The first half of the story can be told with a picture:

Yes, our flight got into St. Louis five hours late. Apparently, we got caught in the "domino effect" of delayed flights. And as you can imagine, after spending almost 7 hours at the airport, our nerves were a little raw. This sets the stage for the second half of our story: the losing of the luggage.

First there is the customary hour or so of anxious waiting, watching that carousel with ever-growing dread as the realization slowly dawns that our bags aren't going to arrive. Then, there is new hope, as the Continental baggage claim representative reassures us in a charming Jamaican accent that the missing bags from 3462 ended up on flight 3442, and that flight's luggage is about to hit carousel M6 any second. Then there is another hour of anxious waiting and slowly dawning realizations. Only this time it is accompanied by an accute rage and a vague sense of the absurd meaninglessness of life. Rachel and I return to the Continental service desk, only to find the office empty and the door locked. I note Rachel's extraordinary calm as she refrains from smashing the glass door open, and we follow the instructions on the door and go upstairs to speak to a ticketing agent. Fists clenched, we climb the stairs and approach the ticket counter. It is completely deserted, and Rachel and I both discovered new heights of anger. I think I blacked out for a few minutes at this point. I hope I didn't kill anybody. When I regained consciousness, we were back downstairs at the Continental baggage claims office waiting in line as the Jamaican lady explained to the room full of irate travelers that there was a mix-up, and some of the bags intended from 3462 might have been on 3402, and that one was just arriving. Rachel informs the woman that, "We are not waiting again." I guess the woman did not like Rachel's tone, because she shot back with an angry, "Did I ask you to wait?" and repeated it for emphasis. Suddenly I find her accent much less charming. Rachel points out that she asked us to go back out and wait last time and the bags never showed up. Another guy in the room explains to the Continental woman that we have been traveling for over 8 hours at this point and suggests that she adjust her attitude a little. This advice was not given its due consideration. Finally, Rachel leaves the office to go call her mom, and I stay behind to file the claim, and we go home.

As of 10:30 this morning, the bag has still not been located. Of course, I leave for the airport again in about 15 mintutes for my flight to Minneapolis, and I'll have to replace a number of missing items once I get there, but I take comfort in the fact that my flight today is not with Continental.

Anyway, unlike the guy in the Metalica video, my phone has Bluetooth, and by blindly pressing the right sequence of buttons, I was able to coax it into uploading all of its photos to my computer. Then I transfered the SIM card to a replacement that T-mobile sent me, and everything was as good as new. (Things didn't work out nearly as well for the guy in the Metalica video, who ultimately used Morse code to beg for death and ended up getting his feeding tube pulled.)

So for all of you out there who love justice, I have good news. The photo of our culprit's plates was salvaged, and hopefully it will provide the police with the information they need to get this rogue driver off the streets. (To celebrate my triumph, I have posted the photo. However, to protect the accused's privacy, I have obscurred the numbers. Yes, I realize that this makes the picture kind of pointless.)

Except... I happened to take a photo of the plates with my camera phone. (Yes, I know, I'm a bit over-zealous with my camera phone.) Now all we need to do is take a quick look at the photo, and we can verify that we gave the police the correct number. Say "good-bye" to your license, Oldy McAlmostKilledSomebody.

Except... my phone is currently malfunctioning. The screen no longer works, so I have no way to see any photos I've taken with it, and I can't transfer it off the phone, because I can't see any of the menus. T-mobile says they can't fix it, and they can't help me get my data off the phone. So the situation is pretty much hopeless.

Unless... I use the replacement phone T-Mobile sends me to navigate the image-transfer menus, while mirroring the very same button-presses blindly on the broken phone. By doing so, I should be able to transfer the photo to my computer, from which I can email it to the police.

The new phone arrives sometime this week. Enjoy your freedom while it lasts, Pappy.

First, I have to say that I'm very lucky that I was yielding to another car at the time, since otherwise I would most likely have been in the middle of the intersection when the car drove through. Second, the guy I was yielding to should feel very lucky that he hadn't been paying very close attention to the light. Right before the incident, I remember feeling slightly annoyed that the car across the street from me was taking his sweet time driving through the intersection, since I was stuck waiting for him. In retrospect, that was very fortunate for both of us.

