But it was this tough little character part that I was playing a very funny little guy that I invented over a weekend because I realized I was not contributing to the humor of this thing. And I had to do something.
I do 280 episodes of TV a year write 15 recipes for the magazine and publish an annual book. With all of that we try to get one weekend a month with Isaboo at our home in the Adirondacks to relax and recharge.
I'm kind of a dork. I don't have much game. I'm not particularly comfortable in bars or clubs. I much prefer being home playing Scrabble having dinner with a couple friends going to see a movie or losing a whole weekend to Season 14 of Law and Order or The Simpsons.
I much prefer working with kids whose life could be completely upended by a reading of a book over a weekend. You give them a book to read - they go home and come back a changed person. And that is so much more interesting and exciting.
I went to my son's graduation this weekend and I heard a great quote I've never heard before from Albert Einstein. It was that the greatest danger to the world is not the bad people but it's the good people who don't speak out.
For most Americans Friday afternoons are filled with positive anticipation of the weekend. In Washington it's where government officials dump stories they want to bury. Good news gets dropped on Monday so bureaucrats can talk about it all week.
It's a funny thing - when I'm crazed with work spending time with my children relaxes me. Yet at the end of a long weekend with them the very thing I need to relax is a little work and time away from them!
I feed my kids organic food and milk but I've also been known to buy the odd Lunchable. My kids are not allowed to watch TV during the week but on weekends even the 2-year-old veges out to 'The Simpsons.'
I would say stay the hell away from the party scene. Anything you put in front of your goal and especially something like that whether it's too much gambling too much food too much cold beers on the weekend - anything that you put in front of the prize is going to end up getting in the way and hurting you in the end.
Seeing the family is a very important part of my weekend.
I saw why people died and how they died. I saw gunshot wounds and liver failure. It was a good learning experience so I came regularly on weekends and holidays.
I'm terrible with my workout regime and following it strictly. I'm terrible with a healthy diet and following it strictly. I'm terrible on the weekends about getting up at reasonable hours and all of those things. But when it comes to my work and the discipline it takes to get to work on time - I hate unprofessionalism.
The last thing I want my child to see is Dad running around in the middle of the pack. That would really upset me. And that would upset him. I would be embarrassed to take him to school with kids saying 'Hey how'd your dad do this weekend?' 'Well he finished fifth or sixth'.
We some cast members and I even went on a weekend trip together and spent the weekend at an inn because we enjoy each other's company so much and it was so cool.
The cool thing is that now that people have made this evolution where cooking is cool people are doing it on weekends they're doing their own challenges. It's back to cooking. And it's real cooking.
If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end it would probably be Labor Day Weekend.
Not for nothing is their motto TGIF - 'Thank God It's Friday.' They live for the weekends when they can go do what they really want to do.