competition: Whats the best excuse on being LATE for class

i'm going to school to become an auto tech engineer, so car problems always get me out. something along the lines of, "i have an intermittent problem with an open on my ckp sensor circuit, my car stalls at idle. I plugged a scanner to it and got a code 4-1. My car runs at 21 Hg. of vaccum, but when i snap the throttle it hits zero, so i adjusted valve clearance. that didn't work. when my MIL light went on, i retarded the timing. then after a few miles my car stalled again but wouldn't crank." then the teacher says, "ok, no prob, bring it into lab and we'll check it out." then I tell my instructor, "oh I can't, my dog ate my car."