Blizzcon Day 2

After a wonderful morning I was on a high, but that was soon gone as I hit traffic driving to Anaheim and Blizzcon. I had a shift at The Guild's booth from 3pm to 8pm. Traffic was horrible, but I got there around 3:15 but then had to find parking as all the lots were full. I finally found something miles away so I didn't get to The Guild booth until 3:30pm. I got excited again about getting my keys and folks kept congratulating me as I showed them the actual key.

The booth was packed with Guild fans. The signing was fun, meet several folks who said how much they enjoy my Twitter feed. And at 5pm I was asked to run the raffle (The Guild was giving away 4 Zune MP3 players). I had Jeff (Vork) and Robin (Clara) pull the names out of Vork's deep fryer. That was a lot of fun. After that there was the cast's final signing. There was a new Cast photo/poster that a fan did for The Guild and I wanted a copy signed by everyone so I did that. I also got a picture with each cast member because I take 1000's of photos of the cast and crew but there are so very few pictures of me on set and none with the cast members. After the signing everyone helped break down the booth and Blizzcon 2009 was over. Jenni and I finished our podcast and she drove me to my car and I headed home.

Tomorrow we got to our new house and start painting.

Keys

Today Harry and I went to the Seller's Realtor at 9am to picked up our keys to our new house. We headed over to the house to check it out as we hadn't seen it in almost three months. We get to the front door and I finally allowed myself to get excited. It was over, all the stress and crap we had to put up with was over. The house was ours and no one could take it away. I am now a property owner (never thought I would be able to be one.. Thanks Sweetie)

The house looks completely different empty compared to when it had all the seller's furniture in it. We walked from room to room and check out ever corner.. the walls were a little worse then I remember but luckily we planned on painting everything. After going through everything we then went from room to room and planed out what colors we wanted on the wall and where we want the furniture. It was a lot of fun trying to decorate our home, luckily Harry and I have pretty much the same taste when it comes to paint colors.

We also brought Daisy up for the first time so she could check out her new pad.. not sure she liked it but she'll get use to it. We couldn't say long as I was working The Guild booth later that day in Blizzcon. But we planned to come back tomorrow and start painting.. So we grabbed some lunch and headed home.

Knights of the Guild Ep7 pt2

Knights of the Guild Episode 7 Part 2

Show Notes:

Here it is Episode 7 part 2 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 apartment, this time for a Thank you Dinner
• For our BTS segment we discuss our experience working on Season Two Episode Nine: Grouping Up.
• Then we have part 2 of our interview with the one and only Felicia Day

• We have our Fan Feedback.
• We ask for Donations and Thank those who 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

We Got The House!!!

When I got back to my car after spending the day at Blizzcon I plugged in my cell phone as it died around 3pm and of course I had a ton of messages but two were urgent. One from my Mary our Realtor and the other from Harry. They called around 4pm and both left me message.. like "I don't know where you are but you loan has closed, you can pick up you keys, you got the house." Of course it was almost 5:30pm when I got this and I was in Anaheim and the Escrow is in Valencia I knew there was no way we would get the keys today. But I found out that the seller's Realtor had the keys and said we could pick them up tomorrow morning.

I still wouldn't allow myself to get excited. It was a long and hard process and I didn't want to allow myself to be happy until I was holding the keys in my hands.. which will be tomorrow morning at 9am.

Blizzcon Day 1

Today was Blizzcon Day 1. I was asked to help with The Guild's booth and of course I said yes. My shift was 10am to 2:30pm. It was a lot of fun. I'm not a gamer so I was there just for The Guild and to support them. Met lots of fans and sold lots of Guild stuff. After my time at the booth it was time to get ready for The Guild panel. I was lucky enough to go back stage with the cast and wait for them to go on stage. While we waited I took the opportunity to interview some of the cast for a special KOTG microcast. After the panel, which was Fantastic.. I went back to my car to head home. My cell had died around 3pm so I plugged it in and had several urgent messages.

Transformers 2

I finally saw Transformers 2 today with Harry and my Dad. I really enjoyed it, it was what I expected. Action, action and more action. I actually liked it better then the first one as I felt it had more of a story. Of course there were plot holes in the story but they didn't bother me. It was just a fun roller coaster ride.. can't wait for #3

Finally Signing the Papers

Wow.. what a day. I was told, through my "loan specialist" that it was possible that we would be signing the papers to our loan today at 3pm.. well I had not heard from anyone so I assumed it wasn't happening. Well I get a call from my Realtor Mary saying URGENT!!! you need to get to escrow and sign those papers ASAP!!!!

