And we are back. Although it’s not technically sunday, this edition of Scooter Sunday is getting posted on Monday this week. It’s been very busy here at Banal Leakage, with a wedding, travel hell and a whole slew of other life-filling adventures. So let’s get this started.

Thanks to Karl

Much thanks to Karl from Secondhand Tryptophan for guest posting while I was off getting married. His stories always entertain me and I only wish more people would have stopped by to read his work. That’s ok. Go visit him at his blog to catch up on the latest blogger event, BrittCon.

Yard Sale

It is guaranteed that at least once a year, we have a yard sale at our house. In years past, it’s been all of our older stuff. But this year, my step-daughter Earth had a bunch of items she needed to get rid of. Most items were sold and some items went to the local thrift shop, but the one item we were betting on selling right away didn’t sell. Even at $10, no one wanted it. Not sure why.

“I may be older, but I can store a nice TV and stereo system.”
 

Yard sales are slow at times…. very slow. There are lull times waiting for people to stop by. We can just sit there and let the heat get the best of us. But instead, we chose to drink. And everyone loves mojitos.

I made at least 12 of these on Saturday
 
Scooter to the Store

Of course, there was a scooter ride this weekend. Since mojitos were requested, I had to run to get the various limes and club soda needed. No use taking the car when the seat in my scooter can hold a few items. And since the weather is now in the 90′s most of the time, it a nice ride.

 
WALL-E

I have been waiting for this movie to come out for well over a year now. First off, it’s a Pixar (which is now wholly-owned by Disney, which makes it a Disney movie) and with the exception of Cars, I’ve seen and loved them all.

WALL-E tells a very vivid story: in the year 2815, a single robot is left to clean up, (stationed in what are the remains of New York City) after humans can no longer inhabit the planet. In the process of his daily duties, he develops a personality.

The major plot of the movie [which I will not reveal here] flows well and the story stays on track, making it easy for most 16 and older to follow the movie from start to finish. Younger kids will like WALL-E and his interaction with other robots, especially one named EVE. There’s a love story here and it’s a pretty simple one. The various messages of the movie are pretty obvious and those that understand the effects of the environment on our planet will get this movie. Those that don’t, will still enjoy the animation and how all of the characters interact together.

There are all sorts of fun tidbits thrown in, including something instantly recognizable to Mac users. I really liked this film and will see it in the theater at least a couple more times before waiting for it’s release later this year on Blu-Ray.

 
Post Wedding Wrap-Up

The final two days of our wedding weekend were pretty calm. Several of us went to the beach at the lake on Sunday June 22nd and caught some rays and played in the water.

“Hey grandpa, how do I flush this?
 

Then it was back to Reno on Monday to catch a plane back home. This time, we were at least an hour early. Our flight was uneventful going home until we landed back in Utah and went to the baggage claim area. Seems someone else has a similarly-colored blue suitcase and mistakenly took mine.

We filed a baggage claim and within 24 hours, I had my bag, intact with all of my belongings [kudos to Delta's response time and baggage reclaim desk]

Back To Normalcy

Now that the fun and major events are over for a while, it’s time to meld back into daily life. Next week, Scooter Sunday is back in it’s regularly scheduled blog post slot. Stay tuned.

When we last left off, we had just survived the snooty bitches at the airport and were on the plane, ready to start our wedding weekend.

Cabo Wabo

Once our plane landed in Reno, we got our rental car mini-van [only $250 more to upgrade from an SUV], ate some lunch and drove the hour to South Lake Tahoe, it was time to have some fun. A few of us in the wedding party decided that the best way to forget the start of the days events was to throw back a few at the Cabo Wabo Cantina. And we did. Drink that is.

We’ve both had a few drinks at this point
 
Leading up to the Main Event

After waking up to some serious hair of the dog, the girls went to get massages and then later to get their hair and makeup done.

“This smile will be permanent by the end of the night”
 
Get Me To The Beach On Time

We had picked out a nice little cove right on the lake, where the sand was smooth and the privacy was almost guaranteed. The weather was perfect, just a few clouds in the sky. It was time.

It all came down to this one moment
 
Wedding Dinner

After the ceremony, we walked the ten minutes back to The Fresh Ketch for our wedding dinner, which was our treat to everyone that had traveled the distance to be at our wedding.

I hope everyone only had the soup and salad combo
 
Let Them Eat Cake

And what’s a wedding without wedding cake. All of us headed back to the house we rented for the weekend for some after wedding/after dinner celebrating. My sister even brought up some great chocolate candies that were custom made… just for us.

“Uh honey.. is this one of those rum cakes?”
 
Smooth

We couldn’t have asked for a great ceremony and evening. It all went off so well. Guess Karma does have it’s place for all of us.

Continued in Scooter Sunday [which will now be posted on Monday... but just this once.]

