August 22 – August 28 (2011)

Saturday morning when I awoke in my hotel room, I pulled open the drapes, looked down upon the beautiful sunlit city of San Diego and immediately started humming this song!

Monday the 22nd – ON THE ROAD AGAIN! – I got only about 3.5 hours of sleep the night before. I was awakened at 8:30 by my electrician Electric Bob who was ready to get the guys rockin’ on my new air conditioning system in my house. Once I let him in to open the garage door he took a good look at me and said, “Go back to bed.” I followed his advice. In spite of not having any air conditioning (they had to disconnect it to have a crane remove it) I slept quite comfortably to a fan. I didn’t even need my ear plugs! Though they were walking around on my roof right above my head, I didn’t seem to hear them at all and slept like a baby until 2pm! When I got up my assistant Sara came over to begin her housesitting duties. I packed up for an overnight trip to Irvine. I needed to do a job for U.S. Airways first thing Tuesday morning, so it was more logical to go to Irvine the night before and stay over, as opposed to make the 50+ mile trek early the next morning. And in L.A. morning traffic! In order to make it there to the gig by 9am I would have had to leave around 6:30am. That didn’t seem to tweak me too much. So, knowing I would be out of town for the night, I arranged to have my air conditioning unit changed out. Of course this is a two day job, and that would mean not having air conditioning for a night. That was the night I didn’t want to be in my house. Luckily Sara’s from Arizona and warm nights don’t seem to bother her much. I headed out the door with my bags and made it to Regenix for my appointment. Everything seemed to be looking good. I made my way to It’s a Wrap in Beverly Hills and bought a few clothing items. After that I drove by Laser Blazer but they were closed. I believe they close on Mondays. I went through my old neighborhood of L.A.’s Westside and noticed that a lot of things had changed. Not all for the better. A lot of the old stores I used to like to frequent were no longer there. Luckily I was able to get into a t-shirt shop I used to love going to, and I bought some stuff. I also made it to the local Toys ‘R’ Us and bought a remote control Batmobile fashioned after George Barris’ 1966 Batmobile. Really cool! I also stopped by a store called Big Lou’s Collectibles, Big Lots and I had dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in West L.A. It’s called George Petrelli’s Famous Steaks. I hadn’t been there in over a year but it was great to be back. And my steak was PERFECT! I continued down the road and made it to Irvine and checked into my room at the Courtyard by Marriott. I relaxed, read over the scripts for the gig the next morning and got some good sleep. I was REALLY ready for my trip to San Diego later this week!

Tuesday the 23rd – HOT HOT HOT! – I woke up on time, checked out of the hotel and headed over to Post Modern Group to begin my gig for U.S. Airways. Unlike the IVR (Interactive Voice Response) job I’ve been doing for several months, this was for the safety video that they’ll play before each flight. So it was imperative that I be there at the studio to read to picture. They had completed the video portion already, and they were waiting for me to have the time in my schedule to come down and add my voice to it. Obviously, during the course of a regular week , I wouldn’t be able to drive down to Irvine to do such a gig, because of my responsibilities with “The Tonight Show.” But since we’re in the middle of a two week hiatus it was the perfect time to get this done. The folks down there were really nice and we worked for a few hours. The U.S. Airways people had flown in from Phoenix that morning just for the session, then flew back to Phoenix when the session was over. I headed up the 405 freeway and stopped at Ikea. I love the little gooseneck LED reading lights they sell, and I’m worried that they’ll discontinue them. So I bought another 10 while I was there. You don’t always find good lighting in studios. Because the guys who design the studios and booths are never the guys who have to stand in there and read small little words on pieces of paper. So I like to bring my own light because it’s easier on my eyes. I’ll have a couple of spares in my trunk to give to studios just in case they need one. I discovered them at Buzzy’s and fell in love with them. I now have Voice Trax West and the booth at “The Tonight Show” equipped with these lights. I called Electric Bob and he said my air conditioning should be on a little later on this afternoon, and that most all of the work has been completed. Which is good, because Sara was getting pretty warm at my house. I swung by my mailbox to pick up my mail, and then got home just in time to meet with Electric Bob and the A/C guys. (Sounds like a new band!) After about an hour of work, the hotness disappeared and made way for nice cool air. YAY! It’s fixed! I took Sara out for lunch and then I went back home for a nice nap with the new A/C blowing like crazy! That night I got up to meet with my robot friends and my special effects Jim Ojala. We’re working on a few cool new ideas for Planet Wallywood which involve robots! More on that later! I broke out my new remote control Batmobile and we had fun driving it around the house and freaking out Spooky my cat. I took the robot guys out for dinner, and then I headed back home to do some auditions in my home studio to e-mail to my agents. Then it was time to pack my bags for my San Diego trip. It turned into quite a late night!

