RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK
I love this pic taken by Officer Mark! It shows a few of the Soakys in my collection sitting under the ominous LED lighting I recently installed!
In our study of great “story” songs, here’s a great one by Boomer Castleman called “Judy Mae.”
Monday the 29th – MEMORIAL DAY! – For the first time in a long time I was feeling pretty good. The sinus surgery was a little more than a week old, and I could tell I was on the mend. I did a little work and then went over to my pal Paul Dini’s for a Memorial Day barbecue. I drove the Torino over and I had a great time showing it off. Paul’s wife Misty and I got to catch up on things, as did my old friend Mark Evanier and I. It was a great time with good people. On the way home I picked up my dry cleaning, gassed up the Torino, and then went home to feed the pets. I napped on the couch a little bit, since sleep is going to help me heal faster than anything else, and then I got up later to do my nightly auditions. I typed out Wally’s Week, fed and walked Roxy on our late night stroll through the neighborhood, went back inside to make some soup and a sandwich, and watched another episode of “Barnaby Jones” before bed. I hope your Memorial Day was a reflecting and poignant one.
Tuesday the 30th – TRAVELIN’ TUESDAY! – I picked up my assistant Sara and headed to Michaels Crafts to get a new piece framed. But one of the photos had to be cut to size and they’re not allowed to do that. So I’m going to take it home and do it there with an Exacto knife and a metal straight edge. I went to the bank to send an International Wire Transfer to a friend in Canada. I stopped by the local lighting store to see if they had a roll of the “Super Night” LED lighting strips, but no go. In fact, they didn’t really seem to care if they sold me anything or not. It was very weird. What a wasted trip all the way over there. I got a few groceries, stopped by the post office to mail off some bills, and then dropped Sara back at her house so she could go to her night job at the restaurant. People were acting VERY stupidly; pulling right in front of me like I wasn’t there, ambling out in front of me, driving their bicycles irresponsibly, etc. What’s going on? I got home and fed the pets, cut my photo to size, and then headed back to Michaels to put in my framing order. Then I went over to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. I told my ENT surgeon that I was still having inflammation issues and I was still needing to take Sudafed to keep my sinuses clear. So she prescribed me a liquid steroid that I could put in my sinus rinses. I hope it works, because I’d love nothing more than to stop using Sudafed or Mucinex to keep my passages clear. I got home and napped through the evening. I got up later to do my nightly auditions, fed and walked Roxy, had a bite to eat, and then headed to bed. I needed to be up early for a session at Mattel in El Segundo.
Wednesday the 31st – MATTEL IT LIKE IT IS! – At 9:15 sharp I sprang from bed and started getting ready to head out for the day. From my house it takes a full hour in morning traffic to get to Mattel’s recording facility in El Segundo. I was on the road by 10 and made my 11:00 session right on time. I really can’t say what I recorded, but I got to voice three upcoming toys in their retro line, to be released in 2019, featuring a very beloved children’s character. More later on that! I headed over to Campos, my favorite Mexican restaurant, and had a delicious lunch. I got home to do some work, and then I headed over to an anime session for Studiopolis. It was a relatively short session, thankfully, because even though my surgery was over a week ago, I was still regaining my strength and endurance. I got back home around 5 and fed the pets. I relaxed a bit and noticed that I was feeling pretty good. Could it be those little vials of liquid steroid in my sinus rinses were actually working? I hope so! I haven’t taken a Sudafed since Monday night and I’m not stuffed. I was getting hungry so I ordered a Domino’s pizza, and after a leisurely dinner I got showered and headed to bed. I ended up getting some really great sleep! When I got up later I did my nightly auditions, fed and walked Roxy, did some work on the computer, made a pot pie and watched “Barnaby Jones.” Tomorrow would be my first LONG session since my surgery (about 3 hours’ worth) so I hope it all goes well.
Thursday the 1st – THE TRUE TEST! – The day began with a phone conversation with my buddy Mike in Chicago about a product I designed for the holidays. He put me in touch with his head buyer and we chatted for a bit. I showed him my concept sketches and video and he loved the idea. Fingers crossed that this will make it to manufacture and be on the shelves by this Halloween! I hopped in the Mustang and headed to Bang Zoom studios to do 3 hours of voice work on the super secret project I’ve been involved with for the past two years. We worked for 3 hours and I was able to maintain my stamina pretty well. I truly think I’m almost back to my old self again. I went home to feed the pets and walk Roxy. I did a little work on the computer and then napped on the couch with an ice pack on my face. Later I got up to do my nightly auditions and feed and walk Roxy. I drove over to Denny’s to get some food to go, and then came home to eat it while watching another episode of “Barnaby Jones.” I’ve often said that “Barnaby Jones” is one of the few shows in which I’ve never seen a bad episode. Sadly, that statement ended tonight. It was one of those types of TV episodes that seemed like a pitch for a spin-off series. The backstory of the two characters was very carefully explained in the exposition, and there were a lot of “beauty” shots of the two characters together. The problem was, they had absolutely no chemistry together, and their acting was pretty bad. One guy was OK, but the other had absolutely no charisma, especially that which was needed to carry a series. It was very difficult to watch.
