Quoted from practicalsteve:

A brief history of how children have foiled my fun at PAGG.
2013
The first year I attended PAGG. I was a brand new father and new to the hobby. I had yet to make the great group of friends I would see at future shows. As a new father, time was at a premium and I could only attend on Sunday. I woke up early after a night of what could barely qualify as sleeping (my son insisted on waking up at 2am every night, and only walking around the living room for an hour, bouncing him constantly would appease him, sitting down causing ear shattering screams to erupt) and got there as soon as it opened. The plan was to stay the whole day, to play as long as my tired body would allow. Of course at noon I get the call. My son had been crying non stop for an hour, wife was at wits end, my return home tearfully requested. Of course upon entering my home I found my son peacefully napping, a smile on his face as if to say, I won this round dad.
2014
Another year older and wiser, by now having a good core group of friends attending, I vowed not to let the previous year happen again. This time two days were planned, a stay at the best western ensuring maximum fun. Well, my son continued his war on sleep (a war he wages to this day as last night he woke up at 2am loudly proclaiming he did not want to eat breakfast) and little sleep was had the night before I left. It was with weary feet and bleary eyes that I dragged myself from game to game friday, but it was ok as much fun was had and nothing would stop me.
2015
I vowed this year that things would be even more different! Three days were planned. Thursday and friday taken off of work to volunteer with load in. Staying the night Friday, maximum fun would be had, my son only woke up two or three times a night now, nothing would stop me! of course he got sick on Wednesday. But not too sick. He would be better by thursday morning right? If I checked his temperature a hundred times it was bound to go down, right? Thursday came and I stayed home watching Thomas the tank engine episodes in a marathon, urging him to rest, to get better! He would surely be better on friday morning, plenty of time to go help set up, his temperature was almost gone. It wasn't until late Friday when the wife was done with work that i was able to escape, half the weekend planned already gone. No matter, I made it and made the most of it, seeing old friends and having the time of my life. By this point I jokingly called it pinball summer camp to my wife, it was something I looked forward to all year.
Next year would be different! I will help set up Thursday, I wont miss a minute!
2016
The other day Pinwillie came to pick up a RG project he bought off me seven months ago. I had been jokingly harassing him to come get it for so long, and how funny that he picked the worst possible time in all those months to do so. Literally two minutes before he pulls into the driveway we get the call. We have been on the waiting list for over a year to adopt our second child and a birth mother had just picked us! I run back and forth between my wife on the phone getting info and helping Willie get loaded up and trying to catch up and shoot the shit with an old friend I had not seen in a while. How funny that he found out we were picked before ANYBODY. Even before our mothers.
What does this have to do with PAGG? Of course the birthmother is due April 12th. I have long joked with my wife when she was down and said we would never have another child, "Don't worry honey, its just waiting for the best possible time to ruin Pin a go go for me!"
And I couldn't be happier!

Quoted from Gorf:

Just throwing this out to fellow pinsiders. I live in Dixon and will have a place for you guys to crash if you can't find anywhere to stay.. Send me a PM...

Quoted from blownfuse:

I don't have enough time to go through Bounty Hunter, Force II, Pink Panther and do them the justice they deserve. What about Punk, Striker, Counterforce, Mars, God of war and Time Line? Every year, it gets harder to come up with ideas that outdo the previous show. Sometimes I hit my mark, other times, I shoot off my toes.
Steve

Quoted from Miguel351:

Yes, PAGG is about great games. Yes PAGG is about unique games. Yes PAGG is about cramming as much pinball as possible into a weekend. Just know this about PAGG: What makes it special are the people there and how kickback the whole weekend is. For all the noise and excitement going on inside, there are plenty of us that are just happy to be there, hangin' out with other pinheads, talking shop, and relaxing. The weather is usually pretty good, too. Then, on Sunday, when you decide to take a break from pinball, there's the British car show out on the grass.
It's truly a great, relaxing weekend.

Quoted from blownfuse:

Okay, Punk and Counterforce are a go for PAGG for sure. Counterforce had a dumb sound board related logic glitch but I found the little sucker last night. The sound board had stopped working the last time I brought it to PAGG a few years ago and I forgot about it, I wasn't happy to see it was still there. I guess I forgot to pay the pinball gnomes under the house to fix it for me so they went on strike and never came back. I'm going to add a phone jack to it this weekend and then break it down. On to the blue cabinet sample Time Line next, I'm hoping it'll be easy. The black cabinet sample Mars, God of War and Striker just need a good cleaning so they'll be there too.
I should have a fairly nice black cabinet production Time Line coming up for sale after PAGG. Unfortunately, it won't be ready in time for the show. Please send me a PM if you're interested in the game.
Steve

Quoted from loren3233:

Hey Steve,
Like we spoke about, I found a couple boxes of badges laying off to the side of the showroom floor when we were doing final cleaning/pickup on Monday after last years show. There are over 30 that have not been used and there were a few with Pinside names already on them.
HoakyPoaky
DAMON
Kerry-Richard
Hana9so
Bob C
Anubis 2night
I will see you Friday morning to give them to you.
Loren

Quoted from fnosm:

I will be making some removable vinyl stickers of Pinside avatars for the badges that practicalsteve is providing for PAGG. Please let me know if you would like me to make one for you as well. I associate Pinsider's with their avatar and having it on their badge will be a big help to kickstart my grey matter and maybe yours too. I have posted some examples so you can get a better idea of what I am talking about. Please note these are mockups. I only had one badge to use and I just grabbed a couple of handy avatars for this purpose without asking permission. One final note, practicalsteve is swamped and I promised this wouldn't translate to more work for him. So please let me know if you have any questions/concerns/comments. Deadline is 5pm Thursday night. Sorry for the late notice this idea just came to me at 11 last night
PAGG here we come!
JtL