Lack of blogging update
Sorry about the lack of posting much today, I had to work from home and wait for a plumber. Usually installing a new toilet is a piece o' cake. This time I had trouble getting the old bolts out so I started hacking away at a metal flange that was holding the ring down. Which I belatedly found out was what was holding the ring thing down, rather than the usual screws/bolts into the floor. So anyway, I didn't know how to attach said ring thing to floor and whether the flange thing was indeed necessary or not. So, a call to the professionals was in order. 'Course, there was mention of a "lead bend" along the way, and some (ultimately misleading) Web investigation indicated that a broken lead bend -- which is what said Web search also seemed to indicate the flange thing that I'd busted off -- was way expensive to repair. YEESH.

Turned out the flange was just a way of securing the ring thing in lieu of bolts -- which had rusted away long ago -- and wasn't really needed. So he drilled a couple holes, screwed in the ring thing into the floor and popped in the new terlet.