. I got up to do my nightly WOG, and do some work for a meeting at Blok 4 the next day. They’re the shop that is doing the work on fabricating my James Bond life-size figure! Heath, the painter, wanted me to bring the head over after the wig was attached so he could do some final paint touch-ups.

Wednesday the 30th – ICE, ICE BABY! – Due to a pinched nerve I didn’t sleep very well, It’s because I’ve been negligent in paying attention to my posture, so I’m going to work on that. When I arose from bed I called my pal Kelly at Blok 4 to confirm that we were meeting at noon. Glad I called too, as he said he needed a few more days. So I rang my pal Chris Malmin and he met me for lunch at Coral Café. He had just returned from a fantastic trip where he visited his old drama teacher, and the two of them had a fantastic time. You’ve really got to acknowledge the people and teachers in your life who helped add clarity to your life path. I wanted to hear all about his trip. We spent a good three hours gabbing, and then I headed home. I got the notification that my fridge was being delivered between 1 and 5 on Thursday. FANTASTIC! After a short rest, I recorded my daily auditions and emailed them into my agents. I took my nightly WOG and then came inside to do some prep for the fridge swap-out. I made some spaghetti and was dreading having to drink a room temperature Diet Pepsi with my meal. Luckily, at the bottom of the freezer, I had a tray of ice cubes that were still frozen! Apparently the freezing element in the freezer wasn’t entirely shot. The element at the top was bad, but everything at the bottom was still good! I enjoyed a cold Diet Pepsi with my leftover ice cubes. I ended the day with a brisk WOG around the complex.

Thursday the 1st – EASY FREEZY! – Excited about the prospect of my new refrigerator, I didn’t sleep very well. My subconscious started working overtime, which prevented me from getting some deep, REM sleep. I have a fair amount of character and collectible drinkware – including the “Return of the Jedi” glasses from Burger King in 1983, and the “Batman Forever” glass cups from McDonalds in the 90s. I decided that I would consolidate them all in one cabinet; the cabinet above my refrigerator, which was empty. I kept it empty because the cabinet is hard to get to, considering that the refrigerator is in the way. But that cabinet would be a great place to keep those pieces, especially since I don’t need to access them often. So the day started with a massive migration of every piece of collectible and character drinkware I have in my collection, over to the cupboard above the fridge. I worked quite a while to get them all organized, and wrote down what each piece was in a document in my computer for future reference. This freed up a lot of space in other cupboards in my kitchen! I waited for the delivery guys to arrive by recording some auditions. Just as I finished up, the delivery guys pulled up. Joe came in and surveyed the area. At first he said he thought that the doors on my new refrigerator were 4 inches thick and wouldn’t be able to be opened, given the space allowed in my kitchen. My heart sank, but I told him we should go out and check before we panicked. After the confusion I had with my dishwasher several months ago, I didn’t want a repeat of that. We walked out to the back, he cut open the box, and his partner confirmed that the doors were NOT 4 inches, and they would be compatible with my space. Whew! When Joe came back in he walked the path that the old fridge would be taken out, and the new fridge would be brought in. Right away he looked at my Batman and Robin life-size figures and said they would have to move. The turn-around at the top of the stairs was going to be tight, and the figures would be in the way. Both figures are tethered into place by monofilament, so I had to cut the lines and move the figures to the side. As I moved them away I realized they both needed a good cleaning anyway, so this would be a great opportunity to do that…later. I got busy removing all of the food from my old refrigerator and stashing it on the counters. Joe came back up and I explained that areas of the freezer and the refrigerator were not cooling. He thought it may have been a defrosting issue. Maybe all I needed to do was to unplug it for a while, let it defrost, and plug it back in. EEK! It could have been that easy. But since I already had the fridge for 25 years I figured I had gotten more than my fair share of use out of it. It was too late now anyway. Joe pulled the doors off the old fridge so it could be moved easily. They took the old one out, and I got busy cleaning the area where the old fridge had stood. With plenty of paper towels and Windex I cleaned furiously. Pretty soon they brought in my new, stainless steel model and prepared to put it into place. He hooked up the water valve to the refrigerator, but when he turned the knob there was a leak coming from the valve handle. Since this hadn’t been used in 25 years, it really didn’t surprise me. It was old. Nothing’s ever easy. I called my contractor Handy Don and told him what was going on, and he said he’d be over on Saturday to put a new one on and get everything hooked up. I told him I lived without an ice maker and water dispenser for 25 years, I can live one more day without one. I tipped the guys and they went on their way. I put all the food in the new refrigerator and everything was going well. They warned me that I would have to run about 3 gallons of water through the system to make sure it’s all cleaned out and ready to drink. They also said I’d have to make two batches of ice cubes before those were ready to be consumed. I put Batman and Robin back in their places, after a good cleaning. I had really accomplished a lot! I drove over to my box to pick up some packages, and then went to Taco Bell to get some food to go. I sat at home and ate my dinner, and then crashed out for a while. When I got up I recorded an audition, and then took my nightly WOG. I can’t believe the week is over already!

