We had a very pleasant breakfast with Victor and his wife Ulrike at our hotel bar and restaurant Niles. I hadn't seen Victor since he got married. And they met Cianna for the first time. Niles' ultra white and pastel neon decor reminded me of an Apple Store--a good thing. The walls were covered with the miniature dimensional paper artworks by someone named Rizzi. Now we're getting the car out of valet to go down to SoHo.

- mike lee -

After dinner at Cascina last night, mommy and baby turned in while aunties Mary and Kate, and friend Dianne and I went down to Union Square to visit the Strand Book Store. Since my last visit over a year ago, the Strand (1) has added a second floor (2) of just art-related books. The basement (3) is still the repository of review copies of new books at 50% discount. Dianne says staff in the book business sell their free review copies here for extra income. It wasn't just that I could have spent the day perusing photography and design books in the new section, but what was a huge book store is now massive--hence the change in the slogan from 8 to 18 miles of books. Imagine a space the size of a supermarket split into thirds and stacked. I've got no problem with the Strand's super size, it's a place I'll gladly lose myself in on visits to the city.

It was a light haul to the busy checkout counter (4): a half-price copy of Sante d'orazio's fashion photography diary A Private View and Robert Sabuda's breathtaking pop-up book America the Beautiful.

- mike lee - new york city

After catching my friend Chris' play, a bunch of us converged in a banquet room for dinner at Cascina Ristorante. After a great family-style banquet fancy deserts, I'm ready to explore Lower Manhattan again.

- mike lee -

...and now Cianna's first trip and taxi ride in New York City.

- mike lee -

- mike lee - new york

Approaching the Maryland-Delaware border on our way to New York City. Traffic is light so far and all's quiet in the car.

- mike lee -

Just as we were pulling away from the house to start the drive to NYC, I noticed a reminder on my BlackBerry from my boss on my late timesheet. So I ran back up on the porch, connected to wifi via my laptop and e-mailed the timesheet. Then I moblgged about it from my Sidekick.

- mike lee - baltimore

A couple days ago during lunch, I stopped into the new Origami as Art show at the National Building Museum. The show features traditional origami paperfolding pieces, but focuses mainly on origami architecture which is the art of creating pop-up sculptures by making clever cuts in a single sheet of folded paper.

Photos: 1) The U.S. Capitol by Masahiro Chatani and Takaaki Kihara 2) Moonlight Bodhisattva (Buddist deity) by Kazukiyo Kurosu 3) Notre Dame Cathedral by Kurosu 4) Statue of Liberty by Kurosu 5 - 7) Sequence of me opening Tower of Piza by Takaaki Kihara 8) Bulletin board where I contributed my own creation, a red crane.

The show runs through March 27, 2005.

If you want to try out some free origami architecture patterns, visit Baud & Bui's excellent web site. But only if you promise not to cut yourself!

- mike lee - washington, dc

Every morning we look west down the F Street corridor at the sight of gently rotating construction cranes as we turn into our parking garage. This is another sign of the ongoing build-up of the Penn Quarter area of Downtown D.C. which includes landmarks such as Metro Center, Chinatown, the MCI Center, and the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. I was curious about what a couple of the cranes were building and discovered that the Downtown DC web site maintains detailed quarterly updates with maps and tables of current and planned construction. The two cranes on the left are building office and condo buildings, and on the left is the ongoing renovation of the Portrait Gallery due to be completed in 2006. I'm assured an ever-happenin' area around my office with a constant stream of new stores and restaurants in the next few years.

- mike lee - washington, dc