Intentionally Blank

Dan vs. The Not-So-Newlywed Game — Intentionally Blank Ep. 264

Brandon Sanderson & Dan Wells Episode 264

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0:00 | 36:59

Dan Wells is back and joined with a guest of his own—his lovely wife, Dawn Wells! With his return, the two of them are faced with the difficult task of facing down Donald's toughest questions for the Not-So-Newlywed Game! Will the two of them make it out unscathed on this episode of Intentionally Blank? 

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SPEAKER_01

Hey everybody! Welcome to Intentionally Blink. Uh, it has been some time since they've allowed me to podcast, but I've escaped my cage and we've gotten rid of all the dead weight around here. I don't know where Brandon is, but uh we have brought my lovely wife Dawn. Hello. Hi.

SPEAKER_00

How are you?

SPEAKER_01

I'm great. How are you? I'm doing pretty good. Thanks. Well, hooray. Yeah, Dawn, tell us a little bit about yourself, really quick.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. Okay. Um well, like in relation to you or just me. Like I know you as a person. Like, we've been married 27 years. 27 years. We have six children. I like to garden. I like to renovate my whole house, apparently. I also love music, and I'm currently in school to get a degree in vocal performance and music theory. So I've always loved music and singing and violin and piano and organ and all the things.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, she went back to school three years ago, and she was talking about all her big plans and her huge, ambitious things she wants to do. And I said, You're like that song, that Shakira song in Zootopia. You want to try everything. And she looked me dead in the eyes and said, No, I want to be really good at everything. So that is Dawn for you. She's the best. And as she said, we are renovating our home. We have escaped it to come and record this, but we have torn up a bunch of our backyard, and we're halfway through. We're not even halfway through. We're like a fifth of a way through installing a new fence around it. And in the meantime, we decided to replace every scrap of floor that we have. And Dawn, when we started this, said, Don't worry, I'm not gonna paint. And then as soon as the rooms were emptied for flooring to put in, she's like, I'm totally gonna paint. So everything is all happening at the same time right now.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. Yep. And then our dog broke one of the doors off of our kitchen cupboard. Sorry, what? Anyway, how?

SPEAKER_01

We've got these cupboards in our kitchen that are down like at knee level, you know, for like pots and pans and stuff. And uh one of our dogs, a boxer, she got her collar stuck on the door handle, and she panicked, and so she just kind of jumped super hard and fast and broke the door in half.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

There's like two inches of door left, still connected to the hinges. My youngest thinks it is hilarious to open and close it whenever you need something inside there. And then the rest of the door, I don't know where it is. It was still in the kitchen for a while. Is it still there?

SPEAKER_00

No, it's in the laundry room.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Because people were tripping over it.

SPEAKER_02

Ah, that makes sense. Anyway.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we would throw it away, but all our garbages are full because we're replacing everything we own.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

That would make sense. You know, Dan, we should get to know Dawn better. We should. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I have to you don't know her very well at all.

SPEAKER_02

I actually don't. I know Emily pretty well, but I've only known Dawn tangentially through you for the many years we've worked together now. But yeah, we should we should get to know Dawn a little better. Hey, so I did this thing with Brandon called the not so newlywed game, and these magical boards happen to appear. How comfortable do you feel uh, you know, testing your knowledge?

SPEAKER_01

Love it. I think it is a great idea.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, sounds good. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01

I know that if one of the questions is what's her favorite food, I've got that. Everything else, maybe. We'll see. We've been married longer than Brandon and Emily by a few years. So Okay.

SPEAKER_02

We should see. This should be a fun one. So, audience, as you know, we've done this before. I've changed up the questions a little bit to more fit their style. But for those who don't know, their objective is I will ask a question. They want to write down the same answer. They will reveal those answers at the same time to both themselves and the cameras, and we will go from there. Are you two ready? Yes. Perfect. The first question, the hardest question, of course. What is Dawn's favorite book?

unknown

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. I'm pretty sure I know.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I know what it used to be when she was in college, and she's read like three books since college.

SPEAKER_00

That's not true.

SPEAKER_01

Alrighty.

SPEAKER_00

It's close, though. It's close.

SPEAKER_02

Let's reveal. Reveal in ready, two, one, show. Oh, yeah, you're gonna want to pick it up. There you go.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, I was just gonna take down the Huckleberry Finn.

SPEAKER_02

There you go. Excellent. Why is a Huckleberry Finn?

SPEAKER_00

I really enjoyed it when I was in high school, and I loved I don't know, I love the redemption arc. And I also taught that book as a teacher.

SPEAKER_01

Oh Don was an English teacher for a few years. Yeah. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00

So I don't know. It has themes that I think can resonate with a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01

That's true. Huckleberry Finn deciding that he would rather go to hell and you know be a good friend to Jim is one of the great moments of literature. Yeah. So I'd like to.

SPEAKER_00

Actually, I was gonna say that's like my favorite part when he says, all right, I'll go to hell.

SPEAKER_02

So yep, love it.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Alrighty. This one I suspect will be harder. What is Dan's favorite board game?

SPEAKER_00

So since he has like 500.

SPEAKER_01

I have, according to my catalog on BoardGame Geek, 603. There you go. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Well, we just had them all in our living room a few days ago, and then we've reshelved them into his new office.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, at the time we moved them, it was 601, but I've since bought two expansions.

SPEAKER_00

Great. Since last week.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's crazy. Don't worry. For what it's worth, I asked Emily what Brandon's favorite magic card was. She had the same kind of struggle. Does Dan know the answer is what I want?

SPEAKER_00

Do you know?

SPEAKER_02

I'm not sure that I do. That's that's why I picked this one. Because I don't know if Dan can do that easily.

SPEAKER_00

Can I can I say your thing you like lately a lot?

SPEAKER_02

Again, as long as you two write down the same answer, that's all that matters.

SPEAKER_01

My recent favorite? I bet that if if we try to write down my recent favorite, we'll both pick the same one.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. I hope.

SPEAKER_01

I hope.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, all right. Okay, ready?

SPEAKER_01

Ready?

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Let's see it. Okay. Yeah. Good pick.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. If we go for all-time favorite, it's gonna be Battlestar Galactica or Last Night on Earth or uh Oh, House on the Hill. Like Yeah, Betrayal of House on the Hill. Such a good game. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot that is difficult to choose from. I wouldn't put cash and guns each on the top. But that is a memorable name.

SPEAKER_02

I love it. All right. This is a a more personal question. According to you both, when did you officially become a couple and start dating? Now, you know, 27 years ago or whatever.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, we know exactly what happened, but at what point does each of us think it started? Correct.

SPEAKER_00

Is this like I'm dating a person, or is this uh when you became a couple?

SPEAKER_02

You have you've gone exclusive. I know exactly when it was. Well I mean it's the not so newly wet game. We gotta throw it a couple of these uh the relationship questions in.

SPEAKER_00

I know, but it's probably okay. Do we want to date?

SPEAKER_02

Like when you went exclusive. Like you you both agreed we're not dating anyone else.

SPEAKER_01

I've I've got mine narrowed down, but I don't have a specific day, no. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

As long as it's the same answer. That's all we're looking for here. Tricky tricky. Okay. Sounds like we have answers. Three, two, one, let's see them. January 8th, 1999, and Christmas break 98.

SPEAKER_01

I've got you beat by a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Didn't you?

SPEAKER_01

Didn't think we were a couple until we were engaged? I mean, I mean, it was fast. Well, yeah, and I hated it. And and I was like, nope, I'm in love with Don because we were Christmas person. Because we had not been exclusive.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And then I had that date, and then I uh drove out to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and spent the rest of Christmas break with you.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and you drove out with my friend's dad.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that was a real comfortable drive.

