Wow.

This has been an experience for the top 10 list that exists in my brain. You know the one...where you rank your best moments in life? Nerdtacular 2012, you have made the list.

If you've never heard of Nerdtacular, here's the 30 second version: a gathering of fans of the Frogpants Studios Network, headed by Scott Johnson. Scott is a cartoonist and podcaster of shows like The Instance, The Morning Stream, Film Sack, The Final Score, App Slappy, & The Instance: TOR Edition. The event lasts for one day, but the fans gather for days before and after the event to socialize, meet new people and just be nerdy. The event is just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, which is where Scott lives.

Arcayne and I arrived on Friday afternoon, got our car and made our way to our hotel. When we got there, I realized that I'd made a mistake on the Hampton Inn I selected and chose a location 15 mins away from the event. The other Hampton is right around the corner. Ugh.

I decided to call the hotel manager and ask if there was anything we could do to get us to the right hotel. Long story short, the Hampton managers are top-notch. They worked with me every step to get me rebooked and never hesitated to accommodate me so we'd be happy. I'm so grateful to them and I'll recommend Hampton properties forever.

I realized quickly that the Hampton Inn Sandy was THE nerd hotel for the event. Most of the show producers were staying there, as well as many, many other attendees. We took over the whole lobby day and night, socializing, playing games, and hanging out with the people who make the shows we love to hear. I was so happy we were staying there, too.

The first night we were there, there was a gathering at a park pavillion for people to play games, play music, and meet new people. We went to that event, quickly meeting a number of new fans of the shows and we played Cards Against Humanity. What an awesome game and a great icebreaker. (shoutouts to Logan, Rebecca, Julia, Yasmin, Seyani and anyone I missed!)

Then it was Nerdtacular day. We got there at 8am and we got back to our hotel at 11:30pm. I met so many people, including one of my guildmates and healer on our raid team! The kindness, admiration, respect, camaraderie, and the feeling of family was there at every moment. I have such a hard time describing it because there was just so much happening. My biggest highlights were watching the podcasters panel and their Q&A, the live Film Sack recording, and the concert with Paul and Storm. I learned so much, laughed harder than I have in a long time, and came away with a permanent smile on my face.

On Sunday, the event had one more piece - a free screening of Pixar's Brave. Being in a theater full of nerds is so fun and we had a blast. Then we had the rest of the day to relax and go out on our own.

One of the most enjoyable parts of our trip was the chance to meet Pat Krane from the Convert to Raid podcast. Cayne and I are big fans of CtR, and we try to listen to their livestream on Sunday mornings while they record. We spent a lot of time with Pat, and wound up sightseeing in downtown SLC together. Pat is a great guy, very funny, and extremely knowledgeable, and it was wonderful to get to know him better. (Thanks for the fun, Pat! I look forward to talking with you soon.)

To close out our experience, we met a number of people in the hotel lobby and all went to dinner together and then gathered in the hotel to play a massive game of Cards Against Humanity. We even got a guest appearance from Brian Ibbott from Coverville and The Morning Stream, and playing with him was hysterical fun. (huge shoutouts to Joel, Jocelyn, Andrew, Tod, Steve, Pat, Gary, and anyone I forgot. That night was epic!)

These were my people. It was everything I hoped for and even more than I'd imagined. I'm coming home with new friends, unforgettable memories, and an unwavering commitment to come back next year come hell or high water. I need my nerd fix, even if it's only once a year.

What a crazy, amazing week.

Last week and leading into the beginning of this week were kind of a blur. We recorded TTT last Wednesday and last Sunday, and then guest-hosted with Rich and Dustin on Horde for Life on Monday. It felt like I was in front of a microphone a lot, and when Rem and I weren't recording, we were preparing for the next session. It was wonderful, and exhausting, and a true test of balancing life to do the thing I love.

And then, Tuesday came. We released Episode 6 with Koltrane as our first-ever guest.

I don't think I was truly prepared for the explosion that hit when that episode went live. The outpouring of positive comments, people quoting lines that we said on Twitter, the influx of new followers and the huge increase in downloads for all of our episodes has just been exhilarating. I don't think I've stopped smiling for days.

I think all three of us were nervous for different reasons. Would this work? Would our chemistry mesh together? Does our format support the presence of a guest? Rem and I agreed that we wanted to try a guest host as an occasional thing, not on a regular basis. I can honestly say that Koltrane was the perfect choice to try this out for the first time, and it was amazing. I've said this multiple times, but I'll repeat it again - we were all exhausted and sore from laughter after we finished that show. It felt incredibly special and the dynamic between the three of us couldn't have been any better.

Now the question we keep asking ourselves is, how could we ever top this guest appearance? It looks like the answer for right now is, we really don't want to try to top that. We are just going to keep doing what love to do, and what has been working for us - be ourselves, enjoy the experience, and see where the road takes us. One thing is for certain, though - you won't see the last of Koltrane on our show. We will have him back again sometime in the future because you can't let such a good dynamic go to waste.

I want to thank all of the new listeners who have wrote us and told us they are loving the show. We read every e-mail and every Tweet you send us and we try to respond to them all. If someday it gets to the point where we can't respond to everyone, we will ALWAYS read everything you send to us. That's what our show is about - you.

And finally, a special thank you to Koltrane. You are one of the funniest and most dynamic people I have ever met and I feel very lucky to have gotten the opportunity to work with you!

Until next time...
Jules

Happy Friday, everyone! Since Rem is blogging about leveling his new druid, I thought I'd make my contributions on... whatever I want!

I had a rather strange situation this week after Rem, Phytt and I completed recording episode 4. It was getting pretty late - about 11:30pm - and I was ready to head to bed. I went into my bedroom to my closet and realized that the attic crawl space cover was open and resting on the side of the opening. This is strange on about 100 levels. It's a suspended cover, meaning that you have to push the square piece of sheetrock straight up the chute to get through the opening in the ceiling. It requires a ladder to reach it, and neither Kayne nor I EVER go up there.

I went downstairs to ask Kayne why the cover was open, and he looked at me like I was asking him why there was a gryphon in the house. As I suspected, he had no idea about this either. So, he joined me upstairs and we stood there gaping at each other, trying to figure out how the heck this could have even occurred. Nothing was out of place in the house. All 3 cats were fine. This was the only thing amiss.

My only plausible theory is that we had a wicked thunderstorm a few days prior, and my stepdaughter had left the garage door open while she was playing with friends. Kayne went through our mud room to close the garage door, and the sheer power of the wind ripped at least two doors closed inside the house. Could it be that the suction of the outside wind (which was gusting to at least 50 mph when he opened the door to the house) could be enough to suck the crawl space cover into the attic? I figure it's a long shot, but it COULD be possible... right?

Of course, when Kayne went to work the next day, no less than 3 of his co-workers chalked it up to ghosts. Great, huh? I do believe that kind of thing is possible, but this is a new house, built 4 years ago and we've been the only owners. We haven't had anything else weird like this before.

So, we still have no idea. But, each of us keeps checking the space closely whenever we go into our closet... just to be sure.