After running the gauntlet of security and tight connections, I'm here in Montreal for the IA Summit. The massive headache I have from the sueeze on my clogged sinuses due to cabin pressure change is quickly fading. I'm on the shuttle bus now heading to the terminal.

Apparently, it's -5 c outside.

- mike lee - montreal, ca

The Hard Hat Tour of our web-site-in-progress went very well this morning. We converted our meeting room and the area around into a mock contruction zone with a bunch of decorations, including orange cones with blinky lights. These few pics don't really capture the extent of all the "stuff" that was put out for display. From 9:30-10, my boss, our division president and our chief communication officer thanked members of our web team for the hard work they are putting in in the final weeks before the re-launch. Then for another hour, a stream of people from around the building came in to see the displays and sample the cake, which said, "Please Pardon Our Pixels While We Renovate." All visitors got personalized hard hats with the project logo and their first name. I didn't get any photos of the crowd because I chatted with visitors the whole time. All-in-all, the event was a great success thanks to lots of good prep work by the team.

- mike lee - washington, dc

Last leg home: Arriving at Union Station right on time, checking work e-mail in a taxi on North Capitol Street and my sleeping baby girl!

- mike lee - langley park, md

Our Travelocity project manager took us to a pleasant dim sum lunch at Jing Fong Restaurant in Chinatown, which is where we have been doing user acceptance testing of our branded partner web site. Now back to logging test scenarios--woo hoo!

- mike lee - new york

Well, I'm not "having what she had" here at Katz's Deli in the East Village, but I am marveling at the huge #1 breakfast special for $4.65.

- mike lee - new york city

I'm downing a late lunch on the New York-bound Acela Express while perusing US Weekly's "comprehensive" coverage on the hacking of Paris Hilton's T-mobile Sidekick. The issue is currently on newsstands, but for the real story, jump over to Wired's article.

- mike lee - on amtrak 2170 somewhere in delaware

...in daddy's shoes.

- mike lee - langley park, md

I dragged myself through a normal day today while in post-flu haze. Here are some snaps from lucid moments:

(1) Boss Mark started our afternoon staff meeting with a "First Five"-minute talk on how he uses Flickr to syndicate phonecam pictures in real time to his blog.

(2) Chris did a second First Five on the cool developer's extensions available for Mozilla Firefox.

The yellow hard hats you see are to promote the upcoming relaunch of our web site. Each one has a project logo sticker and is personalized with the name of the recipient. We're giving them out to dozens of staff and clients at a "Hard Hat Tour" we're doing Thursday morning.

(3) After the staff meeting I admired a new addition to our staff art gallery: a sculpture of a human figure made from 30-50 rolls of clear packing tape by Mark Jenkins, one of our production designers.

(4) I'm checking snow conditions on web cams tonight as I'm in NYC for a meeting with a product partner tomorrow night and all day Wednesday, and at a conference in Montreal Friday thru Monday.

- mike lee - langley park, md

In Chris Rock's opening monologue on the Oscars (in progress), he says he learned some "stuff" about Bush watching the movie Fahrenheit 9/11. I'm not tape recording or TiVoing, plus I was laughing too hard so here's the paraphrase:

I learned that after Bush's term, he racked up a deficit of 70 trillion dollars! How did he get away with that? Imagine if you worked at a GAP Store and tried to pull the same thing. If your boss found your till 70 trillion dollars short at the end of your shift, you would be fired! Then Bush started a war! So you're at the GAP and start a war with Banana Republic across the mall over toxic tanktops. Thousands of GAP employees dead! Bleeding all over the khakis! And then you find out that the Banana Republic never made tanktops in the first place...

- mike lee - langley park, md

I'm better tonight, but not great. Hopefully this 4-in-1 liquid Tylenol® Cold & Flu Severe with Instant CoolBurst™ Sensation will get me through the night.

- mike lee - baltimore, md