Friday the 2nd – DOWN TO THE WIRE…TRANSFER! – Never EVER send a wire transfer. Use Paypal. Even though Paypal milks you for every possible fee (in addition to charging a fee to the recipient of the money you’re sending; they get you coming and going) the wire transfer system is completely antiquated. The International Wire Transfer I sent last Tuesday STILL had not met its intended recipient. To make matters worse my bank, who sent the transfer, put a strange number on the form and I can’t reach anybody. I had to call another branch to get the number of this branch. I finally got in touch with somebody and they were utterly clueless. Meanwhile, my money’s floating around out there somewhere. You’d think that the bank would update their system a little bit, considering companies like Paypal exist and are their competition. Sara came over to stay with the maids, who would be coming over to clean Planet Wallywood while I was at a session. I drove Roxy over to the mobile “non-anesthesia” teeth cleaners to get a cleaning. I came back home to drop Roxy off, the maids had just shown up, and I immediately headed out to do another 3 hour super secret session at Bang Zoom. I was only 40 minutes into the session and Sara texted me that the power had gone out. The maids may have triggered it with something they plugged in, but since I wasn’t there I couldn’t deal with it. My breaker panel was fine, so I was really perplexed. I had to continue doing the session, with small breaks to phone my neighbor Bob to see if he could go assist. Luckily he was able to find the problem (which existed with an exterior panel) and the power went back on. But the maids had already left so no vacuuming had been done. I called their office and arrange for them to return on Saturday just to finish the vacuuming. Oddly enough, as soon as this happened, one of the lines I had to read in the Voice Over session was about losing power. Fate was pointing and laughing at me again, it seemed. After the session I got home and Sara was still there. My pal Brittney Powell came over so we could go to dinner, so all three of us went to Ernie’s Taco House for a yummy dinner. It was fun getting caught up with Brittney as I hadn’t seen her in quite a while. She was busy traveling, and I was busy having my sinuses rooted around in. I got back home and grabbed a nap. I got up later to feed and walk Roxy. I did manage to find some Super Night LED lighting strips on Amazon, so I spent a few hours putting those up in my little “breakfast nook” area in my kitchen. They line the top of the walls all around my display of Soaky bubble bath containers, and it looks pretty darn cool! Even though time was passing quickly, I promised myself I’d make a Chef Boy Ardee pizza-in-a-box. It was delicious while I watched “Barnaby Jones.”
Saturday the 3rd – SAT-TIRED-DAY! – Because of all the Friday night activity I didn’t end up getting to bed until around 10 Saturday morning. But I had to be up around noon to meet with my maids to get the vacuuming done. While I waited for them I chatted with my friend Chris Ameruoso on the phone for a while. It was good catching up with him. The maids arrived, vacuumed the place, and then took off. It was late in the afternoon, so I laid down on the couch with an ice pack on my face. Then Sara came over to arrange everything for movie night, so I got up and around. We watched “Dr. Strangelove” on Blu Ray, and Peter Sellers’ performances captivated us all (he playeds THREE roles in the film!). When everyone left I napped on the couch for a few hours, and then got up to feed and walk Roxy. But I was EXHAUSTED! So after our walk I came back in and laid back down to nap a while longer. I was considering foregoing my usual Saturday night routine and just going to bed and calling it a day. But after another few hours of sleep I got my second wind and made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and went to bed to watch an episode of “Hee Haw” before I went to sleep. Since my sleep schedule had been so spotty on Saturday, I was really beat!
Sunday the 4th – WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WEEK MAKES! – At 4:30 my eyes snapped open and I hit the ground running. I got ready for evening church and walked over for the service. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! After the service, Roxy and I walked my “adopted grandma” Shirley over to my house so we could drive to dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli. Hard to believe a week ago I was sitting at dinner with Sara and Shirley, hardly saying a word, being miserable in my pain and discomfort. But tonight I felt really great and was very talkative and engaged! Those little vials of steroid in my sinus rinse had worked miracles! I think it’s called Budesodine, and is mostly used in asthma cases. I dropped Shirley at home and then came home to nap on the couch for a bit. Later I got up to do my auditions, but the internet wasn’t letting me upload them to my agents’ e-mails. I think my internet provider was doing some work, and while I still had an internet connection, it wasn’t allowing me to upload or download anything. So I fed and walked Roxy and did some work elsewhere in the house. And then, as if by magic, at 5am it clicked in and I was able to upload all my auditions. I made pizza rolls and watched the first part of a “Barnaby Jones” 2 parter!
And how was YOUR week??!!
PIX FROM THE WEEK
Here are a few shots my pal Officer Mark took around Planet Wallywood last Saturday night during movie night with his new lens. Pretty great shots! Thanks Mark!
This is the line that came up in my script shortly after my assistant Sara called to tell me the power was out at my house. Fate! Stop laughing at me!!
