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.

Something that's amusing: A Swiss yacht winning the America's Cup. Next up: Bolivia. :-)

Something that's distressing: The fact that the gummint hired an advertising executive to improve the image of the U.S. in the Muslim world. Now, maybe Charlotte Beers' resignation itself is neither here nor there, but the U.S. government has missed ample opportunities over the last 50 years to improve its image abroad (in the Muslim world and elsewhere); hiring an ad flack to do it has got to be way down at the bottom of the list of techniques, effectiveness-wise.

Something to smile about: Joyce coming over with another comedy video tonight, to keep me distracted from tomorrow's scheduled -- er, downsizing. However I feel afterwards, though, it'll be good to have it over with and be off the rollercoaster. I just keep reminding myself: My mother, my mother-in-law, a remarkably large number of my friends, one of my favorite WMU professors, and my in-laws' poodle have all been through this procedure and have come through it just fine.

Signing off for a few days; I promise to keep the post-game organ recitals to a minimum.