Giving Thanks

Since we live (sorry USCBP - "temporarily reside") in the US we now celebrate Thanksgiving in November instead of October. Oddly enough, we have spent every American Thanksgiving in Canada though. But you're supposed to spend this holiday with family and friends we headed North since that's where ours are.

Each year our list of things to be thankful for grows a little longer. Hera are two new additions for 2007:

• NY Bar Exam: props to Christopher for passing the NY Bar Exam this summer (Christopher - I don't say it nearly enough, but I'm super proud of you. I have no idea how you have the patience to memorize even half of those crazy Bar/Bri mnemonics). Is it really effective to expend precious brainpower trying to remember the made-up mnemonic AND all the rules themselves? I guess if you spend enough time griping about how ass-backwards it all is, something ends up sticking in your brain.
• Friends with Toys: since we don't have a system of our own, we have to leech off of our friends with the latest toys. On Thursday night after dinner at the pub we kept S up way past his bedtime (on a school night!) playing Halo 3 on Xbox Live. And after the 3 hours of Rockband we played with M & C on Saturday night we couldn't stop talking about investing in a system of our own!

Hoagie Haven

I am a huge fan of the independent sub shop. I think it started with the heated corned beef subs I would scarf down after my Saturday morning French lessons at Alliance Francais on the way to my piano lesson. (Don't laugh - this was my Saturday routine for 12 years of my childhood. Which meant that my Friday evenings were spent doing French homework and trying to cram a week's worth of piano practising into one night.)

Back in Toronto I satisfied my sub cravings with Belly Buster (on Yonge, just north of Lawrence). The past 3 weeks I have been travelling to Princeton, NJ for work (which has a surprisingly charming downtown in fact). And what has almost made up for being on the road is this fabulous student hangout that I discovered on Chowhound - Hoagie Haven.

I don't really know what makes I good sub, but here are the things that Belly Buster & Hoagie Haven have in common:

• late hours: key for midnight cravings
• uber-fresh bread: delicious pillowy-soft goodness
• veggies: interestingly enough, both these shops offer the standard lettuce, tomato, onion, & hot peppers, but that is all. Not like the other big franchises that supply a laundry list of vegetables (green pepper, cucumber, black & green olives, etc.). A classic sub shop will focus on what counts not wasting their time on the small stuff
• mayo: it's probably just a bizarre coincidence, but both these joints spread their mayo on with a spreader versus depositing it via squirt bottle

I always try the shop's "specialty" cold sub. In places like these, it's usually the first item on the menu board. Or it is named after the store itself. Top it off with mayo, a little mustard, oil & vinegar, and salt & pepper - heaven in my belly!

I still have not managed to find my new favourite sub place close to our home in West Hartford. There used to be a Jersey Mike's 15 minutes away, but it has since closed :(

Five

Five: pumpkins carved
Five: bags of candy purchased
Five: o'clock was when I left work to get home in time for Halloween
Five: the number of trick-or-treaters that visited our house :(

I love Halloween. I think it's a fun low-stress holiday for everyone to enjoy. Unlike Thanksgiving & Christmas there is no pressure to create some Martha Stewart inspired meal. In fact, if you're one of those people that gives out homemade treats you should know that they are just going in the garbage because parents think you could be one of those child poisoning psychos and/or kids prefer store-bought candy.

Last year we had over 80 trick-or-treaters and I was hoping for a similar turnout. Unfortunately I was let down.

I can even list all the costumes this year (on one hand no less):

• 2 x spiderman
• superman
• cowboy
• some sort of black and grey caped crusader ( I suppose I was too crushed by our low turnout to care at this point)

Good thing Wal-Mart let us return our unopened bags of candy!