clean-up on aisle 911

We had an interesting afternoon and evening here.  And when I say interesting, I mean really kind of crazy.  Plus we have bats in our attic, but let's not go there right now.  I'm really freaked out that one will get into the baby's room and bite her, but again, let's not go there.  Did you know they don't leave a mark when they bite?  Ok, focus, Ruthie.

So the other day we took a family trip to IKEA, which was pretty much awesome as is usual with IKEA.  The babysitting room was full, but no problem, because Fletcher likes the whole store, really.  We bought a few things along with the mattress we were there to buy, including some really cute lamps I had my eye on ever since a friend bought them with me on a previous trip.  I had assumed they used florescent bulbs, but when I got them home I realized they were some other kind of bulb that got superdy-duperdy hot hot hot.  Like I burned my finger hot.  And just the right size for a small hand to reach in and burn his or her fingers, too.  So back to the store they went, where I got the bigger version that DOES use the florescent bulbs, shown here beyond the original small burny hot one:

Yes, I took my camera into IKEA.  What, you don't?  Seriously, people looked at me weird, but whatever.  I'm practicing my craft.  Er, hobby.

Whoa, I've gotten off track.  So today we took the lamps back to exchange them, this time leaving the kiddos with the babysitter.  While sitting at a stoplight, we saw something really disturbing in the white Nissan in front of us.  The man was beating the woman next to him.  Like punching harrrrd.  And she was punching back somewhat, too.  And of course, Brian being Brian, throws the car into park and starts getting out of the car.  So I'm holding onto his arm with one hand and calling 911 with the other.  But my calls to 911 keep dropping, and my phone's not working.  Finally we call on Brian's phone and get through, telling them the details of who, when, where, etc.  Meanwhile we see the woman get out of the car and walk off.  We turn around and go back to see if she wants us to take her somewhere or wait with her until the police get there, but we cannot find her or the car she came out of.  So we go onto IKEA.  The cops keep calling my phone over and over, trying to find out if I'm alright since my calls were dropping.  I call them back and say, YES, I'm fine, stop calling.  So they call Brian and ask him what kind of car he drives.  What???  They are all shades of confused about what we called about before, so he explains all over again, and we think: the end. 

Thennnn, our babysitter calls, asking if we are OK.  Yes, we're fine...?  Okay, well, the police were asking about you... And so we assume they somehow looked up our home number and she talked to them over the phone.  But on the way home, I check my email on my phone, and find one from my neighbor asking if everything is ok, what with all the police cars in front of our house.  Wha???  When we got home, our babysitter told us the police came, asking where I was, asking to see in our garage.  And they were apparently not so nice to her.

Boo, police.  How did this get so messed up?  We gave the make, model, and license plate of the other car, and what do they do?  They take my phone number, look up my address, and come harass my babysitter because they thought I was the victim.  Meanwhile, they admit to me over the phone they have YET to visit the home of the Nissan owner.  Seriously?  Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the service of others, grateful for the policemen, firemen, military who risk their lives to keep us all safe.  But I really really hope that this is not the norm.

p.s. Brian will touch a burny hot light bulb if you ask him to test it after you burn your own finger on it.  But then he'll walk around IKEA holding ice and saying: Ow, ow, ow.  He's so pretty.