December 18 – December 25 (2023)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

Christmas-to-Halloween throwback! Don’t pass gas! Michael will hear you!

I had never heard this song before, and it ended up being the great discovery of this Christmas season. It’s a song from 1976 by the Salsoul Orchestra, and was recently remixed in 2022. It’s “Merry Christmas All.” It has such an easy-going groove and a really nice vibe. LOVE IT!

Monday the 18th – COUNTING DOWN TO CHRISTMAS! – The L.A. area was expecting a few days of off-and-on rain midweek, so today was very cloudy. I drove to my box to get some packages, went to the post office to mail some stuff, and then had a nice “late-lunch-early-dinner” on the patio at Paty’s. I got back home and did some work around the house, recorded a few auditions, and later I typed out Wally’s Week. I took my nightly WOG (walk/jog) and it felt wonderful. I spent some time outside cooling down in my anti-grav chair just meditating and staring at the cloudy sky. Then I decided it was time to hit the hay. I had to be up fairly early on Tuesday for a quick session in my home studio. But before I went to bed I set up my home studio so it would be ready to rock first thing in the morning.

Tuesday the 19th – HAULIN’ PUPPETS! – My early voice-over session was for Toyota, and once I connected at 10:30 it only took about a half hour. Quick and easy! Then I texted my pal Drew Massey to see if he was ready to rock and roll. With the passing of Marty Krofft (half of the Sid & Marty Krofft production team) it was decided that the Krofft Super Shop would be closing. Drew had done a lot of work there, even helping me with a few of my Muppet replicas from time to time, and he had a fair amount of stuff stored there. But he had no way to transport them from the shop to his new storage facility. Enter the Gray Ghost. I offered up my time and trusty Rav 4 for the task. I drove over mid-afternoon and met him at the shop and we loaded as much stuff into the Gray Ghost as we could. Then Drew and I drove to his new storage facility to unload the goods. In addition to a few items of equipment, there were boxes of puppets from a show he produced for Nickelodeon called “Barbarian and the Troll.” Once we got unloaded we went back for a second load, and between Drew’s car and the Gray Ghost we got everything he needed to remove from the Krofft Super Shop. When we were done unloading everything we drove over to a restaurant in Sherman Oaks for lunch, and his girlfriend Nicolette met us. What fun! Then I got home, did a little work, and then Angi stopped by so we could go to dinner. Unfortunately the only place still open by the time she got there was Denny’s. But like me, she loves Denny’s, so we headed over. It was raining out, but it was still very nice. Angi and I were “celebrating” our 1 year of meeting; as we met for our first dinner exactly one year ago. And the fact that I treated her to a sumptuous meal at Denny’s demonstrates that my level of class and sophistication knows no bounds! (Joking, of course) But like I said, nothing else was open. I came home and did my nightly auditions and did some work around the house. It’ll be really nice to have some downtime for the rest of the year. Absolute HEAVEN! I took my nightly WOG in the light rain, but I enjoyed my time in the anti-grav chair from the comfort of my garage. It was raining lightly and was very picturesque and meditative. VERY nice! I came back inside and enjoyed a Denny’s salad I got to-go, and another episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.”

Wednesday the 20th – PHOTO PHUN BEGINS! – It’s safe to say that I was already in holiday mode. I slept until 3, did a little work around the house, went to my box to get my packages, and then sat on the patio at Paty’s and enjoyed the rainy afternoon just eating comfort food and watching the street get pelted with beautiful wetness. I picked up some groceries at the store and then went home to put everything away. It would be smoooooth sailing into 2024! Since it was pouring rain later I didn’t take a WOG. But I did take the opportunity to set my anti-grav chair in my garage again and enjoy the atmosphere of a very rainy night. In fact it was pouring! But it smelled and felt so good! It was very soothing and meditative. I got inside and began work on the final tweaks to my South Dakota photo albums. I had to compare everything that I put in the South Dakota photo albums a few years ago against a new pile of photos I recently discovered. I actually found some better versions of the photos I already had in the albums, and I also found a few photos that hadn’t originally been included. So it was work that was well worth the effort. I want to get all of the South Dakota photo albums settled and finalized before I start work on my L.A. photo albums this Christmas Eve. Later I made a salad and watched another episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.” This series is actually pretty good!

Thursday the 21st – REFLUX REPEAT! – When I got up my throat was feeling sore, but not in the traditional sense. It wasn’t like a usual sore throat, but that area felt very inflamed. I’m thinking it might be acid reflux again, as I might not have been sleeping correctly after eating spicy foods recently. Since I did have a sinus infection recently so I’m wondering if this is part of it. I slept all afternoon and got up around 5pm. I got up and went back to sleep some more. It was pouring rain out, so that’s just naturally good sleeping weather anyway. I got up in the later evening and it was between rain cells, so I figured I’d get a quick WOG in before the next storm cell moved in. My voice had gotten a bit hoarse, and I realized it was most likely acid reflux-induced laryngitis, referred to clinically as Gastroesophageal Reflux Laryngitis. I’ve had it before, and I’ve actually lost my voice for quite a while, but I figured I had learned how to avoid it. I guess I got lazy. Vocal rest is the best remedy for it, and that would be easy since the next few weeks I’m lying low anyway. I love doing my WOGs in the middle of the night. No people around. But since this one was done much earlier than usual I ran into a fair amount of people milling around. And I passed several Christmas celebrations on my route. It was great hearing celebrations being done in a variety of languages! Just as I came back inside it started raining again (great timing!) and once again I sat in my garage in the anti-grav chair just watching the hypnotic and beautiful rainstorm.

