Monday the 8th – BURBANK PART 1! – I went over to Studiopolis Burbank to do some more work on the anime show “Blue Dragon” for my pal Jeff Nimoy. I do the creature sounds for the Chimera, and this particular day that’s pretty much all it was. Just a lot of growling, snarling and roaring. But it’s a blast. Then I went to see my chiropractor Dr. Dave in Burbank. I got crunched and he said my progress has been so good he won’t need to see me for two weeks. Great! That night I relaxed around the house and enjoyed the very chilly weather!

Tuesday the 9th – BURBANK PART 2 – I think if I ever decided to relocate Planet Wallywood it would most likely be in the Burbank area. I love Burbank and have been spending a lot of time there recently. Today I went to Cartoon Network for a callback audition for an animated pilot. A callback is when they like what they hear in your initial audition (recorded in my home studio) and they want to call you back into their studio so they can direct you. Then they take the finalists to the network and let them help make the choice. So keep your fingers crossed cuz this pilot was very funny. Then I headed over to Gun World in (you guessed it) Burbank to facilitate their receipt of a handgun I purchased from a friend in the Midwest. My buddy needs to take the gun to his local dealer, then the dealer sends it to my dealer, and then I wait the waiting period and then I’m able to pick it up from them. It’s very complicated, especially when it’s going from state to state, but it’s worth it. My buddy gave me such a good price on his stainless steel Walther PPK-S that even with transfer and handling fees, I’m still ahead about $150 than if I would have bought it here. So the paperwork is in progress and I’ll soon be the proud owner of a new Walther. He’s never fired it before so it’s virtually brand new. I bought a black Walther PPK about three months ago and have been going to the gun range on a semi-regular basis to improve my target shooting. I’ve found it to be actually quite enjoyable and a neat sport. But more on that later. That night I met up with Chuck McCann and the boys at Bob’s Big Boy for our usual Tuesday night gathering.

Wednesday the 10th – BURBANK PART 3! – I did some more Renji voice tracks for an upcoming “Bleach” episode at (you guessed it!) Studiopolis Burbank. I took my pal Scott Sebring along as well. Director Wendee Lee and I were talking about the old “Night Gallery” show, as I’ve been watching the second season DVDs of late, and she had very specific memories of a particular episode about a spider that grew larger each time a guy washed it down the drain. Love that show! Later Scott and I drove back to my house so he could work on installing some programs on my computer and doing some routine maintenance. When we drove by my church on the way home and they were doing a film shoot there. I never like to go to Wednesday night services when there’s a shoot going on, because the crew is usually so noisy, so I just took a nap on the beanbag chairs in front of my fireplace while Scott worked away. His wife Vickie sat in the kitchen knitting and they both “enjoyed” listening to me snore away in the living room while Christmas music played. What fun! I was going to need to rest up after all, because Thursday was going to be SUPER busy!

Thursday the 11th – MARATHON MAN! – OK, so this is how the day went. I LOVE days like this, as I used to have them a lot in the old days when I first started in voice-over. Of course auditions weren’t being done at home back them, so running around all day wasn’t uncommon. But now with doing auditions at home and e-mailing them in, the running around has been cut down considerably. But in the morning I went to Sound Deluxe in Hollywood to do some additional voice tracks as Yellowjacket and Multiple Man for the upcoming “Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2” videogame. Just as I was walking in, Fred Tatascoire was walking out. He had just finished his session and was on his way to Studiopolis Burbank to do the “Avengers” show. I told him I’d see him there, as that was my next stop too. I finished up with Keythe Farley and gang for “MUA2” and went on my way. But I ran into my pal Ogie Banks on the way out so we went over to Virgin Megastore to check out the new Blu Rays. Ogie and I worked on a cartoon recently and had a great time. You may remember Ogie as being the guy who went along to that crazy Halloween party with me on Halloween night. I stopped home, walked Sassie and headed out to Studiopolis Burbank to do another episode of “Avengers; Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” As expected I saw Fred there, along with most of the rest of the cast. We finished up around 6 and I had to be on my way to my next session. “Final Fantasy 7” is being released soon on Blu Ray and for the occasion they’re adding some new scenes. So I went into record voice tracks for Rufus Shinra, the character I did in the film about three years ago. It was fun revisiting it. But we didn’t get finished up with all that I had to do, so I’m going to be going back there soon to finish up. On the way home I stopped and got my favorite food at Denny’s (a fried chicken salad and buffalo chicken strips) and headed home to collapse. It was a very long day, but FUN and rewarding. I ate my delicious dinner, pet the animals, and watched “Night Galley.” Then I crashed hard!

