WOW - it is nice to be back!!!  Why?  I don't know - guess that it's home now and great to be here!  Another "term" to complete just sounds excellent - (we have two weeks to finish on the old one too, plus finals).

Amazingly enough, we can see the moon AND the STARS tonight!!  The sky is really clear!  Many of my colleagues were out at the Utopia Jazz Club for Karen's birthday (it's tomorrow), so I went down and joined them for a Carlsberg when I returned at 10 pm.  They were in Great Spirits and seem to be all the better for the New Year's break!

The trip to Shanghai was relatively uneventful, though I traveled around 40 hours and got only a few hours nap here and there.  I did get time to finish another book and relax, revel and relive the last few weeks of the Greatest Snow on Earth!  (The flight from San Francisco was only 13 hours but my trip from San Diego and the connections too much of the time.)  Bus connections are sooo much cheaper and relatively easy - I actually prefer the bus to a taxi!