Wednesday the 24th – SAN DIEGO DAY 1! – My friend Edi pulled up with her SUV, and my friend Brittney and I piled in our luggage and headed down the road. But first we needed to stop by Big Joe Sound in Santa Monica for a quick Old Navy session. The traffic was terrible because of the Farmer’s Market that goes on in Santa Monica on Wednesdays. I was only about 20 minutes late, but we made up the time. While I worked for the Old Navy folks, Edi and Brittney headed out to the 3rd Street Promenade to do some shopping. When I finished we met up on the promenade and headed back to the car. We got some snacks, filled up the SUV with gas and headed down the road. As is normal for me during a road trip to San Diego, I stopped at the Dairy Queen at Oso Parkway in Mission Viejo. I had a chili dog and a banana split. YUM! We hit the road for the rest of our trip. The traffic was pretty good and we got to San Diego around 5pm. I checked into the hotel and we got our swimsuits on and headed down to the “21 and over” pool and jacuzzi. There were some people in the jacuzzi, but most of them left eventually, leaving just Brittney, Edi and I with a guy from Texas. He kept splashing the hot water from the jacuzzi under his armpits. I didn’t really care, but it was grossing Edi out something fierce. But he eventually left and it was just the three of us. But our solitude didn’t last long. The Texas guy came back with two other guys! No doubt Edi and Brittney in their bikinis was a hot topic of conversation with Mr. Texas when he returned to his room to tell his friends. Well, as soon as they arrived we got our towels, dried off and took off for dinner. I hadn’t been to the Spaghetti Factory in about a year, so I was looking forward to another dinner there. We walked over there from the hotel, which ended up being a nice walk. As I was finishing up dinner, I got a call from an old childhood pal. I had looked up Dan Wilson on-line a few weeks ago, called the number I found and talked to his wife for awhile. I left my number but it took a few weeks for Dan to return the call. It was fun catching up with Dan and talking about the old days. Brittney had a little allergy cough when she started the day, but it was slowly getting worse. So we decided to go over to the local Ralph’s to get some Nyquil for her so she would have a restful night. We grabbed a cab, but the driver was unintelligible. We asked him where he was from and it sounded like he said “Utopia.” I said, “Utopia! Wow! Why did you ever leave?” He was actually from Ethiopia, but we had a fun conversation anyway. When we got to Ralph’s I got some bread and popcorn for the ducks in Seaport Village, and we got Brittney some Nyquil. We realized that the hotel was really close to Ralph’s, so we didn’t need to catch another Utopian cab. As we walked back a local guy spotted Edi and Brittney and started talking to us. He said, “Are you guys from Europe?” I said in a quick accent, “Yes! We are!” He pulled up his shirt sleeve and showed me a tattooed shamrock on his arm. He said, “I have a bit of the Irish in me.” I immediately went into my best Irish accent and started conversing with him. Brittney and Edi were doing their best to stifle their laughter. We got over to Seaport Village but there were only 2 ducks there and they weren’t all that hungry. Too bad. I look forward to feeding the ducks every year!

