House Stuff

We now have two weeks left until our escrow is suppose to close on our house. This process has been the worse thing I have ever gone through. Bank of America has the worse home loan department and customer service. I feel like we take one step forward and two steps back each time. I have emails that go unanswered and if I'm lucky and they do answer them it take three days. Loan amounts are wrong, rates are wrong and no one there seems to be any hurry to correct them. I really would like to get as much of this stuff done this week as I can as I'll be going to comic con next week. There are times when I just want to call it quits.. I know we would lose a few thousand dollars in inspections and such but at this point I don't care.

Recording KOTG #6 Podcast

Today Jenni and I were finally able to record out 6th episode of Knight of the Guild. We normally record around the 1st of the month giving me a few weeks to edit.. this time because of The Guild shoot we weren't able to get together until today. The recording went great. We chatted for 2 1/2 hours. Now I just have to edited it together and post by July 15th... no pressure.

Final Shoot Day

Once again I had a sunrise call time. There was a lot to shoot in a short amount of time and this was the final day of principal photography. We had to get everything done. It was hotter then the day before and tempers were stretched thin. You could tell that the past week shoot was taking it's toll on people. Not that they were mean or raising their voices much... but they were getting tired and the heat didn't help at all. And towards the very end when we were chasing the Sun as it slowly disappeared over the horizon things started to get crazy with folks running around trying to get things set up in time. I was talking to Michele Boyd (Riley) on the set and she said that the crew's craziness was nothing compared to other shoots she had been on... So that was good to hear. But in the end we got the shots needed and everyone was happy. Felicia, Sean (Director), Kim (Producer) and Christian (UPM) gave their Thank you speeches while PA's passed out champagne. Ryan (1st AD) raised his glass and said "That's a Wrap on Season Three of The Guild" and everyone cheered and clapped. Then everyone hugged and said their goodbyes.

Of course after that and for the next few hours we had to clean up the location and load everything onto trucks.

Season Three was a whirl wind.. shot in 14 days over a span of three week. I had a great time and capture some really cool BTS. Of course my job is far from over.. now that the shooting is done I will focus on the editing of the BTS Extras for the DVD.

Can't wait for Season Four....

Another Location

Today we are at our second location. This one is about an hour or so drive. Once again I had to be up early around 5:30AM to be on set at 7:30am. This shoot was all outside and it was so hot. Again with this shoot we had a ton to shoot and very little time as we could only shoot as the sun we out. Everyone did a great job at trying to keep cool and not get to frustrated with the pace in which we were moving. By days end we were sunburned and tired but we managed to get all the shots we needed for the day. Many of the folks rented hotel rooms so they didn't have to drive back home but I had to take care of some escrow stuff and had to drive home. But I'd prefer to be home in my own bed since I'm going to be in a hotel for four days in a few weeks for Comic Con. All in all it was a good day.

New Harry Potter Figures

Today I got my new set of Harry Potter Figures from Neca. I'm not collecting much anymore but I can't help but collect these. Neca has some very cool Harry Potter figures and the likeness are pretty good. This series includes another Harry Potter, a very cool

Ginny Weasley, another awesome looking figure of











Draco Malfoy and a really cool












Mad Eye Moody. Only a few more days until Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is released.. I can't wait.

A Race Against the Sun

Today we were at the first of two locations. We lost the sun yesterday and wasn't able to get everything that was needed so we had some catching up to do. My call time was a little later as everything was already set up from yesterday so I actually didn't get up until around 6am. Got to the set around 7AM but drove around an half hour looking for parking. Finally found a spot only about five blocks from the location. Once again my buddy Will was there filming so I was fun hanging with him. The day flew by and believe it or not we managed to get every shot they needed including the ones we missed yesterday. And of course when I say "We" I mean the Guild team. I of course continued to take hours and hours of BTS footage for some rockin' extras for season three.

Well this location is done.. tomorrow we move on to our final location and shoot the final two days of The Guild Season Three.

On Location With The Guild

Today was our first day on location with The Guild. We are shooting two days here and another two days at another location. Of course I can't say where but I can say it's alot of work shooting on location. Between hauling all the equipment, supplies and everything else needed for the shoot you have parking issues and sunlight issues.. we never seem to have enough of either.

Today was no exception. It was a long day. I had to get up at 3:45AM so I could car pool with one of the PA's because parking is horrible and very limited in this area. We got to set around 4:45AM and started unloading the trucks. I think we actually started shooting around 8:30AM and continued until the sun went down and it was to dark. They had planned something like 35 shots today (which BTW is a lot) but we got about 30 or so done. Luckily we are coming again tomorrow and will try and do some catching up.. even though we now have 40 shots do shoot then... oh fun times on The Guild set. Another fun thing about today's shoot is one of my best buddies Will was a featured extra. It was fun to bring him into the Guild family.

Guild Shoot - Final Week

Today is the beginning of the final week of shooting for The Guild season three. This was our last day of shooting at Felicia Day's house. It was a long but fun day and I got some really good behind the scenes footage. We have location shots for the next four shoot days.

