Dateline: In the Shire, Indy, 11 January 2006

Morning lost to picking out window covering fabrics. Not too bad really.

Then back to the house to do one-hour conference call with Dr. Don Beck of "Spiral Dynamics" fame http://spiraldynamics.com/ and a band of similar thinkers at a DC-based conference. Don always seems to have a lot of former military and especially special ops guys at his events, which intrigues me. Haven't cracked the code of his career yet, but he's a very interesting and charismatic guy with big thoughts galore and an amazingly diverse background that's taken him the world over. Good conversation. Just sad to do it from my crappy bedroom in my crappy apartment.

Then rescue Pilot from Honda dealer and pick up kids.

Then to new house with spouse. Cabinets up throughout house, as well as all doors. Gutters now on, so outside complete save drive and sidewalks, playset, deck and patio, all of which await a bit warmer temps. New grading ended drainage issue. Discovered next door neighbor planted nice pine on my side of property line (I'll take it, as we planted two dozen trees of various sorts on back property already). Almost all doors in. All trim stained and basement almost done with trim (that home movie room looking sweet!). Wood for floors off-loaded and that goes in next now that tile done throughout. Saw my shower done for first time today. All in all, very uplifting.

Got the flights for our Hawaiian 20th Anniversary trip today. Very exciting for us all (unfortunately, all six of us). Will be talking at Pacific Command and spending the whole time on Oahu. Just not willing to do the intra-island flights with all those kids and two pretty young. We plan to do up Oahu this time big time, and be as lazy as possible doing it.

Between reserving those flights and seeing the house with so much activity and change, my spirit renewed somewhat.

Need to call that Popular Mechanics reporter back tomorrow for last couple of questions. Gave him interview last week. He's writing a piece he says builds off the November China piece I did in Esquire. Steff: remind me to call him tomorrow!

Meanwhile I await the First Pass layout pages from Esquire on the Army-Marines piece, titled now "The Monks of War." Always a thrill to see the piece laid out for the first time, especially the accompanying photos.