Thanks! When I got out of the hotseat I was so excited I thought I'd burst, but luckily my family was there so I had people I could talk to about it. Keeping quiet turned out to be really easy. A friend of mine had been on Jeopardy (Mark, the lifeline I used) and told me when he returned from his taping that he hadn't won. So I wasn't able to really root for him when the show aired. With that experience in mind, I knew that despite their pleas to know what happened my friends would have more fun if they were able to watch it without any idea of the outcome. Although my general demeanor-- upbeat, rather than dismissive-- gave some of them a clue that I at least got to $32K.
As for what I'm going to do with the money... I don't know. Sock it away somewhere, probably. Perhaps put some of it into home repairs and remodeling, put some into a \"mad money\" fund, and the rest into investments. There's really nothing I'm clamoring to buy that I don't already have, and $250K (really only about $150K after taxes) is hardly quit-your-job money.
- Peter
