Mission Accomplished

Thanks to my family for the heartwarming comments, and for the news about Ad and Deb. It's really awful news about Ad. Unbelievable! They should probably find out which one of their friends, if any, is a user. That'd be the first place to look, sad to say.
Thanksgiving at D&T's would be fine with me. I'm sorry that the other options don't seem attractive to me.
I gave my presentation today! It went pretty well, considering that many of the images I'd laboriously placed were rotated or squished or in the wrong place altogether. Thanks, Microsoft!
There wasn't much time for questions after my talk, since the session had a late start and my well-timed presentation almost filled the time until the scheduled start of the next talk. However, I've met some very nice people, including, incredibly, a Bill Noble analog who works with one of Iain's old acquaintances, who, believe it or not is a clinical psychologist who works on personality disorders in older adults, and has just published a book on the matter. He's a very nice man, and terribly funny, and I feel as if I've known him all my life (although he may just be very good at makking people feel that way).
Anyhow. I feel pretty good about the day, even though it was not physically comfortable. I must have neglected to put my gut pills in my pile this morning, and by mid morning I was suffering terribly. Luckily there are some very helpful people at the conference center who organized first bicarb of soda, and then managed to get their hands on some antacid tablets. So, by the time I gave my talk, I wasn't feeling like I wanted to puke.
I'm actually looking forward to the rest of the conferencem, both because the venue is a very lovely place, and because there are so many good people that I've managed to hook up with, thanks to Iain.
I'm eating very well, fairly cheaply, and Hazel's gift is providing me with a "last hurrah" that I'll remember for a very long time.
I love you all, and I very much look forward to coming home.
Be well.