RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I promised not to talk about the new “Star Wars” movie at all, but I will tell you this…(don’t worry…no spoilers)…there is NOTHING like this picture in the new movie. Too bad. This is a classic shot of Carrie Fisher in her famous Slave Leia metal bikini hanging out between takes with her stunt double. I love this picture!
Even though some would consider this one of the most annoying Christmas songs ever recorded, I think it’s kind of novel. Particularly since, when I hear it, I always change the words to “Collie Kisses” and I sing it to my dog…who is utterly perplexed by it, but enjoys the attention. Yeah, I’m one of those cheesy dog owners who sing to their dog. Deal with it.
Monday the 14th – MESSED-UP MONDAY! – Like an idiot, I laid down on the couch around 4:30am. Bad idea. I got up at 7:40am with the sun coming in through the living room windows. Now what?! I wasn’t feeling all that good, just kind of out of sorts, but I wasn’t interested in going to bed. So I spent the morning loading up my photo albums. My main project over the Christmas-To-New-Year’s break is to reorganize and purge my bedroom. I have a lot of old photo albums from the 70’s that are in rough shape. They’ve lost their sticky and photos are falling out all over the place. I bought a bunch of new photo albums at Hobby Lobby and I plan on redoing all of the old albums over the break. I’m also going to go through my library and pull out the books I no longer need to create space for the books I do need. Then I’ll donate the books to Goodwill. Along with a lot of the clothes I pull out of my closet. I no longer wear about 70% of the clothes in there, and I really need the available space. I spent a few hours with the photo albums and then I went to bed around 1pm, and slept until 4pm. My day was totally screwed up. Plus it was cold and windy out so it wasn’t even that pleasant outside. I got up at 4 and made some phone calls and checked e-mails. My assistant Sara e-mailed me a webpage that explained the symptoms of angina pectoris. It sounded like exactly the symptoms I had been having the past few weeks. It emulates the symptoms of a heart attack, but isn’t. My heart stress test is on Monday the 21st, so hopefully they’ll rule out any heart problems as the cause of my feeling “out of sorts” of late. I met Sara at Jerry’s for dinner, and then came home to do auditions. Time Warner informed us that our internet would be out between midnight and 5am because they would be laying new cable. That might explain the outage I experienced the other night. At least they gave us a heads up this time. So I got my auditions done earlier in the evening and napped from 10pm to 2am. I got up, fed and walked Roxy, wrote Wally’s Week, made some tomato soup, and watched another episode of “The Addams Family” on DVD before bed. I hope I’m feeling better soon.
Tuesday the 15th – BACK IN TIME! – It was about time to rev up the old Gran Torino again, so I got it out and enjoyed the nice day. I stopped by my Chiropractor’s office and got an adjustment. I told him about my suspicions about angina and he concurred. But we’ll know more this coming Monday. I hit my mailbox to get some packages, and then I stopped by Subway to get a tuna sub. The Torino needed gas so I gassed it up (LOVING those new gas prices!) and then headed to the old NBC, where we used to do “The Tonight Show.” Disney rented some space there and set up an editorial suite for a new movie they’re working on, and they had me come in for about an hour and a half to do some Voice-Over work on the film. It was great fun, but it’s still a little weird being over there. The studio isn’t as busy as it used to be, but boy I sure have some good memories on that lot! I got home in time to watch the debate and get a Domino’s pizza delivered. I grabbed some “Christmas Nappies” on the couch (a nap with the fireplace blazing, the pets napping in their bean bag chairs, and Christmas music gently playing on the satellite). My friend Kylie was in town from Florida so she stopped by later to catch up and visit. We went out to Jack In the Box to get some late-night food. I came home and watched more “Addams Family” on DVD and then I hit the hay.
Wednesday the 16th – THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR! – It’s hard to believe that the rest of the country is cold, cold, cold! It was a gorgeous day and I wanted to get on my bicycle and ride, ride, ride. But my Dr. said to take it easy until my heart stress test on Monday. Rats! So I stayed inside and organized my desk, napped for about an hour, and then got up to take a dip in the Jacuzzi. I worked around the house, restocked my water and popcorn supplies in my cabinets, and reviewed some scripts for my session the next day. I took Sara to dinner at the Coral Café, and we stopped by The Christmas House in Burbank to see the lighting show again. They had added a new musical number! They programmed a light show to “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” by the Ventures. Neat! I LOVE the Christmas House! I got home to take some Christmas Napppies, and then got up for my auditions. I headed to bed so I could be up early for a full day of sessions.
