(I’m throwing in another photo of the C&O because there are never enough pictures of that peaceful place.)

Anything that wakes up my immune system wakes it up to fight me, and the exposure issues going on that trip were a real risk–but one we both very much felt was okay to take on. We wanted to go. We managed to get flu shots the day before we left, and crossed our fingers.

Friday, our last night in Maryland, we had intended to take his folks out to dinner, but they had a longstanding big-deal engagement to attend to; no reason to sit at home, so we gave Karen a call. She was beyond delighted to come pick us up. We went out to dinner, then her favorite pastry chef’s place to buy dessert and take it to share with Amy and Karen’s son-in-law. We happily meandered first, checking out several bookstores, finding that only one of the three had one copy of Wrapped in Comfort left in stock; they’d had seven each, but they were sold. Yay! I signed the one still there for them, they wished I’d come in when they’d still had time to order more, and basically a grand time was had by all. Chocolate mousse at Amy’s to celebrate when we got there.

I kind of laughed at Karin’s “glad you got home safe and sound.” We got the safe part down pat. But I have to say, I have never been so glad in my life that my husband was sick. That was quite the airplane ride: we held together and we got home midnight our time. The next day I was on the phone back to Karen: did Amy get sick? Did her husband? No? You? How much? Really? Okay.

So yesterday I talked to the manager where we’d had that last celebratory dinner. Karen had had a nibble of the smoked salmon appetizer. I’d had a fair bit more. My husband had eaten most of it, and Sunday debated going to the ER if he couldn’t get more fluids down. That and the mousse were the only foods in common.

The manager apologized profusely, and told me his insurance person would be contacting me. I told him all I wanted was for him to know so they could pull that stuff off the shelf, and he reiterated that I’d get that call.

Dude. What you don’t know. I’m not about to sue you. I’m not even asking for the price of my meal back. I just want the next customer to enjoy their dinner. What I really wanted to do was jump up and down in thrilled relief, and go, It’s NOT THE CROHN’S!!! I’m SAFE!!! It’s just plain old ordinary food poisoning! A normal-person thing to do, and we’re both recovering steadily, and it’s okay! Yay!!!

(Edited to add: I forgot to say–my friend Nancy invited me over for dinner last night to meet Lisa (didn’t catch the last name) and Sandy Terp of http://moonriselaceknitting.tripod.com/ while they were visiting in town.  I managed okay re the food, and we had a great time together.  I got to see the Three Times a Lady shawl in person, and laughed when Sandy said I was too young to remember the song that inspired its name.  As if!  I remember avoiding the dance floor in high school when they played that…  Too funny.)