What NOT to take into the Embassy...

Alix and I recently made a trip to the US Embassy in order to get her passport renewed. When you first enter you have to turn over your cell phone and other electronics (Items 1, 2, and 3). They then x-ray your bag before finally letting you enter. After x-raying my bag, there were a few questionable items that they wanted to explore further:

#4 - Pepper Spray - which they removed (of course)
#5 - Alix' current crochet project - they let us take this with us
#6 - I don't know what this is, or how it got in my bag, but they decided to remove this too. It must be something quite dangerous.

#7 - Mini-tripod - They let us keep this.
#8 - They also let us keep Alix' book. I think she would have rather they held her book and let her have her iPod, though.