SPEAKER_02

Wait, I don't actually think I know your two's origin story on this one.

SPEAKER_01

We were in the same ward, our freshman year of college, but we didn't really know each other.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I remember talking to her one time. She has a picture of me, but only because I was sitting next to the guy she wanted a picture of.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I wanted to come out of the picture. I'm like, whatever, I'll just take the picture anyway.

SPEAKER_01

I went to go uh serve a mission. I was in Mexico for two years. When I came back, there was a freshman ward reunion.

SPEAKER_00

Which was November 21st of 98. Oh my gosh. I just remembered.

SPEAKER_01

It was the day of the U of U BYU game. Yeah. I was working with the uh Air Force Razzi at the time as part of their service organization. So I'd spent the previous night patrolling campus to make sure there were no pranks. No one came over and like dyed our fountains red or anything. So I showed up having not slept, still in like the sweats that I'd been wearing the night before. And I only came because I heard there were going to be pancakes. Dawn, on the other hand, wanted to meet up with one of the other guys from our freshman ward who lived next door to me. And so she came all dolled up and looking wonderful.

SPEAKER_00

And then I found you.

SPEAKER_01

I know.

SPEAKER_00

And it was great.

SPEAKER_01

And we spent the entire time talking about like research papers and stuff. We were both English majors.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we're talking about my literature and film class, and then you were later gonna take that class.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, gotcha. Gotcha. I did.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. While we were married.

SPEAKER_02

So that was the part where I was confused. You got engaged like a month later?

SPEAKER_01

So we met six. It was six weeks. We met for real in November of '98.

SPEAKER_00

And then our first date was November 30th. We went to the Messiah Sing In downtown, uh Bravnell Hall. And that was like the greatest night ever. I was like, this is crazy. It's like just felt super comfortable. Like there weren't awkward silences.

SPEAKER_01

It was just the date that I had, because we had not made anything about exclusivity yet. And that I had gone on a date with Lisa Ivy, who was a wonderful person and a very good friend. And it was the worst date of her life because we got there and like she picked me up, and then we went and we like made candy and we did. It was really fun stuff. But as soon as she picked me up, I had this like lightning bolt realization of, oh no, I'm in love with Dawn. I shouldn't be here. And so I was, I don't know. Yeah, I was not a good date that night. I was trying to be nice and everything, but something was off, and she could tell something was off. I hope she listens to this and forgives me for the worst date of her life.

SPEAKER_00

So she's probably like, that was not the first worst date. She probably is, yeah. There were way worse. I don't know. I had way worse dates than just awkwardness.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Okay. There you go. Question four. Out of any living or dead people, who would Dawn want to meet the most?

SPEAKER_01

Who would Dawn want to meet the most?

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Like lots of questions.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. I I have my answer. Okay. I don't know if it is her answer.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know what my answer is.

SPEAKER_02

I have found that to be the case. Usually the person doesn't know the answer. The other person's like, ah, I'm pretty sure I know what you you're thinking.

SPEAKER_01

Mine won't be who you write down, but when you see it, you're gonna go, oh yeah, of course I want to meet that person. Oh, hold on.

SPEAKER_02

I might have, yes, this I might have run into the same mistake I did with the the Sandersons. Oh, yeah. We'll see.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

While she's thinking, uh, who did Brandon most want to?

SPEAKER_02

I won't say because I suspect you wrote down the same thing. I can't see your answer from here, but I think both of you will go, oh, that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_01

This this is me admitting that I don't watch the episodes that I'm not in.

SPEAKER_02

I'll understand.

SPEAKER_01

Um I usually don't even listen to the ones I'm in, but sometimes I will. That's fair. If I know I was funny.

SPEAKER_02

I'm glad you haven't because there's an episode we're gonna do later, audience, with you and Brandon. I think you're gonna love. Oh, good.

SPEAKER_00

I'm just gonna say this word.

SPEAKER_01

Are you Brandon and I gonna do a newlywed game? Oh, yes, you are. Yeah, baby. Okay, ready? Revealing. Let's see it. Oh, I was close. Okay, we got we both got opera composers.

SPEAKER_02

Rossini. Who did you write?

SPEAKER_01

Rossini and Mozart. Ah, very solid picks.

SPEAKER_00

I thought about Mozart, but then I'm like, no, I want to talk to Rossini because I'm writing a paper on him. And I'm yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That's primary source.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that'd be great.

SPEAKER_01

How do you annotate that?

SPEAKER_00

How do you cite that source?

SPEAKER_01

Cite that source.

SPEAKER_00

Interview. You can cite interviews.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but how do you note that it was time travel or a seance?

SPEAKER_00

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

That's a that's a good question. If it's a seance, I think you have to say the date and the name of the medium. This is a large hole in Chicago manual of style.

SPEAKER_02

All right, what's the next one? Next question. To answer your other question, uh, they both wrote immediately Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_01

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

And then they changed their answers, just like, ah, we know the intent of the question and switch to their next one.

SPEAKER_01

No, no.

SPEAKER_00

I thought about that.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna write him eventually anyway. I don't need to do it now. There you go.

SPEAKER_02

What is Dan's quote-unquote secret talent?

SPEAKER_01

How secret are we talking? Uh stuff that the audience of this podcast doesn't know, or stuff that even like you don't know?

SPEAKER_02

I would say whatever you consider to be a talent, you wouldn't expect anyone to know. That's how I envisioned the question. But it's really however you two think. Whatever you think the secret quote unquote talent of Dan Wells is.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know how much you've talked about stuff. I don't watch your podcast either.

SPEAKER_01

We haven't talked about it enough for it to not be secret.

SPEAKER_02

We talk a lot. We're about we're 260 episodes in, so there's a lot of episodes.

SPEAKER_00

Like your secret talent.

SPEAKER_02

Um what you consider to be Dan's secret talent? Well, I'm mainly curious what you put down. I'm curious what bullets you put down, honestly, because I don't know what Dan considers to be a secret talent.

SPEAKER_00

Oh. There's two things.

SPEAKER_02

Well You could always write your honest answer and then your funny answer at the bottom.

SPEAKER_01

Um stand up the whole time.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Why would I not?

SPEAKER_01

It's freaking me out. Why am I Why are you looming over me, Donald?

SPEAKER_02

I you know, audience, you can't see this. Uh I'm about, you know, six feet away from Dan, and I am clearly this terrifying presence behind my computer screen as I look at these questions.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I I just do what I can to to make you uncomfortable, Dan.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, I did two things. Okay. I hope that counts.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

But they're they're related.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Ready? Ready?

SPEAKER_00

Ready.

SPEAKER_02

Let's see it.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I did I figure everyone knows that one.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. I put singing because I don't think everyone knows that I can sing.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Dan is an amazing singer. He sang with me at my junior recital. Wow. And he was very good.

SPEAKER_02

And Don, what did you write?

SPEAKER_00

I wrote, he makes yummy Asian food and he smokes delicious ribs.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I did know you could do You're a Good Smoker. That one I knew.

SPEAKER_01

Also, note for the record that my English teacher wife, who's currently a university student, misspelled Asian.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02

Oh. You know what, Don? I constantly get called out for my uh my writing on the podcast. Well, welcome to Intentionally Blink.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my gosh. I know how to spell Asian. The thing is, I started writing it and I had a lowercase A, and I'm like, no, I need to capitalize that. This microphone's in my way, can I score my writing?

SPEAKER_02

All right. This is this is an interesting one.

SPEAKER_01

You're about to Are you keeping score, by the way? I am keeping score. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

We're trying to beat Sanderson's.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, you would there will be an actual score. All right. You're about to teleport as yourself to one of Dan's books, worlds. With the goal to stay together, what book do you pick? This is where I will say do not discuss with one another. You have to just make a gut feeling on where you think you're heading.

