The year ticks ever down and it is once again time to play Humiliation, which is generally played in community since it is an on-line party game.

Now in its 7th year, one of our Flyertalk traditions is to cyberly gather at the end of each year and play Humiliation to expose ourselves to ridicule. And, with so many new Flyertakers, there is so much more opportunity for ridicule.

In the past, this game has been limited to travel-related errors, but in that I didn�t do anything travel-related-stupid in �06, what is the most humiliating thing that you have done all year? But, extra points if it is travel related.

Remember, if you are too shy, you can out your loved ones and/or enemies�.They will never know.

I almost burned down the back house and garage.

Last month the electrician and the pool plasterers were doing some work and one of them turned off the back breakers. When I later went to the guest house and found the small fridge off and a lot of food ruined and turkey defrosted, I angrily turned back on all the breakers.

Three or four hours later, a friend called me asking for a NYC hotel recommendation, and telling him that his meeting site sounded more like SoHo than Lower Manhattan, I went to my travel library for a NYC guide and map, only to find the back house completely inundated with smoke.

I had always worried about the kids turning on the stove by mistake, so I had previously turned off the breaker to the electric stove and oven. And (here’s the no-brainer part) since I had disabled the oven, I kept the brochure to the gas barbeque and an associated cookbook in the oven, because, you know….

All the paper had burned to ash, and the electric burners all glowed red hot. It could have been worse; I’m surprised I didn’t store extra cans of gasoline on the stove top.

Everything in the back house still smells of smoke, reminding me that I’m inching ever closer to that coveted Darwin Award.

I feel like I’ve taken an early lead.

Can't top that. You win jailer.

Early lead? I'd say game over Hilarious.

It's been a while, but ....

We were moving to a rental house in a nearby town and made several trips to drop off stuff. Our kids were about 4 and 7 and fascinated with switches. Yes, the plot thickens.

A few days before we made the final move I called the electric company and had the power turned on. When we eventually arrived there were a few lights on and ALL FOUR BURNERS OF THE ELECTRIC STOVE! Yes, they were bright red and the ventilation fan and cabinet were very, very hot. I think we arrived just in time, and were extremely fortunate nothing flammable was sitting on or near the stove.

Pretty good stove though, that it could be left on high for several days and not burnout.

(This is the same house where we learned what a chiminey fire is. Very hot, so we opened the doors to cool down the inside. We stayed indoors because a few bricks blew off the outside of the chimney and the roaring noise was fantastic. I don't remember how we got it out.)

Jeez. . .you guys are scaring me!

Just two days ago.

For the last 6 months, my wife has been taking me to the airport, as we had been trying to sell our house and she uses my SUV to carry the dogs and kids during a showing. When I return late at night, I end up using a car service to get home.
Last week, I ended up taking my car to the airport. It was a very long trip from PBI-YEG, 12 hour days and a very long, long 3 leg trip back. By habit, I walked straight into a car service. On the way home, my wife calls me. I joked that I might stop for a drink with the driver. She asked "Driver?" Finally, it dawns on me that I drove myself to the airport and have now wasted a $70 ride home, plus my wife has to drive me back to the airport the next day. Embarassing to say the least.
This December has been way too hectic.

I think Flyertalker Sweet Willie's saying applies: happy wife, happy life. Hopefully she'll get a HUGE tip.

I've done the car/taxi/limo thing before - actually was listed in Chapter 1 of a friend's book that was published earlier this year.

I was on the road a LOT & I always take a cab because I live close to LAX, so it's less expensive than most alternatives. One time I drove because it was a same-day trip & that's the only timing parking is less than taxi. But when I landed, out of habit I headed to the cab line & it wasn't until I put the key in my front door that I remembered I drove to the airport that day - duh. And then I said screw it. I'm tired, I paid for 24hours, I'll go back tomorrow a.m. & pick up the car. Which I did.

I just know big time that I've made dumber mistakes when traveling, but we are talking '06 so we'll let those slide

Cheers.

Maybe laugh now, because it surely does not help to cry about it but all I can think of is how lucky you and your family were. It just shows how vulnerable we all are.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a scarf at HKG for HK$370 and left it on the plane.

I left two Ipods on planes this year, one with a nice pair of NC headphones.

I've lost countless sunglasses, but that's OK as I only buy the cheap ones.

Lost of clothes left in hotels.

People say I'm absent-minded, but I just say that I am non-materialistic.

I travel every week for my job; a very steady routine. Like every week beforehand, I drove my car to IAD, found a parking spot on level 4 of Garage #1 like I always do. I took the elevator down to the underground tunnel, walked the half mile to the Main Terminal. Through security and on to the IAD mobile lounge.

Once I am on the mobile lounge, I use that time to check text messages. Oh crap, I left my phone in the car! I go back to the Main Terminal and back to my car. With the extra time I needed to retrieve the phone, I made my flight just as the gate agent was paging my name and announcing final boarding call. Whew!

The worst part of this? The very next week I almost did it again! I remembered as I was walking away from my car and only had to retrace about 15 feet of my steps. Never forgot before those two weeks nor any time after.

I think this was 2005, but I'll add it here ... I switched purses the night before a weekend trip. As I'm driving into the garage at the airport, I start getting that feeling I've forgotten something, as I walked to the elevator I started down the checklist, when I got on the elevator I got to ID and realized that I left my drivers license in the other purse. Oops!! Head back up and out, drive home and back to the airport, of course my flight leaves from something like D1 (between the mobile lounge drop offs for D and C) I missed that flight by less than 5 minutes -- they had already printed the paperwork and were down closing the door and moving the jetway when I showed up (they said they'd been paging me for a bit but I never heard it). Oh well, at least I was able to get on the next flight and just made my original connection!

I went to Iceland on a 61.00 roundtrip with a buddy of mine when IcelandAir had the fare mistake. We went total budget, rented the cheapest car & camped the entire time we were there - had a great time. The last night there, we went into Reykjavik & had a nice dinner since we had been going low budget. One thing led to another & we ended up getting quite drunk. Actually, more drunk that I've ever been probably and was partying with some people we met at the restaurant/bar.

Our campsite was in Keflavik, so the next morning, when I woke up (with my feet hanging out of my tent), I found my buddy Tony passed out in his tent, the car with the driver's side door open (normally, I do not drink & drive, but this was apparently the exception to the rule) and a reciept in my pocket for approximately 98,000 Kronur. My buddy Tony's receipt was about 130,000 Kronur. That's almost $3K USD between the two of us. And yes, it was legit, I don't think they overcharged us. We had bottles of wine, liquor, and champagne.

Never going back to Iceland with Tony...But we've got Vegas coming up soon...that'll be interesting!

In the original spirit of mileage-related bad behaviour:

This was a bad loyalty year for me. I flew DL, AF, NW, CO, AS, AA, US, UA, HP, WN, AC and probably a few others. On top of that, I credited *A miles to 3 different airlines (UA, US & AC) instead of concentrating on one. I didn't miss Platinum on Delta by very much this year. I also have paid upgrades on AA and UA that are likely to expire. And I paid for E+ access on United, and then barely flew them at all.

Hotels were just as bad. I stayed at Hiltons (barely missing Gold), Marriotts, Hyatts, Starwood, Intercontinental and (please forgive me) a whole bunch of nights at hotels that pay no points at all.

I stayed a bunch of nights in Las Vegas, and didn't use the $20 trick.