Friday the 22nd – I PREFER THE NAUGHTY LIST! – My voice had gotten worse. But I’m positive it’s from acid reflux and not an illness. I just gotta be quiet until the voice gets better naturally. As I am prone to do every time this happens, I Googled all of the foods that are suggested to avoid these types of problems. But they are all foods that I would never eat in a million years. Legumes, lentils, beets, etc. All of the foods on the “naughty” list are basically what makes up my usual menu. Ugh. The maids came over to clean up Planet Wallywood, and then I headed to Alex In Wonderland with my Popeye and Mr. Magoo cartoon cutouts. I needed to have Alex’s husband Mike remove the stands he put on them for the ME-TV shoot, and attach the hardware necessary to make them wall hangings. Mike will come over the week between Christmas and New Year’s and help me attach them to the wall. My pal Sara came over to film 13 Christoween Stalking videos that I wanted to post on social media. Then I took my nightly WOG and spent some magical time relaxing in the anti-grav chair. When I got back inside I edited all of the videos Sara shot, added some music and posted them. Then I made a salad and watched another episode of “Boris Karloff’s Thriller.”

Saturday the 23rd – PHOTO PHINISH AND HAIR HUE! – When I set my alarm to get up for my hair appointment with Andie I gave myself just enough time to get a shower and walk over to her shop. But when I got up I had gotten a call from Harry’s Camera that my new batch of photos had arrived and were ready to be picked up! So I dashed into the shower and hopped in the Gray Ghost to go get them. I wanted to have them for my “Creative Christmas” project on Sunday night! Then I headed to Andie’s, got a touch up on my color, and then headed home. My pal Amanda was in town so she dropped by with a little Christmas gift, and then I posted some more Christoween videos for Christmas Eve day. I took my nightly WOG under a mostly-full moon, and then spent some time in the anti-grav chair enjoying the quiet, semi-cloudy night. It was very relaxing watching the moon play peek-a-boo with the clouds. I came back inside and made my traditional Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and watched an episode of “The Saint.”

Sunday the 24th – CHRISTMAS EVE! – Not sure what’s going on with Twitter (now X, I guess) but it didn’t post any of the Christoween Stalking videos I had scheduled. They were all scheduled correctly, but for some reason they didn’t post. All the more reason to hate social media. So I posted them all by hand, as I wanted them posted before Christmas Eve night. Normally, part of my Christmas Eve tradition is to go to the Living Nativity at my church. In addition to actors in a manger, they have all sorts of cool animals there. It’s kind of like an ersatz “petting zoo” for the kids to enjoy before the 5:30 family service. Normally I would enjoy taking Roxy over to see the animals and get acquainted. In fact, on our walk over to the church, she started smelling them from several blocks away! She would point her nose in the air and sniff like crazy. But this year I wasn’t feeling it. I went without Roxy last year, and it wasn’t as enjoyable. This year, I decided to sit it out entirely. It’s just not the same as when Roxy was around. So I may remove that aspect from my Christmas Eve tradition entirely. I wired up my home audio system to accept audio from my computer so I could hear “Christmas Across The Lands” streamed from my buddy’s radio station in Sioux Falls. Everything was sounding great. I’m glad I did the prep for it a few days ago to anticipate any possible issues. My buddy Dave Baumeister called and urged me to call his son (and my godson) Sean, who was now living in L.A. – and had been since the summer. Good thing I did. Sean’s girlfriend was out of town seeing her family and Sean was by himself for the weekend. I invited him to Christmas dinner at the Smoke House on Christmas Day. But I was running late for the candlelight service, so I high-tailed it over to the church. I walked in just as the choir was singing, and the service was beautiful as usual. When I walked home afterwards, munching on a Christmas cookie they passed out at the service, I looked to the sky. It was a gorgeous, clear night. The stars were brightly shining…but that sounds a bit like a song. The moon was getting ever fuller. I got home and put my lounging clothes on, opened my gifts from Angi and Officer Mark, and then started my photo album project. As I’m going along, building this photo album set, I’ll stop and type out a narration box on the computer. I’ll print it, cut it, and include it in the layout. It’s slow going…but worth it. I’m comparing the new prints with the prints in my old photo albums, and throwing the duplicates into a giant envelope. I worked about 6 hours and only got 16 completed pages done. The thing that takes time is cross-referencing dates and times, and deciding how to categorize everything into a neat, enjoyable narrative. But I’m off to a great start! “Christmas Across The Lands” was amazing as always, and it still tickles me to hear myself on the show as Wally the Elf! I love being a part of that show! I made my traditional Chef Boyardee pizza and watched Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” which I heard was beautiful. And it was. While it was amazing to look at, I found myself wanting a bit more. I was particularly disappointed in the songs, which felt forced and just weren’t very good or memorable. I wonder if it would have been better without the songs. Sad, because it was a missed opportunity. I would have loved a really memorable song or two to help with the experience. But, the animation was astounding!

Monday the 25th – HAPPY CHRISTMAS! – Since I was up very late working on the photo album, I slept very late on Christmas Day. But I did get up in time to get ready for our annual Christmas Day dinner at the Smoke House. At first they sat our group on the patio, but they had trouble lighting the heaters, so we opted to go back inside. Shortly after we were seated we saw my pal Tony O come in, so I sent a martini over to his table as a Christmas gift. I thanked him again for spending time with us last week and telling us fun Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles stories at lunch. Even though it was later at night it was still very busy and the staff seemed overwhelmed. But with all of the kinks and snafus, it was still a pleasant experience! I got back home and relaxed. Later I took a WOG and spent some time under a cloudy sky in my anti-grav chair. Then it was back inside to do some more photo album work; typing out captions, adding pages, etc. It was exhausting. I hit the hay to tackle it again on another day.

And how was YOUR Christmas week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK