The Daily Parker

Apparently cheese grease contaminates the cardboard:

Paper is particularly susceptible to food and beverage contamination, and it "ends up suffering the most from getting mixed with other materials," says [Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Research Specialist Darby] Hoover. The culprits: gooey cheese and oil stains. Even if you remove the crusty cheese and sauce the slices leave behind, grease will have already soaked into the cardboard, ruining it for recycling. In a single-stream system (where bottles, glass, paper, and more all co-mingle) residue from other items in the bin could also contaminate the cardboard. Food and oil can't be separated from paper in the pulping process, so once paper is soiled, it's a done deal.

Well, that's unfortunate. Probably too much to hope they start putting pizza in recyclable polymer boxes.

We've got a pair of fun concerts coming up. Friday we're at 4th Presbyterian in Chicago at 7:30pm, and Sunday we're at the Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church at 3pm.

(This is one of the reasons posts have been less frequent and pithy.)

Sir Terry and Neil Gaiman have a joint cameo in Episode 1 of BBC4's radio adaptation of the funniest book ever. I'm trying to sneak a listen to it in my office.

Hurry: it's only free until next Wednesday.

To read:

• Pepsi is dropping Aspartame, which, by the way, doesn't stop obesity.
• Bad urban planning exacerbated the destruction in Kathmandu and puts other Asian cities at risk.
• Indian food is delicious, and now we know why. (My bet was on turmeric.)
• American Airlines rejiggered its operations in Chicago and Dallas in March, which is a good thing.
• The Economist reports that Chinese scientists have changed the genome of 86 zygotes, which, had the zygotes been viable, could have resulted in genetically-modified humans. Creepy.
• Does Duke create corporate stooges? Not always.

Back to cleaning up after a production bug this weekend.

Yesterday, owing to having a dog and not passing out from exhaustion after writing a blog entry, I blew out my Fitbit steps so far past my old personal record that I'm not sure I'll surpass it for a very long time.

Yesterday's total was 30,496 steps over 27.7 km. Apparently I drank enough water yesterday that I'm not a raging ball of sore muscles today. And so far today, I'm over 8,000 steps, with another few thousand pretty much guaranteed before dinner.

Today's gorgeous weather encouraged me to go outside. A lot. In fact, I hit a new record today: almost 27,000 steps and more than 24 km—so far. I still have to take Parker out at least twice tonight, though he's a little tired from the 5½ km he and I walked earlier today.

Next up on the agenda: lots of water, starting to prepare food. For some reason I'm really hungry...

After seeing Carousel yesterday, I'm going to take advantage of really gorgeous weather today. Parker will also benefit. Updates as the situation warrants.

First, a not-so-smart car:

I'm not sure what amused me more, the disproportionate tow truck or that the Smart Car driver parked in a rush-hour tow zone long enough for Streets & Sanitation to remove him.

Then, for everyone who takes his dog to work, there's this food truck:

I didn't pick anything up for Parker yet. ($2.50 per biscuit? Did I read that right?) But if it comes back, maybe.

I'm still trying to debug the performance of our principal application, which shouldn't be struggling the way it is.

I did, however, take two minutes out of my life to watch this:

I mean, yes: