We're planning some minor renovations to our house this year, as I think I've mentioned before. Part of these renovations will likely involve tearing up carpet and replacing it with some other type of flooring. While I like the look of bamboo, it's not really all that green of a solution (despite the reputation bamboo has). Cork flooring seems to be one of the greenest choices, since it's a 100% renewable resource (natural cork, that is) and is highly recyclable. I don't think I've ever actually seen a cork floor in person, though. Has anyone here had any experience with it?

My wife was in a house that had cork flooring the other day and really liked it and lots of trendy commercial spots have adopted it, so it's gotta be pretty nice, right?

One of the things I've come to dread after a move is changing my address with the Secretary of State. While this means I'll get a new driver's license, it also means I'll have to go to the DMV and deal with the usual cesspool of awfulness.

I went to the DMV yesterday over lunch, but this time I went to an "express" location in the city that just did driver's licenses and license plate renewals. Stunningly, my service there was good, fast, and painless. The line was just four people and moved quickly. When I got up to the counter, the clerk was nice and helpful - in fact, she encouraged me to just renew my license now rather than having to come back in a few months. The cashier? Helpful. The photo-taker person? Helpful!

I was in and out in about 20 minutes. That's really not bad! In fact, I think I'm going to write to the Secretary of State and let him know. Maybe I'll get an autographed picture!

(PS: the new driver's license designs are just ugly.)

For a while, I've been haunted by a nagging memory of a neat restaurant I ate at with my family during a trip to New England when I was in high school. It wasn't far off the highway and their gimmick was that with every meal, you got to take home a used book from any of the shelves lining the walls. They also had a used book store in the basement. During our visit, I took Whitley Strieber's Communion. Still haven't read it.

While doing some cleaning up last night, I came across their business card. The restaurant was called The Traveler Restaurant (or Traveler Food and Books) and is on the CT/MA state line in Union, CT, exit 74 off of I-84. And guess what? It's still around (at least it was as of a couple of years ago and I see no indications that it's shut down since then). They give away 50 tons of books each year! That's almost as many as are in Pinger Cat's living room!

It really is a pretty brilliant idea and a smart gimmick to keep people amused while they're waiting for food. I look forward to hitting New England again, just so I can stop in for another visit.

Yesterday I stopped by Nordstrom Rack to look at shoes and umbrellas, because I needed both. (As an aside: it's extremely sad that I live in Chicago and yet have no umbrellas... they're necessary here!) Nordstrom Rack doesn't keep both shoes in a pair out on the rack, though; you need to bring the shoe up to a Shoe Mate Counter to get its mate.

So I did that; I found a great pair of shoes that were half off. When I was at the counter, though, I started feeling uneasy when the counter person took a while to locate my shoe. She then came back with only one shoe and said, "Sorry, we don't have the other one. I looked everywhere." And she did. She suggested that the other shoe might be out on the rack as well... so I spent about 10 minutes looking for it. Let me tell you, looking for a matching brown shoe within a rack of brown shoes should be a game in Brain Age 3.

The downside? I never found the match. I walked out disappointed but also wondered if someone had stolen it. And then I envisioned this guy walking out of the Nordstrom Rack with two mismatched shoes - one black dress shoe and one brown sneaker - like nothing was wrong. Somehow I took satisfaction in that, and left it at that.

(I later found the shoes online for the same price. So take that, one-shoed shoe store!)

Here's something pretty wild: the Ping was featured on the February 12, 2006 episode of Google Current Sushi Zen. Check it out at 2:23 in:



As far as I know this is the only time the Ping has been mentioned on video/TV/whatever this is. And props to Liz for her comment on this Ping that actually made it into the show!

So it's a 2-year-old video of a then 4-year-old Ping. We keep up to date on these things!

Mmmm, bars.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I like a lot of bar-form foods. I started with Odwalla Bars and later moved to Clif Bars but now I'm firmly a fan of Mojo Bar - also from the folks at Clif.

Mojo Bars actually taste like food, which is a huge benefit; they don't have that typical bar taste. You know what I'm talking about. Mojo, instead, has a lot of tasty stuff in it like peanuts, peanut butter, sunflower seeds, and the like. I haven't yet had a bad Mojo Bar. I did have an underwhelming one, and that was the new Clif Dipped Bar. As the name suggests, it's half-dipped in a tasty substance. It could have been better. But then, it could have been way worse too.

While I don't consider them meal replacements, Mojo Bars are pretty tasty.

Lately I've been doing a fair amount of reading about saving money. (Why? Well, why not?) One of the blogs I've been following is The Simple Dollar, which includes some extreme measures to save money.

The biggest one I've seen thus far? Making one's own laundry detergent. It turns out to be a fairly simple and economical process. But I admit, I'm not entirely sure I'm willing to try it out. As everyone who reads the Ping knows, I'm a huge fan of method products and thus like their laundry detergent too... and switching to a homebrew does indeed seem like an extreme step. If it does a very good job, though, I don't have much reason not to switch.

