How many times have I applied to be on the Amazing Race? At least 15, maybe more. How many times have I made it to the interview stage? Exactly zero. Apparently I suck at application videos. Or maybe I'm just dull.
It's not that I want to be on TV actually - I just really want to compete in this type of competition!!! And this type of competition only happens on TV. When I heard a new adventure show was casting teams of two, I got excited! It's a Bear Grylls survival show which isn't exactly what I'm looking for since I don't really want to eat gross things. But I'm attracted to anything that bills itself as an "Adventure Show" so I knew I would have to apply. Instead of making yet another sucky application video, I roped Irene into spending a full day in line with a million other people at a casting call.
I figured that with a million other people who are pretty similar to us, the casting people would have their eyes glazed over by the time they saw us. We'd be just another boring couple. They were doing group interviews too, so with only 1/5 of the allotted interview time we had even less of a chance to stand out. I thought maybe we needed something to get their attention.
We walked into the interview room with 4 other teams. There was a long table with 10 chairs around the outside. They asked us all to sit down. Instead of sitting down, Irene said, "We have something prepared". The casting girl looked surprised and Irene hit play on her ipod...and then we did this:
Bare Necessities. Get it? Bear Grylls. Bare Necessities. Ah, so clever, right?! Our hands say "PICK US". We have on our matchy-matchy adventure race team shirts. Pretty awesome, huh?!
The casting girl looked a little shocked and said, "No one has ever done THAT before." And then she went on with the group interview.
We didn't get a call back.
Showing posts with label Fame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fame. Show all posts
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Monday, February 13, 2012
Scavenger Dash 2012
AZ Central ran an article about the Scavenger Dash. They interviewed me for it and quoted me like crazy!
Fame points = 10 seconds.
Remaining in my 15 minutes of fame = 13 minutes and 40 seconds
Nice article, huh? Too bad I lied to the reporter. I told her that Christy and I finished first in the first Scavenger Dash and that we won that year's costume contest. It would have been a good idea to re-read my blog prior to the interview to remind myself that we actually placed second in the race and second in the costume contest. Oops. I guess my memory thinks very highly of me.
2012 was a repeat of 2010 - second place in the race and second place in the costume contest. But in two years I'll remember us placing first in both!
Let's do costumes first. Our team name this year was Assault With a Deadly Weapon.
Get it? Christy is a salt and I am a ninja, and ninjas are known to be deadly weapons! I think that the audience applause-o-meter gave us a tie for first, but I'm probably biased. The prize went to Cowboy and Indian, which was a boy in a cow suit and a girl dressed as an indian. They were cute and clever so no bad feelings here.
The race this year was held in Scottsdale. I don't know Scottsdale all that well so I wasn't putting any high hopes into winning. I meant to spend a day walking around the area prior to the race and taking the buses and trolleys, but I never actually did. Lazy. I wasn't very happy with the maps I'd printed out because my printer ink was running out. I got to the race about 30 minutes early so I decided to walk to the visitor's center to get a real map. I followed the signs to the visitor center, but I never found it. Not a good sign!!
In the pre-race meeting, the race director told us that all of the checkpoints were within a 3 mile radius. Well, that eliminated the need for buses and trolleys. Whew! She then announced that our clue sheets were to be handed out at the Naked Chocolate stand at the Scottsdale Farmer's Market and everyone started running. We didn't know where that was so our strategy became to follow the crowd since they all looked like they knew where they were going. Luckily, they all did!
We got our clues and I emailed a picture of them to Kiri, our very super-awesome clue solver. She didn't get the email. We tried again. In the meantime we were also solving the easier ones and mapping all our checkpoints. Some clues involved no solving such as "find a license plate on a car from a state that starts with M" and "get a picture of both of you jumping in the air." By the time Kiri got our email, we only needed her to solve a few of the clues.
We took our jumping picture while still at the Farmer's Market. One clue done. I have mad ninja skillz:
While Kiri was solving, we ran to the first challenge site, as it was only a block away. There we had to maneuver these furniture dollies through the cones with only a stick to steer and propel us. I went first, which I should never do on challenges. Christy is way better at figuring out the fastest way to do stuff and should always go first so she can give me pointers. I, not surprisingly, took forever to get my dolly there and back. When Christy started out she was weaving in to everyone else's weaving out. Here she is about to crash into the people weaving the other direction:
I told her she'd do much better if she started over and went with traffic so she didn't keep hitting people. So, she brought the cart back and started over. I mapped the rest of the clues that Kiri had solved while Christy quickly finished the challenge. On our way to our next stop she told me that she wouldn't have had to start over as she figured out how to maneuver faster than the other racers so they wouldn't have been in her way after all. I replied that if we lost "by, oh gee, about 13 seconds" then I would take the blame.
We found our car with an M license plate on our way to the next challenge:
We still had one clue left to map, but we headed out to a checkpoint at Scottsdale Stadium, taking the risk that we wouldn't be missing any checkpoints in the area we passed to get there. When we completed our task at Scottsdale Stadium we mapped the last point and our risk paid off. The final spot was the furthest out and was easily added to our plan of attack.
The hardest challenge was next. We had to balance a ping pong ball on a ping pong paddle while walking a short course that included crossing a bridge, going down a hill, going up a hill and weaving though cones. The wind wasn't very strong but it doesn't take much to blow a ping pong ball off a paddle. Brian and Irene had the most trouble with this one. Christy did it in one try. I dropped the ball a few times before I was successful. These are our racing friends and rivals, Johnny and Kelly:
Off we ran to hit the rest of our checkpoints. We had to find two people in cowboy boots. We wasted some time taking pictures with single people in boots thinking that maybe we could turn in two separate pictures. We then found this pair and got the picture:
We ran some more. We did some more checkpoints and a challenge that involved sticking your noses in vaseline and transporting cotton balls without your hands. We tried a short-cut through a neighborhood but it was a bunch of dead ends up against a canal. Crap! We knew the "short-cut" was a risk, but neither of us felt like running the half mile back to where we deviated off the map. So we wove through the neighborhood looking for an outlet. We ended up crawling through fences: 
and jumping over a wall to get back on track. It's not every day you see a salt shaker jump a wall so I had to stop to take pictures:
We finished our clues and ran back to the finish line. We felt we did well, but we weren't thinking that we were fast enough to win.
As we crossed the finish line, we saw one other team. We were told that we got second place. Ok, that's fine. But then they added that we got second place....by 10 seconds. 10 seconds! Remember that bit earlier about how if we lost by all of 13 seconds then I would take the blame. Ouch. I take the blame.
Johnny and Kelly's teams took 5th and 6th, and Brian and Irene got 11th (the ping pong ball challenge did them in).
Brian and Irene:
I say it every year, and I'll say it again: Scavenger Dash is super-fun! Great clues, with a nice mix of easy and difficult, the most fun challenges of all the races of this type and always a great atmosphere. If you haven't done one yet - do it! You can find their schedule for the rest of the year here: www.scavengerdash.com
Fame points = 10 seconds.
Remaining in my 15 minutes of fame = 13 minutes and 40 seconds
Nice article, huh? Too bad I lied to the reporter. I told her that Christy and I finished first in the first Scavenger Dash and that we won that year's costume contest. It would have been a good idea to re-read my blog prior to the interview to remind myself that we actually placed second in the race and second in the costume contest. Oops. I guess my memory thinks very highly of me.
2012 was a repeat of 2010 - second place in the race and second place in the costume contest. But in two years I'll remember us placing first in both!
Let's do costumes first. Our team name this year was Assault With a Deadly Weapon.
Get it? Christy is a salt and I am a ninja, and ninjas are known to be deadly weapons! I think that the audience applause-o-meter gave us a tie for first, but I'm probably biased. The prize went to Cowboy and Indian, which was a boy in a cow suit and a girl dressed as an indian. They were cute and clever so no bad feelings here.The race this year was held in Scottsdale. I don't know Scottsdale all that well so I wasn't putting any high hopes into winning. I meant to spend a day walking around the area prior to the race and taking the buses and trolleys, but I never actually did. Lazy. I wasn't very happy with the maps I'd printed out because my printer ink was running out. I got to the race about 30 minutes early so I decided to walk to the visitor's center to get a real map. I followed the signs to the visitor center, but I never found it. Not a good sign!!
In the pre-race meeting, the race director told us that all of the checkpoints were within a 3 mile radius. Well, that eliminated the need for buses and trolleys. Whew! She then announced that our clue sheets were to be handed out at the Naked Chocolate stand at the Scottsdale Farmer's Market and everyone started running. We didn't know where that was so our strategy became to follow the crowd since they all looked like they knew where they were going. Luckily, they all did!
We got our clues and I emailed a picture of them to Kiri, our very super-awesome clue solver. She didn't get the email. We tried again. In the meantime we were also solving the easier ones and mapping all our checkpoints. Some clues involved no solving such as "find a license plate on a car from a state that starts with M" and "get a picture of both of you jumping in the air." By the time Kiri got our email, we only needed her to solve a few of the clues.
We took our jumping picture while still at the Farmer's Market. One clue done. I have mad ninja skillz:
While Kiri was solving, we ran to the first challenge site, as it was only a block away. There we had to maneuver these furniture dollies through the cones with only a stick to steer and propel us. I went first, which I should never do on challenges. Christy is way better at figuring out the fastest way to do stuff and should always go first so she can give me pointers. I, not surprisingly, took forever to get my dolly there and back. When Christy started out she was weaving in to everyone else's weaving out. Here she is about to crash into the people weaving the other direction:
I told her she'd do much better if she started over and went with traffic so she didn't keep hitting people. So, she brought the cart back and started over. I mapped the rest of the clues that Kiri had solved while Christy quickly finished the challenge. On our way to our next stop she told me that she wouldn't have had to start over as she figured out how to maneuver faster than the other racers so they wouldn't have been in her way after all. I replied that if we lost "by, oh gee, about 13 seconds" then I would take the blame.We found our car with an M license plate on our way to the next challenge:
We still had one clue left to map, but we headed out to a checkpoint at Scottsdale Stadium, taking the risk that we wouldn't be missing any checkpoints in the area we passed to get there. When we completed our task at Scottsdale Stadium we mapped the last point and our risk paid off. The final spot was the furthest out and was easily added to our plan of attack.The hardest challenge was next. We had to balance a ping pong ball on a ping pong paddle while walking a short course that included crossing a bridge, going down a hill, going up a hill and weaving though cones. The wind wasn't very strong but it doesn't take much to blow a ping pong ball off a paddle. Brian and Irene had the most trouble with this one. Christy did it in one try. I dropped the ball a few times before I was successful. These are our racing friends and rivals, Johnny and Kelly:
Off we ran to hit the rest of our checkpoints. We had to find two people in cowboy boots. We wasted some time taking pictures with single people in boots thinking that maybe we could turn in two separate pictures. We then found this pair and got the picture:
We ran some more. We did some more checkpoints and a challenge that involved sticking your noses in vaseline and transporting cotton balls without your hands. We tried a short-cut through a neighborhood but it was a bunch of dead ends up against a canal. Crap! We knew the "short-cut" was a risk, but neither of us felt like running the half mile back to where we deviated off the map. So we wove through the neighborhood looking for an outlet. We ended up crawling through fences: 
and jumping over a wall to get back on track. It's not every day you see a salt shaker jump a wall so I had to stop to take pictures:
We finished our clues and ran back to the finish line. We felt we did well, but we weren't thinking that we were fast enough to win.
As we crossed the finish line, we saw one other team. We were told that we got second place. Ok, that's fine. But then they added that we got second place....by 10 seconds. 10 seconds! Remember that bit earlier about how if we lost by all of 13 seconds then I would take the blame. Ouch. I take the blame.
Johnny and Kelly's teams took 5th and 6th, and Brian and Irene got 11th (the ping pong ball challenge did them in).
Brian and Irene:
I say it every year, and I'll say it again: Scavenger Dash is super-fun! Great clues, with a nice mix of easy and difficult, the most fun challenges of all the races of this type and always a great atmosphere. If you haven't done one yet - do it! You can find their schedule for the rest of the year here: www.scavengerdash.com
Friday, May 27, 2011
H.A.S. with the Shout-out
Hybrid Adventure Series is a new entrant in the mud-run /obstacle-run phenomenon that is taking over the planet. This is their first year. They have only four races on the schedule, one of which is in Phoenix on October 15th. You should check them out, it looks like fun!
A better reason to check them out is because they LOVE me! Scroll down about halfway through this link to see my name! http://hybridadventureseries.com/locations/southwest. Ok, ignore the part about me being from SoCal and just bask in my coolness!