Friday the 2nd – TANTALIZING TOUCH-UPS! – My pal Scott Sebring dropped by and we drove over to Blok 4’s shop in Canoga Park to supervise the touch-up painting on the Roger M00re head. Heath, the painter, is a master. Even though some of the things he did were very subtle, the differences they made in the likeness were stunning! His additions really brought it to life! Scott and I drove to Paty’s to have lunch, and then I went back to Planet Wallywood to meet with my A/V guy Brandon. He said his daughter is just about to turn 3 and loves Cookie Monster. So we shot a little video with Brandon and Cookie Monster to show to his daughter. Fun! A few days ago I made a Darth Vader video for a lady I met recently at Foam Mart. She said her son was going to be 6 on May the Fourth (perfect!) and he was a “Star Wars” fan. Brandon was there to try and figure out a way to get Netflix in my bedroom so I can watch the second season of “Ersan Kuneri” and “Tiger & Bunny.” After he left I relaxed for a little while, did my WOG, and came back inside to do some work and get ready for the weekend!

Saturday the 3rd – FEATHERING MY NEST! – As I awoke in the morning, thinking about Handy Don’s arrival to hook up the new refrigerator to the water valve, I had a thought. Perhaps I should go to the local hardware store and pick up a valve in case the one Handy Don picked up doesn’t work. So I headed out to the store, picked up the valve, went to the pet store to pick up some more potty pads for my 20 year old cat Spooky, and headed home. By the time I got home Handy Don had just arrived, and we went upstairs to check out the situation. He looked at the valve and said, “Oh no. I got the wrong valve!” I said, “Look in that brown bag on the counter. Is that the right one?” IT WAS! My little voice saved me once again! He hooked everything up and it was working perfectly! He ran 3 gallons of water through the dispenser and it was ready to drink. Later I’ll dump out two batches of ice to prep it further. Then Don and I headed to Bob’s Big Boy for lunch. I came home and cleaned up around the house. It had been gloomy all day (and most of the week) as we are not into our “May Gray” period that happens every year. I miss the sunshine! I rested a bit, but when I arose later I had a ton of work to do! I reorganized my kitchen to be more efficient, and decided to wash all my bedding. It had been a while since I washed my favorite pillow, so I figured it was about time. But when I came down to unload the pillows from the dryer, there were feathers everywhere! My favorite feather pillow had a rip in it that I hadn’t seen, and feathers were falling out everywhere! Unfortunately, I had to throw my favorite pillow in the dumper. I got on Amazon and ordered two new “hotel quality” feather pillows as an early birthday gift to myself. I recorded all the auditions that were due on Monday, and did more work around the house. After my WOG I came back inside and prepped for “Laurel & Hardy Theatre.” The first Saturday of every month I treat myself with an evening of Laurel & Hardy films. Tonight I watched the last two silent films on the “Laurel & Hardy: Year Two” Blu-ray set. The final two films of 1928 were “Habeas Corpus” and “We Faw Down.” Both were VERY funny films! As usual, I made my Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box, had Diet Pepsi on ice in my vintage Stan Laurel mug, a banana Twinkie and popcorn. For good measure I always wear my Laurel & Hardy pajamas and Sons of the Desert fez! Fun! But now that I’ve finished watching the Blu-ray set of their 1928 silents, next month I’ll get back to watching their talkie shorts.

Sunday the 4th – WHAT A WEEK! – With all of the crazy activity of the past week, I really enjoyed remaining totally comatose all day Sunday. I needed the rest! Later I met my pal Tyler St. Mark at Ernie’s Taco House for dinner and got caught up on all the latest happenings. The wonderful staff at Ernie’s surprised me with a birthday dessert! I came home and did a little work, and took it easy the rest of the night. I even took the night off from doing my WOG and just stayed inside and relaxed. I noticed that my pillows were still a bit wet, so I ran them through the dryer one more time for good measure. Nothing worse than soggy pillows!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK