Jay and Bonnie were excited about their June 2009 visit to England to be with Robert and Natalie and their new baby, Benjamin.

There were some problems with flights, but they were worked out and that is another story.

Bonnie had purchased a crib bumper for Benjamin and we were carrying it with us. The box that the bumper was in was about 30 inches long by 9 inches wide by 9 inches deep. At the check-in counter we asked if the bumper could be carried in the plane's overhead compartment as a carry-on item. The box did not meet the specifications for a carry-on item, but it was relatively small and there was a very, very good probability that it would fit in an overhead compartment quite easily.

The airline counter attendants were very polite, but noted that the carry-on decision was not theirs to make; it was a matter of whether or not the people looking at our luggage would make this exception.

So we thought about it, and decided not to check the bumper as baggage but to see if we could get it through as a carry-on.

The first checkpoint was the one before you took the shuttle down to the planes' arrival and departing gates. The lady at the gateway looked at the box and noted that it did not meet "specifications," and said we would have to go back and check it as baggage.

So Jay and Bonnie had to retreat from the gateway and go back downstairs to the check-in area where they tried to decide what to do.

While Jay – the engineer – was running the various decision models through his brain, Bonnie proceeded to open the box, remove the bumper, re-fold the bumper so that it would meet carry on specifications, and crush the box so it also met specifications. Voila! Bonnie's carry-on and Jay's carry-on.

Back upstairs to the gateway. Same lady Gate Guard. The bumper-in-a-box was now two carry-ons. They passed!

Once past the Gate Guards Bonnie "uncrushed" the box and re-rolled the crib bumper to go back inside it. Yes, it traveled on two different planes to England nested cozily in overhead compartments.

There is a moral here someplace about how Bonnie solves problems and how Jay tries to solve problems, but that is also for another story - one that will never be published by Jay.