Thursday the 17th – GO MATTEL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN! – I got up at 10:30am and hit the road around 11:30 so I could be at Mattel in El Segundo by 1. I did a Voice-Over on one TV commercial, and then some of the staff showed me an old cabinet they had there with a lot of vintage Mattel toys. It was a treasure trove! They had an old Mrs. Beasley doll (remember those?) and something called Instant Replay, something that I had as a kid! What fun! I hit the road and headed to Glendale to do a session for Dreamworks. I got to work with Gary Trousdale, director of “Beauty and the Beast” and others. He’s a super nice guy and he directed me in a voice session for a super cool theme park ride! As most of the talent agencies and studios are shutting down on Friday the 18th at noon, this would probably be the final day of sessions for this year. What a way to take out the year; Mattel and Dreamworks! Too cool! I stopped by Jersey Mike’s to get a sandwich, and then I got home to relax and eat my dinner. I got some “Christmas Nappies” in, and then I did some work around the house when I got up. As I continue to follow doctor’s orders to take it easy, I relaxed with some more “Addams Family” episodes before bed.
Friday the 18th – ONE OF THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING A NIGHTOWL! – The maids arrived around 1 to clean up Planet Wallywood. While they worked I casually checked out the showtimes for the new “Star Wars” movie at the local theater. I was shocked! I didn’t know they were running the film 24 hours opening weekend! This is great! I figured I’d have to catch an afternoon matinee next week, but there was a 1:15 am showing that caught my eye for that night. I bought two tickets and made my plans. I was going to be up all night anyway, I may as well be at “Star Wars.” And so far it showed that only about 20 tickets had been sold for that showing. I drove Roxy over to Rusty’s to get her a bath, and then took off to my box to get some mail. I stopped by McDonald’s to get some lunch, and then headed over to Fast Signs to pick up some signage they made for me. I visited the comic book store next door and picked up the final two “Batman ‘66” comic books in the 30 issue series. I drove to my vitamin store to get some supplements, and then headed to my bank to handle some end-of-year banking stuff. I stopped by CVS to get a prescription, picked up a few groceries at the grocery store, and then went to pick up Roxy. When I got home I grabbed a pre-Star Wars nap. Around 11:30 I got up and fed Roxy and walked her. Then I got ready for “Star Wars.” My friend Emily came by at 12:30 and we were on our way to the theater. After seeing it I made it a policy to not talk about the movie, other than to say that I had seen it. I dropped Emily at her car, and then went over to Denny’s to get some food to go. I got home and did some work, and enjoyed my dinner while watching the final two episodes from the first season of “The Addams Family.”
Saturday the 19th – CHRISTMAS MOVIE NIGHT! – Boy did it feel great to sleep in until 3! I did some work around the house to get ready for movie night. Tonight would be our special Christmas program; The Pee-Wee Herman Christmas special, the new Bill Murray Netflix Christmas special, followed by “Scrooged” on Blu Ray. Seeing “Star Wars” earlier in the day made me interested in swapping out the batteries in one of my old lightsabers. It was one of the first Force FX models released, and they hadn’t quite worked out the bugs yet. Changing the batteries was no easy task, but I figured out how to do it. A few of the batteries had leaked acid, so I had to get in the battery compartment with a wire brush to clean off all the crusty acid. Then I wiped it down with alcohol on a cotton swab, and then I popped in the new batteries. It worked pretty well. It had started to rain so I ran outside and got into the Jacuzzi. I love being in the hot water with the cool drops falling on my head. There’s a neighbor of mine who enjoys it too and often times I’ll see her outside enjoying the experience too. It was a great movie night, with our friend Brian dropping by with presents for everyone. And it was a very funny evening with 3 super Christmas shows. When everyone left I grabbed a quick nap and then got up to make my traditional Saturday night salad and watch an episode of the old British “Avengers” series.
Sunday the 20th – “THE THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!” – Once again I got up around 3 and started the day by organizing some of my photo files on my computer. Roxy and I got ready for evening church and headed over. Unfortunately our church’s Christmas Tree Lot had sold out of trees and the tent had been taken down. So I didn’t get one last stroll through “The Christmas Forest” before the season ends. I grabbed a quick nap, and then got up to prep for my stress test the following morning. They scheduled it at 8:30am, which was going to be the worst part of the experience! Why so early?! I packed some things I thought I’d need and laid out my workout clothes. I made some soup and started watching the new “Thunderbirds” Blu Ray set. I remember loving this show as a kid, but remembering that some stuff seemed kind of slow and difficult to follow at my age. But I enjoyed watching the first episode quite a bit, and I think I’m going to enjoy this series. I wanted to get at least four hours of sleep before I had to be up for my stress test.
And how was YOUR week??!!
