Cool! For seven of us to ride into downtown from the airport, a stretch limo was cheaper than three taxis.

- mike lee - chicago

I'm hopping on an early flight out of BWI to an 11am meeting in Chicago.

- mike lee - baltimore

Brunch at The City Cafe; reviewing photos from yesterday.

Sad note: the storm that made yesterday's rainbow brought a microburst that flipped a water taxi in the river by Fort McHenry. Of the 25 on board, one is confirmed dead, three are missing, and the rest have been hospitalized. I've been on those water taxis many times, but fortunately never during a storm.

- mike lee - baltimore

After brunch with Dianne, our family three drove to Ellicott City, Maryland to see the new house my wife's former business partner just bought (top row). It's a major fixer-upper project with an interior that's in rough shape, but the high wide vista of the Patapsco River Valley and Old Town Ellicott City is spectacular.

Just up the road are the restored ruins of the Patapsco Female Institute, a school for girls that operated in the 1800s (second row of photos). The grounds don't open until April 1st, but I sneaked in to make a few photos. It's said that the place is haunted by the ghost of a former student.

These old places will be great to visit for photo expeditions later this year.

After a short burst of rain, an intense rainbow graced the sky just before sunset. Now we're on my way to dinner at my mom's house. We'll all sleep good tonight.

- mike lee - baltimore

I just got off the jam-packed Amtrak train 188 in Baltimore which originated in DC. I crouched in a luggage cubbyhole for the entire ride. And now I'm back in glorious open space.

On my way out of the train, an older bearded man put things into good perspective:

"Ah, this is nuthin. I was on a train from Vienna to Istanbul with eight people to a compartment and some guy wanted to cook a chicken."

- mike lee - baltimore

Cianna* has so far been a standard issue baby following development milestones exactly as described in all the books. A few days ago, right at three months of age, she started grabbing at things. Now I have to watch out for painfull tugs of my long ponytail. I suspect she'll want to rope climb it later this year.

- mike lee - baltimore

* see-AH-nah

On the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue between the U.S. Capitol and the White House is a large parking lot that will be the future home of the Newseum. Dedicated to promoting the story behind the news and the first amendment, the Newseum operated for several years in Arlington, Virginia until it was closed in 2002 so that the staff could focus on planning of the new facility due to open in 2006. In front of the lot facing Pennsylvania Avenue is a long row of display cases where a few hundred current newspaper front pages from all over the world are displayed. I don't get to walk by the display too often even though my office is a couple blocks away. This panoramic display of print news offers a charming, easy-on-the-eyes way to take in a high level snapshot of global reportage. Now, what I'd love to have is WiFi access from a bench near the displays so that I can surf to the actual newspaper sites to read full articles. Fortunately, the web site offers an online version of the physical display.

- mike lee - washington dc

We stopped by the Apple Store tonight to see if by chance there were any iPod minis in stock. Of course not. We posed Baby Cianna in front of the great white Apple logo as if to bless her with the spirit of the Dogcow. She extended her pinky to her lips to contemplate the MOJO-drenched experience of owning all things Apple. That was enough for me, and I went home and ordered a green iPod mini from Target.com, where they are backordered for a month, but at a decent price of $224.99 (with a special discount code). Let a thousand iTunes bloom this spring!

- mike lee - baltimore

A special spread in USA Today this morning commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Theodre "Seuss" Geisel. Here's a bit I didn't know:

Pithy: It didn't take Dr. Seuss long to get his point across. The Cat in the Hat was written after he was challenged by an editor to write a book using 250 of the 400 words beginning readers should know. Geisel came close: 220. Three years later, Random House publisher Bennett Cerf bet Geisel $50 that he couldn't write a book using only 50 words. He could. It was called Green Eggs and Ham.

- mike lee - washington, dc

Jessica and Joseph from AARP's web development group (where I work) are giving a talk on designing and structuring web site pages so that persons with low vision or who are blind can access our content. The Older Wiser Wired was the pilot project for these new design approaches.

- mike lee - austin