Morehead City...when I hear "morehead" I think it's a porn name. But it's actually a beachfront town in North Carolina parked between Camp Lejeune and Marine Air Station Cherry Point. I'm here for work but it feels like more of a vacation than anything given the last week.

The house is coming along. The last week has been filled with hours spent after work throwing away junk, buying paint and materials at Home Depot, and culminating in the last five days of whirlwind drywall taping, mudding, sanding, cleaning, primering, painting, carpet ripping, staple and tack strip pulling marathon. Various local friends graciously donated hours of time for the mere reward of donuts and diner food but boy did they earn it. First rule of home projects: it will take twice as long as you thought it would. Then double that time again.

But the place is pretty well prepped. I'm in North Carolina all this week at Cherry Point for a maintenance and logistics pow-wow, then in Rhode Island this Saturday-Sunday for a family thing (at least I can then say I've been in the littlest state) and then Monday a crew is coming in to sand and refinish the old hardwood floors in the house that were hiding under the carpets. I'd love to have nice hardwood floors, but right now I'd take "well, looks pretty good considering they're 60 years old" floors. Expectations dwindle as money, labor, and time for home projects increase sharply.

I am now going to sleep in this big comfy Hampton Inn bed, the first real full night's sleep since 10 days ago. Leave it to buying a house to make work turn into a vacation!