Nice to be back home. My experience in the hospital was remarkably low in stress, given the way I feel about hospitals, but it's also nice to not be at the mercy of someone else's schedule (not to mention the fact that Rick was so allergic to something in the room that he had to do most of his visiting by phone). I did get to explain the population genetics of lactose intolerance to one nurse, and chat about Hymenoptera with another (who happens to be married to a beekeeper).

My friend Holly gave me a get-well gift of a cute little multi-pastel crushy plush bug, with an even cuter little pastel-checked bow on its head where its hair would be if a bug had hair. Now, this is no ordinary bug. It's definitely an arachnid, given that it has eight legs, but it's not at all spiderlike; the legs kind of curl around the front in a manner that gives away its true identity. Yup, it's a teddy tick. I kept it tucked into bed with me on my first day in the hospital, and, in true tick form, it seemed attracted to the little blood-type stickers that had been placed on my wristband. Or vice versa. I dunno, but the stickers kept peeling off the wristband and sticking to the tick. You can color a tick aqua and canary and pink and stick a little bow on its fuzzy plush head, but it's still bound to express its true tickness somehow.