Thursday the 25th – SAN DIEGO DAY 2! – When we got up in the morning we noticed that Brittney’s cough had gotten worse. So I called my doctor Dr. Patt in Santa Monica and told him of the problem. He phoned in an emergency prescription for Brittney so it wouldn’t get any worse. It was back to Ralph’s to pick up the prescription, but while we waited we had some lunch. We got to Sea World (my favorite amusement park!) around noon. We paid the extra money for Premiere Seating and it’s worth it! It’s only about 24 bucks, but as I was buying our tickets some nice lady came up with a coupon for $20 off admission, so our Premiere Seating was virtually free! This allows you sit in reserved seating at all the shows. Perfect! After we got in we headed right for Rocky Point Preserve where the dolphins frolic around. Then we went to my favorite attraction at Sea World. Feeding the sea lions. When I went last year I spent literally hundreds of dollars on fish baskets to feed the sea lions. For 5 bucks you get a tray of 5 fish that you can feed to the sea lions. I started off with 90 dollars worth, gave Brittney and Edi some baskets and we commenced feeding the sea lions. We all had our favorites. Mine was the one who would look at you and shake his head “yes” until you threw him a fish. Edi fell in love with an older sea lion that was blind. His eyes were all white with cataracts, but he would sit in the water up to his neck and wave his paw until somebody threw him a fish. Though he couldn’t see it, he could hear it hit the water and then he’d dive in after it. We named him “Stevie” in honor of Stevie Wonder. One of the big, older sea lions was just lying on a big rock sleeping. I wanted to make sure he had some fish too, so I threw a few fish his way. But he didn’t respond and the fish went to some of the other sea lions. I accidentally overthrew a fish and it landed right on his back. He didn’t budge, but one of the other sea lions grabbed it off his back. This shocked the big, old sea lion a lot and he opened his mouth and let out a loud howl in protest. It was so funny! The younger sea lion who grabbed the fish just laid his head on the back of the older sea lion as if he just realized how comfortable laying on the back of the old sea lion was. I also loved feeding the egrets, who were hovering around hoping to fly in and steal some wayward fish. We went to the dolphin show and enjoyed sitting in Premiere Seating. Then we went to see the Beluga Whales, and I bought Brittney a little stuffed Beluga that we named “Lew” (be-LEW-ga). We went over to see the penguin exhibit. There was an attendant standing amidst the penguins feeding them and talking to the people about penguins. One little penguin liked this lady a lot and would stand right in front of her and not move. He was clearly quite attached. She bent down, put her hands out and wiggled her fingers. This was an indication to the penguin that it was time for scratchies! The penguin would stretch up his neck so she could put her hands on either side of him and scratch his neck. He LOVED this! We decided to name him “Scratchy.” We saw an African Porcupine and Edi petted him…carefully! Then we went to the Smokehouse and had some late lunch. We went back to the sea lion exhibit and fed them some more fish. While we were there asking the attendant a question, another guest came up in an urgent manner and told the attendant that some girls were feeding beer to the sea lions. We went over there with her and found three drunk girls trying to pour beer into the mouths of the sea lions. They lied and told the attendant they weren’t doing it, but it was obvious to everyone around them that they were. Brittney said, loud enough for them to hear, “You can take the girl out of the trailer park, but you can’t take the trailer park out of the girl.” Just then a little girl came up to the drunk girls and said something about going to the dolphin show. I looked down and said, loud enough for them to hear, “Oh dear God…it reproduced!” Brittney, Edi and I aren’t very fond of those who would abuse animals like that and I think we made our point. One of the best shows at Sea World is the Sea Lion and Otter show. The emcee is very funny, but the absolute funniest thing happened at the end of the show. At the end of every show, Clyde and Seymour swim up to the edge of the plexiglass, pop their heads up and give a loud sea lion shout out to the audience (as if to say “thanks.”) Well, a woman and her 3 year old blonde headed son wanted to get out of the show a little early to beat the exiting crowd. But her timing sucked. She got down the stairs and up against the plexiglass wall just in time to have Clyde pop out of the water and start howling. It shocked her, but the little kid jumped back about 9 feet! All the kid saw was this enormous sea lion popping up out of the water about 2 feet from him and blurting out a loud sea lion roar. The entire stadium started busting up laughing. I was laughing so hard I was in tears. You couldn’t WRITE this stuff! I told Edi and Brittney that his mom better check his diaper because it was no doubt full! We headed over to the Shamu show, and then headed back to the car. What a fun day! We got back to the hotel and went down to the 21+ jacuzzi, but we realized with horror that it closes at 8! We went to the regular jacuzzi and met up some some great folks from Ohio, who originated from Lebanon. We were too tired to go out to eat, so we ordered food from room service and we just relaxed in my room. Over the course of the day, Brittney’s cough had gotten MUCH better. THANKS DR. PATT!!

