Who knew that Ryan Reynolds was a good actor? Certainly not me. This was quite an interesting movie. It was a story about a government contractor (Ryan Reynolds), working in Iraq, who is ambushed and buried alive in a coffin-like wooden box. The entire movie took place in said box. You wouldn’t necessarily think this could possibly be interesting, but it was. Spoiler alert: it did not end well. When I told Brian the plot, he was not the least bit interested in watching, yet he caught almost all of the movie. And, while I wouldn’t say he enjoyed it, it certainly caught his attention. Go figure.
u is for undertow
In case you didn’t guess, this was another book from Sue Grafton’s alphabet mystery series. I always enjoy her books, but I liked this one more than usual. I don’t know if it’s because I read a couple of crappy books before it or if this one was just that good, but I did like it.
The story was pretty complex, but I liked how things worked out in the end. The main character is a private investigator, so you see the story unfolding in the same way she does. Pretty interesting. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that it was used and someone ripped out the last page–can you believe that?!? I had to look up the story on Wikipedia to find out one part of the storyline ended.
breaker boys
The three of us went out to dinner with our friends Carol and Bob last night. Carol suggested meeting at a new restaurant in Colver called Breaker Boys. I was glad she did. The food was excellent. They have tons of specialty beers available (and at very good prices), too, so Brian got to branch out a little from the ordinary. Brian and I both had a traditional stromboli and we both brought half home for today’s lunch. It was really good (and huge). Jake had an Italian panini, which he liked.
Best of all, it was nice catching up with Carol and Bob. While Carol and I do a pretty good job of keeping in touch through email and the phone, we don’t get to see them very often, so it’s always nice when we do manage to get together.
harry potter and the sorcerer’s stone
Jake used to have the first few Harry Potter movies on videotape, so I’ve seen bits and pieces of the first few movies in this series, but I never sat down and watched any of them in their entirety. Now that all of the movies are out on DVD, Jake and I are going to watch them all.
I really enjoyed the books and it was cool to see how they pulled off some of the stuff in the movie. And, it’s a good story to boot, so it will be a fun series to watch.
charbroil red
After 10 years, it was time to toss the Weber. After replacing a number of parts on it throughout the years, the frame started rusting. I wasn’t as thrilled with the Weber as I had expected to be, so we decided to try a different brand this time around. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, either, because it seems that grills don’t last that long no matter what you spend.
I read about the Charbroil Red grill at one point and was intrigued. While they market it as an “infrared” grill it has more of an indirect heat thing going on (there’s a large pan that sits above the burners, so the flames aren’t directly cooking the food). I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it, but so far I’m liking it just fine. Due to the indirect heat, it’s excellent for roasts. And, I did some burgers on it last night and they were awesome as well. No flare-ups means no burnt meat. I guess it’s a bit early in the grilling season for a review, but I’ve been giving it a workout for two weeks and I think I’m going to like it.