Shows Scheduled

It looks like we have the panelists penciled in for two shows of Match Game SF at Westercon. Both will be in Club Regent (ground floor of Fairmont; it's the only function that won't be on the first floor). The "daytime" show will be Saturday afternoon at 4 PM 2:30 PM. The "Late Night" adults-only show will be Sunday night at 10 PM. Both shows are scheduled for approximately two hours 90 minutes, but the exact run time will depend on how long the games stretch. We've sometimes done as many as six games in that time, but sometimes as few as three if we have to go to multiple sudden death rounds. Also, even with re-using material from previous shows, we're really stretching to fill up to twelve games worth of material, so if you have suggestions for new questions, send them to me!

Lisa and I spend part of this evening working on adjusting the SFX to try and get the "buzz" and "bell" effects to be approximately the same volume. The buzzer has heretofore been much louder than the bell, and it's been difficult for Lisa, running the sound board, to keep things balanced.

gridlore and kshandra, I'm sorry that I can't directly use you as panelists, mainly because Programming says that I can have both of the Foglios for the daytime show. However, if you're willing, I'd like to have you available as standby panelists in case anyone on the panel has to be a late scratch. We've had a number of standbys and scratches in the past, and it's always good to be prepared. Heck, on the original show, there was an episode where Johnny Olson had to take seat 3 because Charles Nelson Reilly forgot about Daylight Savings Time and didn't show up in time for taping.

Update, Sunday 1700: I had the running time wrong originally. Also, the start time on Saturday may change.

Update, Sunday 1800: We moved from a 4 PM to a 2:30 PM start in order to better balance out events including the Guests of Honor. (The Foglios are scheduled to be part of a 5 PM event as well, and we were trying to avoid back-to-backing them.)

Moving the Van

(Lots of photos in this post, behind the cut tags.)

Lisa's Big Orange Van has not run for more than three years and needs to be towed on a flatbed up to her mechanic in Portland. However, the place where it was sitting was not going to be easy for a flatbed tow vehicle to access, so we needed to tow it on its own wheels across the property over to the rear gate near her trailer. The original plan was to use the Small Orange Pickup, and Lisa had moved the little pickup over to in front of the new storage container a couple of days ago. This morning, she went out to start the pickup and found that it wouldn't start.

( From there, things got complicated )

( Using my van in ways for which it is not designed )

Lisa said that she wasn't worried about me over-pulling, because the worst that would happen would have been that the tow strap broke and she would have maybe had to hit the brakes on the Big Van. That wasn't a problem. The real problem is that I needed a lot more weight in the back of my van and much heavier-lugged tires. But we made it happen, barely.

We did not accomplish as much as we might have hoped today, but we're now staged for the next step in the process: getting the trailer's tow vehicle on the road to repair.