May 08 – May 14 (2023) – Wally On The Web

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

One morning I opened my email and I got this from Entertainment Earth. It was an ad that showed not one, but TWO of the characters I voice right next to each other. Fantastic!

This song has come up several times on my devices over the past few weeks and I really love it. First off, it’s a great song. Secondly, the beat of the song is PERFECT for my brisk speedwalks. It’s a British artist named Sophie Ellis-Bextor and it’s called “Me and My Imagination.”

Monday the 8th – MUSTANG MONDAY! – My original Mustang key fob has had a broken case for quite a while now. My spare key is still OK, but the original case had cracked over the past 20 years that I’ve owned it. During one of my recent walks I noticed that a little key kiosk near the post office carried the exact case I needed. So I enjoyed the day and walked over to the kiosk to buy a new case. It fit perfectly! I’ll be getting the Mustang out soon as the weather improves, so I’ll see how it works. But the electronic “guts” of the case is still the same, it’s just a new plastic case, so it should be OK. On my walk I strolled past the Writer’s Guild picket line again. I got home and did some work and then my friend Angi came over. We headed off to Paty’s for dinner. Our favorite server Nicolle was there, so we had a great time chatting with her. But Angi was having a bad day. Her Instagram account had been hacked, and she had gotten into a minor car accident. So she was really in need of some laughs. After dinner I headed home to grab a nap in the Puppet Room. Then I got up to record my nightly auditions and write Wally’s Week.

Tuesday the 9th – PAYING IT FORWARD! – The day started with a last-minute audition, and then I headed to Paty’s to have lunch with the kid I met at Joann’s last week. He had a lot of questions about writing, animation, and show biz in general. We met at the restaurant and I found out he was dropped off by his mom. I asked him what she was going to do while we met and he said she was just going to drive around. I suggested that he call her and have her join us for lunch. We got seated and his mom joined us and we had a great 3.5 hour lunch! We talked about all sorts of things. He’s a very creative guy and I hope he learned a few things and has a very successful career! On the patio I noticed a guy who looked very familiar. As I suspected, it was the actor William Atherton, who was in “Ghostbusters,” “Real Genius,” “Die Hard,” and more. He was pretty much the go-to actor in the 80s and 90s when they needed to cast an A-hole corporate type. I love his work as the jerk-you-love-to hate, and I really wanted to meet him. But it didn’t happen. Hopefully I’ll see him there again someday. I DID, however, see my old pal Stu Shostak. I hadn’t seen him in years! It was fun catching up. It was a very gloomy, cloudy, cool day, so I didn’t feel much like taking my walk. I got back home and did some work around the house. As it got into evening, I grabbed a short nap, and then got up later to do my auditions, and work on my Super Grover replica Muppet. Later, I made some hot dogs on the grill and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger.” I hadn’t made hot dogs in months, so I figured it would be OK (in keeping with my mantra of “In all things; moderation).

Wednesday the 10th – MUPPET DUDS! – Given that I’ve had some headaches and pressure over my right eye lately, I went to visit my ENT Dr. Jill to rule out (hopefully) a sinus infection. She checked me over and said there was no sign of infection at all. So the headaches were probably due to a rare side effect from my blood pressure medication called “headache syndrome,” or allergies (we’re in the middle of a bad allergy season now), or because I was in need of a touch-up on my Lasik, it might be from eye strain. My right eye is slightly better than my left eye, so my right eye may be overcompensating which could lead to headaches. But at least I can rule out sinus infection. Until I can get in to see the Lasik surgeon for a consultation and actually have the surgery, I called my optometrist to have them make me up some distance glasses that I can use temporarily. So if my headaches improve after getting those, the problem was probably caused by eyestrain. I started taking my Xyzal medication for allergies, so that may help too. A few weeks ago when I was at Anime Las Vegas I met a really nice lady named Dominica who runs a collectible store. She couldn’t make it to my table because she had to man her booth, so I went to her table to sign the Renji Funko Pop at her booth. She let me know she was going to be in town for a few days, so I drove to Universal City Walk to grab dinner with her. When I got there she was at another meeting, so I killed time by shopping on the City Walk. I went to Hot Topic and BINGO! I found a great “Muppet Show” hoodie. I grabbed the XL one. Then I noticed a green sweater and pulled it off the rack. It was an amazingly clever Kermit the Frog sweater, with a collar that looked like Kermit’s, an embroidered Kermit over one pocket, and a huge Kermit applique on the back! Unfortunately the only one they had left was in size small. I bought it anyway just because it’s such a cool collectible! But I really wanted one in my size! I was going to hit the internet when I got home. Dominica and I ate lunch at Johnny Rockets, and then we walked around City Walk. We hit the store called Things From Another World so she could get some decorating ideas for her collectible store in Texas. I got back home and fed Spook, did my nightly auditions, and grabbed a nap. When I got up later I did some more work on the pattern I did for Super Grover’s head. I’m ready for my seamstress Maggie to come by on Friday and cut it out of fur and stitch it together! Monsterpalooza is three weeks away, so we have to hurry to get Grover completed! I really miss my late-night strolls through the complex with my dog Roxy, so I’ve been going out at night (around 3 in the morning) and doing brisk walks. With Roxy I wasn’t able to get much speed going, because she wanted to stop every 10 feet to sniff stuff. But when I’m out by myself I can really haul ass and get my heart rate up. When I came in from my walk my heart was beating very rapidly (a good thing, after a brisk cardio workout). So I decided to take my blood pressure just to see what it was like after a workout. It was FANTASTIC! And within a minute after that it had already started to settle back down to an amazing rate. I was VERY, very happy! I made a salad and watched a few more “Lone Ranger” episodes. After that it was a few fantastic “Have Gun – Will Travel” episodes on the H&I channel! GREAT stuff!

