Game Three Recap... Jill Bunzendahl Chimka
After almost finishing "About A Boy" and making my fifteenth trip to the
bathroom --- that's pregnancy for you --- (at this point the Green Room was down to only two women, Jackie and myself, so at least there was no wait for the ladies room!) my name was called along with Travis and Mark Lee. I, being my usual nervous self was practicing my breathing from yoga and, again, went in with the hope of merely making it to Final Jeopardy! I did not remember seeing Mark on the show, but Travis' run was fresh in my mind, especially his "Rap" category run!
I have to say I had a wonderful time with Travis and Mark --- at commercial
breaks there was a lot of joking around and words of encouragement. I actually had fun playing the game!
As I was watching the show, I began wondering --- will I ever ring in with a
response? Travis was amazing on the buzzer and I think could only have been beaten by himself which unfortunately happened on his gutsy Daily Double --- I do remember there being a lot of triple stumpers in this game, which actually made me feel a bit better (knowing that Travis and Mark had no idea either!). I have to say Saints and all those sci-fi questions were not exactly my "specialty" areas.
I did misspeak in my interview. Alex asked me what I did with the money. I
told him that my husband decided that we would have a baby when we paid off our debts. It was actually I who decided we would have a baby after we paid off our debts, with some input from my husband. I am sure he is happy that at least I gave the appearance that he calls any of the shots in this marriage! Since the show is taped in advance, they asked me to give the months until the baby was due instead of the due date. At this point I have about 3 months to go --- due date: August 12. Maggie wanted me to tell a different interview story, but I wanted it known that I was expecting and that I hadn't just ballooned since my last appearance!
I HATE getting Daily Doubles. I am a very cautious player and rarely ring in if I am not 100% sure. The Daily Double forces you to answer. I was thinking the answer to my Daily Double was some sort of Aztec-sounding word so I went with Chihuahua which of course was incorrect. I may have gotten it right if I took some time to actually read the question --- but I always just want to be done with the DD and move on.
I don't remember being particularly thrilled with any of the categories in
either of the rounds, but.the "C" in Cooking really helped me out --- I can't
believe that none of us got "corn", duh!
Travis was quite bold on his Daily Double. That long pause before the response was killing me --- I guess it was even worse for Travis though! After that change of course, it looks like we kind of staggered into Final Jeopardy with triple-stumper after triple-stumper.
Not knowing how previous players had done in their quarterfinal games, I was thinking I needed big money to qualify for the next round. I decided to leave myself with at least $400 in case Travis and Mark risked it all and we were all incorrect. I also figured that with $400 I could at least have some money to try to earn a Wildcard spot.
The Final Jeopardy category of Famous Estates seemed pretty narrow --? all I could think of was the Biltmore prior to seeing the clue revealed. When the clue was revealed, Mount Vernon seemed like the only answer to me ?-- living in Washington, D.C. also gave me a distinct advantage! After hearing Alex's little spiel regarding the Civil War I became more confident of my answer. I was so thrilled when Alex told me I was correct. After winning the game a rush of relief came over me, I looked up in the audience and saw my husband who looked even more relieved and excited than me. The rest of the day was very relaxing, dining on the fine cuisine of the Sony cafeteria and cheering on the rest of the contestants. That night we went out for Mexican with one of our friends who lives in L.A. --- unfortunately I could not a have a margarita, because I sure could have used a few!
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