Q:

Having trouble parsing Json with PHP

I have an android app that sends a json string to my server and it is formatted as follows:
{"drink_name":"testing","phone_number":"5555555555"}

When I use the command: SELECT * FROM orders, it shows that blank entries were inserted into the table. 
I think my issue is arising from my PHP script (mainly because I am new to PHP). 
Am I parsing the json correctly? 
Below is the script that I wrote. 
<? php 
$handle = mysql_connect('localhost',USERNAME,PASSWORD); 
if($handle==false) 
{ 
die('No database connection'); 
} 

$db=mysql_select_db('r2bar2');

$json = file_get_contents('php://input');
$obj = json_decode($json);

mysql_query("INSERT INTO orders (phone_number, drink_name) 
VALUES ('".$obj->{'phone_number'}."', '" .$obj->{'drink_name'}."')"); 
mysql_close($handle);
? >

EDIT:
Here is my Android code if it is any help. 
protected void sendJson(final String phnNmbr, final String drink) {
    Thread t = new Thread(){
        public void run() {
            Looper.prepare(); //For Preparing Message Pool for the child Thread
            HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
            HttpConnectionParams.setConnectionTimeout(client.getParams(), 10000); //Timeout Limit
            HttpResponse response;
            JSONObject json = new JSONObject();
            try{
                HttpPost post = new HttpPost("http://kubie.dyndns-home.com/R2Bar2/sendOrder.php");
                json.put("phone_number", phnNmbr);
                json.put("drink_name", drink);
                StringEntity se = new StringEntity( "orders: " + json.toString());  
                se.setContentEncoding(new BasicHeader(HTTP.CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json"));
                post.setEntity(se);
                response = client.execute(post);
                /*Checking response */
                Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), json.toString(), Toast. LENGTH_LONG).show();
                if(response!=null){
                    InputStream in = response.getEntity().getContent(); //Get the data in the entity
                }
            }
            catch(Exception e){
                e.printStackTrace();
                //createDialog("Error", "Cannot Estabilish Connection");
            }
            Looper.loop(); //Loop in the message queue
        }
    };
    t.start();      
}

A:

I figured out what I was doing wrong.  It seems as though I was passing in a raw data type.  In order to parse the string, I used the following:
$obj = json_decode(file_get_contents("php://input"));

mysql_query("INSERT INTO orders (phone_number, drink_name)
VALUES ('".$obj->{'phone_number'}."', '" .$obj->{'drink_name'}."')"); 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.