I'm actually playing hooky from work all week to shoot BTS for The Guild.. actually I asked for the time off and my work was nice enough to say... wait a minute.. they never said yes.. but then again they never said no.

More Cleaning... well kind of

Yesterday was the beginning of our major "spring cleaning". I spent all day long cleaning out some of the garage, while Harry spent the day packing up and categorizing all of our assets. I did pretty good at getting rid of some stuff.. but some of it was tough to part with and I still think I keep to much and may have to go through the stuff again.

Today we were suppose to do more cleaning and we did but we mostly sat on the couch and relaxed. I did manage to get out of the house and do some much needed laundry. We were about three months behind. That is one thing I'm looking forward to with the new house.. having our very own washer and dryer. The place I go is okay but it seems every time I come back home there are a few bleach marks on some shirts or sheets. This time around I think I packed the washer to much and when some of the shirts were done they had dirt and soap marks on them. I have to do re-do about three loads before everything was clean.

And when putting the basket into the jeep I pulled a shoulder muscle.. man getting old sucks..

Spring Clean!!!

I know it's not spring but this is the first weekend I have had off where I don't have to visit family, work on the Guild or record a podcast. So Harry and I decided that we would start to clean out the house of all the crap that doesn't need to be moved to our new place. It's amazing the stuff that had accumulated over the past two years but also the stuff that we have moved from place to place and still have never used it or have taken it out. So this is going to be a purge. I am somewhat of a pack rat so hopefully I'll be able to find a way to part with some of these items that I have had for year.

Happy 4th of July

I want to wish all my fellow American's a very Happy Fourth of July

Pay Check Confusion

Here was the issued.. my current pay stub had an amount in the YTD section that did not equal up to my week income. It was off about $15,000 for the year. Well I finally figured out problem, I remember back in February that we had to fill out start up paperwork again but nothing ever came of it.. then Harry was looking at old pay stubs and noticed that it went from INC to LLC and when they did they started over again with the YTD total. So that explains the discrepancies. Now I just have to write a letter to my lender explaining this.. glad it was an easy fix.

KOTG Goodies

Today I got a bunch of very cool Knights of the Guild promotional stuff from Vista Prints. They were having a huge sale and giving away a ton of things. So I purchased 25 t-shirts and got for free some magnets, postcards, flyers, business cards, lawn sign, 3ft banner and a few other cool things. It totaled about $400.00 and I got it for $165.00. Not bad and the stuff looks pretty sweet. Will be giving most of it away at San Diego Comic Con to help promote our podcast.

House Buying 101

Still in the middle of escrow, should be closing by the end of the month. Just when I thought I was making progress I get something from my lender questioning my employment the past two years and my current pay stub not matching what I say I earn. Also they need a gift form filled out for the money that we transferred from Harry's Austrian account.

I now have to investigate on why the information on my pay stub is incorrect and I have to write a letter to my explaining my last two years of employment.. the easiest part is getting Harry to fill out the Gift form, which is stupid because BofA handled of entire thing and has all the info but they require us to fill out this form.

One step forward... two steps back...

One Month Old

Today my nephew turns 1 month.. still isn't due for another 17 days.. but he is doing great. He's gaining weight and getting stronger everyday. Was so happy to be able to visit him last weekend.

Happy 1 Month Kenobi

A Glimmer of Hope

Today I actually got a semi response to some of my questions from my lenders. It's not everything that I asked and there are still questions but it's a start and I can start faxing over more paperwork... yay, finally feel like we are moving forward again.

AWWWWWWWWW

OMG!!!!! the past few weeks I have been dealing with our rate lock.. I was getting a notice that our rate lock was going to expire on June 26th which would have sucked because we are still in escrow for another month. When I locked the rate I told them it was a 60 day escrow and assumed they would lock my rate for 60 days... well I was wrong. I sent email after email to the lender and they kept saying they were going to looking into it.. but nothing every came of it.. finally on the day of the expiration I emailed them one last time and get a response that they extended the rate lock at there expense for another 30 days.. so I was happy. Well I checked this morning and it looks like they extended it for only another 15 days so now it expires on July 15th which is two weeks short of our escrow closing... now it's back to emailing them and trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Update on the House Adventure

Still struggling with the lenders (Bank of America). Both of my contacts at BofA don't seem to be in any hurry to answer my questions. It's very frustrating as I just want to get all this paperwork into to them but can't since several numbers are wrong on the paperwork because of price change and other stuff they are requesting I have no idea what they are asking for... so I'm at a stand still as the clock keeps ticking away towards our closing date. All I know if I had to do it all over again I would never pick Bank of America, I've banked with them for over 18 years and never had many issues.. but they lack any kind of customer service in there loan department. Once this is all over I'm going to be sending them a "nice" letter letting them know how I truly feel.. until then I have to be nice since they hold my house in their hands... uggg..

Guild Shoot

Today was one of the best times I have had on the Guild shoots.. and I have had many fun times but this day was the best so far. I can't share any details of what we shoot but man fans are going to go nuts. So until that time I can't say anything but I have some fun stories, pictures and video to share once everything is revealed.

Kenobi

Since today was a short shoot day Harry and I were finally able to go see my new nephew Kenobi Michael. He's been home from the hospital for two weeks and I have been dying to go see him and this was the first opportunity that I have had. When I got there he was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him up. But after few minutes he was awake so I picked him up and held him. He is super small.. but gaining weight up to 6lb and a few ounces.
Lora (sister-in-law) asked if I wanted to feed him as he was starting to cry. I said sure and sat down on the couch and feed my nephew for the first time.. it was alot of fun. It's amazing holding your own flesh and blood. I have held babies before but this one was different, this one was apart of me. I feed him for a bit then burped him. I think I did a pretty good job and told Harry I could do this if we had one of our own, he gave me a look. Of course they then asked if I wanted to change his diaper and that's when I handed him back to his mommy.. wasn't quite ready for that.. :) But it was a fun visit, hung out with my brother and sister in law as my dad was sick and upstairs. After that Harry and I went and pick up some Chinese food from my favorite place in Corona called Hong Kong Restaurant and then went home and had a good night eating Chinese food and watching some TV.

More Guildie Goodiness

Today there was a three hour Guild thing (can't say what.. I hate not being able to share with you guys, as it's way too cool) but I went to shoot some BTS of it. It was a lot of fun and hopefully when it's announced I'll be able to share more.. got lots of photos and video.

BTS with Greg

Today was my last day of my shooting BTS with my new buddy Greg. It's been a lot of fun and I'll miss hanging with him every night. The footage I got is going to be AWESOME and this BTS is going to be very cool. I plan on working with Greg on other projects as well and when I'm able to tell you about this BTS and Greg I'll be sharing some very cool stories. Thanks Greg for making this such a fun week of shooting BTS.

Goodbye to the King of Pop

Today while I was at lunch with some co-workers one of the best entertainers was dying. When I got back from lunch I jumped on my computer and started to check twitter. I was seeing a bunch of twitter saying "Michael Jackson is dead". I then went to CNN to see if this was a rumor. On there website it said he had suffered cardiac arrest. Only TMZ was reporting his death, and TMZ isn't the most reliable news source. It then was a media blitz as different places were saying different things and for the next hour no one really knew what was going on.

The world was mourning the lost of Farrah Fawcett earlier in the day and this new news was unbelievable. But as the time pass and we got more news it was looking bleaker and bleaker until most of the major news studios were reporting his death and finally the LA corner came out and official announced he had died.

It's amazing how much someones death, that you have never met, can effect you. At first it was shock and disbelief, then turned into sadness and loss. Michael Jackson was such a huge part of my life. I have listened to his music from as early as I can remember. He will always be one of my all time favorite performers.

Michael Jackson broke down the racial barriers, generational barriers, and cultural barriers. He touched the lives of so many people. I was watching the news tonight and there were white, black, Asian, Indian, Mexican, old, young, female and male people crying at the loss of the King of Pop. He was loved by the world. I won't deny that he did some bizarre things that were unexplainable, but who are we to judge. I'll always remember the man that brought so much joy to my life.

His life will live on in his music and videos and I am so grateful for all that he has given us.

Thank you Michael for touching my soul.

Special BTS

Though the crew is off for a week or so I continue to shoot BTS. Today once again I played hooky from work and am hanging out with Greg all day. We are working on a very cool DVD extra that fans are going to love. We hung out all day and chatted about geeky things and got some great work done. Man you Guild fans are in for a real treat.. this TOP SECRET project is going to blow your socks off and the BTS is going to rock as well. You just wait...

More Guildie Fun

Today I played hooky from work so I could go out on set as it was alot of location shooting and I wanted to be part of it. The day started off rocky as my alarm didn't go off and I woke up 2 hours late.. shoot started at 7:30 and I got there around 10ish, but I did get footage of a very cool scene that I was looking forward too so it wasn't a total lose. We then went on to the second location were I did alot of walking. And by the the end of day was sore and sunburned.

I did manage to get myself into a scene for Season Three. There is a scene (that I can not mention) but they needed a few extras so I volunteered. I'm thinking I'll get a chance again in July when we start shooting again.

All in all it was a long, but fun day of shooting.. now the crew takes a week and a half off to recoup.. while I continue to shot BTS of this very cool project.

More BTS

Today was another Guild shoot but I had to miss it due to having to work. But after work today I headed over to Greg's house to shoot some more BTS. I can't tell you much about this speical DVD BTS as it will spoil a HUGE surprise.. all I can say is Greg is an awesome guy and very talented at what he does. Will be spending most of the week with him.

I wish I could tell you more about what this guy does and show you some awesome pictures, all I can say is I was in geek heaven.

More BTS

Today we had a 6am call time, we were out in Pasadena shooting at the apartment complex that we used last season for Codex's living room. We had something like 38 scenes do shoot and a full day of work ahead of us. Everything move along, because there were so many scenes to shoot and so many set ups and lighting changes we ran a bit long and finished shooting around 8pm. I actually left before they started packing up. Normally I stay and help packing up equipment and clean up but I had to get to the other location that I was going to shoot BTS at yesterday but couldn't.

