Packing, Packing, and More Packing

Today Harry and I focused on packing up more stuff. Even though we haven't closed on our house we do want to be all packed up and ready to go when we do. So today we drove around looking for plastic totes for my toy collection. I normally use those 50 gallon tubs but we went to three Targets and one Home Depot and no had those large totes. Guess I'll need to buy smaller ones.. just more of them.

So we got home with no totes so we decided to pack up what we could from the kitchen. We also tried to purge the crap that we either don't use or is too old and crappy looking. So we spent a few hours packing up stuff.

We still have quit a bit of stuff to pack but we still have until the end of September to be out of our current house... so that should be plenty of time.

Vet - Part Two

After our visit to the vet yesterday we found out that Daisy needed one of her teeth pulled so we had to drop her off and leave her there. Last time we did this it was horrible as she gives you that look like you are abandoning her and I was not looking forward to doing it again. Luckily this time Harry was here and actually did the leaving.

As soon as we get near the building she started to whimper. When we walk in she was whimpering and when they came to take her away she was not moving, she was holding her ground and wasn't going to budge. Harry had to pick her up and walk her to the back. It's tough leaving her because we know she was abused by her former owners and you don't want to cause any more trauma for your dog but we also knew that in order for her to feel better she had to get that tooth removed.

Well four hours later we go to pick her up and she can't wait to get out of there. She had shaved her right leg to start and IV so now she has a bald spot but she seems much happier now.

This visit cost $400+ along with yesterdays visit $350+ so in two days we spent $750+ on Daisy.. but what are you going to do.. she's part of the family, luckily we don't spend money like this on a regular bases.

So now she should be good until her regular check up in October.

Vet

Today we took Daisy to the Vet, she looked as if she was losing weight and very lethargic, but the real reason we were taking her is that she broke one of her tooth's in half and we wanted to see what needed to be done.

We get there and of course she is terrified of the Vets. But we manage to drag her in the front door. We weight her and find out that she actually has gained about three pounds... so much for losing weight. We are seen by the doctor and he says her weight is being re-distributed around her body. He said the reason she is always tired is because partly the heat and secondly the bad tooth is painful. He said the nerve is exposed and has to be really painful. They asked that we bring her back tomorrow and drop her off so they can extract the bad tooth. So he gave her a shot for the pain and drew some blood to make sure everything was functioning properly.

Left the Vet with a $350+ bill... Ugh!!!

Too Good To Be True

And it continues... I got an email from our home specialist informing me that they could not complete the loan because of an FHA case number issue. It seems that the house had an appraisal done back in June of 2008 and there was a case number issued thru FHA. Well that is the case number they were using for our loan (don't ask me why) but it's the wrong number and now we can not get final loan approval until this is taken care of. And of course it will take 5 to 7 business days to cancel that case number and issue a new one for our loan.

I then emailed my loan specialist and asked if this means that our loan was approved. Here is what she wrote. "Correct. This is what the underwriter said: The loan is fully approved, subject to case # issue being resolved So the good news is our loan is fully approved but we just have to wait a week for this case # issue to be resolved.

Of course I'm not going to celebrate just yet.. I won't celebrate until I sign the final papers and have the keys in my hand.. I don't want to get excited but it tough not being a little excited that this long horrible process is almost over. (Famous last words).

And it Continues

Today there are several new developments regarding the Loan Documents. This morning we were waiting to hear from the Loan Specialist about the Gift Letter for the Down Payment on the loan. Normally that letter should be good enough, but we did send them the "wire" transfer document and was hoping this would suffice.. Well no surprise here they did not accept it and wanted a bank statement from Harry's bank. That was it.. we had hit a wall. There was no way of getting Harry's bank statement and I was hoping this wasn't going to be the thing that would make them decline the loan. After a few hours of major stress I asked Harry if he had an older bank statement and sure enough he had one that was over five years old. But it did have his name and account number on it and I was hoping this would be proof enough. So I made a PDF of it and sent it to our loan specialist.

