After two weeks, being on vacation is now feels like our new "normal." The 11-hour drive home tomorrow will probably change that. Work on Thursday definitely will.

Spirit-hunting in the French Quarter. Look! It's the ghost of a drunk guy! No, just a drunk guy.

Spent the night at the haunted Oak Alley Plantation outside New Orleans and lived to tell the terrifying tale that it's still freakin' cold out. Now who knows where the best Sunday jazz brunch in the French Quarter is?

Spending the night in Biloxi. We may hit the casinos, and here's a tip for you amateurs: If you want the casino staff to know you're a real high-roller, you're going to want to carry in your random spare change in the quart-size ziploc baggie, not the sandwich size.

Spending the first night of an unprecedented two-week vacation in Perry, FL en route to New Orleans. We only got around to planning about half this vacation ahead of time, so we're just winging it the rest of the way. Just need to be there by Sunday. Today was Tarpon Springs and Homasassa Springs. Tomorrow maybe Apalachicola and Tate's Hell on the way to Panama City.

Best wife ever: Got me the Muppet Movie on DVD for Christmas, then went away for the weekend in early January so I could watch it guilt-free.

I happened to tune in an old episode of All in the Family for the first time in years tonight. If Carroll O'Connor were still alive today, they should have done a new series about Archie Bunker's freshman year in the new Congress.

FYI for your future calculations, one 1,200-page Stephen King novel read is equal to 14 untouched issues of the New Yorker.