So I got to this place around 9pm and shot more BTS for about an hour and a half. (I can't wait to share this with you guys.. IT'S SO COOL!!!! ) I finally got home around 11pm, but my work wasn't done yet. Spent about an hour with the hubby then had to download the past few days worth of pictures and video that I had taken. The camera hard drive was getting full and we have a few more days of shooting this week. So it's about midnight now and I still have a few hours of work left.. then I have to get up and start my work week.

A Guildie Weekend

Today I had to get up at 4am.. yeah I didn't even know there was a 4am but I was up. Took a shower, walked the dog and ate some breakfast. I had to be up at this hour because I was meeting up with Guild crew so we could car pool to the shoot location. This location had park and pay parking and we were trying to save some money. So I had to be at Kim Evey's (Guild Producer) at 5:20am. We had a 6am start time, so we get to the location around 5:45am and run into a few snags getting in. Around 7am everything seems to be worked out and we start setting up the location. Sorry about being vague but I can't really give out any details. The shoot went very well. I got a lot of cool BTS footage. One cool thing about this place is it had a stand up arcade video games and a ping pong table. So during our lunch several crew and cast played a few rounds of ping pong. We finished up around 6pm, got back to Kim's around 7pm and then I had planned to go to another place and see if I could shoot some BTS for a very cool DVD special. But we couldn't do then so I headed home to hang out with my hubby and doggie for a few ours as I had to get to bed so I could do it all again the next day.

Finally!!!!

This morning I got an email from my loan specialist (the one I had called and emailed) she thanked me for some info that I had faxed her. Still didn't answer any of my questions. So I sent her another email asking if she got my first email. And I got an "out of the office" reply. So she is going to be out of the office until Wednesday June 24th. Uuuggggg... she did leave an email addy of her boss and I was so tempted to complain about her customer service.. or lack there of. But since she hold my loan in her hands I figure I had to be civil so I emailed her boss and asked the same questions I had asked her about loan requirements... yep you guessed it... no response.

I did get some good news. My loan officer (the one that was out of town) did email me back and said that not to worry that my rate will remained lock and that she will investigate and get back to me. So at this moment that was what I worried about the most and it seems to be taken care of.

I have to say that I have been a customer of Bank of America for over 19 years and I have heard so many complaints but I have always enjoyed working with them... until now. They have some of the worse customer service, it would take 15 minutes of conversations with someone to clear up my questions and issues.. but getting that 15 minutes is next to impossible.

Gotta keep telling myself that this will be over soon and in the end will have a house..

Why does it have to be so Complicated

Well I finally heard from my loan specialist (this is different the the loan officer who is on vacation until Monday). I had called my loan specialist on Tuesday but never heard back. I got an email from her first thing in the morning listing all the items I need to turn in for the loan. It's a great list and very easy to read but there were a few things that I was not clear on what they needed so I responded and some questions. Also our house price is still the old number as no one has changed it in their system.. so I asked questions about that.

At the same time I emailed the guy that was taking over for loan officers while she was out. I had called him yesterday and he never returned my call (though according to his voice message he makes it a point to call back with in the hour of receiving your call).

Still haven't heard from my loan specialist and still no word on my locked interest rate. Finally around 2pm I email the guy once again and he called me back a second later. We went over a few things but he said he couldn't really help me because he doesn't understand why my loan officer would do what she did. He said it could be a mistake so he would ask his boss who was out at the moment but we get back to me within the hour.

Well the hour passed, then two hours.. finally got an email letting me know that his boss has gone home for the day and he would take to him first thing in the morning.

Still no word from my Loan Specialist.

Upside it was TV night.. watched the last two episodes of Season Four of Doctor Who with our friends..night ended on a good note.

The Saga Continues

Today when I went to check up on our Mortgage Status Report I noticed that I had a warning that my interest rate lock was going to expire on June 26th but our closing of escrow isn't going to happen until July 26th. It seems when I called to give the info my lender they gave me a 30 day interest lock instead of a 60 day lock. I guess it's partially my fault as I didn't know realize this when I read the paperwork but it's more the lenders fault as she knew we had a 60 day escrow as I told her this but she gave us a 30 day rate lock.

So I tried to contact her and found out she is out of the office until Monday June 22nd. She did leave another person's name whom I could contact for emergencies and I felt this was one. So I called this new guy and left him a message. Hours pass and I hear nothing, I began to panic as we have a really good rate right now and if it expires we would have to pay to have it locked again and there is no guarantee they rate would be as low as it was when we first locked it.

On my way to lunch I got a call but because I was driving I did not answer it. While at lunch I listened to my voice messages and it was the guy informing me that yes my interest rate is going to expire next Friday and that he doesn't know why my lender would do a 30 lock with a 60 day escrow. He said there were a few options but it will cost money and or points.