Friday the 12th – DAY OFF! – Aaaahhhh! A day off. Finally! I slept in late, and then got up to record a couple of auditions to send to my agents. I walked Sassie over to the groomer for her bath. Then I packed up my Walther PPK and went to the gun range to do some shooting. I did an experiment. I bought two targets. The first one I racked up and put about 40 feet away. I loaded up my clips and did only “shooting from the hip.” I wanted to see how accurate I could be. Well, not very accurate I’m afraid. I still hit the target but was way off from where I needed to hit. I started to realize that the old cowboy movies might be a bit of an exaggeration (gee…ya think?). Once I went through the clips shooting from the hip, I took the target down, marked it as “From the Hip” and put up the second target. This time I focused my aim with both hands and I was doing much better. But it was a fun experiment. I took off for home and waited around for the groomer to call to come get Sassie. They finally called around 7, and after I got her home and put away, I went over to Jerry’s Famous Deli to meet up with some friends from out of town. I got home and turned in, because I had to be up early for an elder’s meeting the next day.

Saturday the 13th – CRAZY SATURDAY! – I was up bright and early for our monthly elder’s meeting at the church. Then I got home and slept a little bit while I waited for my maids to come and clean Planet Wallywood. My maids know enough to just “clean around me.” I stay in bed, and I get up when they’ve cleaned everything else and are ready to clean my room. Then I go downstairs and rest on the couch for awhile (I’m not much of a morning person!) After they left I drove back to the gun range because I left my driver’s license and membership card there the previous day. When I got back I took a nap so I could stay up late Saturday night. It was the Family Guy holiday party and I didn’t want to be sleepy. I picked up my friend Sara and we endured the Saturday night L.A. traffic all the way to the Ebell Theatre on Wilshire. The venue was ornate, the food was terrific, and it was good seeing everybody. I remember the Family Guy parties in the old days when there was maybe 50 people there. Now there’s like 500! It’s amazing. Family Guy has spawned two other series, so now there’s three crews all at the same party. Amazing. I hardly see any of the “old school” folks anymore…but when I see them it’s fun catching up. Mike, Mark, Mike, Fred, Andre, Jeff, Danny, Brandee and of course Seth are some of the original “old schoolers” I saw there. It’s always fun listening to Seth MacFarlane sing with the orchestra too. One of my favorite things at these parties. He did some classics like “The Lady is a Tramp” and “Come Fly With Me.” Sara had a great time and she was taken by how nice everybody is. What a great party but we were bushed by the end.

Sunday the 14th – LAZY RAINY SUNDAY – My old pal Amy came over on Sunday to pick up a DVD of a clip show I had put together for a Christmas party I threw back in 2002. I hadn’t seen Amy since the “Livin’ On a Prayer” party back in May, and before that I hadn’t seen her in about 5 years! So it was fun catching up. While the DVD dubbed on my computer, we went to DuPar’s to get a bite to eat. Then I went to evening church, and Pastor Bob gave one of the best sermons for Christmas ever. It was based on the Longfellow poem “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day.” Amazing. Then I went home to have a nap by the fire and listen to Christmas music. A perfect end to a great week!!

And how was YOUR week??!!