VICTORY!!!

I detest secrets. Loathe them. I probably have the worst poker face on the planet, but this was a secret I had to keep. Revealing this secret could jeopardized (ha!) my wife’s winnings.

Yes, winnings .. She won! Can you believe it?

As I mentioned in the last post, I knew that the odds of her winning were slim, especially since she and Katie had the same strengths. I failed to mention that Andrea had basically been an at-home nursemaid for the prior three weeks. After surgery, I needed someone to wait on me hand and feet, and Andrea never missed a beat. Even when I stubbornly tried to get something for myself, she made me sit down and got it for me. This time took away from her studying time. And yes, studying before Jeopardy makes a big difference.

Early on, I noticed that some of the categories were favorable to her. Dialects was right in her wheelhouse, and she went after it. She even got the Daily Double. Even though she missed that, she played wisely and rang in when she was confident of knowing the answer.

All I was hoping was for her to be in the hunt. And she was. Katie had a slight lead on her going into Final Jeopardy, but again, the category was a major strength for Andrea: Word Origins. When I saw the clue, I was nervous. I had no idea. Would she know? My ignorance revealed why I’m not on Jeopardy, and why the three people at the podiums were. They all knew the answer. “Conspiracy” is now one of my favorite words.

Andrea bet big, $10,000. She briefly had the lead. I had a glimmer of hope until I saw that Katie also had the correct answer. But her wager? $5,000 … Apparently she was not as confident in the category. It makes sense that she had not bet high, because that helped her win the prior game. You really never know.

So that’s right, my wife is a Jeopardy Champion! And I’ve kept that secret since early February.

The adventure is not over. She plays again on Tuesday, and I cannot reveal the outcome of that game..

Since the taping, a lot of people have asked me whether I got mentioned on the show. I had to give a non-answer, but for a good reason. That is because the answer was yes, but it happened on the 2nd show. Tonight there will be a reference to me in Andrea’s anecdote. Surprisingly, it has nothing to do with cycling. If she keeps winning, then that could come up.

I’m actually writing this on Sunday, and publishing it at 8:15pm Monday. Right now we are at our viewing party, drinking champagne and celebrating with over 100 friends and family. Our phones are probably blowing up this very second. ABC of Columbia is filming the event and they’ll be interviewing us at some point for their 11pm news show.

What a journey this has been! And it’s not over yet!