It’s another busy week here at Portigal as we are aflurry with a webinar, a kickoff, and a retreat:

• Steve will be giving his virtual seminar Championing Contextual Research in Your Organization tomorrow!
• We are kicking off a new project with a compressed timeline so we are ready to hit the ground running.
• Tamara will be cultivating her creative spirit at The Journey retreat in Oregon and offering two workshops.
• What we’re consuming: Gherkin’s Sandwich Shop, Morimoto and inGenius: A Crash Course on Creativity.

We are traveling this week and finding time for…

• Storytelling – We are headed to sunny San Diego this week to deliver the results of a recent project. Though the prototypes were super sci-fi, the results are pretty down to earth.
• Storymaking – We have converged upon the key insights and narrative for another project and are now weaving that story into a presentation and video.
• Ideating – We are talking with friends at two different organizations (one hyper local and one far-flung) about innovation collaborations.
• Retreating – Taking time to huddle at a hip SF coffeehouse to review, revision and recommit to our 2012 goals.
• Consuming – Cow Palace, Christo, and Duarte’s Ollalieberry Pie

On Friday I became a first-time uncle as Talia Elyse Todd arrived. We’ll be headed up to Vancouver in a few weeks to check her out!

I’ve been running around evenings and weekends the last few days doing fieldwork. We did find a fun place for a debrief (listed as “Java on Judah” in my GPS) with a gregarious San Francisco-type proprietor.

Sunday was 3 hours of driving, to Bolinas and back, for an all-day faculty retreat for the CCA ID department. Really great session and I feel excited about this and upcoming semesters, but still.