Yesterday looked pretty much like this post from last year except we tossed our own baby into to party. After a walk though the park, where all kinds of petaled things are in bloom, I got hit by allergies and am moving slow today. We did drive out to the Inn at Versailles for lunch. This afternoon, we've hopefully banked enough baby sleep so that the wee one won't have a meltdown during the flight home tonight.

- mike lee - greenville, oh

With my wife's sisters taking care of our dog back home and her parents watching the baby, we went out on a rare date. Most restaurants are jammed on this rainy night because it's prom night, so we ate before we left the house. It was fitting, then, that the movie we ended up seeing was the high school comedy Mean Girls. In addition to the hottie factor, it was a lighthearted and funny escape. George's Dairy Bar was the next stop for chocolate soda and banana split, and now we're going to cruise main street and maybe stop at the coffeehouse. It's your standard night out in the heartland, except I'm moblogging from a car rolling along a corn field-edged road between two small towns.

- mike lee - piqua, ohio

"Built in 1849 by Gabriel Baer, Bear's Mill is one of the last operating water-powered mills in Ohio today. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. Its wheels began to turn in the year 1850, grinding gifts from nature into substance for man. Through the years, the mill's long, rich history has brought visitors from all over the world."

- mike lee - greenville, oh

Testing out the coffee, WiFi, and T-mobile network at Broadway Joe's Coffeehouse, 537 N. Broadway. All are good.

- mike lee - greenville, ohio

After two hours waiting in the airport in Pittsburgh--one hour longer than planned due to a mechanical problem with our second plane--we walked across the tarmac in the rain and boarded. It was interesting to hear that our plane was brand new with only 10 hours of flight time. 45 minutes later, we arrived in Dayton, Ohio to meet baby's grandparents. Now (last photo) we're in a minivan for the 45 minute ride to Greenville, Ohio, a little town on the Indiana border. Even with the flight delay, we are six hours ahead of driving by car. Baby was an angel throughout the trip smiling at all her admirers.

- mike lee - riding west on Rt. 49

The dreamy black and white work of photographer Rocky Schenck in the April issue of the U.S. Airways magazine gave me pleasant pause. Here's a quote from the article:

There is no noise in Schenck's photographs; his images are steeped in a luxuriant hush. His scenes are dark, even murky, and intentionally lacking detail, which frees the viewer to supply his own specifics. The viewer is directed by Schenck but not channeled rigidly into his visions.

The pieces shown here are Edvard Munch's Yard, DJ and Trouble.

A collection of the work is in a book that can apparently be ordered from Amazon or the University of Texas Press bookstore.

- mike lee - approaching Pittsburgh at 27,000 feet with wife and sleeping baby

...is the title of this phone cam photo my wife just sent me of our baby. Thanks, mommy. In the second shot, you can see I'm unhappily eating a sandwich on the train because the train was very late leaving Union Station. The good news is I get the next four days off to do another baby tour.

- mike lee - washington, dc

On my way out the door to the train station this morning, I snapped this photo of my my wife and daughter to enjoy throughout the day. What a happy sweet accident (or was it?) that the spot of sunlight on my wife's chin forms a heart shape over our baby's head.

- mike lee - on the train approaching dc

Hey kids, I downloaded all my hiptop Nation posts prior to this one--18 months worth--and compiled the images into one big thumbnail gallery. Thanks to MikePop for your help in querying the database.

- mike lee - baltimore

Amy's sisters came over to the house to babysit so we could go see our first movie in a theater together since our daughter's birth five months ago. We saw Kill Bill Volume 2, which should have been named Kill Bill 201 as the film had enough dialog to rival a college lecture course. Still, it was a worthwhile sitting to have the storylines loose ends and questions resolved. We waited longer than we might have to venture back to a movie theater after the birth of our daughter because we've been happy with our subscription to Netflix. We returned home to our baby happily taking spoonfulls of cereal from her aunties--and feeling nowhere near the trauma described on Dooce.

We all ended the cold, grey (not awesome weather as I predicted yesterday) afternoon with another walk over to the Hopkins Spring Fair. A round of pit beef sandwiches made for an early dinner. The fun takeaway from the campus walk was catching Mayor O'Malley's band, and photographing him holding Cianna. It was her official welcome to the city.

- mike lee - baltimore