Dateline: United flights from Providence to Chicago to San Francisco to Montery, 25 February 2005

Too little time in my own bed last night, in part because we had to take in baby and her diaper leakage necessitated some linen changing about 3 am. She is just about the cuddliest kid you could ever be forced to take in, so we forgive her the occasional lapses.

I got up around 0530 and saw that the snow was basically wrapped up at about six inches, with drifts up to a 18 inches in the yard. I can tell how much Bailey has grown by these measures, because in the last big storm he could only manage moving around in my footprints, whereas this time he blazed his own trail. He's 25 pounds, easy, now.

I managed to shovel the driveway before taking off. The six inches were awfully powdery, and the effort work me up. Driving not too bad on the roads to the airport, and amazingly, the United flight took off right on schedule. But, as expected, a two-hour delay in Chicago. I don't think I've ever flown United through Chicago without some delay. It's the only airport I dread more than LaGuardia in NYC.

The past 24 hours have seen me hustling in my pursuit of two features for Esquire: one target a complete unknown and the other about as well-known as you can get in America. The process of negotiating these things is proving interesting. Part sales, part seduction, it's pretty interesting to act as pursuer instead of the pursued. I have to use all my skills as the 8-of-9, one of the "little boys" who thrived by getting things from people more powerful than he. Both stories should be interesting if pulled off, as both will help the public understand aspects of national security that have never been adequately explained to them before. One argument is basically already in Vol. II, and I expect to use the other one as well (and have all along), so the synergy here is strong, and that's something I want across the board, just like the blog is the life and the life is the blog.

Finally got into Monterey around 8pm, just in time to go have dinner with an old friend, the man who was president of the Center for Naval Analyses when I was hired, Phil DePoy, who's now at the Naval Postgraduate School. In doing this, I skipped the party, but since I was talking early the next day, that seemed to make sense to me, plus I felt it was important to touch base with Phil. It's always good to choose friends over networking, because the latter rise and fall while the former stick around through the years.

Here's today's catch:

■ Bush shows a steady but reasoned touch with Putin

■ Negroponte is the USG's "3=D Man"

■ The Big Bang looking better by the day

■ China's version of the military-market nexus

■ The New Core tries "new" things

■ Chavez's shell game on oil

■ Rule Set Reset Issue #2