Thursday the 11th – MANIC MUPPET MISSION – The day was gorgeous so I headed out for my walk to CVS to get a prescription, and then over to the grocery store for some supplies. When I got back home I called the Hollywood Hot Topic store to see if they had any of those Kermit sweaters. BINGO! They had just gotten a shipment in and had one of each size! I asked them to hold a medium, large and extra-large for me! After I cleaned up, I hit the road in the Gray Ghost and drove into Hollywood. I parked at Hollywood and Highland and headed up to Hot Topic. Funnily enough, the parking level I ended up in was color coded in GREEN! Yes, it was a sign! Luckily I got to Hot Topic just a few minutes before they closed and picked up the sweaters! On the way back home I picked up some food at Carl’s Jr., and then drove over to Michael’s Crafts to get some thread for Maggie to use when she stitched up Grover. The Voice Over agency in Los Angeles that I’m signed with had a huge get-together at a place called The Fat Dog in North Hollywood. It was good to see my agents, and I got to see a lot of old friends. It sure was good to see real people again in a social setting! I went back home and grabbed a nap, and then got up later for a ton of auditions, including some singing auditions. I worked around the house to prep for the maids on Friday. I also prepped the Grover head for when Maggie arrives to work.

Friday the 12th – HOLY S#!+! I CAN SEE! – When I got up and checked my email I found out that “Puppet Up!” is doing two weeks’ worth of shows in July. One of them was on the weekend I’ll be in Sioux Falls for “Voices Against Cancer,” so I got tickets for the following weekend! VERY exciting! I headed over to my optometrist’s office to pick up my new “distance” glasses, which had just come in. They have cool blue aluminum frames. I sat down and tried them on and they were perfect. I decided I’d wear them outside and try driving with them. My first reaction was “HOLY S#!+! I CAN SEE AGAIN!” I had no idea how bad my eyes had gotten as my original Lasik surgery from 1997 had begun to shift over time. (Experts say that Lasik surgery needs enhancement after about 15 years.) I look forward to getting a Lasik enhancement possibly over the summer, but until then these glasses will do very nicely. My vision is in no way as bad as it originally was when I had Lasik in 1997, but it’s not perfect. I can see without distance glasses pretty well, but these glasses give me a little extra “oomph” to see when I’m driving. I grabbed lunch at the Burger King drive-thru (I ate about half the burger and about 8 onion rings), and then headed to the grocery store for supplies. I needed to hit the store while I had the car in order to pick up those items that I can’t carry during my walk (ie: cartons of iced tea, packages of water, etc.) Since I was in the area I decided to hit Bed Bath and Beyond, who is going out of business. I had hoped to pick up a few deals on some items I was interested in. But the store was pretty picked over. I did pick up a nifty plastic case with dividers, and a shoe caddy that hangs on the closet door. I got home and unloaded the groceries and waited for the maids to arrive. Shortly after they showed up and began cleaning, my seamstress Maggie showed up to start work on covering the head of my Grover replica with the custom-dyed fur. We made some minor alterations to the muslin pattern I created, and we cut a pattern out of cardboard, and then cut the fur. Maggie stitched it all up and it looked GREAT! But the fur is pretty long so he’ll need a trim. I’ll give my “hair guy” Sergio a call to see if he’s able to come by to give him a quick snip snip. We also patterned and cut the fur for Grover’s tummy piece, and his skinny arms. Maggie took those pieces with her to work on at home. We’ll meet up next week to do some more work on Grover. When Maggie left I took a nap, and then got up later to do some work around the house. I made a salad and watched a few episodes of “The Lone Ranger.”

