US-Singapore-US in 14 Days

First and most important: Thanks to everyone who made my trip back so excellent and one huge yummy food fest!! It was great seeing everyone! The 24+ hour flight wasn't as bad as I feared. I got used to long periods of time in a cramped seat due to my frequest 10 hour drives from Michigan to Minnesota when Jia Nin was still living there. Also, I packed ahead of time and got enough sleep the night before. Another factor was that I had an excellent seat for the 13 hour Detroit-Tokyo leg (57G on a Boeing 747-400), thanks to seatguru.com. This aisle seat had lots of leg room, only one neighbor to give way to (unlike the window-side aisle seat which had two), close to the toilet (within sight but not so close as to have too much traffic), close to the galley (to have the stewardess top up my water bottle) and not so close to the tail that the turbulence is a problem. Whew, lots of factors in choosing a seat, no? The Tokyo-Singapore leg was more troublesome. There was some kind of junction box under the aisle seat in front of me that took up half the space under the seat (I took the window-side since the Airbus 330 had a 2-4-2 row arrangement). Thankfully, the plane was only a third full and I moved over to the empty middle section to stretch out comfortably. After four years (the last visit being Serene's wedding in '05), the biggest thing I forgot about Singapore was the weather. Three steps out of Terminal One, I stopped dead in my tracks to overcome the heat and humidity before it overcame me. And this was in the middle of the night! Once I got back, the temperature in Michigan began to move up and up. A few days ago, Jia Nin remarked that it feels like Singapore. I was able to confidently refute her with a firm "No it's not!". But I digress. 14 days (minus two for travel time) was definitely too short for a proper visit. But that's all the leave that could be spared so it's better than nothing. I actually spent most of it sorting/discarding/packing my old books and comics. Shipped about 240kg back to the US via Singpost's M-Bag, meant for printed material only. Surprisingly, about 1/3 of the entire shipment has gotten to me already (about 3 weeks). Hopefully, the rest will get here in the coming week. Next update will be about creating a library in the basement for all these books.