As you might understand, I was pretty upset about what happened, so I decided to try and get the driver's plates. I ended up following the driver as he pulled into a parking lot, where he got out of his car and began putting fliers advertising for a mortgage company on other people's windshields. I got out of my car as well, and I was able to get a good look at the driver (an elderly, white male wearing glasses and a navy blue cap) and his vehicle (a maroon Buick Le Sabre). I also grabbed one of his fliers. (I'm not sure why I did this. For evidence, I suppose.)

Because the driver was so advanced in years and because he obviously had no justifiable reason for driving so recklessly (there was no pregnant woman giving birth in his back seat -- I checked), I thought it would be best to call the police and report the incident. I hope this was the right thing to do. I'm still waiting for the police to call me back, and I'm not really sure what the process is for this sort of thing, but I do hope they will be able to do something to get this driver off the road. I'm a little conflicted, because I start to feel bad when I imagine the trouble this may end up causing for the man and his family, but I also really think someone could have been seriously hurt, and so I feel like I have a responsibility to report it. If the police ever get back to me, I'll be sure to update you all on what happens.

And in closing, because I'm so fond of visual aids, and because I really like the new "My Maps" feature on google maps, here is a map summarizing what happened.

But for the moment, I just want to brag about the awesome resort Rachel and I are staying at. It's called "Excellence Riviera" and it's located on the tip of the Yucatan peninsula (here it is on Google maps). Anyway, it's really beautiful here, and the weather is perfect. This is the view from our balcony:

and here's a picture I took of the beach.

Anyway, it's time for dinner now. I'll try to post more later. Adios.

Since it was such a nice day, Rachel and I decided to let Elliott go outside for a while. However, Elliott is very much an indoor cat, and he never seems quite sure how to respond when we actually let him out. When he's inside, he spends much of his time either looking longingly out the window or attempting to slip out the front door, but when he's outside, he mostly just crouches timidly in one place and looks around nervously.

Yesterday, he gathered enough courage to venture up to the pond, where he took the opportunity to rub his nose on a number of things. The bushes across the street from our apartment (shown in the picture below) presumably belong to him now. (Elliott probably regards this as quite the conquest.)

Also, I just want to note that Elliott really is a beautiful cat. Just look at how well he photographs.

Seriously, he could be a cat model. Okay, maybe a plus-size model.

My plan for the day is to quarantine myself in my office and try to finish the work I didn't get done when I was out of commission yesterday. Then I will collapse and sleep for 12 hours. And hopefully, when I wake up tomorrow, I will be well again. At least, that's the plan.

Apparently, his keen feline senses led him straight to a bag of shrimp tails, which he deftly retrieved from our kitchen counter and proceded to eat. As you can clearly see in the picture above, our cat is enormous and incredibly bad.

Whilst there, we happened to see the following product, which I will share with you now. If you are in the 3rd grade (and, apparently, Rachel and I both are), you will find this very amusing.

Yeah, I know. Aren't you all so glad I have a camera phone now?

(P.S. am I the only person driven absolutely crazy by the French language's ridiculous abundance of vowels? Is it really necessary to use three of the five vowels (with an 'x' for good measure!) just to make the long 'o' sound? Not to mention the fact that 'o' isn't even one of the three. I have always been inordinately troubled by this.)

Anyway, moving on to Saturday, my mom and sister were in town and came by to help us with our invitations. I suppose all that procrastination inadvertantly paid off, since my mom and sister were both expert ribbon tie-ers. My mom, who is quite multi-talented, also helped Rachel and I make the wedding favors, which turned out really nicely (especially considering how unusual and complicated the idea we chose was).

Finally, on Sunday Rachel went to a bridal shower that my mom and sister threw for her. One of my aunts hosted the party at her house, and, in addition to a number of Rachel's friends, a large contingent of my aunts and cousins were there. I stayed home and cleaned the apartment (because I'm very domestic like that), but Rachel reportedly had a very good time, and we received numerous awesome gifts from our surprisingly generous friends and relatives. Also, after Rachel got back, we ate tacos and watched the Oscars.

So, in conclusion, my weekend was very busy and fun. How was yours?

I think they turned out really well, but I have to admit it's kind of surreal seeing my name on the invitations. Rachel and I have been engaged for almost a year now, but I still find it hard to fathom that in less than two months we will be husband and wife. Growing up is weird.

However, at the moment the task at hand is tying lots and lots of beautiful and tasteful bows. Perhaps I'll post more on the topic a bit later tonight.