As I have posted a few times in the last month about my upcoming wedding, the big day happened this last weekend in South Lake Tahoe, CA. After almost seven years with my fiancé, we decided to tie the knot. Reba, my wife, did most of the planning and made sure everything was taken care of. But nothing could prepare us for the beginning of the trip.

The Start of the Day

We woke up around 7am on Friday. Our flight didn’t leave until 10:55am, so we were not too rushed as we had packed most of our stuff the night before. It was just a matter of adding a few last minute items in our luggage and then off to pick up my daughter and head to the airport.

We realized we took an extra 30 minutes, but not to worry as it was still just past 9am… still plenty of time. But then I needed to head back to the house to get my daughter’s birth certificate (she doesn’t have a drivers license yet). Ok grabbed that. Wait. Reba’s daughter Earth called. They were already at the airport and had forgotten a bag for Ayla (Reba’s granddaughter). So we drove the three blocks to their house to get the bag.

Checking the time… 9:45am.

Ok. A bit concerned about the time, but still confident. On the freeway and at the airport a few minutes after 10am. Not a problem as long as we are at security by no later than 10:30am. Waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the terminal… waiting…. waiting…. more waiting.

Finally at 10:25am, we arrive at sky cap to check out bags. “We are sorry, but you will need to take your bags through security and check them at the gate.”

Ok, now starting to stress.

There is no line at security, with maybe 5 people waiting to go through the x-ray. This is good. Opps… forgot that I had a bag full of body wash and sunscreen that’s more than 3 oz. each. It gets tossed into the overflowing trash heap of other liquids that follow the dumb ass reactive banning of any type of liquid consumables.

Literally running to the gate, my daughter without her shoes on, beads of sweat running down my face, all of us have dry mouths…. we arrive at the gate.

10:48am. The flight leaves at 10:55am.

Denied

“We are sorry, but this flight is closed.”

What The Fuck! We stand there for a few minutes arguing with these snooty bitches who act like they own Delta Airlines.

“You will have to go over to the information counter to catch a later flight.”

Now at the information counter, the gentleman looks up our tickets and starts asking stupid questions about how we obtained our tickets [purchased from Delta.com, as it shows on the boarding passes we printed out].

“Because it was your fault you missed your flight and not Delta’s, you will need to pay $1,205.00 to be on standby for the next flight to Reno, which leaves at 3:25pm”

My response: “Are you fucking serious? Bullshit!” At this point, both Reba and I are livid and just in shock. My daughter is now putting on her shoes and wondering how she’s going to spend the next 4 hours in the airport.

Reba is now walking away from the gate, grabbing her printed boarding pass. During the time we were waiting for the parking shuttle bus to this point in time, she has been on the phone with Earth, who is on the plane with Ayla and her boyfriend Charlie.

Earth has been telling the crew on the plane that they can’t leave. “There are three passengers that still need to board. I am going to my mom’s wedding and she won’t even be there for it.” At this point, we have left the gate area and are heading up the escalator, considering going back to the car and driving to Tahoe.

11:05am. Reba’s cell phone rings again. It’s Earth.

“They are paging you at the gate. Go back to the gate now.” Reba hands me her phone as all of us run back to the gate.

We arrive back at the gate. At this point, I hand the cell phone back to Reba.

Snooty bitch #1 tells us “We are sorry, but the plane has left the gate. You cannot board.”

Our repeated response back, “No it hasn’t. The pilot is on the phone with me now and is telling us that we were paged back to the gate.”

“No one has paged you.” I look over and the phone is ringing and no one is picking it up.

“Uh… the phone is ringing. That may be the pilot calling you,” I said to Snooty bitch #2.

11:09am. Finally, the lone male at the counter picks up the phone. “You need to talk to the pilot.” He hands the phone to Snooty bitch #1. In a dejected tone of voice, she looks at us and says, “Let’s see your boarding passes”

Access Granted

As they open the door for us, they repeat their disgust with us that “we have held up 70 people from their flight.” We simply keep quiet, go through the door and run down to the gate to board the plane.

At this point, we are expecting all sorts of evil eyes from the already boarded passengers. Instead, we are met with a smiling crew ready to help smooth things over for us. It is this crew that renews my faith in Delta and keeping my continued traveling business with them. And while part of the reason was our fault we were running late, not all of the blame rested with us. We could have saved 20 minutes if the gate staff would have not copped an attitude and let us on the plane, as it was obviously still at the gate. Not to mentioned the shuttle bus driver who took his time getting out to pick us up.

Regardless, we were on the plane and headed for Reno, Happy and relieved.

“She’s the one. She got them on the plane”
 

Together and happy
 

“We made it. Now where’s our gin and tonics?”

Continued in Part 2: The Big Day

This is not the post I wanted to post before leaving for Lake Tahoe, CA this weekend. I will save it for next week when I come back.

Until then, Karl will serve up a nice, steaming hot blog post for Scooter Sunday. Enjoy and we’ll see you all next week.