Monday the 5th – OOOOWWWW! – I’m afraid the new year isn’t getting off to a very good start. Remember when I said I had an ear infection in early December and it made all the teeth on the right side (upper and lower) feel like they were being drilled into? Well, it came back. So I took some painkillers and slept the entire day!

Tuesday the 6th – BUSTS AND BIG BOY! – I got up just in time to hit eBay and win a pair of Marvel mini-busts for my collection. I had been trying to get the Bowen ‘Astonishing Ant Man’ bust for some time (since I got the role of Ant Man in the new Avengers cartoon) but it was always very expensive. But I found a pair of busts, Ant Man along with his girlfriend The Wasp, for a fairly reasonable fee. I’m going to give the Wasp to my co-hort Colleen O’Shaunessy who voices The Wasp in the new series. A little late Christmas gift I guess. Anyway, having a huge sense of satisfaction under my belt, I went to Studiopolis Burbank to audition for a new anime series. The session was being directed by my buddy Jeff Nimoy. We usually laugh more than we actually work, but somehow we made it through. Then I stopped and got some much needed groceries on the way home. Later that night I met up with my pals Chuck and Kristy at Bob’s Big Boy for our usual Tuesday night gathering. But much to my surprise, my pal Edi and her son Josh walked in! Edi’s little daughter Emily Grace played “Little Kimba” in “Livin’ On a Prayer” and I hadn’t seen Edi or Josh in a long time. So I gave them a DVD of the completed film and bought their dinner! What a coincidence! (If you believe in them, that is)

Wednesday the 7th – CAT CLAWS & CASTING! – I started the day by going to Carroll Casting and auditioning for a radio commercial. Then I went to Voicecasters to read for another radio spot. Then I went home, grabbed my cat Spooky and took him over to Rusty’s to get his claws trimmed. I was tired of him sharpening them on my window seat! Then I sat down to write some meditations for the Easter booklet for my church. I had forgotten all about them and they were way overdue! So I had to get cracking! Once I finished them off and e-mailed them to the appropriate people, I took a quick nap. I was starting to feel that tooth pain again so I wanted to lay down before my next audition. But when I woke up I was much to sore to go. So I called and cancelled the audition, something I hardly ever do! But my teeth were killing me. I got up later, took a bunch of Advil and went to evening church. Then I promptly came home and went back to bed to prepare for my marathon Thursday!

Thursday the 8th – ELVIS’ BIRTHDAY! – I loaded myself up on Advil and headed out for the day. My first session was early in the morning for a commercial for herbicide. Then I hurried home to record an audition for Juan at Voicecasters. Since my schedule was so hectic, they let me record it at home and they directed me over the phone. Then I headed over to Patches recording in Hollywood to do some radio spots for Scott’s Turf Builder. They had already recorded my partner in the spot, Nascar great Carl Edwards, so I just played off of his recorded tracks. I play Carl’s fictitious neighbor Matt. Be listening for them soon! Just as I finished, it was time to get to Studiopolis to do another episode of “The Avengers!” This just keeps getting more and more fun, and today we got to record with all of the Avengers in one room…Captain America, Thor, Wasp, Iron Man, and me…Ant Man. It was fun to hear all of us together! Then I stopped home to walk Sassie, and get out the door once again. My old pal Dick Grunert from the “Astro Boy” days has written a podcast radio play called “Dead of Night” and I was voicing and hosting it for him. I got to do the voice of the creepy host, as well as one of the characters. It was a lot of fun, but the day was getting really long and my teeth were starting to hurt again. I swore to myself that if they hurt like that again tomorrow, I was going back to the doctor!

Friday the 9th – IT’S BAAAAAACK! – I went to a studio called Garage 24/7 to do a commercial for another herbicide (jeez, two herbicides and fertilizer in the same week! Must be some sort of record!) and even though I had taken some Advil I was starting to feel unwell again. So after the session I phoned my doc. But he was out of town and unavailable. The doctor taking all of his calls was booked up all day. So I went the alternate route. I went to an Urgent Care facility in Burbank. After an hour wait I got into see the doctor. Though he didn’t see much in the way of nasal or ear infection, I had the reality of severe tooth pain. I had chipped a molar in the back of my mouth over the holidays, but I don’t think it’s related. A) because all of my teeth on the right side hurt, and not just the chipped one, and B) I had this tooth pain before I noticed the chipped tooth. So the doc gave me something for the pain (extra strength Advil, basically), something to help me sleep, and an anti-biotic called Amoxicillin. I went home, took the anti-biotic and the sleeping pill and took a nap. I woke up that night sick to my stomach! I ran to the bathroom. Sure enough, the anti-biotic had made me sick! Even though I took it with a full meal like instructed. Then I remembered. I’m sensitive to Amoxicillin, aka Augmentin. I had forgotten that! So I tried to call the after hours phone of the Urgent Care clinic, and the recording said it was an out of service number! I thought I was delirious and dialed the wrong number! I tried it again. Same thing…BEEP BEEP BEEP “The number you have reached is out of service.” What the hell was going on? I called information to get the number for the clinic and they said they didn’t have any record of it! Was this some kind of cruel joke? I decided to wait until the morning and see what was going on. I went back to bed, prayed that my stomach would stay still, and slept.

Saturday the 10th – UGH! – I called the Urgent Care Center and they said that they switch the phones to a recording at night. I told them no recording came on other than the out of service announcement. The lady acted like she didn’t believe me. Anyway I got one of the other doctors there to prescribe me a different anti-biotic so I went over to the drug store and picked it up. But the pharmacist said it might make me drowsy, so I should wait until bedtime to use it. ARGH! I just went to bed and slept as much as possible. When I got up that night I watched two Mannix episodes on the DVD set and ate some soup…delicately. Luckily I was holding down food now. Crisis over.

Sunday the 11th – ZZZZZZZ – I slept all day, all afternoon, and well into the evening. I did manage to get up, do some auditions and chores around the house though. Then I went back to bed so I could be up early for my Monday activities.

And how was YOUR week!!??