I'm saving reference photos here of the magnificent 4th floor of the Hotel Monaco. I must get back here to use the staircase and ballroom for a photo shoot.

We're staying the night so that we can go to an early meeting at our office, which is across the street. Photo 1 is the hallway outside of our room, photo 2 and 3 are of the spiral staircase at the end of the hall, and photos 4 and 5 are of the grand ballroom on the opposite corner of the 4th floor. The accomodations are very fine, and there's free wired-based Internet access. But despite asking twice, we never got our pet goldfish.

In a eight days, a group of high profile web consultants will descend on this building to present User Experience Week 2004. I hope they get their goldfish, or it's likely they'll trash the place.

- mike lee - washington, dc