Mmmm, chocolatey...

7/27/2005 07:04:00 p.m.

We went to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night. Being someone who (a) never read the book and (b) never cared much for the previous celluloid incarnation, I was pretty lukewarm about the whole idea. I enjoyed the movie, though. It was a more entertaining ride than the trailers had implied. Johnny Depp was quirky to the point of freaky, and Tim Burton's curlicued set design made my inner child happy.

Afterwards we wound up at Forbidden Flavours for coffee, and my wife almost bought some Harry Potter candy. Someday I'll do an inventory of all the weird candies to be had at FF; for now I'll just say that their coffee is expensive but worth it. And it was busy, which is always a good sign. Now that Starbucks is in town (down on the floodplain with Wal-Mart and the Home Depot and Futureshop and a group of other boxen), I wonder if FF will suffer, or if they've carved themselves a sufficient niche in this town.

We also went to URLs, which is a sort of geek store that sells anime, action figures, books, and rents DVDs. We rented Clone Wars Volume I, so that my wife can watch all of it, hopefully without falling asleep this time. And then we'll have to keep our eyes peeled for Volume II, if it's even out yet. (Anybody know?)