SPEAKER_00

We'll discuss after. Exactly. Um I mean.

SPEAKER_01

Most of my books are horror, so this is a hard question.

SPEAKER_02

That's mainly why I picked this one. I more want to know what world Dan is willing to risk to go into, knowing full well what could be in them. Okay. Okay. Let's see them.

SPEAKER_01

Blue screen.

SPEAKER_00

What? I would not want to live in John Cleaver.

SPEAKER_01

The world of blue screen, my cyberpunk is the only world I would want to live in. The world of John Cleaver is full of monsters.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but most people are not affected by these monsters.

SPEAKER_01

That's true.

SPEAKER_00

Most people.

SPEAKER_01

But I assume by world of the book it meant like Clayton County. Where the bad stuff is happening.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Like, I definitely don't want to live in partials. Or extreme makeover, because then we'd all die. Yeah. And be lial.

SPEAKER_01

We'd all be lial together.

SPEAKER_02

Do you think you could survive blue screen? Unironically.

SPEAKER_01

Um blue screen is easy to survive if you have money. So that's basically what it comes down to. I I think so. I wouldn't mind living in the world of blue screen.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I always think of uh the cherry dog's world as the only world of mine that I would want to live in.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Cool.

SPEAKER_02

Well, Dan predicted this question earlier to some extent, but it it's a little different. What is Dawn's favorite snack? Not food, snack.

SPEAKER_01

Don't favorite snack. This is hard because Don eats the weirdest stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Does Dawn know her favorite snack?

SPEAKER_01

I've written two answers. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

But they start with the same letter.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I'm really glad the letter correlation is what matters.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Um it's hard. I could do something really silly, but uh again, you totally can.

SPEAKER_02

You can't just put my name.

SPEAKER_00

No. I don't know. I'm not gonna say that.

SPEAKER_01

All the time Don spends writing, I'm looking at the back side of this GM screen and thinking, yeah, that's why I didn't like this game. Yeah, what what is your I mean the the one that Don's got is Cosmere RPG. What's the one you've got, Dan? Oh, this is from the John Carter RPG from Modifius. It's part of their 2D20 system, but it is their most abstracted 2D20 game.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Abstracted to the point that there's barely any game left and you're just kind of making stuff up. Anyway. Although it sounds like we're ready to show. Yeah. Let's see if I was close. I put cashews.

SPEAKER_00

She put roasted almonds or pistachios.

SPEAKER_01

I also have caramels on there. Yeah. She keeps a jar of chocolate caramels in her closet where the kids don't know where it is. And once a week or so she will allow herself one. Ah, I see. Why unless it's been a bad day, and then she will allow herself several.

SPEAKER_02

Like six.

SPEAKER_00

And then I don't feel good.

SPEAKER_02

That's fair. Why uh almonds or pistachios?

SPEAKER_00

Because it fills me up and it's not very much, and it's easy to get just grab a handful. I was also thinking, like, oh, maybe blueberries, maybe raspberries. Oh, but the silly one I was gonna put is frozen pomegranate seeds. Because I like that too.

SPEAKER_01

I would not have I was gonna just put nuts, but I'm like, I could I should be more specific.

SPEAKER_02

I should have just said nuts.

SPEAKER_00

I was just gonna, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. As long as we have the same answer, that's what matters. This is one I don't know if Dan has an answer for, but I'm curious. What is Dan's favorite flower? Favorite flower? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I do have an answer for this, and it is an immediate answer. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Can the gardener guess the favorite flower?

SPEAKER_00

It's probably something that grew in your family.

SPEAKER_01

I can neither confirm normal. I know.

SPEAKER_00

I know. I know.

