At one of my old jobs, I'd call in a say that something was wrong in my apartment (usually the toliet) and that I had to wait for office to open up so that I could report it. This worked only because I had to be at work at 8 and the office opened at 9.
Now that I have a job that I really love and a very stable company with cool co-workers

I don't need to make up any excuses anymore