RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

If Wayne and Garth started a business…

While I was in Sioux Falls for two weeks, I was enjoying breakfast in the Hyatt and listening to the wonderful music they have on their overhead music system. I heard “Love My Life” by Robbie Williams and just had to have it! But it’s not the standard version that they played. They played the Adam Turner and James Hurr remix, which is terrific!

 

Monday the 7th – I HAVE THE POWER!!! – Given the fact that there wasn’t any power coming from the outlets on my west wall in the Tranquility Zone, I started the day assessing the situation. I removed all the drawers from my chest of drawers and removed the case to get better access to the two outlets slightly hidden behind the “Cabinet of Character” which stands next to it. (The “Cabinet of Character” is a display case in my room which contains various toys of many of the characters I’ve voiced and performed over the years). There were a lot of cords, cables and chaos that I had to sort through. Some of the cords were for utilities I no longer had plugged in and no longer needed. So those were easy extractions. In fact, the entire electrical scheme in the Tranquility Zone needs a vast overhaul. I would make that a priority in the coming weeks. While I had everything on that wall torn down, I took the opportunity to give everything a good dusting. It needed it! I went to the hardware store and bought two new power strips with right angle plugs. I think the power issue may have been that the power strips that were in there didn’t have right angle plugs, and had jarred loose when a cabinet had shifted. After the hardware store I stopped over to the cigar store and stocked up on some new cigars, dropped into GNC to get some vitamins I needed, and then I got a sandwich for dinner at Jersey Mike’s. When I got back home I ate, installed the power strips, redesigned the power usage on the west wall, and tried to plug in a few extra things that didn’t end up working out. The cords on the utilities simply weren’t long enough. So I reattached them the way they were before. Everything’s looking clean and orderly now. And best of all…I have power to the utilities on the west wall! I also dug out my label maker and put labels on the plugs of each of the cords identifying what they were. That way, at first glance, I can immediately tell which utility is plugged into where. I’m going to do that with the entire Tranquility Zone. To say that I have 20-30 things plugged to outlets and strips in the Tranquility Zone is NOT an understatement! Of all the rooms in the house, that’s the one that uses the most power; with all of the lighting effects and doo-dads I have in there to please my eye. I relaxed for a bit, did a ton of auditions, took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and came inside to finish up the Wally’s Week “epic” (see last week’s Wally’s Week), and edited some videos.

Tuesday the 8th – REGION-FREE FRAY! – Though I just slept a few hours, I was up and at ‘em for the day. I posted the link to the Wally’s Week “epic” – all my adventures from the past 3 weeks of my life which were fairly tumultuous – and then met my pal Chris Malmin for lunch on the patio at Paty’s. I picked up a package at my box, and then went back home to do some work. I relaxed, and then got a nutty idea that I should test the region-free Blu-ray player that I have in my home theatre. My pal Mark Fullerton would be coming over on Wednesday to watch a documentary about Roger Moore that’s only available in the U.K. (special thanks to my operative Michael in the U.K. who obtained a copy for me!), and since I have region-free Blu-ray players in the house it would be a cinch. But I figured I’d better give it a test run before Mark made the trip all the way over here. I put the disc in, punched in the required code, and the disc wasn’t being read. Rats! I took it upstairs to the Tranquility Zone, repeated the process on the unit up there, and it worked perfectly. I went back downstairs and tried a few more things, and then I remembered that the same thing happened about a year ago with the same model of player that I had in my room. I even tried to play a Region 1 Blu-ray, and THAT didn’t even work. It wasn’t playing any Blu-rays at all, regardless of the regional assignment. Apparently, the Samsung players have “planned obsolescence” designed into them. They play fine for a few years and then – BAM! – no go. It was a carbon copy of what happened to the identical model of this unit a year ago. So, into the junk heap it goes. I let Mark know that we’d have to postpone our screening until I could get another region-free unit installed. I looked up the data on when I bought these Samsung units, and it was 2016. So they last about 8 years and then – poof – nothing. The LG unit in my bedroom works very well, so I’ll get the vendor on the phone on Wednesday and order a few more of those and have my A/V guy install them and program my Universal Remote accordingly. I recorded my daily auditions, and took my nightly WOG. It was such a gorgeous night out I decided to relax in the anti-gravity chair under the stars and enjoy one of the new cigars I just bought. I was staring right at a nearly-full moon and enjoying a nice cigar and an ice cold iced tea. Life doesn’t get much better! When the moon set behind the horizon I headed inside to reconcile my corporate bank account and scan some checks for a deposit.