I guess they did schedule a notary for 3pm but failed to call me and let me know. Now it's 3:30pm and the escrow company is in Valencia. So I quickly get dressed, wake up Harry who was taking nap and we rush out of the house heading up north. Of course it's Wednesday and I knew there would be traffic and I was told that I had to sign everything by 5pm. So flew down side streets trying to find the least congested route. We arrived at the Escrow company around 4:15pm. Later Harry told me I was driving like a maniac but I got us there in one piece.

We sit down with the Notary, Steve and we start to go through the paperwork. I have to say I was told that this is the most stressful part of the process but after our 90+ days of hell this was the best part. Steve was so funny and we laughed alot. After a half hour we were done.. all the paperwork was signed. All that was left was giving them a cashiers check for our down payment. Luckily there was a BofA down the streets so we quickly went over and pulled out the biggest check I have every given to anyone and went back to drop it off. They were going to try and rush everything through but the loan still needs to go back to BofA for approval, then be recorded with the county register office and then the loan needs to be funded by BofA and only then would we get the keys.. They hope to get all this done in the next two days and we can get the keys on Friday... Here's hoping.

PS.. I was in such a hurry that I left my camera at home.. but Notary Steve took a picture of us and I'm hoping to get a copy of that.

Don't want to get my hopes up.. But!!!!

This morning when I woke up there was an email from my "loan specialist" informing me that the case number has been approved and that she sent this information to the underwriter who will now complete the loan documents. According to our loan specialist we should close by the afternoon (this just shows you that she really has no idea what the process is). Now the loan documents go to Escrow where I will sign and approve them. Then they go back to the lender where they are recorded and finalized. At the same time I will wire the escrow company our down payment and fees which will take a day and after all that is done the loan will close and we will officially own the house. Not going to happen in six hour as our loan specialist thinks.. if we are lucky it can be done by Friday.. if not early next week. Needless to say I don't want to get to excited as we are on our 90+ day of our 60 day planned escrow. I'll celebrate when the keys are in my hand. But at least it seems to be moving in the right direction.

Tackling the Garage pt. 2

Well after all the craziness of The Guild video. I spent most of the day online promoting the video I did manage to get back into the garage and do some more cleaning up. I'm happy with the amount of work that I did. I have now gone through the majority of the garage stuff. There is still one corner that I have to attack later but I should it done with one more day of work on it.

Our First Interview

It's been a crazy day with all The Guild stuff going on. But later in the night Jenni came over to my place to record our microcast about The Guild's new music video "Do you want to date my Avatar". While Jenni was here we did an interview for a podcast called Joss'd. This was our first interview and it was kind of strange since we are normally the ones who are doing the interviewing. But we had alot of fun. After that we recorded our podcast and had a special crew interview with Greg Aronowitz ( he created the weapons for The Guild music video. )

Seeing the Light

Well today I got an email from our "loan specialist" informing me that the new case number still hasn't been approved. They did say it could take up to 48 hours. She thinks it will be approved tomorrow... here's hoping.

The Guild Music Video

Today The Guild released their AWESOME music video for the general public. "Do You Want to Date my Avatar" I shot all the behind the scenes video for this music video. It was one of the best shot day I have had on The Guild set.

Let's support The Guild by buying the MP3 from Amazon.com http://bit.ly/amazonavatar or the actually video from itunes http://bit.ly/itunesvideo

Being The Guild they also released it for free on You Tube.

Tackling the Garage

Today was my second attempt at tackling the garage. I really want to go through all that stuff and make sure it's 1 packed and ready to move and 2 it's worth packing and moving. I didn't get started until mid-afternoon and around 2 I was getting hungry so I stopped to have some lunch.. well that was a mistake. I wound up hanging out with Harry and watching TV the rest of the day leaving the garage half done. Oh well still haven't heard anything about the house so we still don't know exactly when we will be moving. I'll attempt it again tomorrow.

KOTG Contest #1

My Knights of the Guild podcast is running a contest.. here are the details below.

