With my ongoing diet and exercise program, coupled with trying to save money, I'm a frequent customer at the Subway franchise in Columbia Heights, at 3306 14th Street NW. The 6" turkey or vegetarian sandwiches on wheat bread are low in calories and fat, and high in fiber and nutrients, so I've really done well in adding them into my routine.

Best of all, the employees at this Subway location are wonderful, and I just wanted to thank them here today. By now, all the employees there recognize me, and know what kind of sandwich I usually get. There's always a line of customers, and the employees barely get a chance to catch their breath, but they always seem to be able to muster a smile and appear to have a cheerful attitude. The two women who work there on weekday evenings are particularly helpful and pleasant. They recently told me they were from Eritrea; I wonder what their lives were like there? It's not very far from lawless, violent places like Darfur and Somalia.

Quite frankly, I don't know how they remain so upbeat when confronted with all those surly customers. We have quite a few "characters" here in Columbia Heights, and there seems to be a large percentage of difficult customers the Subway employees have to deal with. You know, the high-maintenance types who demand "extra tomatoes, but I want them on the side - no, that's too much mayo, take some off, toast the bread by itself first, cut the sandwich into 4 pieces", etc. If I worked there, I'd go postal in a couple of days, after serving up some "spit sandwiches." So, kudos to the polite, efficient, calm folks working in the Subway store in Columbia Heights. Thank you!  

On my lunch hour, I've noticed that the Subway sandwich shop on 9th Street NW has been more and more crowded lately. At first, I assumed it was due to the annual summer tourist influx, but now I'm not so sure. Every time I walk by, or stop in for my usual 6" veggie or turkey on wheat bread, the line of customers seems mostly composed of regular office workers, not tourists. I've gone to the other Subway at 12th and NY at lunchtime, and it's equally crowded with locals. The lines are long, but orderly, and move pretty quickly, as everyone probably knows the drill by now, and gets the same thing every day.   

I wonder if the surge in Subway customers reflects a state of anxiety about the economy? You can get a sandwich there for $3-4, or a "foot long" for $5. Maybe fewer people are going out to sit-down restaurants for lunch because their mortgage is so high, or gas prices are up, etc. It's purely anecdotal evidence, of course, but hey, that's what blogs are for, right?

For decades, I've consistently disliked dried fruit: raisins, craisins, prunes, you name it. Raisins in particular were the focus of my ire. Nothing was more disappointing to me than biting into a chocolate chip cookie, and discovering that the "chocolate chips" were actually  raisins. So sneaky! Why would anyone want to dry out a perfectly juicy grape?

All of a sudden, I've discovered a newfound taste for dried fruit. Go ahead, call me a flip-flopper, and use it against me in the fall campaign, I don't care. I'm snacking on raisins as we speak! I keep a box in my desk for when I get hungry, and at home I've been experimenting with those more upscale, resealable packs of dried fruit. I've tried out a couple of different kinds of raisins, dried mango, pineapple, dates, and have a bag of dried blueberries I'm dying to open.

In a quest for more fiber, I've even been eating California Mission figs. It tastes just like the inside of a Fig Newton, unsurprisingly. The flavor seems like it would pair well with red wine and cheese, so I have to try that sometime. I may even try the ultimate in geezer confirmation fruit: prunes. Mr. T has grown up, and is getting old, apparently. 

My wife made the tactical error of leaving a bagel wrapped in a paper towel on the kitchen counter last night, intending to eat it for breakfast this morning. I didn't think anything of it, aside from being jealous of her bagel, but our crazy teenage cat Oliver had other plans.

When I woke up and went downstairs this morning, the kitchen was a mess, there was water everywhere, and a soggy, beat-up bagel in the middle of the floor. While cleaning up the mess, I was able to reconstruct what must have happened from the paw prints and trail of crumbs.

After we went to bed, Oliver smelled the bagel, since it wasn't sealed in a plastic bag, and jumped on the counter. He knows he's not supposed to go up there, but when we're not home or asleep, he knows he can get away with it. He dragged the bagel to the edge of the counter, and pushed it off, with the paper towel still wrapped around it. He then went to work removing the paper towel, and shredded it and dragged it around a bit in the process. Eventually he freed the bagel and nibbled at it and licked it a bit, but decided he really didn't like it too much. A little bit at a time, he pushed or dragged it over to his water bowl, where he lifted it up and into the water, perhaps trying to "drown" it. What I don't understand is how he got the waterlogged and disintegrating bagel OUT of the water bowl, but he managed to do that as well. He dragged the soggy thing over towards his litter box before finally giving up. It was pretty much glued to the floor, which already has problems, so I was not too happy about it. I was able to clean everything up, but still have to sanitize the counters tonight.

We'll have to keep food locked away or creatively stored from now on, I suppose. Silly Oliver, you're quite clever and amusing, but please leave the bagels for us humans, OK? 

