I go in spells where I don’t go to the movie theater for many months, but in these past few weeks I have seen a lot of movies. Silver Linings Playbook. Django Unchained. And this weekend I saw both Zero Dark Thirty and The Hobbit.

For Zero Dark Thirty we went to the Icon theater on Roosevelt again. Jess and Paul and Kate joined us there. The movie is “the story of history’s greatest manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man” aka Osama bin Laden. I know that probably not every single thing in the movie is entirely accurate, it is a movie after all, but it made you think a lot about what goes on behind the scenes in all of this stuff. I think everyone liked the movie but it was super intense.

After the movie we met up with friends at Municipal Bar. Dallas and his friends have been hanging out here a lot lately, so it was nice to see, even if it wasn’t my most favorite place ever. I did like my huge cobb salad.

My brother and I had been trying to figure out a time to see The Hobbit since it opened in mid-December, but because of the holidays it never worked out until now. We both read all of the Lord of the Rings books and saw those movies together each year they came out. Even when I lived in New York we’d see them together because they always opened around Christmas and I’d go back home for Christmas. I’ve read the Hobbit twice, I think, at least, and so has my brother. When we were young we had the Betamax version of The Hobbit cartoon that came out in 1977 and watched it often.

We decided to see the movie at Navy Pier so we could see it on the IMAX screen in 3D. I liked the movie. It was long. Over 2.5 hours, but I didn’t think it dragged. It has been a long time since I read The Hobbit, the book, and I couldn’t remember all the details of what was about to happen, but when something happened then I’d remember it.

My brother and I also had brunch at Dunlay’s before the movie. We tried Longman & Eagle and Lula’s and both were jam packed. Dunlay’s had a line when we left, but not when we arrived. I had a great omelet and my brother had the Benedict of the Day, which was fried chicken eggs Benedict.

We also stopped by Todd and Adam’s to watch a little football and see how the sandwich bet went. Dallas lost a bet and had to make a fried green tomato and shrimp po’boy for Adam (and everyone else). Then we ran over to Revolution Brewing for dinner and I completed his Christmas gift, finally, but getting him a growler sleeve.

I almost forgot that this happened at Navy Pier:

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