Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

I recently finished reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. And by “reading” I mean listening to the audio book, mostly while in the car. Actually, it was done entirely in my car. I really suck at writing reviews, so I’m not going to attempt to. But it was really good. I enjoyed it, and I especially enjoyed the narrator. I think going the audio book route for this series was a good choice because I’m not sure I’d be able to pronounce any of the Swedish locations correctly in my head.

I watched the Swedish version of the movie today with BRK. Although I didn’t think they did the greatest job with the book to screen adaptation, I enjoyed it. Okay, I kind of fell asleep toward the end, but in my defense (or the movie’s defense) I was pretty tired going into it. And reading subtitles is kind of like reading a book before bed. It makes me all sleepy.

And speaking of reading, I’m going to have to kick it in high gear if I want to make my reading goal of six paper books this year. Even though my GoodReads widget says I’ve read four of my six book goal, two of those were audio books, and stupidly I said that audio books weren’t going to count. *sigh* I did manage to actually read Mockingjay and Water for Elephants, both of which I enjoyed.

Hopefully I can make the most of the next three months. It will be interesting to see what I actually read compared to what my predictions were.

2011 MN State Fair, Trip 2

Nick and I headed to the fair on Sunday afternoon. We met up with Travis, Marshall and Karen, and their two chil’ns. I started off the eating festivities with Deep Fried Pickles. Unfortunately I didn’t order the kind with the cream cheese filling. Woops. Next time for sure.

We ordered a bucket of Sweet Martha’s Cookies to share—a must when you’re in a big group—and headed toward Machinery Hill to avoid the mass crowds. While everyone gathered around 3rd Lair to watch the skate show, I wandered to the Custom Fitted Toe Ring booth and got me a custom fitted toe ring. It is totally awesome. There’s a picture below. Sorry for the dirty feet. At least you didn’t have to touch them. Here’s a video of a cool bicycle trick to make up for it.

The Sunnies in a Boat at Giggles were exceptionally delicious. Well worth the hefty price tag. I ate them while we watched the Iron Jack show. Actually, they were long gone by the time the show started because we got there an hour early. I didn’t mind. We got to sit in the shade.

One of the highlights of this particular trip was seeing the woman man in the teeny tiny volleyball shorts and bullet belt. From the back, he was very deceiving. From the front, his chops couldn’t be mistaken. He did have nice legs, though…

2011 MN State Fair, Trip 1

This year, Nick, Blog Reader Kristen, and I kicked off the fair festivities on day one! It was a beautiful day; the temp held steady at 80° and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We arrived around 2 PM and headed in to get some grub.

The first item on the agenda was to get Nick the traditional About a Foot Long Hot Dog. After that, Corn Dogs (not Pronto Pups cuz they suck) were enjoyed all around. Kristen and I hit up French Meadow Bakery and Cafe, where I got a cup of delicious Black Currant Iced Tea. We also splitsied a Butcher Boy Steak Sandwich with yummy toppings such as banana and bell peppers. Much other food was enjoyed.

On the way out, BRK was distracted by a jewelry stand in Heritage Square. While she was making a purchase, I spotted this really super cute owl necklace and made Nick buy it for me.

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