At the corner of 9th and F Streets NW, the same location I thought I saw Walter Cronkite riding a motorcycle, I saw a woman literally lose her lunch this morning. She was riding one of those folding bicycles, the ones with the small-diameter wheels, across F Street when she must have hit a bump in the road. A large Tupperware container with her lunch inside bounced off the bike rack, and into the street. With a splat, the Tupperware opened and dumped the food all over the street. It appeared to be some kind of pasta salad, with other components, and was spread out over an entire lane. She stopped on the opposite corner from me, and looked back ruefully at her meal, being run over by cars. The small wheels on those bikes don't soak up the bumps very well, and perhaps the meal wasn't secured well enough to the frame. Anyway, it was sad, and an unfortunate start to the day for the unfortunate bicycle commuter, but it was kindof funny (sorry...) the way it splattered all over the place.*  I was good, I didn't chuckle or even crack a smile! I tried to project a great deal of empathy as I continued on to work.

* For some reason, I've always been intrigued with food items being run over by cars, starting out in elementary school by putting my pint of milk under the wheels of the school bus, and watched it explode. Later, instead of throwing away expired or rotten produce, I'd carefully lay it in the street, and hide in the bushes to watch cars run over it. I dunno, blame it on my mom!   

It's been kindof a rough year so far, and I haven't been feeling well lately, so I really needed a good, relaxing weekend, and I got it. This past weekend was perfect! The weather was gorgeous both days, for a change, and it turned out there weren't any delays yet on the Green and Yellow lines, so I was able to get around efficiently.

On Saturday, I went down to Dupont Circle to take in some of the open houses at the EU Embassies, and got there early enough to avoid the longest lines. Portugal, being closest to the Metro, was jam-packed, so I skipped it and went on to the Embassy of Luxembourg. They were kind enough to let me use the bathroom there, a nice one, with real hand towels and marble surfaces. Then it was on to Greece, where there was a large free food spread with a long line. I skipped that, preferring to take photos of the architecture instead. Then I went into the Romanian Embassy, which was pretty nice. The Ambassador's office was open, but there was a sign prohibiting photography, and a velvet rope. Otherwise, I took many photos of the embassies, and will gradually upload them to Flickr as time permits.

After touring the embassies, I was pretty hungry, and on the way home stopped at the new Pete's Apizza in Columbia Heights. I had a couple of slices and a soda, and it really hit the spot. Their counter seating is a great location for people-watching, facing right towards the Metro entrance.

Later on, I also accomplished some chores: I got the car washed, did the grocery shopping, and
hooked up the digital converter to the old TV in the back room, which now gets all the HDTV broadcasts, not in HD of course. Best of all, I took a couch nap with the kitty, who has been well-behaved and affectionate while my wife is out of town. Good boy!

On Sunday, the weather was again spectacular, so after breakfast and coffee with M at Mayorga, I grabbed my camera and headed downtown. I ended up walking a couple of miles, passing through the Enid Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle building, and hanging out at the Cinco De Mayo Festival by the Slyvan Theater for awhile. I got to see some of the performers close up, and took a couple of decent photos. The music was good, but there wasn't much food around as far as I could tell. I finished the afternoon by walking around The Ellipse, and photographing the First Division Monument before heading home. The new camera is doing well, and I think I got some decent shots today while playing with the various modes.

After such a perfect weekend, it's pretty disappointing to be back at the office. Oh well, looking forward to the next one! 

My wife got the urge to do some baking recently, and I offered to help her by, you know, eating a portion of the raw batter. I ended up restraining myself, while she whipped up a delicious batch of butterscotch blondies. They were moist and buttery, the best blondies/brownies I've ever had, so for that reason I'm sharing the recipe here, giving full credit to the author of the cookbook, of course! Don't want to get myself any cease-and-desist letters from anyone, so here's the cookbook the recipe came from:   Mark Bittman, How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 1998

Butterscotch brownies (blondies)
 
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, plus a little for greasing the pan
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract or 1/2 tsp almond extract
Pinch salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
 
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan, or line it with aluminum foil and grease the foil.
Melt the butter over low heat. Transfer to a bowl and use an electric mixer to beat in the sugar until very smooth, then beat in the egg and vanilla, stirring down the sides of the bowl every now and then.
Add the salt, then gently stir in the flour. Pour into the prepared pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until just barely set in the middle. It's better to underbake brownies [ours were slightly underbaked -T] than to overbake them. Cool on a rack before cutting. Store, covered and at room temperature, for no more than a day.
 
J's modifications:
Used cooking spray to grease the pan instead of butter. They were still wildly buttery, with a whole stick in there.
Used vanilla extract instead of almond.
Added 1/2 cup toffee bits and handful of chopped walnuts.

I think the toffee chips really put this one over the top. As a result, I'm wearing my "fat jeans" today. Ugh. 

When I went to see my doctor for a routine checkup last week, I discovered that I need to lose about 10-15 pounds. I don't regularly hop on the scale, and for the past 20 years I've hovered around the same weight, so the news came as somewhat of a surprise. My pants did feel tighter than usual lately, though.

My plan is to cut back on lunch a bit, and to get off one Metro stop early on the way to work, as well as to take longer walks on my lunch hour. The hard part will be to reduce the number of Kit-Kats I eat. I love them so much; especially dipped in creamy peanut butter! Another of my delicious weight-gain recipes.