Friendly Friends

While we have only been back in the States for roughly two weeks, we have thus far managed to pack in some great time with great friends! We saw James' parents and attended our friend Emily's wedding our first day back (a hearty congrats to Emily and Scott Smith!) but we'll post pics of that later when they're available.

We've been enjoying catching up with people we have missed dearly, friends and family alike.

Our friend Cara came to Neosho from Lawrence to visit.

We went to visit our friends in Lawrence for a fun evening. We played Bocci ball and had a BBQ. Thanks for hosting, Kim and Chad!

Our friends Jake and Amber ('The Jamber') visited from D.C.

If only they were moving back, too!

More from the BBQ...

We were actually here in person for Dad's birthday!

We celebrated by playing pool and playing music

Mom with her dog, Mitzi

We hosted a Pyper Party in West Plains, MO

Stan, Genevieve, and Will Pyper came to visit us.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome back to the States!

Prius People

Well, it had to happen. Upon returning to America, we had to buy at least one car to get around in! We know that I will be commuting to and from Overland Park from Lawrence daily, so we knew we'd need a car with great gas mileage.

While we were test driving a Civic at a car lot, nearby we spotted a 2006 Toyota Prius which is a hybrid car. Well, to make a short story long, we test drove it and loved it, and since it's gets roughly 45 miles per gallon and was very reasonably priced (not to mention good for the environment of course), we decided to bite the bullet and buy it!

There are lots of great features on it that impress us. Some favorites include: GPS mapping system, a video camera for when you are reversing, a digital dashboard, steering wheel buttons for volume, map, bluetooth phone capabilities, and temperature guages, and being able to watch your gas/energy consumption by the second!

Because it runs on battery when it's at low speeds or at a stop, it is eerie to both of us because we're so used to hearing an engine idle! It's also a weird mentality to drive at high speeds or blast the AC without feeling guilty about what you're doing to your gas mileage. Oh, and a fun feature is the fact that you don't use a key to enter or drive the car. You just push the On button on the dashboard and it turns on, etc.

Even though we do love the car, neither of us can get the Southpark Smug Alert! episode out of our head. Here's a brief synopsis of the plot:

Kyle's father Gerald buys a new hybrid car, a Pious (based on the Toyota Prius:), and drives around showing it off to everyone. He begins an unwelcomed campaign to convert the other townspeople to environmentally friendly vehicles. This behavior annoys his friend Randy, who complains that Gerald now preachy, talks with his eyes closed. Deciding that they cannot live among such backward, unsophisticated folk, Gerald decides to move his family to San Francisco.

After the Broflovskis leave, Stan writes a repetitive song about the importance of hybrid cars, which finds its way onto the radio and, incredibly, causes everyone to drive hybrids — and act as smugly as Gerald. Stan is criticized for what he has done: although smog rates are down, people who drive hybrids create a toxic gas in the air called "smug", and South Park now has the second-highest levels in the country, after San Francisco.

The cloud of smug forms over South Park and begins to combine with that of San Francisco, which creates "the perfect storm of self-satisfaction", which will heavily damage South Park and completely destroy San Francisco.

Kyle points out that hybrids really are a good thing; the people who drive them should just not be smug about it, or act as if they are above everybody else. The people, however, are not ready to drive them without being smug — "it's simply asking too much" — so they return to SUVs and other high-fuel-consumption vehicles.

Anyways, we both thought that was a hilarious episode, and while we are very happy to have a car with so many cool features and high gas mileage for my commute, we promise not to get pious about our Prius. Our good friend Chad had a great idea to make a bumper sticker for the car that says "My other car is a Hummer" just for laughs. :)