SPEAKER_01

Where did you grow up, Dan? I grew up in Sugar House, which is a neighborhood in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the time that we moved there when I was three years old in 1980, Thanksgiving Day, it was just a cheap neighborhood residential area where you can live. Today it is like the hip area in Salt Lake City, and so houses go for a ton. And I haven't been able to convince my parents to sell their house. They just keep like improving it and stuff. So I want them to sell and move into our basement. But I say basement. It is a like ground floor, full separate apartment. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02

You know, obviously. You're gonna have to get a lot sicker before that happens. What I was not where I thought you were gonna go with this. I was gonna be like, look, just show them the podcast and be like, look at all these fans who are just like, yeah, you should go live with Dan.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, weigh in in the comments if my parents should move into my basement. My mom does listen to this show, so she will eventually hear it. Oh, there you go. I love you, mom. Don, do you have an answer? I do. All right, let's see.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know if it's right. Pyrocantha. Pink lemonade rose by our front door. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01

The roses we have by our front door right now are my favorite. Why? They're awesome. They are a spectrum from pink to yellow.

SPEAKER_00

And a little orange too.

SPEAKER_01

And a little bit sometimes. It's a very kind of delicate color. They look delicious. Which is one of the reasons they're called pink lemonade, is the cultivar of rose that we have. I think they're gorgeous. And our rosebush always gives us a ton of them and they look really pretty.

SPEAKER_00

So are Pyrocantha the one with the little yellow flowers?

SPEAKER_01

Little orange berries. Berries. My grandparents, my Wells grandparents, lived in the avenues of Salt Lake, which is the other hip place to live. And they had this enormous Pyrocantha bush in the backyard. If the question had been plant, I probably would have said Pyrocantha, but they don't really have flowers. Sorry. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

What's your dad's bush that has little yellow flowers that blooms early?

SPEAKER_01

Um I don't know. Anyway. It's the bush with yellow flowers. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_00

I don't have one, so I don't remember what it's called.

SPEAKER_02

There are lots of plants, it turns out.

SPEAKER_00

Anyway.

SPEAKER_02

Alrighty. This is another dual question. Excluding your wedding, proposal, and kids, what is your favorite couple moment? Tough choices. Twenty-seven years, if I remember correctly, to go through.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. 27 years very recently. We got married May 5th. 6th. 6th. Damn! No, something else is the 5th. What else is the 5th? What am I thinking of? Um just Cinco de Mayo? Yeah. May 6th, May 5th was 99.

SPEAKER_00

Was my recital.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. That's what it was. Anyway. So yeah, we just we just passed 27. Okay. The day before her recital.

SPEAKER_00

Or the day after. Okay. You got something.

SPEAKER_01

Let's see it. Yes. Here we go. Alrighty.

unknown

Singing.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Deciding to go to Germany. So yeah, Don said Singing Suddenly Seamore Together. That's been our go-to karaoke song since we're married. And we love it.

SPEAKER_00

And we sang it at my recital.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Aww. Her junior recital. But also the moment when we decided uh to move to Germany, I've rarely ever felt that in sync with anybody. We just, you know, we'd been talking about it for weeks, and the decision came down to it, and we both went and prayed about it and came back and were like, well, I guess we're moving to Germany. Like I already knew that she knew the answer before I talked to her. That's how together we were. And I assume you felt the same. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. It was just very fun couple moments.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that was an awesome couple moments.

SPEAKER_01

There you go.

SPEAKER_02

Yay. Yay. Alrighty. If Dan could only play one video game for the rest of time, what would it be? Oh man.

SPEAKER_01

I think I know what you're gonna write.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And I'm pr I know that it's wrong.

SPEAKER_02

Well, again, this is the game. You're allowed to just write what she's writing.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, no. She just moved her head, which means this is two words. At least. So hmm. Boy. One video game.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_01

And one video game only. Only one video game. For the rest of my life.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Here. Alright. Don, I appreciated that you answered this first before him.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Okay. Let's see the dice.

SPEAKER_01

I'm cheating.

SPEAKER_02

Let's see what you have.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. League of Legends, which includes TFT. Yep. I play Team Fight Tactics way more, but it's part of the same app. Same loader. Does both games.

