Fighting and mingling

We went to see The Fighter this afternoon. I think I actually have something to say about it that resembles a review, for once, and that's this: it was almost like two movies, one of which I liked and one I didn't. I could care less about the Oscar-bait part where Christian Bale is on a downward spiral from crack. Seen that movie before, not interested. I do think it might have bothered me less if I hadn't already seen two movies most people probably haven't seen - the other two movies featuring Skeletal Christian Bale: The Machinist and Rescue Dawn. He's not a crack addict in either of those, but I still think it contributed to my bad 'been there done that" reaction. (Plus that part of the movie also just plain went on too long.) I did like the actual boxing part of the movie much better, although it also suffers from occasional bouts of Oscar-bait Syndrome. It managed to overcome that where the other part didn't. Verdict: worth seeing, particularly if you find Christian Bale less annoying than I do. (Dicky and Micky's troupe of foul-mouthed, big-haired sisters are particularly amusing, almost worth the price of admission by themselves.)

Then we went to an actual Christmas open house, which is something we only rarely, rarely do. Rob's co-worker who invited him has no idea what a unusual honor she got! It was very nice - I didn't really know many people there but I found some interesting people to talk to - I had a nice long talk with somebody else's spouse about (among other things) the redevelopment of Galveston. Oh, and there was a semi-celebrity there, for a while: George Mitchell (this guy). He has always spent a lot of time in Galveston, over the years, but I had never met him before. He's quite elderly, but seems spry enough. So we enjoyed that, on the whole. I hear the food was good, but like a good weight watcher I ate before I went, and didn't sample much (I did have some wine, though).

I mailed a whole fistful of Christmas cards and I hope they get where they are supposed to go, because all four mailboxes outside the post office were overflowing, with envelopes sticking right out the top. I tried to stuff mine in far enough to be safe from falling out!