TO LAS VEGAS

According to the letter, J! would fly me out to Las Vegas and put me up at the Hilton Grand Vacations Resort on the Las Vegas Strip (that's really the name of the place - good thing they have big signs in Vegas). We had decided early on that we'd go as a family, so while J! made my plane reservation, I was able to get my wife and two kids on the same plane.

Things worked out really well - I always take the week after Christmas off to visit my family in Florida, so I'd have extra time to prepare the week prior to the tourney. I had a week of vacation left from 2008 that I was allowed to carry over for the tourney week.

In my occupation, the time before Christmas is the busiest time of year (except maybe Lent). After all the waiting to see if I was going to qualify, time accelerated. I was learning more stuff every day and doing better against Ken Jennings on those GSN reruns, but I had also seen all of the other TOC competitors play. They were GOOD. And most of them had won more than me - I ended up 12th on the list out of 15 qualifiers (15 qualified instead of 14 because the College Champion was unable to compete due to Air Force commitments - which I really think is a lousy decision by the Air Force because what better publicity could they get?).

Besides the letter and the multi-page contract thing you have to sign (one clause waived my rights to my likeness on Jeopardy! "throughout the universe"!), there was also a description of the tournament format, which I'll put in a post of its own because I know there is confusion among non-Jeopardy! obsessives.

Before I was ready, January 6 was here and we were dropping our dogs at the vet for boarding and we were on our way to the airport, also for boarding.

We were on our way to Vegas, baby!

To the next installment - QUARTERFINAL PREGAME