SPEAKER_00

Awesome. We got one.

SPEAKER_01

I to be clear, I have played one game of League of Legends in the last two years.

SPEAKER_00

I know. You used to play it. But I play TFT a lot.

SPEAKER_01

I know I used to play it a lot. The thing is, I suck at it. Oh.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and you've talked about it a lot.

SPEAKER_01

I talk about it a lot. I love to watch it. I want to get back into it because Lincoln is starting to play it again, and then I could play with him. Oh, there you go. Also, they just released a new skin for Velka's where he looks like a pile spaghetti. And that's amazing, and I want to play it.

SPEAKER_02

There you go. Is that actually your answer? Would it be League for the rest of all time? It would not be League. It would be TFT. It would be TFT.

SPEAKER_01

TFT is a very slow game. It doesn't require, you know, twitch, fast Twitch muscles or paying super close attention. It's a very casual game that you can put as much focus into it as you want. And so it's a very good just sit and veg kind of game. Right. Solid pick. Yeah. Plus, they change the sets every few months. So there you go. It continues to evolve.

unknown

Cool.

SPEAKER_02

Alrighty, we've got two more questions. Okay. If Dawn could only listen to one song for the rest of time, what would it be? That song for the rest of time. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

This is a funny question. Because I listen to my music like on repeat.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay. When she's trying to learn a song, either so she can sing it or so she can take a test about it, it's all anyone in the house listens to for like a week.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

It'll just be on repeat. We'll be in the car, and after a long time, I will say, This is a really long opera song. And she's like, No, this is our fifth time through it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. It was like two and a half minutes. Okay. Anyway.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I just realized this asks a mechanics question, but go ahead, Dan, you were gonna say something.

SPEAKER_01

I'm just gonna say, at the risk of giving hints, I'm gonna go back to the basics here.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. I'm not realizing, Dawn, you're a singer. You can only listen to one song, but this doesn't necessarily stop you from singing songs. You just might not be able to hear songs. You're just not allowed to hear your own songs. That'd be really weird, I just realized.

SPEAKER_00

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01

This is like which one of your children do you want to do it?

SPEAKER_00

Well, uh, I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_01

See, the thing is, she's gonna write down a song that's like in French or something, and I won't even know the title of it. And then she'll sing a little bit, and I'll go, oh yeah, I know that one. Okay, let's see them. Okay, what's yours? I want to see it first.

SPEAKER_00

Queen of the Night, Aria.

SPEAKER_01

Queen of the Night, Aria. Okay. With or without you by U2. Wait, why that? She is a big U2 fan. In college, one year, she and her roommates gave themselves presents from the U2 band members. Sorry, what? Because they didn't have boyfriends, and they're like, well, uh Bono's gonna give me a present. So I love that. That's amazing. One time, several years ago, you two came to Salt Lake and they did a big, huge concert up at the UV, and my friend Jessica Day George had some extra tickets, and they were very good tickets. So we bought them off of her, and they were very close to the front.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And we were getting ready to go, and Dawn was doing so much more than normal. She always looks gorgeous, but she was giving it that extra oomph. And I'm like, why are you getting so dressed up for a concert? And she said, We're so close. What if Bono sees me? So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So why was your pick what you picked, Don?

SPEAKER_00

Okay, this is the song that I have always wanted to sing, like since I was 17 years old and I was first learning about classical music. And it is an aria from Mozart's The Magic Flute. And when I went back to school, I was like, yes, I'm gonna learn how to sing this. And then I learned about the idea of a Fach, which is like your voice type. And then I learned my Fach does not sing this aria. And I cried and I cried and I cried. And so it's something that I won't sing, but I love it and it makes me happy when I listen to it.

SPEAKER_01

What's an awesome song in your Fuck that makes you happy you get to sing?

SPEAKER_00

One that I want to learn this year, which I almost wrote, is una voce poco fa.

