September 10 – September 16 (2018)

RANDOM PIC OF THE WEEK

This past week Jon Hamm publicly expressed interest in playing Batman. But here’s another super hero he might be suited to play!

Ever since the Yacht Rock Revue show last week, I’ve been humming “Dancing in the Moonlight” by King Harvest. It’s a gem!

Monday the 10th – FOLKS FORTHCOMING! – There was a ton of stuff to do so I had to get started and get moving. First I took Roxy and Spooky to the groomer’s; Roxy to get a bath, and Spooky to get his nails trimmed. He was starting to stick to things. I took Spook back home after his mani-pedi, and then headed to the hardware store to get some items. One of my fluorescent lights in the garage went out so I wanted to get some replacement bulbs. I headed to Carl’s Jr. to get some chicken strips, and stopped off at Enterprise to reserve my SUV for my upcoming Palm Springs trip. I got back to my garage and replaced the bulb, but it didn’t work. I called my contractor Handy Don who said the entire fixture may be bad. He said it’s so old anyway, and there is lots of new technology out there which is more efficient and provides better lighting than the old fashioned fluorescent bulbs. So he’s going to come replace all my garage lighting when he has some free time in his work schedule. So I took both bulbs back to the hardware store and got a refund. I picked up Roxy and headed home to prep the house for my parents’ arrival on Tuesday afternoon. I had cleaning, laundry, etc. to do before they got there. I moved a bunch of eBay stuff out of my Puppet Room closet to make room for their suitcases and clothes. I moved the eBay stuff I’m going to sell soon into the Chaney Room for temporary storage. I had intended to get that stuff listed recently, but with the mega-garage project going on I didn’t have time. But I’ll get the stuff listed in time for Halloween purchasing! I grabbed a short nap on the couch and then got up later to do my nightly auditions. I did some video editing, did some more laundry and cleaning up. I typed out Wally’s Week, and then made some Buffalo Mac and watched the “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” bonus materials. Fascinating stuff! I had always wondered how certain puppets on the show were manipulated! And now I know!

Tuesday the 11th – PARENTS ARE PRESENT! – I got up at noon with the intention of picking the folks up at the airport for their 1pm arrival. But I checked the internet and the flight was going to be 20 MINUTES EARLY! Yikes! I hit the shower and then headed out. I dropped off some stuff at the dry cleaners and then got them at the airport. By the time they had gotten their checked luggage I was just pulling up. Good timing! We immediately went to lunch at the Coral Café in Burbank! I saw my fellow-Voice Actors Travis Willingham and his wife Laura Bailey. They had their new son Ronin in the stroller. VERY cute! After lunch we got to my house to relax and chat. I fed the pets and the folks unpacked and got settled in the Puppet Room. I did some auditions and edited some videos and called it a night.

Wednesday the 12th – FRENCH FUN! – The folks and I started the day with lunch at Paty’s in Toluca Lake. I picked up my mail and then went home to relax and chat with the parents. Later I went over to my auxiliary garage in my Mustang and swapped out my Gran Torino. We enjoyed dinner at Jerry’s Famous Deli with my French pal Cecille! I met her at a Starsky & Hutch event several years ago, and now she’s living in the U.S. to start a business. My dad really enjoyed talking to her about French things. Then I came home and proudly parked the Torino in my freshly cleaned garage. For several months I didn’t have enough room in the garage for the Torino to fit. But now it fits with room to spare! I did my nightly auditions, edited some more videos and hit the hay. My normal nocturnalism was temporarily put on hold while my parents were in town visiting.

Thursday the 13th – TRAVELIN’ TORINO! – About mid-afternoon we went over to CVS pharmacy to get some supplies, and we enjoyed lunch next door at Panera. My folks had only been there a few times, but they really enjoyed the soup and sandwich offerings. Plus, the portions weren’t overwhelmingly big, like most restaurants. As they’ve gotten older, their appetites have diminished somewhat. It was an absolutely gorgeous summer-into-fall day; a perfect day to drive the Gran Torino! We went back to Planet Wallywood to relax and chat some more. I did my auditions in the afternoon so I’d have them out of the way for later. Then we hopped into the Torino and headed to Barone’s for dinner. But on the way home I must’ve blown a fuse or something, because all the dash lights went out in my Torino. Something else to have fixed when everything settles back down. I showed my folks the many photo albums I had been working on over the past several months. I did my auditions, did some bookkeeping, got a few deposits ready for the bank, and headed to bed!