Hours pass and I'm stressed out when I get an email informing me that the underwriter accepted the bank statement and that we have finally fulfilled all our requirements for the loan with one exception... they were having a problem verifying my employment. I immediately called my boss Darla and asked if she had been contacted, she said now. I contacted the loan specialist and she said they had been trying for two days to get a hold of her and left messages. I emailed my loan specialist and gave her Darla's cell phone and then got an email back informing me that they can't call cell phones. So I called my boss again and she said she hadn't gotten any message and gives me an alternate number. I tell her to stay at her desk and that I will let the loan specialist know and she'll call her now. So I did so and she called but said she left a message. I call Darla and she says she's calling the woman now. I finally get an email from my loan specialist informing that she had verified my employment and that everything is done and we should be hearing about our final approval either tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. Now we wait and see what happens. I don't want to get my hopes up.. I'm I can't help but get excited that we are almost done.

Greg Aronowitz - Master SFX

My friend Greg Aronowitz ( a master at SFX making) who I videotaped for a week while he made the weapons for The Guild music video.

He is doing a new project and he wants to share the process with his fans. So he asked for my help. I suggested that he create a blog where he can post pictures and video of the processes. So today I set up his Blog.. and posted his first day on creating Zombies masks.. you can check it out here.

Home Loan - MIA

As you guys can tell from the title of the Blog Post. The Loan Documents are still Missing In Action!! No surprise here. I would have been shocked me if BofA had managed to get the loan documents together today as promised. Meanwhile it has been 70+ days and they still haven't gotten their act together, which doesn’t really surprise me.

Our Realtor got involved today, she first called our so called Loan Specialist and of course she didn’t get a hold of her, so she left a message and was expected she didn’t call back. She then called the woman she had talked to on Friday, who was very helpful but didn't know much about our loan. , she managed to get the phone number of the supervisor of our loan specialist. Of course she didn't not answer but Mary our Realtor left a message and said she wasn't mean but clear that we were upset and the slowness of their process. Maybe a half hour later Cindy, our so called Loan Specialist, started answering our emails that we have be sending to her for the past several weeks.

Suddenly all the documents we had all sent in were now approved. The only thing that came back as pending was the Private Road Maintenance Agreement. Mary than emailed them the CA Law for a second time, that in essence states, that certain easements exists. These easements are a irrevocable part of the title and supersede and Private Agreements. That’s what Harry's has been saying from the beginning, as a private agreement is not the way things are being done in rural/agricultural areas and on the other hand such private agreements are not even worth the cost of the paper they are printed on. The Loan Specialist then forwarded that to the Underwriter and we got the info back that this was good enough. So it looked like everyone was done and we were on our way to home ownership... well not quite.

Later we got another email from our Loan Specialist telling us that the Underwriter wanted proof from where the funds of the down payment are coming. We had done a gift letter stating that the money came from Harry's bank account and that it was a gift and I was not expected to pay it back. Normally this is good enough but for some reason BofA wanted Harry's bank statement showing the amount being transferred. We of course can't get Harry's bank statement since he hasn't been back to Austria for over five years. We did find out that the Underwriter wanted to see Harry's name with the amount of the gift. So I printed out the "wire" transfer info which had Harry's name and gift amount. I was hoping this would suffice. This is the last thing we need to deal with before closing on the house which is suppose to happen in two days. Now we wait and see if they will accept this. If it's not one thing it's another.. just wish this would all be over.

Comic Con Day Four - Final Day

Today was the final day of Comic Con. Again I had a list of panels to do but since Will was here I really wanted to hang with him as we were only did about 1/3 of the floor yesterday. So we got up and got ready. I had to wake up Ethan as we had to check out. So we all left the hotel a little after 9am. I checked out and we packed everything into our cars and got a taxi to drive us to the convention center. We got to the con about 9:45am and started in the hall where we left off. What was fun about doing the hall with Will is he enjoys visiting every table and is so friendly and chats with everyone. So I got to see things I would normally just walk by and not give a second glance at.
At lunch time we picked up some food from the convention center cafe. After lunch we did a little more floor and then Will wanted to do another VO panel. He went upstairs and I headed to The Guild booth to visit. Once his panel was over we continued to walk the floor and finally finished the entire floor around 4pm.


Will was able to grab a photo with Felicia as they were finishing there final autograph session. Other Guildies started to show up as the hall was closing at 5pm and the Con would be over. Everyone wanted to meet up one more time to say our final goodbyes. While we were waiting another Knights of the Guild fan found me. Nightscream is her screen name. We chatted for a bit before we said our goodbyes.

We all said our final goodbyes and Will, Ethan and I went back to our cars, made some peanut butter sandwiches for the ride home and started the trip back up north to home. I dropped off Ethan around 9pm and made it home by 10pm. Comic con was awesome but man it was good to be home.

Comic Con Day Three

Today was the first day that I was scheduled to actually work at The Guild booth. It was also the only day that had a panel that I absolutely wanted to see "V" . Also my good buddy Will was driving in to hang with me the last two days... so I was excited to see him.

So Ethan and I got up and did our normally morning thing, but instead of walking to the convention center we got a taxi. Got to the con around 9:30am. Headed to the The Guild booth. Once I got there Kim we prepping for a signing at the Browncoats booth. So I helped with that. She also informed me that they didn't need me today to work the booth. So instead I helped carry stuff over to the Browncoats table but more important was Felicia Day's bodyguard.. okay not really my since the Browncoats table is all the way on the other side of the hall I was in charge of preventing fans from stopping her as whenever Felicia was out on the floor people would constantly stop her. So with Kim on one side and me on the other we navigated the crowds and got Felicia to the Browncoats table in time and only got stopped a few times.

After the signing I took the stuff back to the Guild booth. I should have gotten in line for V now as it was about three hours before the panel but my buddy Will was not here yet and I had his pass and couldn't get into a line because I couldn't get out to give him his pass when he arrived. I also didn't want to wait three hours in line for a panel as I had heard that the line was already super long at this time and there was no guarantee that I would get in anyways. So instead I hooked up with some Guildies, Dani, Eva, Lydia, and Nas and headed out to Cafe Diem for lunch. (Cafe Diem is a fictitious cafe on Eureka that they created in a building down the street from the con.)
A few more Guildies joined us for lunch, Luis and Fernie. During lunch an old friend of mine just happened to run into me. CJ it was great seeing you, wish would spent more time together. Towards the end of lunch my buddy Will called and said he had arrived. So I directed him to the Cafe and we hooked up.

After lunch I spent the rest of the day with Will roaming around the convention center as this was Will's first Comic Con. We did the floor and he even did a VO panel. We had a great time and Will who I knew was a little geeky turned out to be an even bigger geek then I thought and I love him even more for it.After the floor closed at 7pm Will and I headed upstairs to attend the Legend of Neil panel. Of course there was a line but because I had worked on the show I was able to get Will and I in with the cast and crew so we got some decent seats. We watched the first three episodes of season two and then the panel including Sandeep and Felicia. It was a lot of fun. We then let with a bunch of Guildies and headed down to fifth street to find a place to eat. Every place was so busy and the wait were crazy so we continued to walk further down the road until we got to TGI Friday and was told the wait would be 20 minutes.. well about an hour later we finally sat down for dinner.

After dinner Will and I went back to his car and drove to the hotel, luckily we found a parking space on the street right behind my jeep. So we parked and went back to the hotel. By this time it was almost 1am and we were tired. We hung out a bit and chatted and waited for Ethan to get back as he was moving to the room next door in with Brian as Will was bunking with me. I think we finally went to bed around 2am and had to be up at 8am to do the final do of Con.

Comic Con Day Two

This was the BIG GUILD DAY... it was the day of the Guild panel and huge announcements were being made. Today I got up and felt pretty good. I got a good five hours sleep and didn't seem to have a hangover. Ethan and I got up and rushed out as we wanted to get to the convention center as The Guild panel was at 10:30am but we knew there would be a line and I have to say we were not disappointed. When I got there I saw Ethan pretty far back in the line but I told him I would see if I could find Dani and the other guildies and sure enough they were about 20 or so folks back from the front so Ethan and I kind of slipped into line with them. I was told I would have a saved seat because I was going to video tape it. So the line went on and on and they finally opened the doors. The Guildies found pretty good seats as I went looking for my assigned seat. I was in the second row right in the middle. I met up with Michele Boyd and her parents, they are very sweet people. I noticed a seat next to Michele's Mom and asked if I could take as I would be front row center, the perfect spot to video the panel from. A few moments later the Whedon clan walked in.. that's right Jed and Maurissa who worked on the music video and next to them the master himself.. Joss Whedon. So I was sitting four seats away from him, I tried to not get all giddy but it was tough. Once everyone was seated the panel started Kim Evey (producer) came out and introduce a very special video that was exclusive to Comic Con. Of course I knew it was The music video but once it started the crowd went crazy. The laughed, clapped, cheered and applauded in all the right places. Once it was over Kim introduced the cast and they all came out in their Avatar outfits with their weapons.

Once the cast was out and seated Kim went on to introduce the world premiere of the first episode of Season Three. Again the crowd ate it up, laughed, cheered and applauded in all the right spaces and then at the very end when the second big surprise was revealed, you could hear the intact of breath from the 500 + attendees. A close up on the face of Wil Wheaton and then a pull out the introduce the rival Guild Axis of Anarchy... then To Be Continued... the crowd went crazy as Kim brought out Wil Wheaton who joined the panel.

After Wil come out Kim Evey brought up another guy who was with Dark Horse Comic and he announced that The Guild was getting it's own comic book. That is was mainly deal with the lives of The Guild's Avatars in game. Of course the crowd went crazy with excitement.

After that they finished the panel with a Q & A where we found out that Jeff Lewis and his wife who were recently married plan on getting married in game. Felicia is trying to level up her priest so she can marry them. The panel finished up and we started to head out. Come to find out that the room we were in only held 500 people and when Kim and Felicia asked for a bigger room they were told that they were just a webseries and didn't need the space. Well we had over 1100 people line up. We could have filled a room double the size and still have to turn people away. Let's hope Comic Con officials took notice.

Today I swore that I would stay away from the Guild Booth as I really wanted to walk the floor. But after the panel I decided to head over to the booth and glad I did as it was pretty busy and it was being maned by just one person. So I helped out a bit until it slowed down. I then grabbed some lunch from the cafe in the hall. It's convenient but costs lots of money. After lunch I finally was able to walk around the floor and take pictures of folks in costume and see all the cool stuff coming out next year. I also got to meet a Treks in Sci fi online friend that I have talked to for years her name is Desi and even though we didn't get to spend a ton of time together she was very sweet and a pleasure to talk to. I still didn't do any panels and when the hall closed at 7pm Ethan and I went back to Nicky Rottens for some dinner. Ethan being young wanted to go out and party. But I had been out past midnight the past few nights and even though I had been invited to an exclusive Roddenberry/Star Trek party and Jinx party I decided instead to head back to the hotel for some much needed rest. A few hours later Ethan showed up as the Jinx party was hot and crowded. We hung out and chatted for a bit before heading to bed.

This was a huge day for The Guild and I was happy to be part of it.

Comic Con Day One

The day didn't start off to well.. our hotel room was super hot and had no air conditioner (That's what I get for going cheap) so I got very little sleep but I was excited for the con. I had already picked up my pass last night so I didn't have to deal with the crowds/lines to get the pass which made me very happy. Ethan and I headed out at 9am and arrived at the convention center around 9:30am. When we entered we went our own ways as Ethan wanted to check out a panel. I headed over to The Guild booth to say hi. I was not scheduled to work. I had a long list of panels that I wanted to see but they were not a priority. When I got to the table one of the guys who was working it wanted to go see our friends (Jared) panel. I too wanted to see it but the crowds were so bad and I was a bit tired so I told him I would stay and watch the table instead and he could go to the panel. Well after the panel they never came back, I assume he did lunch and stuff, by the time he returned it was 2:15 and his shift was over at 2:30 so I said I would stay and wait for the replacement. So I spent from 9:30am to 2:30pm at The Guild booth. It was alot of fun as I got to meet a bunch of Guild fans and a few Knights of the Guild fans. When I was relived I went and had some lunch and decided to walk the dealer room floor. Thursday was so jammed pack it felt like a Saturday. After a few hours of taking pictures and check out the floor I headed back to The Guild booth.. it became a center for the Guild fandom where folks would come together and meet up. It was so crowded there that I wound up staying at the guild booth the rest of the day until 6pm.

Once the hall was closed Ethan and I headed back to the hotel room to get ready for the exclusive Xbox/Guild party. It started at 9:30pm and would go until midnight. We got there a little before 9:30am and because we were within walking distance of the Hard Rock Hotel (where the party was) I decided to drink. Those of you who know me know I'm not a big drinker but this was going to be one exception. So I had a drink and since I was a light weight I got tipsy real quick and to top it off I didn't eat dinner, so the alcohol went right to my head. Of course I had two more drink and was feeling great. I was drunk but not enough to not remember what I did. I was the liaison of "The Guildies" Dani, Jeff, Nas, Luis, Eva and a few others between them and the stars of the Guild. They would ask me to introduce them to Robin or Amy or Felicia. So I spent the night introducing the gang to the Guild cast and others... it was a fun night.. everyone was in a great mood and it was also Sandeeps birthday and man he was plastered, even I could tell that. All in all it was a fun start to Con. After the party Ethan and I stumbled our way back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

So It Begins... Comic Con Day 0

So the day started out pretty good, I finished packing up stuff as I knew I wanted to leave around noon because I had to go pick my a Ethan (Guild intern) from a friends house in San Diego as he was going to be my roommate. So I load up my jeep and get a quick lesson on how to use Harry's GPS. I begin my joureny south but first fill up on gas.

I hit the road and for the most part things go smoothly, there was traffic here and there but nothing like it was last year where it took me 11 hours to get down there. This time it was a little over three hours. I pick up Ethan and then we head furthur into San Diego and to "Little Italy" where our hotel is.

We check in around 4pm and decide to shower and rest for a bit as we didn't have to meet everyone until 5:30pm. The hotel was a healty 30 minute walk. We get to the convention center around 5:45pm and it's packed. Since this was preview night the hall was open from 6pm to 9pm.

Ethan went to find Kim who had his pass while I stood in the "Professional" line to pick up my passes. This line was huge but surprisely took only about a half hour to get thru. Once in I went to the Guild's booth to say hi as I was not suppose to work the booth until the weekend, but as soon as I get there the cast had just started to sign autographes and there was a huge mass of people and I got sucked into helping with crowd control. Three hours later as the hall was closing I was released from my duties. So even though I wasn't schedule to work it was a good thing I was there as they needed all hands on deck for that signing.

During this time I got to meet some very cool Guildie fans, these are folks that I have talked to, either voice or text chat, online. One fan named Ryan reconized me from my avatar, as he was standing in line he asked me about my podcast Knights of the Guild. I was kind of surprised and flattered that someone reconized me. We stuck up a conversation and I gave him some KOTG swag. I didn't have t-shirt on me so I told him to come back and I would give him one of those too. I also got to be long time online buddies Dani, Nas and Eva. We have talked many times in Watchtheguild.com chat forum and it was great to finally meet them face to face.

After the signing we all (Jenni, Stuart, Ethan, Dani, Nas, Eva and a few others) decided to go grab some dinner. As the Con was just let out things were a mad house as we looked for a resturant that we weren't going to have to wait two hours to eat. After several tries and the group almost giving up we found a place called Nicky Rottens' Bar and Burger Joint. They were able to seat us all in like ten minutes. Sean Becker and Ferny Chien joined us along with some other Guildies.. we all chatted and had a great time. Somewhere around midnight the dinner party was over and everyone started to head back to thier hotels as we were all getting up early for the first day of con.

All in all it was a crazy but fun first day.. and this is only the beginning.

Home Loan MIA

Well as I had mentioned in previous blogs I was hoping to have everything wrapped up with this home loan before heading down to San Diego... well with Bank of America's track record my hopes were not high so I wasn't really surprised that I haven't heard a thing about the loan all week. Email and phone calls go un-answered. I'm beyond frustrated and upset, I'm at a lose of what do to next.. all I can hope for is everything is approved by Friday as we are set to close the following Wednesday. Wish us luck...

Comic Con Prep

Spent the day making sure I was ready for comic con, printed out my agenda, got all the KOTG swag together and ready to go. Mapped out everything, got phone numbers of Guildies that I'm suppose to met up with. Confirmed my hotel reservation, got money out of the bank, gassed up the jeep and I think I'm ready to drive down to San Diego for a crazy five days of geek heaven.

Headshots

At the request of some of our fans of Knights of the Guild Jenni and I thought it would be fun to do some "official" pictures for our show. Today I am picking up one of those pictures that we turned into a headshot so we could sign it and Comic Con. I think they turned out pretty good.

Final Home Inspection

Today we had our final home inspection. This is our last look at the house to make sure they fixed anything that we requested them to fix. It was a full house, seller's were there, seller's agent, her husband, our Realtor, two HUD engineers and a internet guy.

We first had the engineers look at the foundation and get a seal of approval that it was certified, the two guys walked around a few minutes and then said it's good. (cost us $400 for them to do that) but it was needed by the lender so it had to be done.

After that we spoke with the internet guy as this company uses our land for their relay station so send wifi to the valley below. He wanted to make sure we were cool with the set up as it does sit on our land and use our electricity. In return you get free wifi, which may sound good but he said that it's not as fast as Cable or DSL but faster then Dial up. Which I didn't like the sound of that, but that is something will have to deal with.

After all that we did our final walk through and inspected every room and made sure they fixed the few things we had asked them to fix. Everything looked fine so I signed the final home inspection report... now we just wait for the lender to approve the loan.. I hope it's done by Tuesday as I'm heading out to Comic Con on Wednesday.. I'll keep you posted.

Blu-Ray DVD Player

A few days ago our DVD/DVR player died. Harry and I have talked about getting a Blu-Ray but never really saw the need. I mean we got our Big Screen HDTV for Christmas just last year and I knew we would be getting a Blu-Ray one day. Well that day has come. Harry and I headed out to Best Buy to select one. They had about six different ones. One lower end, and one higher end and four in the middle. We opted for a middle one and talking with friends previously we knew a little bit about the machines. So with a little bit more info from the sales person we got a Samsung BD-P1600 DVD Blu-Ray Player (Besides playing Blu-Ray DVD's you can instantly watch movies streamed from Netflix, music from Pandora and enjoy special interactive features with BD-Live 2.0. It's also Wi-Fi compatible, meaning you can buy an USB adaptor to plug into your computer and the machine and you can watch movies off your computer) .

We were going to get a Blu-Ray DVD to play in it but we couldn't figure out a good one to buy. We didn't want to buy DVD's that we already have in SD but couldn't find an HD one.. so we opted to watch a classic TNG episode instead. The colors were brighter and the picture a bit sharper but I'm really looking forward to buy our first HD movie.

False Alarm

This morning I get up sore from my previous night dancing and get the mail. We get one letter from Bank of America. As I read it my heart drop as the letter informed me that the have declined my application for a Home Loan. The sited the reason for doing so as Property is a Manufactured Home. I immediately called my Realtor Mary on the verge of tears and told her my loan was no approved. We she trys to figure out what is going on I noticed the loan number on the page doesn't look right so I check it and they are not the same. What had happen is when I first applied for a loan with BofA I was approved. But when we decided to go for this house in Agua Dulce we couldn't get a traditional loan because it was a manufactured home so we had to get an FHA loan. So they opened another loan account for me, but it looks like they never closed the last one so that is the one that was declined.

So my panic attack was all for nothing.. Thank BofA...

Birthday Party / Wrap Party

Tonight after work I went out to Hollywood to celebrate the Birthday of Felicia Day (Creator, writer, actor) of The Guild. It was also our Third Season Wrap Party of The Guild. Since Felicia was home schooled she never experienced her High School Prom so the them of the party was 1980's Prom. I got there a little early but everything was set up and ready to do. Being the BTS person on The Guild of course I had my camera and video camera and was taking a ton of video and pictures. This was a surprise party and boy was Felicia surprised. She didn't have a clue what was about to happen... Kim and Jenni pulled it off with ease. The night was full of drinking, dancing, great company and awesome 80's Music. My Buddy Greg did all the decorations which were incredible. He also did this awesome "Nagel" style panting of Felicia.

You can see a bunch of picture on my Facebook page It was a really fun night, the only down side was Harry wasn't able to join me due to his problem knee that has been acting up lately. But other than that I had a really great time.

No More Crabs

Today is my last day on Season Five of Deadliest Catch. Spent all day cleaning up edit bays and doing final prep work to complete the season. It was a fun season of crabs. Got to work with some great people, and work again with old friends. I made some really good friends and meet a very special guy I will know the rest of my life. Next up for me.. a little vacation and then...

Celebrating with Will

Tonight I went out to dinner with Will and a few of his friends. We went to Bossa Nova in Hollywood. It was a fun evening hanging out with Will and his friends. He has some great friends and I was honored that he included me in this small group. Hope you have a great night Will.

Will's Birthday

Today is the Birthday of one of my favorite people on Earth. I met Will while working on Deadliest Catch earlier this year and we hit it off right away. I foiled his desk, he swapped out my office furniture. He replaced my office chair with a Van passenger seat he found on the street, I plastic wrapped he car. Practical jokes aside Will is one of the most kindhearted, honest, funny, real person I have every met. I wish him all the success in his future and I look forward to our friendship growing over the years. Will is a friend for life. Happy Birthday Buddy

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Got up at 7am so I could get ready and be in line by 8am for a 9:30am screening. Of course I get to the theater at 8am and there is a line. There were only a about ten or so folks there so I got in behind them. As the hour pasted more and more people showed up. Finally at 9am they let us into the theater. I found a nice spot lower center, center. I sat there with anticipation, so excited to see this new Harry Potter film. From the first frame to the last frame my eyes never left the screen and when it was over I sat there speechless.

The movie runs about 2 1/2 hours and there wasn't a single time I looked at my watch or thought it was dragging. I laughed, I cried, I jumped out of my skin. Of course I have read all the books multiple times so I know the plot points but that still doesn't take anything away from the story. It fun to see how the film maker interprets the written words. Of course when you are reading them you picture things in your mind. Sometimes the film makers get it dead on and sometimes they don't. This movie was dark and tense but then at times was funny and sweet. The SFX blended so well with the story which blended with the acting which blended with the action to make this one of the best Potter films to date. There was so much emotions in the acting that I don't think I felt before in the other movies. There were several times when I had my hand over my mouth in shock at what I was seeing. This felt like a complete story not that the other Potter films did not. It's tough taking an 800 page book and making a 2 hour movie from it.. I understand things need to be cut but this movie cut all the right things but still let the story flow. Of course there were scenes that I missed from the book that I wish were in the movie but the stuff they did leave in the movie made up for it.

I feel like I'm rambling on and on. Needless to say I LOVED this movie and I can't wait to see it again and again. I'm sure as the movie sinks in more I'll post more thoughts again it.

Knights of the Guild #6

Knights of the Guild Episode 6

Show Notes:

Here it is Episode 6 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 at Codex’s Therapist
• We talk about Season Three (well hint at it)
• We have our Fan interview with Megan aka Spidra Webster

• 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 Eight: Emergency.
• We have two very special “Extras” interview. Melody Mooney and Lawrence Denes

• We have our Fan Feedback.
• We ask for Donations and Thank those you already donated.
• 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
• The Guild http://watchtheguild.com
• Comic Con Friday’s Schedule
• Matthew Brackney’s Website
• Hygena (Melody Mooney) MySpace Page
• Melody Mooney You Tube Page

Podcast Promo’s played during the show this week:

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

Finishing the Podcast

Got home from work and turned on my computer.. everything stated up like it should. I turned on Avid and brought up the project. It looks like I lost about a half hours worth of work. Which isn't that bad. So I finished editing the podcast around 11:00pm but still have to convert it and upload it and that took another few hours... I was determined to get it up at midnight but instead posted it around 1am. But it's done and I think it turned out pretty good.

I so can't wait until tomorrow morning when I get to see Harry Potter.

Pottermainia

Tonight at midnight Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince premieres. I have been waiting over two years for a new Harry Potter movie and was tempted to attend a midnight screening, but luckily for me all midnight showings in my area were sold out.. of course there were 1am, 3am and so on showings but being the old man I am there is no way I could do that and then work the next day. Instead I'm going to go tomorrow morning at 9:30am before going into work..

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

Editing my Podcast Pt.2

Got up early this morning and figured I would work on the KOTG podcast some more. Just when I was about to leave for work my Avid crashed and I had not saved the project. I wasn't sure how much of it I lost. I tried to re-start my computer but I have been having some issues with it the past week and wasn't able to get to started again. Since I was already running late for work I left not knowing how much of my work I have lost.. guess I'll find out when I get home tonight.

Editing my Podcast

Trying to keep my mind off my house woes I have started editing my Knights of the Guild podcast. Everything seems to be moving along nicely.. hopefully tomorrow I'll put the finishing touches and then be good to post at midnight tomorrow.

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.