The horse won...

Shortly after posting yesterday, the feeling in my throat that had been a mere tickling during the day intensified, and Galina confirmed that the back of my throat appeared red. I started to shiver.

So, as we switched channels back and forth between It's a Wonderful Life and a performance of Handel's Messiah from somewhere in the heartland, we decided not to undertake a 60-mile round trip to a Christmas Eve party.

We stayed home and watched Seabiscuit.

Before this movie came out the name was probably not generally known except among people my age and horse racing fans. Even I was only aware that it was the name of a famous racehorse, a fact gleaned in my childhood from watching old cartoons that had been devised to be timely for their era, though I couldn't tell the difference a few decades down the line.

I liked the film. It reminded me of Tucker, in more than just the appearance of Jeff Bridges (who, interestingly enough, received second billing behind Tobey Macguire... although the latter was one of the executive producers of the film). I found the film uplifting and inspirational.

I shall have to return to this theme some day, however, as I really didn't intent to post right now. Right now, we need to get the house into some semblance of order for later in the day.

Cheers...

Eyes wide open...

The urge, earlier in the day, to clean the house was apparently based on Galina and my basic desire to live in a pleasant environment and not, as I suspected, in order to prepare for company. As it turned out, we visited the kids at their place around 4 pm.

Everyone was there, pretty much. John, Shannon's father, and Josh, her brother-in-law, spent most of the time we were there ice fishing, leaving me as pretty much the only male (if we don't count Drew, who was in and out all the time, and Owen, who is one of Huntur's cousins) in a house otherwise filled with women.

While the turkey and ham underwent their final few minutes of cooking, Galina delivered the presents that she'd bought for the kids, and I went about my usual quiet way, sipping something called Shiraz, of the wine persuasion.

During dinner, Ellen noted that she'd heard that the Mars probe (Beagle 2) apparently had not "called home," and her tone was such that I found myself rather defensive about the project, noting that, while things looked dim at present, all was not lost. (I have since learned that Jodrell Bank has heard nothing from Beagle 2, which apparently is serious.)

Josh's mom - who has been visiting her son and Shannon's sister Sarah for the past few days - then asked me if I really believed that people had visited the moon, and before I could mull over the prospect that I might be dealing with one of those poor unfortunates who wants to believe that no such visits had ever occurred, my mouth had already answered "Yes, of course."

Now, apparently, my answer scratched some kind of curiosity, and the matter was allowed to rest, except for some miscellaneous comments that I let pass. There are few things more vexing than exchanging words with people whose views are out there in the vicinity of four sigma.

Galina and I returned home by 7 and started to watch something on television; something called "Faking It" on the BBC America channel. We caught the tail end of a segment where a young woman was being trained to "fake" being a competitive ballroom dancer, to the point of taking in professional judges at a competition. She must've been quite talented, as she made the finals (after two preliminary rounds), but two out of the three judges, when told of the scam, were able to pick her out almost at once. It was an interesting show, although I must confess ignorance of the point of the proceedings. Might it be that it's relatively easy to fake expert performance in a wide variety of endeavors?

<sarcasm>Wow, what a concept!</sarcasm>

I soon lost interest in the boob tube and started to listen to the first CD from a Spanish language course by Hyperglot that I had reviewed ages ago. I fell asleep with the earphones on, and as they are the type that clip onto the ear, the result - after a couple of hours - was most painful.

Upon arising, it turns out I've only been asleep for a couple-three hours, which does not bode well for the rest of the night's sleep, which isn't to say I'm not going to try to get a good one.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, and has a great Boxing Day tomorrow.