songbird's crazy world

Another old favorite of mine, Potbelly Sandwich Shop. Made to order sandwiches and salads. They toast your sandwich before adding condiments, and serve it warm. You can get chips or small portion of cole slaw, potato salad or macaroni salad. Cookies are huge and just a little too sweet. My favorite sandwich is turkey. Really loving this. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Yes, I like diners, and yes I like burgers. And this one is just fine. Decent burgers, decent fries, pleasant service. We pop in occasionally. Never had a bad meal here.

There has been a dearth of  blockbuster movies this summer.  The industry has had high hopes for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes , the sequel to 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes . I read the reviews with trepidation.  The Daily News loved it, Newsday hated it. There was a lot of action in this movie, and great special effects (we saw it in 3D), but overall I think the movie is to cerebral for a summer blockbuster.  Definitely not a "check your brain at the door" kind of movie.  The first movie took on science and genetics and experimentation, this movie addresses violence and gun control, and trust between intelligent beings.  Caesar wants to build a peaceful society of apes away from human influences, but in the end he realizes humans and apes are not so very different from each other.  Very thought-provoking. Afterwards we wound up at the Empress diner, one of our staples.  I had my usual burger, drew wanted soup -- and they serve a hu...

Since I am once again inhabiting that rabbit's warren of streets known as the Financial District, I have rediscovered an old favorite, Zeytuna. I love the salad bar here! Not a lot of choices on the steam table, but whether you want prepared salads or you'd like to assemble your own, you're faced with many choices. The greens and veggies are always fresh. The shrimp salad has large, plump shrimp. You can usually find three different varieties of pasta salad, as well as couscous or quinoa salad. Chicken salad and tuna salad are pretty standard. There's hummus! Though I do wish they'd offer bread with the salad. Happy lunching! \ - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

In a word, yuck. I was looking for Asian food at lunchtime and thought this place would fit the bill. Restaurant looks cafeteria-esque, you order food at the counter and can eat at one of the tables or take your meal "to go". A bit pricey for a downtown lunch spot, but I thought I'd give it a try. I ordered chicken teriyaki over white rice. The server asked if I wanted white meat or dark, then gave me dark even though I asked for white. The chicken was over cooked and tough, the teriyaki sauce tasted "off". So no, I will not be returning.   } - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

So I've been hearing about a new Marvel Comics movie, "Guardians of the Galaxy". Saw the trailers and thought I'd love the movie. Drew and I are on several mailing lists where we sometimes get an offer to see a blockbuster movie for free, just before it opens, in hopes that we will like the movie and spread the word. We got what appeared to be one of those offers for "Guardians". But when we got there tonight, we found out that what we were about to see was simply 17 minutes of the movie. Now, we got to see an 11 minute preview of 'Star Trek: Into Darkness" awhile back, but it was shown as an extra, just before a movie we'd paid for. But to have people come to a theater just for 17 minutes of film...not so nice. And the ad was deceptive, a lot of people were mislead and thought they!d be seeing the whole movie. Well, despite the sour taste in my mouth because of how the event was promoted, I must say that the 17 minutes of film I ...

New job, new challenges. Getting to know my new coworkers. What I am doing now is a bit different than what I did at my former place of employment but draws upon the same knowledge base and analytical skills. All of us on the team have been working in the industry upwards of 25 years. We've been called upon to bring our expertise to the client's most recent problem. The plan is for us to work at the client's premises for 90 days, then move to our own facility. The client is in lower Manhattan, our offices are on Long Island. We have been here a week. My former employer is headquartered in lower Manhattan. When I was first hired, in 2002, my department was located there. After we moved to Jersey City, in 2004, I would periodically visit our headquarters, but it's not the same as being there every day. So it's kind of exciting to go to work these days, to explore all the options I have at lunchtime. And I won't have to deal with the awful c...