A non-starter

I am so frustrated. On Wednesday I got the lawnmower out, changed the oil, and sharpened the blade as I do every year. Then, on Thursday, I put the blade back on and filled the gas tank to cut the grass for the first time this season. I pulled the starter cord and... nothing. The engine wouldn't start.

No engine to start here. Except that you need a horse to make it work.

I realized after a minute that I had forgotten to reconnect the spark plug (I take it off before messing with the blade so that there's no chance of an accidental start). So, I reconnected it. Still nothing. It's quite possible that I flooded the engine while the spark plug was disconnected, but the engine still wouldn't start after an hour or so. Merde.

I'll try starting it up again this morning after having let it sit overnight. If it doesn't start, I'll have to lug it into the shop. Merde encore. If it does start, it's too late because it's supposed to rain this morning and I will have missed my window to cut the grass while it's dry.

UPDATE: So I went out and tried to start 'er up again. No luck. Then I thought about the air filter. I opened the filter case and the filter was saturated with gasoline. Gas actually dripped out of the compartment when I removed the filter. With the filter off, the engine starts right up and runs normally (except for some smoke at first, but that cleared up). I'm letting the filter dry out now. I may go out to see if I can get a new one. A quick trip to the hardware store and I got a new filter. The mower works normally again and I got a section of the lawn cut before the rain started.