As I was backing out of the parking lot at lunch worried about losing our rate I accidentally backed into another parked car.. and of course the guy was sitting in his car eating lunch. We got out and looked to see if there was any damage but his car was already beat up and he said it looked fine. I said sorry and went on my way.

Got back to the office and called this guy and once again got his voicemail. I lift a message and waited for a call... it never came.

What a Day!!!!

Well this day started off like every other day. I got up, took a shower, checked my emails, walked the dog, ate some breakfast, watched some DVR'd shows then came to work. Work wasn't anything special. Got done around 7pm and headed to Kim Evey (Producer of The Guild) place as we were off to "somewhere" to shot some BTS for The Guild Season Three DVD. Along the way we picked up Felicia Day and then arrived "somewhere". And my ho hum day went from typical everyday to EXTRAORDINAIRE and AWESOME. Of course I can't say anything and it's driving me crazy. But all will be reviled soon as The Guild season three is launched. Once this happens I can go back and recall in detail the experience I had tonight. What a COOL night.

Guild Season 3 Day Three

Today I was up at 6am to get ready to head over for the third day of shooting on Season 3 of The Guild. Only problem is it's a Monday and I have a Monday - Friday job. So I could only stay a few hours, well that was the plan.. four hours later I finally got into work an hour later then expected. The shot was going pretty good and there was some funny stuff that I had to get on BTS. I did turn my camera over to another person to take more video while I was away. The shot wasn't suppose to be done around 6ish but when I got off work at 7pm and headed over to pick up my camera they were still shooting. So I got my camera and continued to get more BTS for another hour and a half. It was a long day of work but at least I got to spend 5 of the 13 hours with my Guildies.

Knights of the Guild Episode 5

New Podcast is posted... Here

Show Notes:

Here it is Episode 5 of Knights of the Guild. We hope you enjoy it.

Today’s show features:

• First up we have our monthly Vorkism.
• Our location today is on the set of Wade Wei’s new movie
• We talk about Pre Production of Season Three
• For our Fan interview we have one of our most supportive fans Bret Teague (Wolfsoki)

• We update you on the Cast and Crew and what they currently are up too.
• For our BTS segment we discuss our experience working on Season Two Episode Seven: Panic Attack.
• We have a very special cast interview, the one and only Sandeep Parikh (Zaboo)

• We have our Fan Feedback.
• We ask for Donations and Thank those you already donated.
• Jenni's special announcement.
• Mention important links
• Then we have our final words and we say goodbye.

Please send your audio or written comments to knightsoftheguild@gmail.com or you can leave your comments in the comment section of this site.

Thank you again for all your support, we do this podcast because we are fans and more importantly for the fans.

Kenny & Jenni

Other Important Links

• Knights of the Guild Feeds/Downloads http://knightsoftheguild.com
• Knights of the Guild Daily Blog http://knightsoftheguildpodcast.blogspot.com/
• Knights of the Guild Fan page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group
• Knights of the Guild Group on Watchtheguild.com http://community.watchtheguild.com/group
• Follow us on twitter @knightsofguild

• Knights of the Guild Cafe Press Online Shop : Where you can buy KOTG T-shrits, magnets, buttons and so much more. http://www.cafepress.com/KOTG

• Robin on Movie Mobs http://www.reelzchannel.com/moviemob
• Legend of Neil http://www.effinfunny.com/legend-of-neil
• Pegwarmers: The Geeks Shall Inherent the Earth http://pegwarmers.tv
• 3 Fat Guys http://www.3fatguys.info/index.html
• Michele Boyd’s Webside http://micheleboyd.com
• Wow.com featuring Michele Boyd http://www.wow.com/2009/06/04/wow-com-meets-michele-boyd-of-the-guild-at-e3
• THQ.com featuring Michele Boyd http://thq.com/us/thqtv/index
• Pilot featuring Michele Boyd http://www.whollycow.tv/HistoryChannel/DyingToKnow/DTK-2.htm
• The Crew TheCrew.tv

Podcast Promo’s played during the show this week:

• Waffle on
• Anomaly
• Take Him With You
• Treks in Sci Fi

Guild Season 3 Day Two

This weekend was a Guild weekend as will the next three weekends to be. Today was a good shot day, again can't talk about what actually happens but it was a fun day. Had a few hic cups with the power going out a few times and the neighbors mowing/air blowing the yard next to the window in which we were filming, but over all it was a fairly smooth shot day and we actaully got done an 15 minutes early.

I did have a little scare... about mid day my camera's battery was dead so I went to put in the new battery and when I turned it back on I got the message that the hard drive had an error. Which means I couldn't shoot anymore and there was a possiblity that I would lose everything on the drive. Luckily I planned for this and backed up the previous days footage on another hard drive so the only thing I would have lost would have been todays stuff (which would have been bad but not horrible). So I went home to see if I could recover the media and a half hour later I got about 99% of the media off and re-formated the hard drive and went back to set and continue to shoot BTS.. all seems to be well.

Home now and trying to finish up my Knights of the Guild podcast as it's suppose to be posted at Midnight which is about 12 minutes from now... so tired...

