Monday the 14th – MUTE ON MONDAY! – If you remember, last week I was suffering from slight laryngitis. An awful fate for a voice actor. Staying mute all weekend had really helped the swelling on my vocal cord diminish. I was up early to do a session for HH Gregg, the electronics store in the east part of the U.S. for whom I voice their animated character “H.H.” However the H.H. voice is up in a section of my vocal register that suffered the most from my laryngitis. But today it was going pretty well. But the spot involved singing, and singing high notes. It was a struggle and I was worried that any progress I made over the weekend would be undone by the severe vocalizations I was doing for the session. Normally it wouldn’t be an issue with a healthy voice, but today it was difficult. Luckily the engineer was able to fly in sections of the song that I had done in previous sessions to make it a little easier on me. We finally made it through the session, though I was starting to get hoarse again. I stopped by the vet’s to pick up some more dog and cat food for Sassie and Spook. I also got together with my pal Jim Ojala who is going to help me finish up my Elvis mannequin that I’m donating to my high school’s alumni museum. The Elvis suit I made and wore at the high school talent show all those years ago is going into the museum after the first of the year, and I wanted to embellish the mannequin with several cool additions, including a silicone Elvis mask, like the ones on the robot talking/singing Elvises that you can buy. Later in the afternoon I was due at Studiopolis to pick up the Magmion lines I wasn’t able to do the previous week because of the laryngitis. Luckily it was a quick in and out, but the ol’ voice was feeling fatigued again. I got to the Jay Leno Show and made it through all right, but afterwards it was another “silent night” for me, as I went home to get at least 12 hours of voice rest.

Tuesday the 15th – STILL STRUGGLING – I went into the Leno show early to rehearse for a live commercial for Kay Jewelers. I love doing those because it reminds me of the old TV shows I used to watch, where the announcer would come on and do the tag line. After the rehearsal I decided to stay in the Burbank area and do some shopping and errands. I stopped in at the bank and deposited some checks, went to Best Buy and bought the Mel Brooks Blu Ray collection, went to It’s a Wrap to pick up some new items (I found some AWESOME Italian boots!) and I when I drove by a store called Gun Country I noticed that they were open! They had been closed for a long time while they switched ownership, but I wanted to go in and look at their inventory. I found a beautiful Colt .45 automatic model 1911 that was all matte black with a small silver disc on the grip. It was used, but the owner of the gun was there and he said he bought it new and never fired it. What a deal! I was also able to pick up a black Derringer with an ivory grip. It fires a special .22 caliber bullet, and it looks a lot like the one Jim West used to carry on “The Wild Wild West.” I get to pick them up on the 28th! I got back to the Leno show and did the taping, but it was a struggle. The voice still wasn’t completely back, perhaps only about 70%. That night I went home to enjoy Christmas Nappies and a solid 12 hours of voice rest.

Wednesday the 16th – SHHHHHH! – I was still trying not to talk very much, but a plumber came to fix one of the flow valves in the master bedroom toilet. When they left I headed over to NBC and did the Leno Show. The voice was getting a little stronger. Afterwards I went to evening church and then took more Christmas Nappies and enjoyed voice rest. All this week I wasn’t taking any other voice-over sessions other than Leno in hopes that I would heal faster. I read on a voice doctor’s website that after a cold or bronchitis (which I had over Halloween) it could take the voice 2-4 weeks to heal, and the swollen vocal cords to completely heal. YIKES! Like my own ENT doctor, it said that voice rest was the only proven method to heal. So, I continued my “silent night” the rest of the night.

Thursday the 17th – FINALLY! – The voice was starting to finally return! The higher registers were coming back, and the voice rest was working. The Leno show went much smoother for me. That night I relaxed and paid some bills and sent off some Christmas gifts.

Friday the 18th – IT’S WORKING! – I needed to send off a small package to my nieces and nephews in South Dakota for Christmas, so I stopped at the post office. BIG MISTAKE! I paid $2 to park in a lot, and went in only to find that the line was really long! So I just figured I would pop more postage on the package than I thought it would need and just send it off. I went to the post office to weigh the package and save money, but it ended up costing me 2 bucks to park anyway, so I should have just put the 2 bucks on the package and sent it. I ended up putting $1.50 on it and sticking it in a mail box. Hope it gets there. After the Leno Show, I picked up my friend Sara at her house and took her to go get her car out of repair. Then we went shopping for some groceries and miscellaneous items. Finally! Two days of solid voice rest! I figured if I didn’t say anything over the weekend I’d be good as gold by Monday!

Saturday the 19th – MORE SHHHHH! – Sara and I ran a few errands and did some shopping, and then I returned home to prepare for another screening of Blu Ray Trek for my friends. We’re watching every single original series “Star Trek” episode on Blu Ray. We finished season 1 awhile back, and we’re about halfway through season 2 now. Season 3 just got released earlier this week, so I’m assuming at 2 episodes a week, we’ll be well into 2010 by the time we’re done. For you “trekkers” out there, we watched “Assignment: Earth” and “Amok Time.” Two of the best second season episodes made! When everyone left for the night, I retired to my room to watch “Mission Impossible” episodes on DVD and rest the voice some more.

Sunday the 20th – SILENCE IS GOLDEN! – My “silent nights” were paying off! The ol’ voice was getting stronger every day. I was supposed to sing a song at church with my pal Bruce Kulick today, but I bowed out last week when I feared I wouldn’t have the pipes for it. I’m glad I did because even though it was about 90% back, I still would have been nervous about it. My friend Georgette joined me for church, and then we went for Mexican food at Ernie’s afterwards. The rest of the night I took Christmas Nappies, then I got up and did some auditions, and then relaxed for the evening with more “Mission Impossible” episodes and voice rest.

And how was YOUR week??!!