Kosher Subway Coming!

I got some great news from Presence, Baltimore will soon be having a kosher Subway restaurant. Before I began keeping kosher, I used to eat at Subway often. It helps that they were about 30 yards away from the front door of my office building. I enjoy many of their sandwiches. I wouldn't say that they are my FAVORITE restaurant, not even out of all the fast food places (that probably would be Wendy's), but I do miss meals from there since they tended to be healthier than most of the "McLunches" I would otherwise eat. And another plus, Subway started out in Connecticut, where I'm orginally from; in fact their headquarters is in Milford, CT, I used to spend a lot of time at the Post Mall in Milford.

I'm sure they'll be very crowded when they first open up, but I do plan to visit soon afterwards. I've eaten a kosher Whopper at a Burger King on Ben Yehuda street in Jerusalem, and a kosher Big Mac at the McDonalds in Ben Gurion Airport outside of Tel Aviv. Now I'm looking forward to a meatball sub and maybe a BMT. I'm guessing they didn't carry forward the Seafood and Crab sandwich (unless they use that fake crab stuff).

Finally Read it

I finally read a book that my brother-in-law recommended to me a while ago, The Da Vinci Code. Wow, what a thriller to read. If I didn't have the kids underfoot, I probably would have finished it in one day, instead it stretched over three days. Of course the major premise was leaked out a long time ago, so that wasn't a shock to me, but what I did enjoy was the way everything unfolded, and the depth of detail in the story telling, along with the constant cliff hangers as the story went along. The author sure knows how to keep everyone's interest. I was also surprised by the few Jewish themes that were thrown in as well, especially the Star of David / Magen David.

I did guess the identity of "The Teacher" pretty early in the story, but since I wasn't 100%, it was still interesting to follow the twists and clues given. By the time they were in England, I knew for sure, he gave it away when talking to the albino monk.

I'm still going through Wikipedia to search several of the concepts that were brought up in the book, the paintings, the places they visited, the secret organizations, etc. I realize the book is a fictional story, but it's amazing how much research must have been done to pull all of this together, especially all of the puzzles thrown in. I'm looking forward to renting the movie (it's at my local supermarket "Red Box" for $1 a night) and seeing Ron Howard's interpretation.

Now I just have to wait until Sept 18th, that's when they are releasing the full 7 volume set of Harry Potter. I didn't want to go book by book, waiting two years between each one... I don't have the patience for that! If the final result is leaked before I read that far, it still sounds like it's a great story anyway.

Ride to Work Day!

Reminder for those of you who ride... Wednesday July 18th is Ride to Work Day. Of course, if tradition holds, that means it'll be raining over here... (and the weather forcast is already calling for an increase chance of rain on Wed... sigh)

Buy rain gear for your local motor patrol!!

I'm sitting here in my office (yes, I know I should be working hard!) looking out in our parking lot. We have 4 level parking deck. Several of us who ride motorcycles park on the bottom (ground) level, near the entrance to the building where the building guards aren't very far off. I'm getting a good chuckle, because it's POURING out there. And in the parking lot, next to where we park our bikes, are two wet policemen, waiting out the rain. One of them even took out a rag and started wiping his bike down. Come on guys, you ride your bikes, you know you might get wet!

And for the record, no, I didn't ride in today. 1) There was a 60% chance of heavy showers, so I didn't even want to try; 2) I'm heading out for two meetings later today, and I don't take the bike on the beltway during rush hour. I just get cooked.

Ah, the rain finally let up, and it looks like they are heading out. Maybe I should have offered them my extra rain gear?

Playing with Scissors...

While I was out teaching people how to ride motorcycles yesterday, Laya got the kids some stuff to play with, draw with, or otherwise create with. One of the items they had was a pair of safety scissors. You know how kids are, you turn around for one minute, then look back... Laya saw Ahava cutting up some paper that wasn't meant for cutting up. The scissors were removed.

That night after getting home from class (long hot day... ugh) Laya and I were cleaning up the living / play room. Hmmm, what's this on the floor? Hair? Oy! It's curly, so it has to be from Ahava; Tikvah has straight hair. As we continued cleaning, we found more hair. Not a whole lot, just some strands here and there. Now we're wondering, who did the cutting, Tikvah, or Ahava?
I told Laya it could have been a lot worse. When my aunt was 2 or 3, and was supposed to be taking a nap, she decided she didn't like the curtains in the house. Snip, snip, snip... At least the hair will grow back... eventually.


Post thought: After just getting off the phone with my mother (to verify my aunt's age at the time of the crime) I found out that when she was young, she gave a haircut to the girl down the street, and vice versa. So Laya, at least the kids aren't both bald!! Now if they learn to cut their hair like I do... :-)