Friday the 14th – FUN, FREAKY FRIDAY! – It was my first chance to sleep in for quite a while. Later in the afternoon we went to CVS to pick up a prescription for anti-biotics. My mom had developed a toothache and it was swelling up a little. Having just had oral surgery a few months ago I had plenty of ice packs for her to use. Her dentist in Sioux Falls phone in some pills and we picked them up. Then I went to the bank to make a few deposits, hit my mailbox for my mail, stopped by and got my dry cleaning, and then went into Burbank to eat dinner at the Daily Grill. The restaurant is right next door to the Burbank Marriott Convention Center where they were holding Son of Monsterpalooza. I wanted to get my Saturday badges on Friday night so I didn’t have to wait in line the following day. While I was doing that I started talking with Elliot Brodsky, the producer of the show. He had me do an announcement on the PA system about an upcoming panel, and he showed me his figures in the museum. I was starting to regret not getting tickets for Friday too, as it looked like everyone was having a lot of fun! I introduced my folks to a few more of my friends at the convention, and then we headed back to reminisce over some more photo albums.

Saturday the 15th – MONSTER VIRGIN! – My old pal Joe Garner was curious about Monsterpalooza so I took him with my folks and I to the convention. He was blown away by the creativity and cleverness of the clientele. I introduced him to my make-up pal Kenny Myers (Kenny did make-up on the first movie I did when I moved here in 1987 called “Return of the Living Dead 2.”) We saw my buddy Justin Mabry, owner of Trick Or Treat Studios. His company is intimately involved in the new “Halloween” movie coming out in October! My pal James was there so we all went next door to have lunch at the Daily Grill. We did one more walk-through after lunch and then headed back to my house. I grabbed a quick nap before movie night and then got the place ready for the movie crew. It was a great night with lots of fun stuff to watch, including a 1979 sci-fi military film called “The Final Countdown” with Kirk Douglas. I put the Blu Ray in and it wouldn’t work. I tried a different player and it still didn’t work. It wouldn’t even work on my computer! Bad disc, I guess. But everyone had come to see that film, so I was getting nervous. Luckily I had the film on a standard definition DVD and we watched that. Whew! It’s a fabulous film, but none of us could figure out why it was titled that…there wasn’t ANY countdown in the movie! Afterward Cecille stayed to chat for a while, and then after everyone left my folks hit the hay and I started working on the computer. I cleaned up, made my traditional Saturday Night Super Salad and watched another episode of “SNL” from the second season DVD set.

Sunday the 16th – TIME FLIES!!! – Our day started with lunch at Jerry’s Famous Deli with Elliot and Edi, and Mark and Connie. Great food, good fun with amazing friends! After lunch Mark and Connie took my folks up the Hollywood Museum to see the Batman ’66 exhibit before it closes down. Meanwhile, I headed back home to start prepping my house for a huge roofing project that was happening this week. While the workers reroof, my air conditioner will be nonfunctional for three days. So I’m bringing up my free standing AC unit to cool at least part of the house during the work. The unit’s vent fits in the frame of a sliding door or window, so I brought up the vent frame to see how it would fit in my patio door frame. I never open my patio door because I have huge collectibles standing in front of it. But when I moved the collectibles and opened the door, I was horrified! Filthy, filthy, filthy! It looked as if somebody put black dirt in the door’s track to start a garden! I got the Windex and got to work. It was a dirty job, but somebody had to do it; and Mike Rowe wasn’t available. But I got it spic n span and went about fitting the exhaust vent in between the door and the door frame. It fit very well. Then I measured the space between the end of the door and the opposite door frame. I’m going to have a length of board cut to size so the patio door won’t be able to be opened any wider than what’s necessary to accommodate the vent frame. It’ll cut down on unwanted intruders. I got a quick nap before church, and Mark and Connie brought the folks back. Apparently many items in the exhibit have already been removed as they’re preparing to put a new exhibit in. I’m sad they didn’t get to see the whole thing, but they got the point of it. We went to evening church at 5:30, and after we took my “adopted grandma” Shirley out to eat at Lancers. Then we stopped for ice cream at Weinerschnitzel (they have a Tastee Freeze in their store!) and had dessert. I took Shirley back home, and then I went home to nap while the folks got ready for bed. I got up later for my nightly auditions and more prepping for the roofing project. I typed out a full itinerary, as it’s going to be a very busy few days and I didn’t want to leave anything out that needed to be considered. I’ll be glad when it’s all over!

And how was YOUR week??!!

PIX FROM THE WEEK

The folks arrive safely!

After a yummy lunch at Jerry’s with Edi and Elliot!

The folks enjoyed the Batman ’66 exhibit!

I was eating M&Ms at Monsterpalooza and I came upon this guy who wanted some. I asked him if he wanted plain or peanut and he replied…well, you know the rest.

This is just…um…creepy.

I don’t care what anyone says, 1979’s TV movie “Salem’s Lot” is still a scary movie!

I LOVED these masks because they mash-up my favorite things…monsters and cereal!

Piper Laurie from “Twin Peaks” and “Carrie” was there!

For the past week a small bird has been perching on a hook on my patio for an overnight stay. I’m not sure what kind of bird he is, but he’s always welcome to stay!