Well, hey there, jib71! Yes, I have to admit that my postings in this and other forums has been pretty sparse over the last few months. Part of the reason was I've been busy working and giving a number of paper presentations at various conferences here and there (mostly there!), and the other being it's not always easy to find a good, cheap, fast, secure (Yes, I'm very picky!) Internet connection for my laptop that will allow me to read at least a few posts before I give up in disgust either from the draggingly slow downloads or the weak/dropped connections.

And while I haven't brought back any new electrical appliances to "test" here this time around (other than a cheap "keitai" I bought in the US for $29.99 which BTW I have just confirmed doesn't work here--not that I thought there was any chance that it would, which is OK as I will just hang on to it for the next time I go back), I am really happy to be back to the hot and humid weather of Tokyo .

Made me think of baked apple...yum, haven't had that in a while.