The highlight of this week was a visit from my friend Tobias, who lives in Germany. We met at a campground in Greymouth, New Zealand while bike touring in 2001, so our friendship has endured many years and many thousands of miles. We met up in New Zealand again in 2002 (on purpose this time) to do a few more weeks of touring there, visited each other in our respective hometowns in the following years, and spent a splendid fall in 2005 biking from Vancouver to San Diego. The last time we saw each other in person was about 6 years ago, when Papa Bear and I went on our first trip to Europe right after we got engaged. I never imagined that Tobias would be interested in traveling to sleepy Madison for a visit, but he decided to combine it with a trip to Chicago and Miami, so he showed up late last Saturday night.
Given all the drama and fireworks last week, I wasn't sure what to expect for Tobias's visit, and I wanted it to be a good one since who knows when we will see each other in person again. Luckily, Lemon has rallied pretty well on the new antibiotic. We still had to do PT 3 times a day, but luckily Tobias is an adaptable sort and quickly got into the rhythm of our nutty household. I took Monday and Tuesday off of work, so we had time to do a few fun things in the area. We visited Taliesin, which is Frank Lloyd Wright's estate in Spring Green, WI, and went for a hike at Devil's Lake State Park, where it conveniently decided to snow. I had warned Tobias that spring in Wisconsin is a bit dodgy, but he felt that since Madison is at the same latitude as Tuscany, it would be warm by late April. 
Just to keep things from getting too dull with all these pleasant diversions, Papa Bear came down with a bad stomach bug on Tuesday evening and was basically incapacitated through Saturday. Of course, since we still have the threat of a hospitalization for Lemon hanging over our heads, we had to institute extreme quarantine measures. Papa Bear basically stayed in the master bedroom while I slept on our living room couch and acted as single-parent-and-host-to-international-guest, at least until Friday morning when Tobias left and I merely had to act as single parent. Suffice it to say by Saturday afternoon I was completely wiped out, but Lemon took pity on me and decided to take a highly unusual 3 hour nap, enabling me to do the same. By Sunday, Papa Bear was back on his feet, just in time for Nona to succumb to a milder version of the same issue. Also, all the laundry necessitated by our recent exploits caused the drain in our basement to back up, so I need to call someone and arrange to get that cleared out tomorrow. And on we go.
Our main worry right now is that yesterday was Lemon's last dose of cefdinir. He now has to get through til Wednesday morning (at least) without a recurrence of his symptoms or we will be admitted straight from his clinic visit to the hospital for IV antibiotics. He's been doing really well these last few days, with a huge appetite and abundant energy, so I am extremely cautiously optimistic. He sneezed at breakfast this morning, which of course makes me very nervous, but here's hoping it was nothing...
