The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Print media

Yesterday I bought the Sunday Chicago Tribune for the first time in years. Sadly, I didn't buy it to read. It's just packing material.

Did I mention I hate moving?

It begins...

With the Inner Drive Technology World Headquarters move only 21 days from now, this was bound to happen:

Also in the next three weeks is a big vacation. So, you know, no stress...

More stuff on my Kindle

Fortunately, I have a couple of long flights coming up in two weeks. Unfortunately, not all of this will be relevant then:

Tonight I'm taking a short break to go to the Wait! Wait! Don't tell me taping, which is conveniently located two blocks from my office. And tomorrow I might have some time to think.

Good customer service, but I miss my tea

A couple days ago I sent Peet's Coffee a note:

I see that the Summer House Iced Tea blend is out of stock. Any idea when it will be back? It's the best blend I've found for iced tea.

They responded this morning:

Thank you for your interest in our tea line up, especially the Summer House Iced Tea. At the present moment we do not have specific information regarding the Summer House Iced Tea, but let me tell you why. Peet's has recently joined forces with Mighty Leaf to provide a more diverse and accessible tea experience for our customers. At this time, we are only adding Mighty Leaf Tea to Peet's, however our end goal in this merger is to have two separate brands: Mighty Leaf Tea and Peet's Coffee.

The cohabitation of our brands is still relatively new and we are actively and carefully examining the commonalities between us and the teas offered by both brands. We are not certain exactly which assortment is best for our brands which is why your questions and feedback are so valuable to us.

We will definitely keep our customers informed of further developments, including the status of the Summer House Iced Tea, as it is still a work in progress. The primary mode in which we inform our customers is though our electronic newsletter. If you do not already receive our emails and are interested, please provide your preferred email address and zip code and I will be happy to sign you up for our emailing list.

That's a great response but, unfortunately, not the outcome I wanted. I hope they'll bring the Summer House tea back. In the interim, any suggestions for good iced tea blends? I might go with Tazo Awake.

Concert today; walks yesterday

As I mentioned yesterday, we finally have a late-spring weekend in Chicago. It got up to 24°C officially at O'Hare yesterday; today's forecast high is 27°C.

Parker got a 3=hour, 12.5 km walk, while I managed 26,000 steps and 21.4 km of my own. And we just got back from another 5,000-step walk before he gets to do his second-favorite activity: a Ride in the Car!

Apollo's final concert of the season is this afternoon, too. I'm kind of sad not to see the chorus again until rehearsals resume mid-September. But there's a lot going on this summer, including moving IDTWHQ. Stay tuned.

Don't recycle your pizza box

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.