After the Guild panel at Comic Con the cast went to sign at the Xbox booth where they were giving out these really cool picture of The Guild cast in their avatar outfits. Of course I grabbed a few for our Knights of the Guild podcast to give away as prizes, large donations and even put one on ebay to raise money for a charity.

Well here is the first chance to get your hands on one of these really nice photos and it's not only autographed by all six of the main cast members (Felicia, Sandeep, Jeff, Robin, Amy and Vince) but I got Tara (Dena), Michele (Riley) and Sean Becker (Director) to sign them as well. So you get nine autographs.

This photo is 11x17

Now for contest details:

Jenni and I want you do an audio or video promo for Knights of the Guild podcast. We will choose one winner that we feel best promotes the podcast. The winning promo will be used to promote Knights of the Guild on other podcasts.

Please make the promo between 30 to 90 seconds.

We are giving you no direction and/or guidelines, we want to see what you can come up with.

Please email all entries to Knightsoftheguild@gmail.com

Contest deadline will be October 1st.

Okay Guildies lets see what you can come up with... good luck

Knights of the Guild Ep 7 pt.1

Knights of the Guild Episode 7 Part 1

Show Notes:

Here it is Episode 7 part 1 of Knights of the Guild. You may have noticed the part 1, will explain that in the podcast. We hope you enjoy it.

Today’s show features:

• First up we have our monthly Vorkism.
• Our location today is at Codex’s Apartment (post party)
• We talk about Season Three… finally
• We have our Fan interview with Poknish

• We update you on the Cast and Crew and what they currently are up too.
• We have our very special cast interview with the one and only Felicia Day

• 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
• Geekerdome Network http://geekerdome.com
• Between the Lines Studio Podcast Network http://Betweenthelinesstudio.com
• Kim and Greg’s tour of The Guild’s Stripper Bus at Comic Con http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsbDse-2YIU
• Stephine Rose “Movie” Closed for the Season www.closedfortheseasonmovie.com
• Stephine Rose Close for the Season Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN0SpX0-TxE
• Michele Boyd’s episode of Penny Dreadfuls “Sleeping Beauty” http://www.strike.tv/show/penny-dreadfuls
• PAX http://www.paxsite.com/
• Dragon*Con http://www.dragoncon.org/
• Fury of Solace http://furyofsolace.com/
• Dani’s Comic Con Reports http://guildies.posterous.com/

Podcast Promo’s played during the show this week:

• Waffle on
• Anomaly
• Take Him With You
• Treks in Sci Fi
• The Ready Room Podcast
• Worlds of Wayne

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Just got back from watching G.I. Joe. Over thoughts it was a fun movie. It's what I expected, action packed, cool special effects, a very simple story and lots of explosions. I know nothing about the G.I. Joe universe so I don't know how close this is to the real Joe but I didn't have a problem following the story or characters. I think they distinguished the characters well. It was kind of corny on how they did the flashbacks. Each time the person would stare out into space and the camera would zoom in on their face and then the flashback would happen. Once was fine, but I think they did it six or seven times.. every time the camera would stop on a face I thought to myself .. oh they are doing a flashback. Of course all the cool SFX scenes are previewed in the trailer but there is still plenty to oh and ah at. It was funny at times and serious at times. It was a perfect summer popcorn movie. I'll be buying it when it comes out on DVD.

Star Trek: Confusion

This is hilarious.. and what is really funny is I got all the reference.. even Hook.

Star Trek: Confusion

The Variants

Today I came across another fantastic webseries called "The Variants" It's about a group of co-workers at a comic book store. So far they have only released episode 1 but it's a pretty funny start to the series. I like that this series has some gay characters in it and they aren't over the top. I'm really looking forward to episode two.

Check out episode 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V95gTFLKduQ

Finally!!!

Well I don't want to get my hopes up but I got a call from our Realtor who got a call from the only person who is compliant at BofA and she informed up that our FHA case number issue has been closed/resolved. Now we wait 24 to 48 hours from them to issue a new one and then the loan documents can be drawn up (another 3 to 4 days) and sent to escrow in which they will contact us and give us the amount that we owe for closing in which I will wire the money to their account (takes 1 day) and then we go and sign the final paperwork, it's recorded and pick up the keys a few days later and the house is ours. If all goes as planned (which it never does) we should have the keys by the end of next week. But I won't get excited because every time I do something goes wrong. So I'll wait until those keys are in my hand and then I'll jump up on down with joy.

Updating the Website

I spent the better part of today working on one section of my new and improved website Geekyfanboy.com Most the the site has been transferred from the yahoo geocities account but there still are a few links that I need to build. Today I worked on my Star Trek The Tour section. I built 35 pages in Comic Life, then had to reduce them in size on photoshop and then build new pages in MS Frontpage and finally link everything together and upload them. Took all day with breaks here and there but I finally got that section done. Only a few more sections and my new website will be complete.. at least until I decide to change it again.

Home Loan Update

Since our loan specialist is on vacation we have another lady working on our stuff. And after 75 days of dealing with this stuff I got my very first phone call from them. (I've called and left message many times but never got a return phone call.. until today). I was surprised to hear from this new loan specialist. She called just to tell me that the 5 to 7 day delay that then turned into a 10 day delay is now a 12 day delay. Will this every end!!!!

Harry and I went out and had a bed liner put into the back of his truck. Eventually when the house does close we plan on taking some stuff up there in his truck and he didn't want to scratch it up.

Felicia Day Interview

Today Jenni came over to my place so we could do a skype interview with actress, writer, creator of The Guild Felicia Day. She was our special Cast Member interview for Knights of the Guild podcast #7. We started a bit late but the interview was fantastic. Got to ask a lot of cool questions and since Felicia is a friend it was less pressure and was more like three friends just shooting the breeze. After Felicia's interview Jenni and I recorded pick ups to fill in the blanks after splitting episode 7 into two podcasts. Now just a few more editing tweets and cutting in Felicia's interview and Knights of the Guild #7 part 1 & 2 should be ready for release.

I also prepared the show note for both episodes.

Happy Birthday Pops

Today is my Dad's 62nd Birthday.. Hope you have a great day.

Love you.

Lazy Sunday.. Not!!!

So much for a lazy Sunday. Today I started editing Knights of the Guild Episode 7 parts 1 & 2. Since we didn't record them this way will have to do some creative editing. I'm also waiting to do some pick ups with Jenni and our interview with Felicia.

When I wasn't editing Harry and I went out to check out paint colors at Home Depot. Luckily we both have the same tastes in color. We both love the warm earthy colors. Grabbed a bunch of color samples, now if we can only close on this house we can see which colors go where. We also went to Urban Living to check out some furniture. They have a few things that we liked but nothing like Living Spaces.

Editing KOTG #7

I was editing podcast #7 and came to realize that even before we do the interview with Felicia that the podcast is already 1 hour and 30 minutes long. And with Felicia's interview it will push it over two hours. So I had some ideas, let me know what you think.

First we can leave it long, second we can try and cut a half hour out of it so it runs about the same length of our regular podcast. Or thirdly we move several of the segments to a second podcast (part2) that will be posted on the 1st (two weeks after) the main podcast.

Then I got to thinking I should do that for every podcast. Instead of one really long one you would get one on the 15th of the month and then another shorter one on the 1st of the month that would have two to three of the segments from the regular shows. The segments would always be changing depending on time. One month it could be fan interview and BTS the next month it's Cast and Crew update and Donations. So you'll be getting the same stuff just in two podcasts.

Do you like the idea?? Shorter podcasts and more of them? Leave a comment or email us at knightsoftheguild@gmail.com

Keeping our Mind off The Home Loan

Trying to keep our mind off the house loan chaos we decided that we would go furniture shopping. We have been seeing commercials for this place called "Living Spaces" and that there was one near by in Van Nuys. So we headed over that and WOW that place was awesome... and it was huge. We first looked at recliners and found four or five that we really liked. We then went looking for a regular chair that would go with our current couch. We found a pretty cool one. We then went over to desks but couldn't find any we liked but we did find this awesome and unique dining room table. After that we headed over to the bed section and found four frames that we really like and some mattresses. All I know is when we go to actually buy stuff it's going to be tough deciding on which one to get and will be spending well over $5000 on new stuff. But man was it fun.. now we just need to actually get the house so we can go ahead and buy some stuff.

