Monday the 9th – JUST ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY! – I started the day with a session at Voice Trax West doing a few commercial vo’s for NHL.com. They have a lot of new stuff on their website or Christmas, and these TV and radio commercials will promote those products. Look for the spots on their website soon! Then it was time to get over to the Jay Leno Show for another day of work on the NBC lot. After I finished, I met my friend Georgette for dinner.

Tuesday the 10th – YOU’RE OUT OF WHAT?! – I got to sleep in…rest…relax. It was really nice AND NEEDED! I got over to the Leno show later in the afternoon, did the taping of the broadcast and headed over to Best Buy in Burbank to pick up some DVDs. The DVDs are released on Tuesday so I like to get over there as soon as I can to pick up the new releases. But I got really ticked. Best Buy had plenty of copies of “UP!” but were out of copies of “Monsters, Inc.” Now I can understand if they’re sold out of some old TV show on DVD, but a film like “Monsters, Inc.?” How is that possible that Best Buy didn’t have enough copies stocked. It’s no small little movie. Luckily, after digging around somewhat, one of the employees found me a copy. I guess after I told him I was going to start buying all of my DVDs on Amazon, and never come to their store again, he figured he should round up a copy somehow. Though I got “Up!” and “Monsters, Inc.” on Blu Ray, they didn’t have “Logan’s Run” or “Near Dark.” So, to fulfill my prediction, I immediately went on Amazon, ordered them (for a LOT less money than they would have cost at Best Buy!) and they arrived in two days. NEAT! From now on, I’m thinking I may do ALL my DVD shopping that way. The only exception would be when I’m down on the Westside of LA and I get to go to my favorite store Laser Blazer. I love supporting that store with my business. But most “brick and mortar” stores are doomed because they can’t possibly compete with the variety and selection of the internet. When I was finished with Best Buy I had dinner at Paty’s in Toluca Lake with my production partner Ken Dennis and our pal Jon Konjoyan.

Wednesday the 11th – 11-11! –Again I got to rest, sleep in and relax. It was much needed considering my previous busy week. It was back at the Leno show in the late afternoon (I LOVE THIS JOB!) and then it was off to evening meditational church in the evening. If 11-11 is supposed to be good luck, then today proved that. It was a remarkable, enjoyable day!

Thursday the 12th – CYCLICAL DOWNTIME – One thing I learned early on about the voice-over business (and the entertainment business in general) is that it’s cyclical…like many things. There will be weeks like last week, where you barely have time to visit the bathroom, and there are weeks like this one that are more laid back. You just have to learn to accept the busy with the non-busy. Furthermore, you need to appreciate those non-busy times as gifts, and not stress out that you’re not busy enough. Take it, enjoy it, savor it…because the pendulum will sooner or later swing back the other way, and you’ll be back to crazy busy! Today I slept late (I’ve been getting a lot of late-night viewing of my new Mannix Season 3 DVDs in!) and then went to the Leno show. Wonderful day!

Friday the 13th – NOT SO UNLUCKY DAY! – I’ve always found Friday the 13th to be quite pleasant, and not unlucky at all. In fact, 13 has always been my lucky number. 26 too, because that twice 13! I started the day with another session at Voice Trax West for NHL.com. Then I stopped by my mailbox to get my mail, got a new dog bed for Sassie, got a leash for my cat Spook (THIS oughtta be good!) and met up with my maids at my house around 11. I took Spook out for a little walk on his leash. While he didn’t like the leash very much (when I first put it on him he just plopped down on his side and wouldn’t move) he sure loved being outside. He’s never allowed outside, but Bea Lydecker the pet psychic told me that Spooky wants to go outside with us when I walk Sassie. So, for the investment of about 15 bucks I was going to test her theory. Boy was it fun. It was like watching a kid visit Disneyland for the first time. Spooky couldn’t take his eyes off all of the stuff going on. The neighborhood squirrels were puzzled as they had never seen him outside before. They watched quizzically from the trees. Spook loved watching the birds, bugs and squirrels. But being all white, he headed right for a patch of dirt and laid down in it. AAAAACK! He was filthy! But had a great time. I brought him back inside and headed for Jerry’s Famous Deli to meet with my friend Misty Lee and her husband Paul Dini. Paul has written and produced some amazing animation, including my favorite “Batman: The Animated Series.” Misty helps out on “The Garfield Show” and wants to get into VO. So it was my pleasure to meet them for lunch and give her some pointers. But I also enjoyed listening to Paul’s stories as well. We were joined by my friend Ginny who also enjoyed hearing the stories and advice. Then my pal Dorothy (D.C.) Fontana (great sci-fi writer who I consider the Ray Bradbury of our generation!) She and her husband Dennis come over from time to time for Blu Ray Trek nights. Since Dorothy wrote many of the original episodes and was story editor on the show, it’s fun to hear her commentary. So I introduced her to Paul and Misty. When she left Paul confessed that he was a HUGE fan of Dorothy’s work and definitely knew who she was! Then, shortly after that, my pal and webmaster Scott Sebring walked into Jerry’s with a friend of his. They enjoyed meeting Paul as well. EVERYONE meets at Jerry’s! I finished up lunch and headed over to NBC for the Friday edition of The Jay Leno Show. What fun! That night I dug out my Playboy Playmate book and started marking the pages where I was going to have all of the Playmates at Glamourcon sign. At this Glamourcon, a convention of pin-up girls and Playmates, there would be 9 new Playmates that I hadn’t met before! I got my stuff prepared and got ready for the convention the next day.

Saturday the 14th – GLAMOURCON! – My friend Sara came over and we drove to the LAX Hilton for Glamourcon. Luckily, most of the 9 Playmates I needed to meet were all in the same area. We finished up with our mission fairly quickly! You see, at my 40th birthday, my friend James Gonis (head of Playmate Promotions at Playboy) gave me the coffee table book of Playmates as a gift. I then started collecting Playmate signatures in the book, and am now up to 98 autographs! It’s going to be a pretty cool heirloom to pass on to my son when I’ve gone off to the great beyond! My friend Glozell and her friends Mary and Paria joined us at the hotel for a bit, but Glozell thought she was going to a make-up show, and not a show of Playboy Playmates! So they didn’t stay around long. I took Sara back home since she wasn’t feeling very well, and I took a quick nap. Because some of our regular group for Blu Ray Trek night were off doing something else, I screened three great fantasy movies from the 80’s on Blu Ray…”The Never Ending Story,” “Labyrinth,” and “The Dark Crystal.” We all had a great time watching these fabulous films, and didn’t end up closing up until about 2:30 in the morning! Thank God I had a nap! It was a very fun evening!

Sunday the 15th – SLEEPYTIME SUNDAY! – As usual, I slept in waaaay late and got up in time for evening church. After church I grabbed another nap, then got up and had dinner and did my auditions. And prepared for what was promising to be ANOTHER super busy week! Glad I had those three sleep-in days midweek! See!? It’s all cyclical!

And how was YOUR week??!!