I'm not surprised at all that you and Alan had a really positive time at the PN support group - I hope that you'll have more good sessions and perhaps a future time when neither of you will have a need for a PN support group. I'm sure your muffins were a big hit!! - brought back memories of when I was single and used to bake 2-3 loaves of sourdough cinnamon-raisin bread/week. This went on for a long time while I "perfected" my bread which meant a fresh hot loaf of bread and some butter until I got it right - never quite did - but those days are gone now - no time but more importantly, my wife is FAR, FAR SUPERIOR to me when it comes to baking or cooking.

I did want to mention something about Splenda since it really is not connected to a pesticide at all. You might be interested in the story of how it was discovered which follows - quite a remarkable case, pure serendipity at it's best.

Tate & Lyle, a British sugar refinner (actually the largest in the world) was exploring the chemistry of sucrose back in the mid "70's and were collaborating w/ Prof. Leslie Hough’s laboratory at King’s College in London. His group was making some halogenated sugar compounds in which one or more of the hydroxy groups is/are replaced by a chlorine atom. There was a foreign grad student in Hough's group who misunderstood a request to "test" a particular chlorinated sugar derivative - he "tasted it" instead (tasting chemical compounds was something old time (late 1800's and early 1900's) synthetic chemists did and many had shortened life spans as you might expect). In any case, the compound turned out to be very sweet, several hundred times sweeter than sugar and ultimately led to the discovery of Splenda.

Much continued success w/ your power walks, your B-12 and your muffins.

Alkymst