Maybe I'm the travel idiot?

So, I'm going through security at the Houston airport and put my computer bag through. It gets a second inspection. They ran it through the x-ray a second time in Columbus, too, so I was wondering what the deal was. The TSA guy says, "Do you have a bottle of water in here?" I say, "No, not that I know of." Then he pulls out this:

He's holding it like a gun, and his eyes get all big and he says, "What is this?!?!?!" After I recover from thinking the TSA guy is robbing me, I calmly explain that it's an extra battery for my laptop, despite it's gun-like appearance. Here's the good part. Then, still holding it like a gun and waving it overhead, he yells over to the other TSA lady sitting about 45 feet away, "Hey, look at this!" She about falls out of her chair, and he got a good laugh out of that. I said, "Just remember, you're the one joking about it and not me." I was having visions of dying in handcuffs at the Houston airport, all because some idiot TSA guy thought my laptop battery was a gun.

Note to self: don't take that extra battery on the next flight. The nice thing is that I managed to inadvertently sneak a bottle of hand lotion, courtesy of the Hampton Inn, in my computer bag. He was too preoccupied with my "gun" to notice :)

Oh, and I did sit next to bare feet guy on the way back to Columbus. I don't know what it is with men and not wearing footwear on airplanes...