Guild Season 3 Day One...

Today was the first day of principal shooting for The Guild Season Three. Once again I am working on four to five Behind the Scenes (BTS) pieces for the Season Three DVD. This season production bought a HD camera for me to use as they want all content to be HD. So I spent yesterday checking out the new camera and it's pretty sweet. I can't really say much about what was shot as it would be major spoilers as we shot the very last scene of season 3 first but it was a BLAST!!! I would say about 80% of the same crew is back which makes it like getting back together with family after a long vacation. We shot a lot of stuff and it went very smoothly as we finished so early that we prepped for tomorrows shots.

I'm very excited to be back. This time around I am not shooting 60 plus hours of footage and hope I have stuff to cover the interviews, this season I am planing out the pieces that I need and know exactly what I need to shoot. Only down side to this season is they are shooting during the week and I'll have to miss most of those days. But I do have a back up shooter who will get the shots I need.. hopefully. Gotta get some sleep.. have to get up at 5:30am again tomorrow.

Kenobi is Coming Home

My brother just called me as he was heading out the door. He is on his way to the hospital to pick up Kenobi. They are releasing him today. He's doing great, he was born 5 lbs 2 oz and is now weighting in at 5 lbs 12 oz. He has gained 10 oz in 11 days. Doctor say he's strong enough to head home.. now my brother and sister-in-law are in panic mode. It's one thing to have a child it's another to be solely responsible for him. They'll do great, I know my Mom as well as Lora's Mom will be staying with them for a few days. I don't know I'll be able to get down there to see him as my weekends are book through June. Think I might try and get off work early and head over on a weekday.. can't wait to hold little Kenobi.

STRESSED OUT!!!!!!

Today did not start off as a good Kenny day. The house stuff has been building up and I am going crazy. I've been trying to contact my lender for the past day and a half with no luck. The paperwork is so overwhelming and I have so many questions and no one to ask them too. I talk with my Realtor but since she has never sold a house like this (manufactured and in the boonies) she doesn't have any answers for me. And with the whole changing the asking price, all our paperwork is wrong. Do I send/fax it in as is or are they going to give me new paperwork to fill out.

I send out SOS email to my lender, escrow and realtor this morning and about noonish started to get some answers. Escrow says mail the papers back and cross out the house price. They will send an amendment with the new price.

I then spoke with my lender where she informed me that because we are buying a house for over the appraisal price Harry and I have to pay upfront the difference in price which is $18,000 dollars. It took about a half hour for me to actually figure out why this is and soon enough just figured it's the way a lender works. So we will be pulling that money from our down payment and instead of putting down 22% will be putting down 19.5%. In the end we lowered our "borrowed" money which in turns lowers our monthly payments. I also found out that even though we applied a month ago for the loan it was just approved two days ago (on Tuesday) and that I haven't been assigned a loan officer yet so I have nobody to ask questions to for all this paperwork. They said I should be getting someone by Monday. Oh and all that paperwork I filled out for the lender is no good as they will be sending me new stuff to fill out.

Finally I spoke with my realtor and gave her the low down. The good thing is my loan was approved.. all I have to do is turn in all the paperwork and everything will be good. Now if I could just figure out all this paperwork.. luckily we have a 60 day escrow.

AHHHHH buying a house hard!!!!!

Updated on the House

Quick recap... we found a house in Agua Dulce, they were asking $369,900. We offered them $355,000 and they accepted. We did all the inspections and everything went pretty good. We got the appraisal back yesterday and found out that the house appraised for $325,000, which is well below the price we purchased it for, $30,000 below.

So today our realtor called and said that the seller's realtor spoke with the sellers and they crushed some numbers and came back with $343,000. That is still $18,000 below appraisal but they did drop the asking price by $12,000. I was hoping they would at least have done half but $12,000 isn't bad and I didn't really want to haggle over $3000 so we accepted their new offer. So the house was $369,900 and we are purchasing it for $343,000. That's a savings of $26,900.

Now I just have to get through all this paperwork.

Kenobi Update

Just got off the phone with my brother. He updated me on my nephew Kenobi. He's doing really well. He has gotten over his jaundice and is up to 5lbs 8oz. 6oz higher then his birth weight. He pee'd on his mom for the first time.. Mike got a kick out of that. Told him he will be pee'd on plenty of times. He said Doctors say if he continue to improve like he is he may go home around Father's day (June 21st). So he's doing great.. getting stronger and will soon be able to leave the hospital... can't wait!!!!

PS... HOW CUTE IS HE!!!!!!!!

Appraisal is in...

Just got a call from our loan officer informing me that the appraisal is in and it's lower then our purchase price. We purchased the house for $355,000 and the appraisal came in at $325,000 that's a $30,000 difference. So now we go back to the seller and inform them of this and see what they say. They can drop their price to this amount (ideal), they could counter with a number, or reject it and stand at their current price. Our realtor is calling their realtor tonight so we might not hear back until tomorrow sometime.. I'll keep you posted.

