I wonder, would anyone actually be paying attention if there were a terrorist right in front of them?
Today Ray and I were at Micro Center looking for a USB hub for the Mac Mini (yeah!) he got me for my birthday. We were in an aisle containing various electronic components when I noticed a man very inappropriately dressed for the warm weather (camo pants, combat boots, heavy black canvas jacket with a patch displaying the word “balistics” on it) and wearing a large backpack. I instantly thought to myself - Suicide Bomber!!! I have to admit that had he not been over 6 feet tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed, and obviously of some European descent I probably would have high-tailed it out of there in great fear for my life, especially in light of the fact that it was the day after the anniversary of 9/11. A boy of about 12 years old on entering the store even commented to his dad on the odd appearance of this guy.
We made our purchase and as soon as we were safely in our car I asked Ray if he’d noticed the “suicide bomber.” To my surprise, he hadn’t. Now you always hear that you should be aware of such things in this day and age and report it to the “authorities.” Still I was hesitant to overreact and call 911, but I did call the store to tell them of the suspicious character. Silly as this seemed to me, I just wouldn’t have been able to live with myself had he truly been some wacko and people actually got hurt. Stranger things have happened. So, I did my duty as an American and notified the manager.
I’m sure nothing ever came of it. There was nothing on the nightly news anyway. I wonder if he just likes to walk around looking suspicious to see if anyone reacts or even notices him or maybe he just wasn’t able to find that little electronic component he needed to complete his bomb and decided to just abort his mission. I guess I’ll never know the answer.
Anna is now half a year old. It’s been such an exciting month. She is so much fun!
At Miss Anna’s 6-month well child checkup she weighed 15 pounds 3 ounces and was 26 1/4 inches long. That’s 30th percentile for weight and 60th for length. She’s gone down in percentile from 60th for weight and 95th for length since her 4-month checkup. The pediatrician says this is completely normal and due to her increased activity recently. Her torticollis has really improved and we were told that she may not have a perfectly round head but that it will probably not even be noticeable. She’s otherwise a very healthy baby and doing well.
She smiles all the time and laughs quite a bit now. She loves blowing razzberries, babbling, and singing in the car. She’s learned to roll from her back onto her tummy and also to sit up without assistance. We think she’ll be crawling very soon. This is a bit scary since she’s such a busy, curious little baby and we know we’ll soon be running after her.
Anna started eating solids a couple weeks ago. It’s been very messy, but she seems to enjoy it. Her first meal was just some breast milk thickened with a little rice cereal fed to her with a spoon. After she mastered that, we thickened it a bit and then started giving her baby foods like sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, peas, and bananas. Her favorite, though, is cold (from the fridge) water in a sippy cup. She loves it and tries to hold the cup herself, but she doesn’t quite understand that she needs to tip her head back and so still needs some help with it.
We went on our first family weekend trip. We drove up to the North Shore. We stayed in a hotel in Superior, Wisconsin, and hung out in Duluth. She loved the aquarium and also the boat cruise we went on. She’s really into water. Unfortunately, she cried when she was scared by the loud horn on the lift bridge. She also had a great time at Gooseberry Falls and Tom’s Logging Camp. Eating in restaurants is getting a little tough now, though, since she has trouble sitting still for very long and gets bored without fun stuff to look at, but it was a great trip and we were surprised by how well she adjusted to the change in routine. She’s such a good baby!