More Delays

Today I got an email from our loan specialist informing me that she had made a mistake (again) and that the closing of the case number doesn't take 5 - 7 business days it takes 10 days now. So now it is going to be another few days before this case number issue is resolved. Oh and the best part is our loan specialist Cindy is going on a vacation so we were handed off to someone else. Guess that can be good since Cindy was horrible at her job maybe this new person will know what's going on. So now we wait till Monday to see what is happening next. I'm so tired of all this B0fA BS. If I didn't want this house so much I would call them up and let them have it. When this is all over they will be getting a "nice" email from me pointing out all there mistakes with processing this loan. This has been a horrible experience, and has made the entire home buying process miserable.

House Update... Kinda

Well it's been one week since we were suppose to close on our home loan. Still haven't heard anything, well I do get emails saying that the case number has not been closed yet... as hard as it is all we can do is wait. Like I said before the house isn't ours until I'm holding the keys in my hand.

Packing and Podcasts

Today was started packing up the toys from our office. I had purchased a few plastic containers a few days ago and wanted to get started as there are lot of toys to pack.

Later in the day Jenni came over to we could record our Knights of the Guild podcast #7. I try and make the as streamlined as possible and try and get them done in an hour but it never happens. Two hours later we finally finished the recording.. now I just need to edit it before August 15th. And we still need to interview Felicia Day for our Cast Interview. Will be doing that next week, but I hope to have everything already edited so all I have to do is plug in her interview and it will be good to go.

House update

Still no word on our house loan. Spoke with the sellers a few days ago and though they are nice I could tell this is started to annoy them. But that is understandable as it's annoying to both Harry and I. I just hope it comes to an end soon.

Kenobi

Today Harry and I went to visit my Dad, brother, sister-in-law and of course my new nephew Kenobi. We've only been to visit once since he was home so I was looking forward to seeing him again. My brother told me that he was gaining weight and started to get chubby. He's also getting better at holding up his head and is awake alot more. I got to spend about a half hour holding him and once again feeding him. And of course I got spit up on for the first time... everyone got a kick out of that. He's adorable and I can't wait to watch him get bigger and bigger.

We also hung out with my Dad and went to the movies.. wanted to see Transformers II but it was starting to late so instead we went and saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which I had already seen of course but both Harry and Dad have not. I loved it a second time and noticed more with the second viewing and Harry and Dad both seemed to like it as well.

Nothing

Still nothing on the house front.. still waiting to hear if they have closed the case # and issued a new one. This is the last thing we need before they will issue final loan papers. Let's hope it happens sometime this week.

Interviewing Greg

Today I went over to Greg Aronowitz studio called The Barnyard to interview him for a behind the scenes piece for the season three DVD of The Guild.

When I got there he was just coming off of an all night music video shoot (you can check it out here) and we in the middle of doing pick ups for his own webseries called Alien Ninja.

After a half hour we took a break so he could sit down with me and do his interview. The interview was alot of fun and I think I got some cool bites for the piece.

After that I headed to Target to buy some plastic containers to start packing up my toys.

Knights of the Guild Microcast #5

Knights of the Guild Microcast #5

This microcast covers San Diego International Comic Con. The Guild had a panel and many signings this year. Both Jenni and I were involved with working the booth and enjoying the con. Unfortunately Jenni is MIA so I had to do this podcast solo. I hope you enjoy it.

Here are the links to the Guild Panel on you tube that I talked about

Part One… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPjPpI3WfQM

Part Two… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIroJfNJMFU&feature=related

Part Three … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw-FULQEt0g&feature=related

Part Four … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_avmPAYKuQc&feature=related

Part Five … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7fZHTQb40&feature=related

Part Six … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4rRKqceNjQ&feature=related

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

Thanks to all our loyal listeners.

Kenny

Fanboys

Well I was finally able to sit down and watch Fanboys. I have wanted to see this movie for years and when it finally hit the theaters earlier this year my life was just too busy to get to the movies. Then it came out on DVD and I just haven't had the time so I finally made some time and sat down today and watch it. I enjoyed it alot, it was a fun road trip, buddy flick with a Star Wars theme. I don't think you need to be a big Star Wars fan to enjoy it, but you would get more of the jokes if you were a Star Wars fan. There was their fair amount of Star Trek bashing, but that was to be expected and lots of gay themed scenes. But over all it was a fun film. Could it have been better.. for sure but it was entertaining.

Happy Anniversary

One year ago today Harry and I had our very geeky wedding. It was a wonderful day and I can't believe it's been a year since then.

Happy Anniversary!!!!

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.