On the ground in the Foggy City, and it IS foggy. Got a long, sweet voicemail message from Annette, our real estate agent, with an update on the contract we put on the Hamilton Street house. We're one of two and looking good, but no final word will come today. Now to navigate the highways north to my hotel near Fisherman's Wharf.

- mike lee - san francisco

I escaped the office thanks to the help of my worship-worthy administrative assistant Pam, who helped me get a bunch of tasks done. Now I'm on an Airbus at Dulles waiting for the flight to San Francisco to begin. The plane is not quite half full. I'm thinking ahead to my day at the Global Business Network tomorrow and Stanford University on Friday morning. I'm also thinking about my daughter Cianna as I attach this picture (4) of her putting business cards into my shirt pocket. Lately, she loves to point to contrails in the sky while shouting the baby-fied chinese pronounciation of airplane: air-pane-ah! Hopefully, she'll get to ride one again soon.

- mike lee - dulles, va

My client services team had to meet in the cafeteria (1) this morning, because our normal meeting room (3) has been converted by the design and technology teams into a "war room" (2) where the final coding and testing will happen to relaunch our 5,000 page, content-managed web site. During intensive spikes of work like this, teams working together in the same room enhances communication and situational awareness. The new site should be up by the weekend. The construction site decorations left over from our recent open house (4, 6) are now highly appropriate. There are also lots of snacks, including a supply of Red Bull (8), and someone is cracking a whip (5)!

- mike lee - washington, dc

We placed signatures and initials on an impressive pile of papers tonight to put a contract offer on the E. Hamilton Street house in Silver Spring shown in the previous post. Now we wait to see if there are competing offers, queries on the specifics of our contract, or maybe our contract will just be accepted. All this while the deal on our house in Baltimore is finalized. It could all go without a hitch, or all fall through. But having several friendly real estate agents involved has been a big stress reliever.

- mike lee - langley park, md

We love this four bedroom, three bath Cape Cod-style home in East Silver Spring, MD. But we're not going to get too excited because there are probably gobs of people bidding on this (starting tomorrow).

The house is only a block away from Upper Long Branch Park, which has a burbling stream and nice playgrounds. A few blocks away are an elementary school, library and Giant Food. Downtown Silver Spring is 7 minutes away by car.

Pictures are: 1) front of house, 2) living room with fireplace and exit to cozy enclosed side porch, 3) kitchen lit by setting sun, 4) basement bar with running water, 5) basement bedroom, another bathroom not pictured 6) basement living room, 7 & 8) second floor, which is really a converted attic, office, 9) second floor bedroom, 10) second floor bedroom window, 11 & 12) backyard with big swingset, 13) nicely landscaped side of house, 14 & 15) views up and down the street.

If nothing else, looking at lots of houses helps build one's mental model of a desirable home. Thanks to co-worker Eve for the tip on this one!

- mike lee - langley park, md

After lunch at Helen's Garden in Baltimore, we bought Cianna a new hat for spring at 2910 boutique. We all looked at more houses this afternoon in the White Oak area and then Amu and I saw Hitchhiker's Guide in Wheaton.

- mike lee - langley park, md

Cianna woke up in a primal scream for her mommy, and made me take her to the front door of the house. The other primal scream is being emitted by Cianna's mommy, who, because our real estate agent didn't call us back until two hours before a contract on our house was due to be signed, had to drive to the nearest open Kinkos to fax 31 signed pages.

- mike lee - baltimore

Lunch today was at the new Red Robin gourmet burger joint in Columbia, MD. This was our first time in this restaurant chain, and the burgers do look just like the photos in the menu. And they taste good too.

- mike lee -

Today was a busy day full of presentations. First thing in the morning, I introduced Dr. BJ Fogg's talk to a group from our Office of Social Impact. BJ presented (1) a version of his introductory talk on persuasive technologies. An hour into BJ's talk, I ran downstairs to catch our all-staff meeting in progress (2) just as our building architects began their presentation of the initial designs (3) of our new office space. Then, after the all-staff, I was back up to the first room to situate BJ for a Lunch 'n Learn talk to some of our web team and other guests (4). BJ did a shorter primer on persuasive technologies where he showed examples of persuasive web sites and products such as the SportBrain pedometer (5). To demonstrate the theory of operant conditioning, he used a clicker to direct a volunteer from the audience who had left the room so that the group could pick a goal. The volunteer came back in the room, and reacting to well-timed positive reinforcement cues in the form of sounds from the clicker, eventually figured out the secret goal, which was to hug a stuffed animal. A fuller version of the clicker technique, which is used for training dogs, is described in the bestselling book Don't Shoot The Dog. After Lunch 'n Learn, a small group re-convened (6) for a workshop on using impact analysis (7) to prioritize the building of web site functionality against business goals. BJ's technique involves, among other things, card sorting, and the use of a feature prioritization matrix. After sending BJ back to his hotel room for a rest, Amy and I met him at Legal Seafoods to discuss the day over dinner. I must say, this is the most intensive involvement I've had from a visiting speaker ever. Bravo Dr. BJ Fogg!

- mike lee - washington, dc

BJ Fogg, Director of Stanford's Persuasive Computing Lab, got in early enough to have Middle Eastern mezzes (tapas) with me at Zaytinya. It got surreal for a moment talking about immersive Internet experiences while a belly dancer performed by our table. But the food was great as usual, and any conversation with BJ always sends my mind racing. I just saw him back to his hotel and I'm taking a taxi home. We're both starting early in the morning to get BJ situated for a day of speaking to various groups at AARP on topics related to computer-mediated behavior change.

- mike lee - washington, dc