Saturday the 13th – BELATED BIRTHDAY BASH! – My hair color needed a touch-up, so I walked over to my stylist Andie’s shop to have her work on me. I got back home, did some work and cleaned up. My pal Sara came over, and then my friends Officer Mark and Miss Connie arrived to drive us over to a place called Damon’s Steakhouse in Glendale. The restaurant has an island theme, so I put on my Mahna Mahna Hawaiian shirt. Since Mark and Connie were in Palm Springs on my birthday weekend (I was supposed to be, but had to cut my trip short. See the previous Wally’s Week for details) they weren’t able to join the rest of the gang at Barone’s. It was a great time, with great food and good friends! I also got some nifty gifts! When I got back home I took a short nap, and then got up to do my auditions that were due on Monday. I also spent some time gluing down the fur fabric around the edge of Grover’s mouth plate. I needed to prep him for his trim and for when he gets his head measured for his knight’s helmet. I was looking at the rest of the custom-dyed fur I have, and I was starting to worry a bit that I wouldn’t have enough to complete the puppet. After all, I still had his torso to create, his hands, legs and feet. EEK! Just in case, I bought some more of the special dye for synthetic fabrics on amazon. I have another yard left of the fabric in its original color, and I may need to dye some small pieces to bridge the gap. I can do that on my stove if need be. But the likelihood that I would get an EXACT color match to what’s already been dyed is very slim. But if I only need to dye enough fabric to make something small like feet, that might be OK. We’ll have to cut very conservatively when Maggie and get back to working on the rest of the puppet’s pieces. I put together the shoe caddy that I bought at Bed, Bath and Beyond and took it upstairs to put it on the Puppet Room closet door. But the closet door in that room is very narrow and the caddy didn’t fit well. So I decided to make a swap. On the inside of the closet door in the Tranquility Zone I have a simple contraption that holds my many caps. It’s basically made up of three long elastic bands that clip on to the top and bottom of the door, and there are little plastic tabs stitched into the elastic straps. You can hang caps on those by looping the tabs through the opening on the back of the caps where the adjustment band lives. So I took that system with all the caps down from my Tranquility Zone door, and put the shoe caddy up in its place. The shoe caddy provided a nice, orderly new place for all my caps. It looked MUCH better! I took the elastic band system to the Puppet Room and installed two of the bands on the closet door in that room. There I was able to hang my “overflow” caps; caps that I don’t wear that often. Since it was getting close to dawn, I decided to make my Saturday Night Super Saint Salad and get ready to watch an episode of “The Saint.” But I was out of grilled chicken breasts, so I had to revert to my “old style” of salads, the kind I used to make before I got the elevated blood pressure diagnosis. I made those salads with turkey lunch meat (loaded with salt) and over the counter Kraft Tangy Bacon Catalina dressing (full of preservatives.) I hadn’t had one of those in a while, so I figured it would be OK. Oddly enough, it didn’t taste so good to me anymore. My taste buds have certainly changed over the course of this whole affair.

Sunday the 14th – ZOMBIE! – All day I was pretty sleepy. I had gotten up for a little bit to do a few things, but I was very tired so I went back to bed. My friend Amanda was due to come by in the evening but I hadn’t heard of a specific time of arrival from her, so I just figured I’d hear the doorbell when she arrived and I’d get up. But come to find out she had been waiting around for quite a while, ringing the doorbell and knocking. She also called my phone. I was so dead tired I didn’t hear the phone OR the doorbell. I felt bad that she had to wait around for so long. And then I started to wonder WHY I didn’t hear any of those things while I slept. Normally I’m a pretty light sleeper. I didn’t like that at all. We went out to Denny’s to get some late dinner (the only place that was open at that time of night) and chatted. Then I got back to the house and did some work, and prepped for a big video game session the next day at Warner Brothers.

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

During my shopping trip on City Walk at Universal Studios, I found a GREAT Garfield bag. “GAAARRRFIIIIELD! You ate all the lasagna!”

A closer look at the amazing Kermit cardigan!

As I pulled into buy the Kermit sweaters at the Hollywood Hot Topic, I parked in the “green” section of the parking structure. It was a sign!

GOT IT! A Kermit sweater in XL! Now I have something to wear to the next “Puppet Up!” show in July! I also have a small, medium and large, in case the person I go with wants to wear one too! This is the coolest Muppet collectible I’ve seen in a long time!

Maggie finishes the top part of Grover’s head.

And now the head’s complete! He just needs a good trim. This is a temp nose and lip piece. I’ll make the REAL pieces (along with some eyes) as the final touch.