Tickets booked ... May 31st

Prompted by the recent price increases in Air NZ's domestic flights and predictions that their int'l flights will soon follow, I've finally gotten off my duff and booked our return flight.

There's no way to get from NZ to Chicago at anything approaching a reasonable hour ... nevermind getting to Wisconsin. So we've decided to go a little easier on ourselves this time and we'll be spending the night in San Fran--in a room with a Bay view, no less, since who knows when we'll be there again. Then the next day we'll have a leisurely flight to Chicago.

On the way here we had 8 suitcases, 4 carryons, and 2 car seats. We're hoping to get it down to 3 suitcases, 2 carryons, and 1 car seat. (Evan's comes apart and can go into one of the suitcases.) That should make things a little less crazy.

We'll be doing the Grand Tour in reverse: A few days in Wisconsin, then on to Chris's house, then New York, where Debi and the boys will stay for a bit while I go on to CT and NH to get some minor details sorted--like buying a house.