Painting: Yep, still painting. Deadline to finish is the end of the day tomorrow, because I need Monday and the rest of the week to set everything back up again.

Ernesto: Welcome to my first hurricane season living near the coast. Not too big a deal all in all - it took forever to get to work, only to turn around almost right away because the base was closed to non-essential personnel (this is when it feels very good to be non-essential). That was weird - I'm used to unexpected holidays from work in the winter (because of snow), not the summer. Norfolk floods like crazy, especially the main road I travel on my way to work, so that was an interesting adventure. I've seen enough cars stranded in standing water that I'm not taking any chances.

There are several houses a few blocks from mine with docks on the Elizabeth River, and many of those were either underwater, or hovering just above it. Oh, and I lost power for several hours (along with many others) - I can't say exactly how long because I wasn't home when it went off or came back on, but it was several hours. I painted while I had enough daylight, then played around on the computer until the battery died, then called friends and invited myself over for a couple hours.