Wednesday the 9th – GOOD FRIENDS! – The bank was my first stop, so I could deposit some checks. Then I went to CVS for some supplies, and the grocery store to pick up some food items. Later my friend Amanda let me know she was in town, so we went over to her favorite restaurant Bob’s Big Boy for dinner. While we ate somebody snuck up behind me and started hugging me. It was my brother-from-another-mother, actor Daniel Roebuck! He was back in town and was meeting with friends. It was great to see him! I came back home to relax, and later took my night WOG and spent some more time in the anti-grav chair watching the full moon. I just can’t get enough of that!

Thursday the 10th – PATY’S, PUBLISHER & PACKAGES! – It had been a while, but I met with my pal George from Baby Tattoo publishing at Paty’s for lunch. We’ve been talking about partnering on the Christoween franchise for a while, and we’re starting to make some concrete plans about how to actually launch it. This could be HUGE! Fingers crossed! Our meeting went 2 and a half hours, and by the time we left, we were STILL having fun! I went to my box to pick up a package which contained a new set of the Laurel & Hardy ceramic mugs that I love so much. Since my mom passed a few weeks ago, I decided to permanently retire the mugs she made for me in her ceramics class back in 1974. I put them on display in the Puppet Room and won’t drink from them again. Using them creates too high of a chance that they could get damaged. But those mugs were very popular in the 70’s, so there are a lot of variations out there with different paint jobs done by different artists. A few years back I bought a set that’s beautifully painted in a monochrome color scheme. Those have now become my main set to use. Then I spotted a wonderfully painted set on eBay that I ordered. They’re in color, and the paint jobs are wonderfully detailed. Those will be my back-up set. My gal Angi came over and we high-tailed it over to the Universal Studios Citywalk to meet my pal Rob Richards to get dinner at Buca DiBepppo. Then we went to the theatre to see “Jurassic World Rebirth” in 3D. It was a pretty good popcorn film, but I didn’t care for the hybrid dinosaurs at all. They looked like something out of a space movie. I wish they would have stuck with the original dinosaurs instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. I came back home to do some auditions and relax, but I was too tired to do my WOG for the night. In fact, I ended up sleeping most of the night. I got up around 6am to do some work, and then went back to bed.

Friday the 11th – ANSWERING THE CRAVING! – Totally wiped out, I ended up sleeping until 3pm! When I awoke I was craving Barone’s pizza, which I haven’t had in a while. I called my pal Sara Raftery and picked her up at 6 to go have pizza. As expected, it was YUMMY! I got back home and did some work, and then relaxed for a while. Later I did my WOG and spent some time in the anti-grav chair. I saw something large soaring overhead with a four foot wingspan! It was a beautiful owl, who perched on a fence in the distance. I shone my light on him and he didn’t like that at all. He flew off. But later he was back, soaring overhead and perching on the corner of a nearby building. His stature amazed me. While he sat there perched atop the building, I noted that his height must’ve been about 3 feet! WOW! I came back inside to edit some videos for my daughter Lacey. I’m sending her a collection of all the family home movies we took back in the 80s and 90s, but I want to make sure all of the stuff that doesn’t apply to her directly have been cut out, so as to not bore her. I bought my airline ticket to Houston for the upcoming Nostalgia Con in August, and then I discovered an issue with the back-up system for my computer. I spent a lot of money on installing a separate server to back up all my data, so why does it have issues every two months or so? Seems like it should be more reliable than it is! I’ve gotta chat with my computer guy Brian on Saturday.

Saturday the 12th – SATURDAY SOLACE! – Considering how the last few weeks of June were, it’s really nice just to lounge around at home by myself and relax. Which is exactly what I did! I recorded the auditions I had which were due on Monday, and edited some more videos for my daughter Lacey. Later I took my nightly WOG and spent some meditative time in the anti-grav chair. I made a salad and watched another episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.” It was nice to be back in the old routine again.

Sunday the 13th – AND SUNDAY SOLACE TOO! – There are few things I love more than just having nothing to do. Sometimes it’s NOT a good thing, but some days (like today) it’s delicious! I lounged around, slept on and off, looked at the news on-line, and later took a nice WOG around the neighborhood. I’m recharged and ready for the new week!

And how was YOUR week?!?!

 

PIX FROM THE WEEK

I found out that Krispy Kreme released a DC Comics donut set, and I just HAD to have it! (The Superman ones had the white cream filling that I love so much!)

Here’s my daughter Lacey and the new kitten she just adopted at the Voices Against Cancer 605 Pop Culture Con in Sioux Falls. They named him Kumo, which is Japanese for “cloud.”