Thus far I haven't taken any extreme money saving steps. Maybe I'll start by starting a compost heap, instead.

A nice, quick, easy Ping for everyone today. What was a cooler feature of an 80s home: the train running through the estate of Silver Spoons, or the grandfather clock-concealed hidden passages in the Webster house?

My money's on Silver Spoons. It's like having a mini-public transit system right there in one's home!

Last week I was at Target buying some ice cream and noticed that the house brand and Breyer's were the same price: $3.29. After conferring with The Wife we decided to get Breyer's, as it's a bit closer to all natural. I picked up the carton and realized... it was only 1.5 quarts. The Archer Farms ice cream was 1.75 quarts.

Not long ago, ice cream was sold in half gallon tubs. 2 quarts. No variations. Then there was a step down to 1.75 quarts while the price stayed the same. Not great. And now, prices are going up... but instead of raising prices, the packaging is getting smaller. It's frustrating, isn't it? And you know that if one company does it, they'll all do it pretty soon.

I'd rather that ice cream just got more expensive. When it's not on sale, ice cream is about $6 for whatever size it is this week. Honestly? Just make it $8 or so at a 2 quart size. Then we can end this silly game.

Oh, and, I got the Archer Farms ice cream. It was tasty!

Yesterday I went home from work early because I felt like doodie (doody?). I went home, slept for a few hours, woke up and took my temperature and HOLY CRAP!--it was 101.6. I realize this isn't even call-the-doctor high, but I can't remember the last time I had a temperature, complete with chills and headache. I had a cold last year, but a fever? It's been years.

Thankfully, this morning I'm feeling better. It may have been a sinus infection, but I'm not quite sure because I've never had one before (Virginia, I hate you for doing this to me).

Two things I learned from this experience: first, all of the aspirin in our cabinet is at least six months past its expiration. Second, the later in the night it gets, the stranger the people at the 24-hour CVS get.

As a renter for many years, I admit I never fully understood the power behind home improvement stores. Oh sure, I'd stop in and get a weird/occasional item. Mostly weird. But now that I'm officially a homeowner (in Miami, with a lanai) stores like Home Depot have taken on a whole new feeling.

Instead of walking in and being amazed at how much stuff there is, I'm now walking in and thinking about how much stuff I want. A trip there on Saturday for a lawnmower (new thing to get!) involved getting doorknobs, stuff for the grill, and a programmable thermostat. It's dangerous stuff. (All of that was necessary, by the way.)

So to those of you who rent, consider this a warning: either get used to the idea of going to a home improvement store all the time now, or just don't go at all until you own a place.

I've always been a fan of Sesame Street. As far as kids' shows go, it's one of the smartest and most consistently well-made. Next year marks 40 years (!) of Sesame Street and today, we sat down and had a family viewing of the first episode, thanks to the amazing Sesame Street Old School DVD set.

Three things that are a bit jarring about episode #1:

• Rather than being an innocent child-like character, Big Bird is more just goofy and dumb. Also, he looks like his head got stuck in a propeller, as he's missing his rather impressive plumage.
• Oscar is orange, and
• (see above photo) Gordon has hair

Also, no Grover. The character that would eventually become Grover didn't debut for another month.

Other than that, the show is remarkably similar to the show that's still on the air today. Bravo, Children's Television Workshop!

Paul is moving into his new house today. His address is 6151 Richmond St., Miami, FL.

Want to hear how I got injured today at a kid's birthday party?

The party was held for a boy down the street who's turning two. It was held at a fun bounce place where they had giant inflatable slides, jumping rooms, and obstacle courses. Rasine, even though she's only 19 months, enjoyed the heck out of it and was far more adventurous than me. During one of our trips down one of the large slides, I started to turn a bit and my elbow got a nice little rugburn from the plastic. No bleeding was involved, but I had an ouchie.

Rasine suffered no injuries.

As with most things in my life, I'm behind on my reading. I mean, maybe I can't call it "behind" just because I've got a long series of books on my "to read" list, but whatever...

Today's poll is simple: how many books do you read at a time?

I can never focus on just one, so I'm always reading at least two at any given period. I've been known to juggle up to five books at a time, though when you're getting up to that number, it'll generally be months before actually finishing one of them. The two books I'm reading now have been in rotation for a while. One, a 650-page novel, I started in November. I'm on page 500. The other is a 300-page non-fiction book that I'm about 1/3rd of the way through after a couple of months. I had a third book that I decided to put back on the shelf after reading almost half.

The majority of my reading is non-fiction, only because I struggle to find fiction that really compels me. I have a few authors and subgenres that I use as go-tos. Reading multiple non-fiction books is not too difficult, especially when they're disparate subjects, but I'll never attempt more than one fiction book at a time for fear or confusing characters and plots.

And, darn it, I forgot to bring my book with me to work today. What am I going to read at lunch?