title: Converting JSON into Python dict
body: <p>I've been searching around trying to find an answer to this question, and I can't seem to track it down.  Maybe it's too late in the evening to figure the answer out, so I turn to the excellent readers here.</p>
  
  <p>I have the following bit of JSON data that I am pulling out of a CouchDB record:</p>
  
  <pre><code>"{\"description\":\"fdsafsa\",\"order\":\"1\",\"place\":\"22 Plainsman Rd, Mississauga, ON, Canada\",\"lat\":43.5969175,\"lng\":-79.7248744,\"locationDate\":\"03/24/2010\"},{\"description\":\"sadfdsa\",\"order\":\"2\",\"place\":\"50 Dawnridge Trail, Brampton, ON, Canada\",\"lat\":43.7304774,\"lng\":-79.8055435,\"locationDate\":\"03/26/2010\"},"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This data is stored inside a Python dict under the key '<code>locations</code>' in a dict called '<code>my_plan</code>'.  I want to covert this data from CouchDB into a Python dict so I can do the following in a Django template:</p>
  
  <pre><code>{% for location in my_plan.locations %}                                                           
  &lt;tr&gt;
      &lt;td&gt;{{ location.place }}&lt;/td&gt;
      &lt;td&gt;{{ location.locationDate }}&lt;/td&gt;
  &lt;/tr&gt;
  
  {% endfor %}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I've found lots of info on converting dicts to JSON, but nothing on going back the other way.</p>