Movie Week

When this week began I had no intentions of making it all about movies...  It just turned out that way.  I was really bored at home this morning and when it started heating up in the apartment I decided to get out of the house for a few hours.  I had been wanting to see The Girl Who Played With Fire - the second installment in Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy.  I saw the first film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo just over a month ago when it came to one of the independent theaters in Portland.  I have loved both films so far and am anxious for The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest to be released in the States this fall.  I absolutely love this series and know only a handful of people who like it too.  So if you're reading this and enjoy the series, let me know because I'd love to chat about it.  I think the Swedish film adaptations have been perfect and I worry what Hollywood will do to them.  I know Daniel Craig is in talks to play Michael Blomkvist which didn't sit well with me at first, but the more I think about it, I think he'll be okay.  I think Hollywood will try to tone down some of the violence (and many of the American reviews I have read complain about the amount of violence), but if you've actually read the stories you know how critical these violent scenes are to the whole story.

I was expecting this movie to run close to three hours with the previews (like the first movie did) but when I got out of the theater in just under two hours and it was still scorchingly hot outside, I decided to find a cool place to read before heading home.  I was parked near Southpark Seafood and saw they had sangria on their happy hour menu so I went inside.  It's a swanky place with a relaxed bar room.  The burger sounded too good to pass up (local Carlton Farms beef and white cheddar on a toasted sesame seed bun).  They cooked my burger well instead of medium rare, but that was okay.  It was oddly seasoned - I've had another burger seasoned this way but I don't remember where.  It's something I'm not too fond of.  But at least the fries were good.  They were really brown though.  I'm not sure if that's because they soaked them in vinegar before frying?...  Not sure what makes fries brown.  They were definitely fresh and very crispy, but not in an over-cooked kind of way.  That's why I think they soaked in vinegar or something.