From the guy who brought us Hey There Khalilah:

I think I have a crush.

Who needs the McDonald’s ball pit? Not our kid!

It’s PMAG Day! We’ve been waiting on these bad boys since a week after Election Day.

So. Worth. It.

Let the jealousy comence.

P.S. The box is about 8″ deep. Yeeeeeeeeeeees.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum supermarket.

About an hour ago (10pm), The Inconvenience and I decided to walk to the supermarket to get something to eat. (We’re overdue for grocery shopping, can you tell?) We loaded The Girl Child up into her stroller and set off on foot. The supermarket in question is a block away, and we cut through the county fairgrounds to get there. It’s a straight shot, but not very well-lit at night.

As we stepped onto the grounds, I noticed a male figure bopping around in an open grassy area. Again, not very well-lit, and he was wearing dark clothes. My situational awareness kicked up a notch, and I knew Mike had noticed him too. Neither of us said anything, just kept talking and walking. As we walked forward along the road, the guy cut in at an angle between a building and some Jersey barriers.

About this time, I noticed he was playing around with something. Then I noticed it was a big, shiny knife. Probably an 8″ blade. And he was stabbing a post with it.

What. the. hell.

Guess who wasn’t armed? Your dumbass humble blogger, that’s who. Fortunately, that’s why your dumbass humble blogger married The Inconvenience, and I saw my darling husband casually remove his gun-side hand from his pocket. Good, I thought. At least one of us is prepared.

Anyway, Creepshow falls in ahead of us, walking the same direction. He had an Army digi backpack. We followed him across the fairgrounds, and he went to the same grocery store. Once inside, I saw that he was wearing a dark Members Only style jacket, an ARMY shirt, some weird utility belt kinda thing, and jeans and tennis shoes. He looked young, shaved head. The Inconvenience theorized he was a dumb PFC who didn’t know any better. I don’t even think the kid was Army, I think he was a poser who likes surplus stores.

We ran into him in one of the aisles. I didn’t see the interaction, but apparently as he passed Mike he went quickly for his knife-side to make sure it was covered – presumably since he knew we’d seen it. Mike said the sudden movement just about earned the kid an elbow in the gut.

By the time we walked back home, the kid was with some other guy at the back of a UHaul-style truck, which they had a strap running out of and around a cement post at the fairgrounds. I have absolutely no friggin’ clue what they were up to, only that they had my Spidey Sense on high alert. I made sure we took the long way around the block rather than the direct line to our house, just in case.

Seriously, though. What. the. hell.

1) Carry, stupid.
2) I’m glad I had The Inconvenience go with us, because I almost set off with the kiddo alone. Granted, if it were a solo excursion I probably would have made sure I was a) armed and b) packing my cell phone. But still. I like having a big strong protector-type husband.
3) While I like having a big strong protector-type husband, I do not like the feeling of my safety being in the hands of anyone other than myself, even him. See point #1.
4) Creepshow might want to read up on his Idaho weapon laws.
5) I’m glad we were prepared to handle a situation, should one have arisen, but that we did not create a situation by being mentally unprepared and escalating what need not be. I’m also glad The Inconvenience and I were on the same page – and we never said a word about it until after the possible threat had passed. It’s good to go over these things in your own head, and even better to go over them with folks you’re frequently with.

Carry, stupid.

The Girl Child and I just walked over to The Sister’s house. On the way, I passed a car parked at an apartment complex sporting this bumper sticker:

It’s a Che Guevara quote: “The true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love.”

I didn’t have a piece of paper, and I didn’t want to paraphrase, so when I got to The Sister’s house I looked up a couple of quotes I’m familiar with and wrote them down. I’ll be leaving this note on the car when I pass back by:

“I carried out a very summary inquiry and then the peasant Aristidio was executed. …It is not possible to tolerate even the suspicion of treason.” – Che Guevara 1956

“Hatred [is] an element of the struggle. …A relentless hatred of the enemy, impelling us over and beyond the natural limitations that man is heir to and transforming him into an effective, violent, selective and cold kiling machine. Our soldiers must be thus; a people without hatred cannot vanquish a brutal enemy. We must carry the war into every corner the enemy happens to carry it: to his home, to his centres of entertainment; a total war.” – Che Guevara, “Message to the Tricontinental”

FEELING THE LOVE? STUDY HISTORY, not BUMPER STICKERS.
<3, A Revolutionary

This is better than the time I left a note because someone had a bumper sticker that said “It doesn’t take a war to power my bicycle.” The bumper sticker was on their truck.

Sorry about the PGB outage. PSA: If you switch your web hosting to monthly billing, they tend to appreciate if you, you know, pay them monthly. Ahem.

As an aside, I need to give a plug for Dreamhost. For whatever reason, the web panel didn’t like me much when I was trying to log in to re-up my account, so I emailed for help. I received a reply in less than ten minutes, sent them the information they needed, and received a second reply within ten minutes. First email to problem solved: 18 minutes. Quite impressive.

The Girl Child and I are back in Idaho, swine-flu free (thus far anyway). Thanks for all your well-wishes. Regarding the masks-on-the-airplane thing: I was aware of the airborne nature of the flu, but figured I’d a) give myself a barrier between stray sneezes/coughs and b) protect myself from myself, because I’m HORRIBLE about touching my face all the time. It’s a moot point, though, because I forgot I had the stupid thing. I did wash my hands A LOT.

Anyway, Feliz Cinco de Quatro. I am so glad we have a president soooooooooo much smarter than GWB, aren’t you?