SPEAKER_01

You sang that in your recital, didn't you? I did not. No, you didn't. You said Quando Menvo. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, Quando Menvo from La Bohem. Yeah. So una voce poco fa is a Rossini aria that is it's big and flashy, and I do not yet have the skills to master it, but I will. That's what I'm planning to learn this year. Awesome. Just having more flexibility in my voice.

SPEAKER_02

Nice. So all right. Final question. Okay. This is gonna require two answers. You'll write your answer on the top, and you'll write the bottom answer for your partner.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

You can only keep one item from your home before it's destroyed. What does Dan take and what does Dawn take?

SPEAKER_00

Okay, Dan's is on top and mine's on the bottom?

SPEAKER_02

Or yes, we can do that as well. That totally works. Okay. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

This is assuming that our children are out of the house.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, this is assuming children have been removed from the home.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Good clarifier.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

I do think of our children as items though, for the record.

SPEAKER_02

Oh. Don't your kids listen to this if I remember correctly, Dan? Our older ones too.

SPEAKER_01

The two oldest do. Cool.

SPEAKER_00

Morgan does sometimes too. Morgan?

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Hi, Morgan. Hi, Audrey and Ethan. No his to anybody else. They don't listen to this.

SPEAKER_02

I'm grateful to the fact that Dan, before clarifying the kids' uh question, which is like, you know, I prefer pulling these out of my house. That's where you go. Well, you said items.

SPEAKER_01

It didn't occur to me that my kids like the already dead bodies of my kids after they die of smoke inhalation. Yes. I'll pull those out.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. I'm just writing a silly answer.

SPEAKER_02

All right. Let's see them. Let's do the top one first.

SPEAKER_01

So photo albums. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So that's what you're taking?

SPEAKER_01

This is what I think you're taking. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Cool.

SPEAKER_00

Well then that's what I wrote too, but if I exp I'm going to.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you wrote yours on the bottom? Yeah, it totally works. It totally works. So let's see your bottom one.

SPEAKER_00

So that's my bottom one. Whatever I tell you.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, that's the real answer. My answer was more photo albums.

SPEAKER_03

I'm not telling you to take.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, as soon as you asked the question, Donald, I was like, well, obviously we would coordinate and decide together what to grab. I'm glad we're both going for photo albums.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. So this was my question. Have you guys not digitized your photo albums at this point?

SPEAKER_01

Just for our younger viewers out there and listeners, you used to have photos that were not on a phone.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, Dad.

SPEAKER_01

So we've got old photos, we've got family photos, we've got scrapbooks of the kids when they were little, lots of stuff that was pre-digital, and we have not digitized those. Okay. So that makes a lot more sense then. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00

And our wedding album.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Because phone cameras. I don't think I had a I had cell phones early, but I don't think I had a smartphone until Germany.

SPEAKER_00

We started having digital pictures in 2006.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay. On digital cameras.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

And I have I think I have all of that digitally. So maybe that part of the photo albums is like the see in 2006, that's three kids in.

SPEAKER_01

I know. So there's a lot of pre-digital stuff.

SPEAKER_00

And it was like right when the third kid was born. When we got that digital camera.

SPEAKER_02

Well, at least you can save the memories.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that's all the questions I have. You got four of them, right?

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Out of how many? Fifteen. We have more than that. Photo. Are you not counting the cashews, almonds, and pistachios one?

SPEAKER_02

You could put you to five. That would put you to five out of 15. Whatever.

SPEAKER_01

How many did Brandon Emily get?

SPEAKER_02

Like I want to say like eight or nine. They were pretty solid.

SPEAKER_01

That's some nonsense right there. Because Don and I have deeper inner lives.

SPEAKER_00

I don't have solid opinions of like what would I do, you know, like songs and foods and I don't know. I like everything.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think that about wraps us up, Dan.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. Well, um, do you want to say it, Don?

SPEAKER_00

Sure. How's that, Ben?