A bit of explanation - some races have Clydesdale divisions for those weighing over 200 pounds. I guess this is because it's harder for bigger folks to run than it is for scrawny folks? This H.A.S. competition has five challenges: trail running, obstacle course, archery, keg throwing and tire flipping. And they offer a Clydesdale division. Yes, the Clydesdales may have a challenge with the running and the obstacle course, but what about tiny people? You think it's easy for us little tykes to throw kegs and flip tires? I made such a comment on the H.A.S facebook page and, like I said, they LOVE me...and they promptly added a Mini-Mite division. Awww yeah...I'm famous!
And FYI...I'm now officially in training to learn to run more than two miles without walking so I can WIN the Mini-Mite division! Though some of you may recall that it is the archery that I probably should be working on!
Fame points = 10 seconds. I now have 13 minutes and 50 seconds remaining.
A better reason to check them out is because they LOVE me! Scroll down about halfway through this link to see my name! http://hybridadventureseries.com/locations/southwest. Ok, ignore the part about me being from SoCal and just bask in my coolness!
A bit of explanation - some races have Clydesdale divisions for those weighing over 200 pounds. I guess this is because it's harder for bigger folks to run than it is for scrawny folks? This H.A.S. competition has five challenges: trail running, obstacle course, archery, keg throwing and tire flipping. And they offer a Clydesdale division. Yes, the Clydesdales may have a challenge with the running and the obstacle course, but what about tiny people? You think it's easy for us little tykes to throw kegs and flip tires? I made such a comment on the H.A.S facebook page and, like I said, they LOVE me...and they promptly added a Mini-Mite division. Awww yeah...I'm famous!
And FYI...I'm now officially in training to learn to run more than two miles without walking so I can WIN the Mini-Mite division! Though some of you may recall that it is the archery that I probably should be working on!
Fame points = 10 seconds. I now have 13 minutes and 50 seconds remaining.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Girls of Spring
Before you can get to the excitement (I use that term loosely) of the Boys of Summer, you first get the Girls of Spring. The Girls of Spring are specifically two wonderful blonde scruffy ladies; me and Harriet.
The Arizona Humane Society does an annual event at a spring training game called Dog Days at the Park. A section of the lawn is set aside for people to bring their pets. Each dog has to buy a ticket as a fundraiser. 
The AHS sets up an info booth and this year they were making a special push to recruit new foster homes. I volunteered us to be one of the Fabulous Foster teams at the game to talk to people about how great fostering is. Harriet, as always, was happy to go along. As part of the Humane Society's perks of the game, they get to have one of their dogs throw (I use the term loosely) out the first pitch. There were five foster dogs there, three tiny ones, Harriet and a border collie. The border collie was originally chosen but he got nixed because he was being held for the Fashion Show event. That means that the general public wouldn't be able to adopt him. Harriet, was slated for the kennels and general adoptions, plus she was done with her foster time so would be adoptable that week. So, Harriet and I got to throw (still using that term loosely) out the first pitch! Last year the dog peed on the pitcher's mound. My fosters would never do something so uncouth!! On the pitcher's mound:
Last year's dog was a big Lab and he actually did carry the ball to the mound. Though she was better at not-peeing than last year's dog, she wasn't able to live up to his glory and I had to carry the ball for her. This is why I use the term "throw" very loosely....throwing out the first pitch: 
Despite the fact that Harriet didn't actually do anything, the whole crowd applauded like she was the most amazing superstar dog they had ever seen. It was awesome! As we were leaving the field, we passed by the umpires. 
We had to stop when one of them started calling Harriet's name all squeaky-like and got down on his knees to play with her. It was adorable. It's not very often that there is a slight game delay because an umpire needs to pet a puppy! Harriet was thrilled to make his official acquaintance. 
This Padre player gave me the ball to keep. I don't know who he is. Anyone recognize him? Is he someone super-famous? Maybe I had a brush with fame! 
What am I talking about? I don't need a brush with fame. I'm super-famous in my own right! I just got to throw out the first pitch at a MLB game! I'm famous! See? Here are all my fans: 
Here are more of my fans and all their doggies. They are all respectfully pretending that we are part of the common people and not bothering us for our auto/pawtographs. 
Final Attendance: 
The morale of this story is: BECOME A VOLUNTEER! You get good perks!
Fame Points = 30 seconds. I now have 14 minutes left!
The Arizona Humane Society does an annual event at a spring training game called Dog Days at the Park. A section of the lawn is set aside for people to bring their pets. Each dog has to buy a ticket as a fundraiser. 
The AHS sets up an info booth and this year they were making a special push to recruit new foster homes. I volunteered us to be one of the Fabulous Foster teams at the game to talk to people about how great fostering is. Harriet, as always, was happy to go along. As part of the Humane Society's perks of the game, they get to have one of their dogs throw (I use the term loosely) out the first pitch. There were five foster dogs there, three tiny ones, Harriet and a border collie. The border collie was originally chosen but he got nixed because he was being held for the Fashion Show event. That means that the general public wouldn't be able to adopt him. Harriet, was slated for the kennels and general adoptions, plus she was done with her foster time so would be adoptable that week. So, Harriet and I got to throw (still using that term loosely) out the first pitch! Last year the dog peed on the pitcher's mound. My fosters would never do something so uncouth!! On the pitcher's mound:
Last year's dog was a big Lab and he actually did carry the ball to the mound. Though she was better at not-peeing than last year's dog, she wasn't able to live up to his glory and I had to carry the ball for her. This is why I use the term "throw" very loosely....throwing out the first pitch: 
Despite the fact that Harriet didn't actually do anything, the whole crowd applauded like she was the most amazing superstar dog they had ever seen. It was awesome! As we were leaving the field, we passed by the umpires. 
We had to stop when one of them started calling Harriet's name all squeaky-like and got down on his knees to play with her. It was adorable. It's not very often that there is a slight game delay because an umpire needs to pet a puppy! Harriet was thrilled to make his official acquaintance. 
This Padre player gave me the ball to keep. I don't know who he is. Anyone recognize him? Is he someone super-famous? Maybe I had a brush with fame! 
What am I talking about? I don't need a brush with fame. I'm super-famous in my own right! I just got to throw out the first pitch at a MLB game! I'm famous! See? Here are all my fans: 
Here are more of my fans and all their doggies. They are all respectfully pretending that we are part of the common people and not bothering us for our auto/pawtographs. 
Final Attendance: 
The morale of this story is: BECOME A VOLUNTEER! You get good perks!Fame Points = 30 seconds. I now have 14 minutes left!
Friday, January 14, 2011
I'm Famous in the Midwest
Check this out!
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2011/01/citysolve_urban_race_st_louis.php
I think this article counts for at least 20 seconds of fame for me! It's been so long since I've been famous that I had to search through my old blog posts to see where I was in my 15 Minutes of Fame Countdown. I was at 14 minutes 50 seconds. With the addition of this blog post from the Riverfront times, I've got 14 minutes and 30 seconds left. Better get busy...
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2011/01/citysolve_urban_race_st_louis.php
I think this article counts for at least 20 seconds of fame for me! It's been so long since I've been famous that I had to search through my old blog posts to see where I was in my 15 Minutes of Fame Countdown. I was at 14 minutes 50 seconds. With the addition of this blog post from the Riverfront times, I've got 14 minutes and 30 seconds left. Better get busy...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
I've Got 14 Minutes and 50 Seconds Left
Read this article from the New Times. I am quoted twice in the first section! Not to mention that she stole the whole crack dog idea from my blog posts about Frankie. The second section of the aritcle does not contain a direct quote from me, but I am the one who first commented that this:
looks very much like a used condom. So I'm gonna count that towards my 15 minutes of fame, too. 
looks very much like a used condom. So I'm gonna count that towards my 15 minutes of fame, too.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
I've Got 14 Minutes and 54 Seconds Left
Tick off two more seconds from my 15 minutes of fame.
The New Times website has pictures of me and Christy from the Great Urban Race.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/slideshow/view/255184/8
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/slideshow/view/255184/9
The Great Urban Race website has our picture with the Phoenix results.
http://www.greaturbanrace.com/register09_phoenix.php
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.
The Great Urban Race website has our picture with the Phoenix results.
http://www.greaturbanrace.com/register09_phoenix.php
Thursday, May 1, 2008
I've Got 14 Minutes and 58 Seconds Left
I'm starting a countdown of my 15 minutes of fame. This clip counts for 2 seconds of it. Check me out at 1:15.
Gia Altreche, shown twice, is the other marketing coordinator in my department at work.
Click here.
Gia Altreche, shown twice, is the other marketing coordinator in my department at work.
Click here.
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