Friday the 26th – SOMEONE TOLD ME IT’S ALL HAPPENING AT THE ZOO! –We got to the world famous San Diego Zoo and had some lunch. So many funny things happened today it’s hard to remember them all. First, we got on the skyway and took a bird’s eye view trip over the entire zoo. As we were sitting down on a bench looking at the map to see where to go, I looked up and saw an older guy with his grandchild. He was hunched over and his arms bowed out a bit. He pointed ahead and said to his grandson, “Hey look! Monkey Trail!” I laughed and pointed him out to the girls. He was walking like a monkey and didn’t even know it. OF COURSE he’d want to go to the Monkey Trails. He waddled off and we laughed that he might have been going to see some relatives. We got into one exhibit and a couple with two kids came up to see. In a high-pitched, perfect British accent, the little kid (who couldn’t have been more than 5) said, “Is that a roi-no? A tay-pee-ah?” He was looking at a Tapir, but the sound of his perfect little British voice made me laugh. We enjoyed watching the Squirrel Monkeys for awhile, and I talked to something called a “Go Away Bird,” which sounded like a duck. I would quack, and he would answer back in his little quacky voice. Speaking of ducks, we saw LOTS of them! THAT’S where they were! The moved from Seaport Village to the zoo! We saw some rhinos nuzzling, and we saw a monkey grabbing some brightly colored biscuits and swinging down to the water hole to soak them. We watched him gently place them in the water and leave them in for awhile, as if he was some sort of simian chef making a gourmet dinner. When he figured they were soaked to perfection, he took them out and gently laid them on the grass to dry in the sun just a bit. We referred to him as the “Chef Monkey.” Amazing! We had walked the entire zoo but hadn’t seen giraffes yet! Good thing too, because just as we walked up to the giraffe exhibit we noticed that it was getting close to feeding time! For a few bucks, you could buy little trays of those brightly colored biscuits we saw the monkey soaking, and feed them to the giraffes! I was IN! I got enough biscuits for Brittney, Edi and I. The attendant said that we first needed to sanitize our hands, then feed the giraffes the biscuits by gently placing them on their tongues. Then we could wash off our hands in the sink afterwards. So the plan was that the girls would sanitize, then feed the giraffes while I videotaped, and when they had their hands washed they would take the video camera from me, I would sanitize and then feed the giraffes while they videotaped me. Luckily the zoo had a staff photographer there to get shots of us all feeding the giraffes. They’re so gentle and elegant! It was amazing! We grabbed a snack and did some last minute shopping. What a fun day at the zoo! We headed back to the hotel, and then went to Seaport Village to grab dinner. Gladly, there were a lot of ducks there and I took great delight in feeding them, as is tradition. We grabbed some italian food and then went back to the hotel for a dip in the jacuzzi. It started out alright, but then about 5 six year olds came into the jazuzzi. Edi, Brittney and I had had our fill of being with kids and we were a little disappointed. Why oh why does the 21+ pool close so early?? Luckily the parents came over and saw that the jacuzzi was mostly filled by adults who didn’t seem to want youthful company, and they took the kids out. But then three drunks came by and one guy stripped completely naked and tried to jump in the pool. Good thing the kids were gone! But he was so drunk he slipped as he was trying to get his pants off. I hid my eyes, and Edi was too low in the jacuzzi to see, but Brittney stood up to watch and relayed the entire thing. Too funny! But two amazing days walking around in the hot sun had started to get to us, and we were getting quite tired. So we called it a night and headed into the hotel to sleep. I was still laughing about the sea lion and the little kid!

Saturday the 27th – HOME AGAIN! – We got to sleep in because check out wasn’t until noon. We all got packed up and met in the lobby to check out. We hit the road about noon and was on our way. Traffic was good for awhile, but it got really bad. Bumper to bumper for miles! We stopped at Dairy Queen again for lunch and then headed back out on the road. It was MUCH warmer now that we had left the coolness of San Diego. And the bumper to bumper traffic all the way home didn’t make it any easier. I was getting tired, Edi and Brittney did their best to stay awake and keep me company. We made it back to L.A. around 4pm and I unloaded my bags and bid the girls farewell. Sara, who was housesitting, headed home and I went to bed. It was a LOT of fun, but my legs were tired and achy. It was a LOT of walking! The new air conditioner was working VERY well and I drifted off to sleep. I heard the doorbell ring around 8:20pm. Was it one of my usual Saturday night movie night guests? Maybe one of them didn’t get the e-mail notice that movie night had been cancelled?! By the time I hobbled down the stairs to the door nobody was there. But I got a call on my home phone from the security service telling me that my garage door was still open. Apparently when I unloaded my bags from Edi’s car I had gone in and forgotten to close the door. Whew! I went back to bed and slept until midnight! I unpacked all my stuff, hung out with my cat Spook (who I missed a lot!), got some food at Denny’s and watched the final two episodes of “Twin Peaks.” The last episode was directed by David Lynch and was very weird. I need to go on-line and see what some of the other fans think happened at the end. By the time I got to bed the sun was coming up.

Sunday the 28th – GOOD TO BE HOME! – I got up in the afternoon for a bit, fed Spook a snack, had a bowl of Cocoa Krispies and then went back to sleep until it was time for evening church. L.A. had gotten their long-delayed heatwave and the temps had been over 100. It was bound to happen sooner or later, since we’ve had such a mild summer so far. After church I did paperwork and stuff that needed to be done. I uploaded my trip pictures, put my receipts away in my tax file, did Wally’s Week, recorded some auditions, and then went to bed to start a new week. It was going to be a VERY busy week. We’re back at “The Tonight Show” on Monday, plus I also had a session at Disney Character Voices as well as a Garfield session. Whew! Vacation’s over I guess!

And how was YOUR week??!!

Pics From the Week

The beautiful view of San Diego from my 36th floor hotel room!