I was flying high yesterday, at least until Jenny had to go and prick my balloon.

The day before had been spent in Columbus with my "Buckeye Biography Guy", going over transcripts and drafts of his life story. We spent all day reviewing edits, debating wording and doing more taping. This thing is coming together, and all the individual and disjointed anecdotes, funny stories, astute observations and useful life lessons are melding nicely into something that is starting to take shape and be whole. It felt like we were moving up another step in the long climb.

I was feeling good at the end of our 6 hour marathon, so I kicked back, pointed to the marked up stack of pages on the table, and quizzed my friend, "You been showing these things to anyone yet?"

"Yea I have," he said. "I've shared some of them with my people who come around."

"What do they tell you?" I asked with some trepidation.

"It's good," they say.

"Well you know," I continued, "If I showed this to some of my friends they would probably say, 'This is great', when inside they were thinking man this is terrible! This is bad!"

He laughed.

I did too.

But in the back of our minds we both knew that the "People who come around" this guys house are some pretty bright, educated, successful people, whose encouraging first reaction is worth at least something.

I was flying high when I went home that night, and still up there yesterday morning when I shared our conversation and our progress with Jenny at breakfast. Maybe I should have waited until after she had her coffee.

"Well you know," she retorted, "You're not going to know what you have until you show it to someone impartial."

Boom. There went the balloon. Just like that. Thanks Dear.

It's always tough when your spouse challenges your thinking. It's even tougher, when deep inside, you grudgingly have to admit they are right!