...for real this time.

Mommy returned from Montreal this evening with a little moose-in-flannel-shirt doll for baby which she enjoyed. We said goodbye to grandma, who's been watching baby for three days, and headed over to our house. As we drove up, Neighbor Cindy handed us a pool party flyer for Adam's house down the street, and we met another neighbor, Kathy.

Pictured here is our copy of the flags that have been planted by someone at the end of every driveway on our street. Cianna can say flag now; daddy can say dose of patriotism delivered to my door.

- mike lee - wheaton, md - jeff, got your note, call you tomorrow...

Cianna kisses the Florida Sunshine Bear that daddy brought her. Bear also gets offered a Craisin. Maybe mommy will bring a bear from Montreal/Canada tomorrow afternoon...

- mike lee - langley park, md

...reading more business rags while waiting to board the plane.

- mike lee - ft. lauderdale, fl

The July 4th issue of BusinessWeek (special issue on product design) has a short article by Stephen Baker on moblogging titled, Covering the Story Of Your Life - Camera Phones and special Web sites allow mobile bloggers to record every detail. (3) The piece lists Fotolog, Blogger, TypePad and Flickr as options for creating a moblog.

Another interesting story in BW is on South Korean company Nexon's online game Kart Rider. Some 12 million people have played this virtual racing game where players can pay extra for enhanced features, and corporations can even sponsor races. Nexon made $110 million last year.

Our visit to the call center was productive. Sandy, Jen C. and I sat with three of our online community moderation agents (5) to get insights on how we might automate parts of their process. Much of their work involves cleansing the web site's message boards (which have 30,000 active users) of out-of-control flames, trolls, copyright violations and spam. They are a dedicated team that loves their work.

It's always interesting to sit in the call center where on average, there are 150 reps working two 8 hour shifts handling 150,000 phone calls a day from some of our 35 million members. You really feel the real time pulse of the organization.

- mike lee - ft. lauderdale, fl

I'm stealing 30 minutes for a walk on the beach and ocean before retreiving our rental car from valet to head to the airport. Feels like mid-80s, low humidity. This is probably the first stretch of sun this town has had in two weeks.

- mike lee - sheraton yankee clipper beachside hotel, ft. lauderdale, fl

I'm heading to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for meetings at our call center today and tomorrow. At 5:45am, the 12 mile stretch of The George Washington Memorial Parkway between the Beltway and National Airport was easy. I got to the U.S. Airways terminal early to get breakfast. My reading was the Post's stories on last night's Bush speech, Spielberg's War, and Davenport's HBR article, The Coming Commoditization of Process. Looks like my flight is on time...

- mike lee - washington, dc

After working a little late at work tonight, I took the subway home back to my local stop. Tonight was the first time doing the mile walk from station to house. Along the way, I discovered that the Barbarian, a comic book store I used to haunt back in high school (over 25 years ago!), is still in business (1), but keeping funky hours (2). I also stopped by the public library to grab some library card forms and verified that they have free wifi. I was drenched in sweat by the time I got to the house, and today wasn't extremely hot. I'm not sure how committed I'll be to walking when it's 95+ degrees out. Wife Amy stayed home today to take delivery of our new king-sized bed (3), which will feel damn good to collapse into shortly. And despite repeated calls, Comcast Cable never showed up for their appointment today. Typical. Amy also found my Kyocera Digital camera (4), which got packed up with some clothes for the last two months.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

Via subway from Wheaton to Judiciary Square.

1) I walked the short loop through the park twice this morning, which totaling over a mile, is more that I walk in a work week. I'll probably lose 10 lbs. if I do just this every day. The bike signs along the trail remind me to get my first bike in 15 years. 2) Mommy reads to Cianna. 3) This is the first move where I've arrived at a place with more than enough room for my belongings, in this case with garage, basement and attic virtually empty. But here's the first cartload of detritous from Target to begin the process of re-cluttering the house. 4) Spending some time in the garage figuring out trash and recycling prodecures. 5) We are already chasing Cianna around the yard. She is the only baby on our street, and our neighbors are once again enjoying the sound of a small child laughing. 6) Sunset through the forest behind our house. Impossible to capture with any camera I have are the thousands of blinking lightning bugs. 7) Dad catches a naked baby who just ran out of her bath ... 8) carrying her plastic bug lantern.

- mike lee - wheaton, md

1) After another walk through the forest, Emma and her dad Bill pulled Cianna in her stoller backwards to our house to keep the Sun out of her eyes 2) Bill and Heather helped us toast the new house with champagne 3-5) boxes in every room to unpack, but there's really a lot less than we imagined. We have lots of storage closets and a huge attic, so the stuff should disappear steadily over the next two weeks.

Tonight, we were in Circuit City comparing plasma TVs. Yum!

- mike lee