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.

A Very Yummy Find..

While we waited for Harry's appointment with Lenscrafters at the Northridge Mall we went in search of some lunch. We found a new place that neither of us had ever heard of Wood Ranch BBQ and Grill.

It sounded good as we both love a good steak. It was a nice atmosphere and they started off with some very yummy rolls. When then ordered BBQ Chicken Breasts and grilled baked beans for me and Steak and mash potatoes for Harry... OMG it was some of the best BBQ I have ever had. The chicken and beans were wonderful. Harry really seemed to be liking is steak and mash potatoes. Of course the meal was a bit expensive and we couldn't do it everyday but man what a find it was worth every penny... we can't wait to go back.

Eye Sight

Today Harry informed me that he has been having vision issue the past few months. I was not too happy that he waited so long to tell me. So we went to lencrafters to have his eye sight checked. There was a slight difference in one eye of .25 improvement. So he decided to get new lenses, but they were having a $100 off sale so he picked out some frames as well and got a whole new pair of glasses. I think I need to be next as my glasses sometimes give me a headache.. if it's not one thing its something else.

Locked and Loaded

After talking it over with Harry we both really love the house so we went for the FHA loan with BofA. We had to decide if we were going to use points or not. With an FHA loan you already have 1.25 points but we could go higher and get a lower interest rate. Again Harry and I talked and decided that we would go with 3.375 points which would add an additional $9,271.97 to our closing costs of $4774.00 for a total of $14045.97 in closing costs but it drops our annual interest rate to 4.875%. We did the math and it will take us 4 years and 1 month to break even but then after that every payment will be saving $187 in interest every month. Another thing about FHA loans is that home owner taxes and insurance are built into your monthly payment. With conventional loans you can opt not to include them and pay them bi-annually. So with our house payment, mortgage insurance, home owner insurance and taxes our monthly housing payment will be $2,054.20 a month, but will include everything for the house. And in 4 years 1 month we lose $113 a month dropping our payments down to $1941.20 for the remaining 25 years.

So we started the process of our loan, I'm sure I'll be approved. Next up are well, septic tank and house inspections and then appraisal. And if all goes well the house will be our at the end of July. I'll keep you posted.

On the Road Again

Well after yesterdays little panic attack, today seems to be going better. Been on the phone and computer dealing with finanacing this manufactured home. Got a hold of our BofA loan rep and she informed me that BofA can do a loan for a manufactured home but it's not a conventional one. Instead it's something called FHA Loan. In short it's the same kind of loan as a conventional one except you have to pay mortgage insurance regardless of the amount you put down. The good news is you only pay for five years and then you can drop it. So if we go this route will be paying roughly $10,000 more dollars then we would with a conventional loan which we will not get if we want this house.

The other option that Marie came up with was to do several loans, she found someone who will loan our a large chunk of the money but not all. So we would have to find a second person to loan the rest of the money and of course a second home loan always has a higher percentage rate.

Need to talk with Harry but I think we are going with the FHA loan... I'll keep you posted.

A Bump in the Road

Today I contacted the loan officer within our Realtor's company to see what kind of deal she could give us, maybe something better then BofA. Well a few hours later after talking to her she called me along with our Realtor Mary and said we have a snag. I thought.. OH NO.. Marie (the loan officer) pulled the title of our potential house and noticed that it's listed as a Mobil Home. And in H.U.D. (Housing Urban Development) it is listed as a Manufactured home on a permanent foundation. Which means the house was built elsewhere and brought to that location.

Well come to find out that in today's scary mortgage times banks and loan companies are not giving loans for Manufactured homes. So we are now scrambling to find someone who will finance us and this house. We have an inspection set for Wednesday and we don't want to pay $1000 to inspect a home that we will not be able to finance. I have a call into our my BofA rep to find out if BofA will finance us with this manufactured home. And Maire is searching high and low for someone.. keep you fingers crossed.. we may lose this home. :(

So it begins...