Updated on the House

Today has been a busy day so far for house info.

First of all we found out that because it's a manufacture home if we want to build on to it (as we plan on doing down the road) not only do we have to get a city permit but we have to get a state permit as well which just means it will take more time and money if we want to build on.

Second we got a preliminary report about our well. It takes ten days for the official report but everything looks good so far. Even though the homeowner said when they first drilled the well it was getting 17 gallons a minute, after our test it is only getting 1.19 gallons a minute. This isn't great but should be enough water for two people. We also have a 2500 to 3000 gallon water tank (finding out the exact number) so will have a nice reserve of water just in case.

Third we got our termite inspection report and I am happy to say we passed. There was on issue of some dry rot on the front deck and the seller said he would take care of it. So all is well for the termite inspection.

Fourth we sent in our "repair request" form asking for only a few things to be repaired before we move in. Currently the spa is broken but they said they would fix that. There are large amount of debris (old patio furniture and such) that needs to be removed as well as the garage doors working properly and the back door not closing properly. So all in all not a lot for them to fix.. we could have asked for me. So hopefully they'll accept our request and that part will be over.

Fifth we are still waiting for the appraisal of the house. They were missing some loan info but we got that to them today so hopefully the will have something very soon... let's just hope the house is worth what we offered for it.

So we have a few more thing to clear up but we are moving forward.. now if I could only figure out all these legal paper. I consider myself an educated man but OMG I have papers from our Escrow company, Title company and Loan company that I have to read and sign and I can't make heads or tails of it all. They don't show this part of those TV Real Estate shows. :)

The Guild: It's Back!!!

Today after Jenni and I did our podcast we headed over to Felicia's house for pizza and a reading for Season Three of The Guild. A reading is when all the actors get together with the producers and director and read the entire script or scripts for the season. This was the first time that I got to hear what the plot is going to be for Season Three and I have to say all you Guildies are in for a real threat. OMG I was laughing out loud which wasn't good since I was also video taping it for a BTS for Season Three DVD. Of course I can't give any details about anything but man Felicia really out did herself with season three. We start shooting next weekend and will be premiering the first episode at San Diego Comic Con.

It's Guildie time again!!!!

Recording KOTG #5 Podcast

Today Jenni and I recorded Knight of the Guild podcast #5. Once again we had alot of fun and I'm looking forward to editing it together. It will be up by June 15th.

Hanging with Sandeep

Today Jenni and went to Effin Funny Productions to interview Sandeep Parikh, who plays Zaboo on The Guild for our upcoming Knights of the Guild Podcast. Sandeep was in the middle of editing his how web/tv series Legend of Neil. We chatted for a bit then did a nice 15 minute interview. After the interview Sandeep gave Jenni and I a sneak peek at Season Two of Legend of Neil. He first showed us the first episode then the second episode. Both were in various stages of post. We chatted for a bit more I took some BTS video of him editing for the BTS extras for Legend of Neil DVD which I will be doing also. He then shared with us a 'very' special episode and all I can say is WOW. It was such a great episode. Season two of Legend of Neil is going to ROCK!!!!

Baby Mittleider News

My Brother just informed me that my new nephew has Jaundice. If you don't know what that is, here is the definition from wikipedia.

Neonatal jaundice is usually harmless: this condition is often seen in infants around the second day after birth, lasting until day 8 in normal births, or to around day 14 in premature births. Serum bilirubin normally drops to a low level without any intervention required: the jaundice is presumably a consequence of metabolic and physiological adjustments after birth. In extreme cases, a brain-damaging condition known as kernicterus can occur; there are concerns that this condition has been rising in recent years due to inadequate detection and treatment of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. Neonatal jaundice is a risk factor for hearing loss.

So it sounds like it's a pretty normal thing.. he's still doing pretty good... Go Kenobi!!!!

House Inspections

Today Harry and I along with our Realtor Mary went up to "our" house to get a home, well and septic tank inspection. Of course most people who buy a house get just an home inspection but because we have a well and septic tank we had to get those inspected as well... over $1500 inspection fees.

Anyways we get there and it's raining a little bit. The Seller's Realtor is there Shane. She lets us in and Harry and I start to look around the house. The last time we were there we looked around but didn't spend alot of time inside. After I put the offer in on the house I thought to myself.. man I just put an offer on a house that I really didn't get a great look at. I mean I saw it but couldn't tell you what kind of facets they had in the bathroom and little things like that. So while we waited for the inspectors Harry and I went around from room to room and became more familiar with your new place.

It was even better then we both remembered. I knew 100% that we made the right decision on purchasing this place.

First up came the well inspector he had to preform several test that would take a few hours. Next was the septic tank inspectors and lastly came the home inspector as he had gotten lost getting to our place. (guess we should get use to folks getting lost).

