Safely home then to NYC

As I'm sure most of you know, Andy and I arrived safely back in the USA. We left Auckland on July 13th and landed in Kansas City on July 13th after about 24 hours of straight travel, but other than slight delays on all our flights it was hassle free. We were thrilled to be home and were excited to sample lots of our favorite foods (we'd been missing Mexican, bbq, turkey sandwiches and Bud/Miller Light beer), see friends and family... and drive on the right side of the road again. This, along with some other things, took a bit of getting used to, but otherwise it was easy to get back into the swing of home. Compared to NZ's generally outrageous prices, we were amazed at how cheap things seemed here... $2-4 beer (instead of $6-8), $5-10 meals (instead of $15-23), $10-30 shirts (instead of $30-90), and $2-3/gallon gas (instead of $5-6) just to name a few. We had to keep reminding ourselves to factor in the exchange rate, tax and tip that we had to pay here, but we were still getting a much better deal!

I (and I say I because Andy and I have been apart for the last few weeks - which has been quite a switch from the past 14 months) have really enjoyed seeing all my friends, spending time with family, getting behind the wheel of my car, shopping (yes, even in Joplin), and just relaxing in the warm weather. It's been awhile since I've been in weather this warm and after months and months of temperate NZ, it's a nice change.

I've been working with my Mom on TJ Formal stuff since I've been home and finally got to see our newly remodeled store. My mom, sister and I also fit in a quick trip to New York City courtesy of one of our prom companies who invited us to an elite showing of their prom line for next year. We, along with a handful of top stores across the country, were the first to see the dresses and were asked to critique them and make suggestions to help shape the final line. Pretty cool. Although we didn't have much time there, I still managed to snap a few pictures of Times Square, Columbia University and the restaurant from Seinfeld!
I'm posting my pictures on Picasa Web Albums now, so you can stop by and see the newest additions then check back as I do some back tracking later on. Thanks for reading!