So far today I have received several emails from my Mary, our Realtor that I had to print out, sign and fax back to her. I sent out our 3% check to the escrow company. Mary has set up an appointment with our house inspector, well inspector and septic tank inspector for next Wednesday June 3rd. Going to cost us about $1000 for all the inspections but it's well worth the money. Have to contact BofA, who I initial got my pre-approval loan through and see what the current rate is, then I have to contact another loan company and see if I can get a better deal. It's alot of work but I know in the end will have a beautiful house waiting for us....

....the adventure continues.

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

At 3:01 today Harry and I became Home Owners. I got a call from Mary our Realtor and the first thing she said was Congratulations. My mouth dropped open and I said.. you're kidding me. The home owners accepted your offer. There were not counter offers other then instead of the 45 day escrow that we requested they asked for a 60 day escrow which is even better for us since we still have four months under our current lease. So Harry and I are now home owners.. of course we still have a lot to do, inspections and appraisals but if all goes well in about two months we will official own the house. Both Harry and I were stunned with the news. After the phone call we went back to watching TV with stupid grins on our faces, every once in a while I'd poke him and say, "We're home owners" and they we laugh.

Let's hope for a smooth escrow.. I'll keep you posted.

BTW you can see more pictures of the house here.

No Word.. well kind of

Got a text from our Realtor today letting us know that the home owners and their realtor were getting together tomorrow to go over our offer.. so we wait.

Making an Offer

At 5pm today Harry and I went to our Realtor Mary's office. We had decided to make an offer on the first house we saw in Agua Dulce. They were asking $369,900 so we put in an offer for $355,000. They have three days to accept, counter offer or decline... now we just wait.

Even though this is our second offer on a house our first one was really a back up offer and we knew it wouldn't lead to anything.. this one may actually lead to use buying a house. It's very stressful trying to figure out if this is the right house for you. I mean it feels like the right house, we like the area, we like the house's outside, we like the land, we like the inside of the house. Only thing that we really don't like it the distance to our friends, family and work. But we figure friends and family can come to visit on weekends and get away from the city. I'm sure I'll get use to commuting to work. I do have my Books on CD so I'll just get to enjoy those more. Of course all this worrying can be for nothing as we haven't gotten the house yet..... just breath.

House Hunting

Today Harry and I went House Hunting again. Up at 9:30am and went over to the Mary's office. We were checking out 3 houses up in Agua Dulce and one house in Winnetka. First we went up north and checked out the first house in Agua Dulce. It was a 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom house, located on a hill and had some beautiful views. This house is located on 2.2 acres of land. The bigger part of the land is a downhill slope and of not too much use but there was still a fair amount of land that we could use to expand the house if needed. This house was great inside and out and it definitely going to be put on our "maybe" list.

We then checked out the second house. This house was on 10 Acre land, but the house itself was pretty much a disaster. This house needed much more work then a fixer upper...it needed a complete tear down. The only reason to consider that property would be for the land. But for that, the price was way too high and neither Harry nor I intend want to become farmers anytime soon. So we removed that house entirely from our list.

We then went to house number 3. This house was okay and had 3 bedrooms. Neither Harry nor I felt that this would be the right house, although it had a really nice open floor plan, that we both liked. One thing we didn't like about this house is we didn't know where the property line was. There was small western town built right below the house and we weren't sure if it was on the property or part of the house down the road. So we moved on to the final house of the day.

The house in Winnetka had 3 bedrooms and was absolutely beautiful. It was located on a 8000 square foot lot, in a nice and fairly quite neighborhood. Of course it wasn't as secluded as the first house we saw. Overall a really nice house but I knew Harry really liked the open space more secluded house and to be honest so did I. So we never really consider this one.

So that was our house shopping day. We really liked our first house. It was a bit of a drive but was it worth it to have a nice piece of land and be in a very quiet and secluded neighborhood. As we drove back to Mary's office Harry and discussed it. I knew he wanted it and he said it was up to me as I will be doing more the driving. I came to the conclusion that it was right for me as well. It's everything we would want in a house. But before we made the offer we went home for a few hours and planned to meet back up at our Realtor's office at 5pm.. We would then make our decision.