Our first issue was the septic tank inspectors couldn't find the opening to the tank as it is buried three feet down and the owners were not there and weren't able to describe where it was to the inspectors. So the Seller said she would pay for them to search for the opening. It cost $225 for them to electronically find the opening, which they did and began digging. The next issue came when the home inspector wanted to inspect the garage. We couldn't get the door openers to work for us. It's a three car garage but the owners split and made it a two car garage with an additional work space. The work space had a side door so we were able to get in there and open the door manually. But in order to get into the large garage we had to move a board in back from the wall that's between the two spaces and locate a very small hole that allowed you to squeeze from one room to the other. So I volunteered to do that and was about to manually open the two car garage.

After that things went smoothly. The home inspector said everything looked good. There were a few things that he showed up but nothing major. The septic tank was in great shape and the guys said it will last 50+ years. The well inspector said he was having some issues and need to run a 24 hour test on the well so we still don't know about the well.. but over all everything is in good shape.

I also found out that the appraisal was done the day before so now we wait to hear back what the house is worth.. hope it's worth the amount we are paying.

I'm glad all the inspections seemed to go pretty good but I was more excited see the house and actually be a few steps closer on being the owner.

Status of Nephew

Today we got some good news my new Nephew Kenobi was taken off the ventilator and is breathing on his own.. yay!!! Go Kenobi.

New Addition to our Family

Well at 5:30AM I heard Homer Simpson say.. "Mail... the mail is here" that's my cell phone letting me know I have a message. So I got up and stumbled to my phone and called my voicemail. On the message was my brother in a very sober voice. "Call me as soon as you get this". I then realized I had another message from my Mom so I played it., "TASDFIONADGAGN" she was in hysterics and I didn't understand a word of it. Of course I'm thinking something bad has happened. So I call my brother back and first thing he says to me is "Bro you're going to be an uncle in an hour." First of all I'm half a sleep so I say WHAT!!! I had just hung out the Mike and Lora the previous day. I guess at 4:30am my sister-in-law's water broke and she went into labor. This wouldn't be a bad thing except she isn't due for another month and a half. So my brother said they are doing a c section in an hour I'll call you back when it's over.
So I try and go back to bed and lay there for about an hour and half not really sleeping when my phone rings and I jump up in panic.. this time it's my Dad informing me that Lora is in the hospital and is giving birth. I let him know that I knew this as Mike called my at 5:30am. This time I knew it was useless to go back to sleep so I got up and started to get ready for work. I wasn't sure if I was going to go in a few hours and then go visit my new nephew or wait for Harry to wake up and then go over.

Around 7:30am my brother called me again and said that Kenobi Michael Mittleider has been born. He is 5 lbs, 2 oz and 18 inches. He is needing some assistants but is in otherwise good shape. I asked how Lora was doing and he said she was fine. So I decided that I would just go into work late and go visit my brother, sister-in-law and new nephew once Harry had gotten up. Harry woke around 9:30am and I said.. we are going to Corona, Lora had the baby. Harry was half a sleep and said WHAT!!!

We left the house around 11am and planned on picking up my Dad and taking him along to see his very first Grandson. Once we had Dad we grabbed some lunch and then some flowers for Lora and Kenobi. We got to the hospital around 1:30pm and visited with Lora a little bit. Kenobi was in NICU and because of the swine flu they were not allowing anyone other then Mike and Lora into NICU. After visiting with Lora a hour or so Mike asked if we (Dad, Mom, Harry, Windy (Lora's BF) and me) could see Kenobi. So they opened one of the NICU windows and pulled Kenobi's incubator around and lifted him up to give all of us a quick glance of this beautiful little baby. After that we said our goodbyes to Lora, Mom and Mike. We took Dad home and then headed back to Reseda. By the time we got home it was 4:30pm and it didn't make sense for me to drive 45 minutes to work and work and hour then drive 45 minutes home. So I called in and everything was fine and took the rest of the day off.

Happy Birthday - Kenobi Michael Mittleider

Pixar's Up and Visiting Dad

It's been a while since we visited my Dad with all the house hunting and all so today we headed east to Corona do go out to lunch with my Dad and see a movie.

For lunch we did our favorite Chinese restaurant Hong Kong. After that we headed to the movies to see either Star Trek or UP. When we got there Star Trek started too late so we opted for UP.

UP is Pixar's new movie. I have loved every single Pixar movie that has been mad and would consider many of them in my top ten of all movies. So I had high hopes for UP and it didn't disappoint. First we got a short called "Partly Cloudy" which was very cute and enjoyable. Then the movie started. I was crying five minutes into it and thought to myself.. "oh man this isn't good"

Here's a brief synopsis of the movie UP...

The 78 year old balloon salesman Carl Frederick finally fulfills his lifelong dream of a great adventure when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. But he discovers all too late that he has a stow away on the trip; an overly optimistic 8 year old Wilderness Explorer named Russell. You're taken on a hilarious journey into the lost world, with the least likely duo on Earth.

This was another Pixar hit. I can't say it was my favorite Pixar movie but that's not really saying much as all the movies are excellent. It was fun, witty, charming, moving and adventurous all rolled into one. The characters were endearing, especially Doug the dog who had a fondness for squirrels. If you are a fan of Pixar go see UP you won't be disappointed.