Got up woozy as all hell from allergies. Indiana is bad right now, and Indy's pollution makes it worse. I must admit, I miss Rhode Island's cleansingly stiff breezes. Vonne and I head back there soon for a brief sojourn.

Took a transAtlantic call to start the day: one last interview for an upcoming piece in the October Esquire.

Then a long call with a conference organizer of manufacturers. I will speak to them in October, and while this guy loved my writing, he wanted to be sure I could relate things to manufacturers, so I gave him my view of globalization relating to manufacturing and cinched the gig. You end up doing this a lot: the organizer hears you're a great speaker but then wants to check you out verbally over the phone, so you perform like hell. No offense taken at being asked to audition. Plenty of money on the line, and this guy's on the hook for a good show, so if it were me, I'd want a long clarifying call too.

Then I finish my column for next weekend, taking two headlines from last week (one NYT and one WSJ) and exploring the question of "What is victory in the long war?"

Then I penned some additional paras for the Esquire piece (longer one) based on the morning's interview.

Then I spent a bunch of time answering fact-checker questions from an Esquire staffer on the two pieces I have in production for the "top 100 ideas" October issue.

Ah, the life of the stay-at-home (for today) writer. Very nice.

Then some Bowflex in my continuing attempts to move the stone fragments along, and then off to help coach my kids' grade school cross-country team, as our small school is finally back to having its own team (a guy who coached for years earlier came back even though his kids are in HS, which is great of him). I ran all the drills and the long run with the kids, which was a lot of fun. To me, starting XC reminds me fall is on the way, and fall means Packers, and I have tix to four games (Chargers and Vikes at Lambeau and then I take the entire family to Detroit for the Turkey Day game and take my wife to St. Louis for the Rams in December. After never seeing Favre, Vonne gets to see him three times this year (me five, counting the preseason game). I can't wait.

Also gotta check out Peyton in Terre Haute where the Colts train up in August. If possible, I may blow the bucks to catch the Pats when they come here. That should be a doozy. I would go just to cheer against Randy Moss!