Star Trek Figures

I swore I wouldn't be buying any of the new Star Trek figures, but after seeing the movie and told Harry I think I need to buy these figures. And today on my lunch I decided to stop into Toys R Us and take a look and see what they had. Well there was a huge Star Trek display. For the new action figure they come in 3 3/4" , 6" and 12". I liked the 12" ones because they had the most details... but as of now the 12" figures had characters for Spock, McCoy, Kirk and Old Spock. I wanted the entire crew. So it was either 6" or 3 3/4". I went with the 6" because they were the next best with details. I told myself I would only buy them if they had all 9 figures... well they had all 9 so I bought them all. It was kind of funny as the sale lady asked if I needed a gift receipt and I said no that they are for me. She then handed me a bag and said you want to bag them I don't want to feel the pressure of bagging these for a collector.

So now I own all 9 of the 6" Star Trek figures. Luckily the 6" figures didn't have a transporter or bridge set like the 3 3/4" ones.. now I must resist buying those. Ugg the life of a collector.

Happy Anniversary Daisy

Today four years ago we got our little miss Daisy. She's come a long way from this scared unapproachable skinny thing. She can drive me crazy sometime but I couldn't imagine my life without her unconditional love.

Getting My Hopes Up

Today our Realtor IM'd me and said "They accepted your offer on the Calvin house" This is the house that both Harry and I loved but someone put an offer in right before us. My heart started to pound. I wrote back "WHAT!! Really the Calvin home" I couldn't believe what I was reading. She then wrote "yes, as a backup" and my bubble burst. For a moment I thought the first offer fell through and they accepted our offer on the house. But I guess even though they have an offer in they still have to accept back up offers. So our offer was accepted and we are back where we began. Just waiting to see if the first persons sale goes through. Will continue to look..

V Trailers

I know I'm being a bit V obsessed but I was and still am a huge "V" fan of the original miniseries and series so I'm excited to see what ABC does with this re-boot.

Here are some trailers shown to the media.

More V clips

Gives me chills.. I love Morena

V Clips

ABC just released two V clips/scenes from there upcoming pilot...

They look so gooooooood!!!!!!!!!

V is Back!!!!

I'm a huge V fan from the 80's, use to run my own V Fan Club. So when I heard that ABC commissioned a pilot I was very happy and then today we heard that they actually ordered 13 episodes for a mid season replace show during there 2009/2010 TV season.

ABC released 30 cast and scene photo.. you can see them here. http://www.visitorsite.net/

Goodies Monday

Today when I got home from work there were quite a few packages waiting for me. First the wonderfully talented Robin Thorsen (Clara from The Guild) sent me some autographed photos for my Knights of the Guild Podcast.

Then I got a really cool business card holder for my new KOTG and Professional Business Cards.

And then I got our Knights of the Guild promotional items, Bookmarks, Magnets and Postcards.

Lot's of goodies...

Oh and we watched the finale of Survivor, and I'm so happy J.T. won. It was a shut out vote 7 to none. Folks couldn't resist his southern charm.

Photo Shoot

After house hunting I met up with Jenni, my co-host on Knights of the Guild, at one of her friends places who happens to be a photographer. We were going to get some pictures taken of us for promotional use for our Knights of the Guild Podcast. Also we have had listeners interested in getting autographed photos of Jenni and I.. crazy as that sounds so will take one of these photos and get head shots made.

It was such a weird experience, kind of awkward, not knowing where to stand and pose and I pretty much gave the same big smile each time. I have never had any aspirations of becoming an actor. I love the entertainment business and work behind the scenes. But getting pictures taking because fans want autographed photos never crossed my mind when I started KOTG. Not that I don't appreciate the recognition, it's just not something I was looking for.