Blog du Wren

I Wanted To Be a Millionaire

If you haven't seen the episode and don't want any spoilers, I suggest you skip to the end of this post and give it a watch before continuing. I can wait...

Nearly 4 years to the day after I taped my Wheel of Fortune episode, I found myself back in a TV studio, this time in Las Vegas, nervously waiting to appear on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire.

The process with Millionaire wasn't too dissimilar to Wheel, if you replace face-to-face testing and auditions with Skype calls*. There were a few more logisitics around bringing your "" and my producer was a bit more specific about wardrobe*, but overall the process was something like:

apply online -> [get lucky to be picked to move on] -> take a test -> [be smart] -> have audition -> [get lucky your attempt at jokes go over well] -> wait hopefully (and a bit nervously) -> [receive "You're in!" letter] -> do a jig -> anxious wait to hear about taping date -> binge watch the show for studying purposes -> keep waiting* -> fly to Las Vegas to tape the episode -> exhale

It turned out to be 9 months between taping date and air date, a long wait while having to keep a secret. The episode turned out great. I feel I came across quite well on screen considering I didn't do as well as I wished I had. Sure it was hard to relive missteps like burning those two lifelines early on and not correcting Chris's pronunciation of Anacortes, but I didn't cringe as hard as I thought I might. In fact, for the better part of that 9 months, I was stressed about how it might all turn out, knowing what I knew about the outcome. But via a couple of awesome and the fun facebook group with some of my fellow almost-millionaires, I found much more joy in the outcome than I expected.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience. I got to meet some really great people, added another cool adventure to my life resume, and ended up with a little bit of change in my pocket*. While the result of this pass at TV game show-dom didn't quite support the this-is-a-big-part-of-my-how-I-make-my-living plan, I'm not going to let that stop me from continuing to try!

Oh, and if you never saw my Wheel episode, check it out here

Thursday May 2 2019

File under: video, pictures

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Mexico 2019 Finance and Picture Recap

Our recent trip to Mexico was quite wonderful. It was relaxing, adventurous, warm(!), much-needed, and varied. It almost felt like 4 trips in 1: beach time with my dad in Zipolite, urban adventuring in Mexico city, lazy resort time in Puerto Vallarta, and off the beaten path time in Yelapa. And as is my wont, I wanted to summarize costs and post a few random pictures so that this fun adventure (and its details) won't be lost.

Finances
The total trip, including airfare, hotels, food, in-country transportation, lots of ice cream, and all entertainment came to $2360 which covers both me and Della. We were gone 15.5-ish days* That makes the per day per person cost to $76. With the amount that we did and saw, this is a number that we are both rather proud of. It's nice to know that travel doesn't have to be crazy expensive.

Flights	$778	YVR->HUX, HUX->MEX, MEX->PVR, PVR->SEA*
All-inclusive resort	$850	5 nights. This was a timeshare deal. Included in this money is supposedly a cruise and additional resort stay. I'm somewhat skeptical, but we'll see.
Everything else	$732	Food and hotels for the other 9 days, museum entrances, subways, etc.

We have a breakdown of every penny we spent (tracking that is kind of our hobby), but I won't subject you to that. But having this rough idea helps us contextualize the trip and plan for future trips! Next winter is going to be a big one!! :-)

Pictures
Click on each photo to read the caption for context.

Saturday April 6 2019

File under: Mexico, pictures

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Random Pictures of Life These Days

Here are a few shots from life the past couple weeks. Nothing ground breaking, but a fun diversion nonetheless on these hot lazy days of summer. (Click each picture for a larger version and caption.)

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