Back in the USA

(please hum "Born in the USA" while reading the title of this blog posting...thanks)

After 23 hours of travel back to the USA, I am safely back home! Yay!

On the way to the airport:

Apparently, when it's frosty outside it will cause the axle on one set of your tires to repolarize randomly while driving.  Otherwise, I am unsure how you create those skid marks.

At the Auckland airport I had a 3 hour layover.  The highlight was probably a young boy leaving the toy area with a new whoopie cushion.  He'd run 3 or 4 paces ahead of his dad and the throw it down on the floor and sit on it.  If the noise wasn't quite right he'd bounce up and down until satisfied.  (Repeat from "run 3 or 4 paces" ad nasuem.)  The pure joy on his face was pretty cute.  And apparently Kiwis don't get mad at children making noise in public places.

I also liked this wastebasket at the Auckland airport:

So...is there a lot of spitting at the airport?  And it happens in the walkways?  Are Spitters (I use a capital letter here because I think they probably deserve a formal group) willing to walk all the way to the bathrooms to spit at the toilets?

I'm glad to be back.  Didn't enjoy the return trip as much as the trip out there...probably because I wasn't really ready to be done with vacation.  I'm happy to be in my house, slogging through my work emails...  It's good to see my cat again.  It was nice to reconnect with Becca and S.  But I do miss Calle already!