Flying Pats and Kites

Yesterday involved some heavy recovery time (see yesterday’s post) despite being charged with accomplishing the final readying the house for the impending return of our assorted progeny (am very excited about that!).  The snow has all but disappeared, much to the consternation of a snow shoeing MEF.  I’m now at the point where I keep telling myself to calm down because there is no way my expectation for the how much fun the next few days will be can be fully realized.  It’s going to be a lot of fun trying though.

The Patriots contributed to the building euphoria yesterday with a dominating win (I remember when these used to be common place).  Some how, with more holes in the lineup than a well used colander, they laid a smack down on the defending super bowl champion Ravens in their home stadium. 

Euphoric Win!

They didn’t just win the game, they dominated physically against a team that is all about size and muscle – and yapping.  It was so satisfying to see the Patriots impose their will upon these braggarts. 

The wife and I took in a late movie last night (well – that was more my idea – she slept through significant portions of it).  We went to see Saving Mr. Banks which tells a Disneyfied version of Walt Disney’s tribulations on bringing Mary Poppins to the screen back in the early 1960’s.

Tom Hanks plays Walt while Emma Thompson plays the stuck up author P.L. Travers who’s reticent to release rights to her beloved characters to the boorish Americans.  Thompson is such a good actress that she is thoroughly dislikable through most of the movie which is problematic because she’s supposed to be sympathetic at the same time. 

The problem arises because this is the Disney studio making a movie about Walt Disney where right or wrong he is revered as a godlike figure.  This movie goes out of its way to canonize Saint Walter and Thompson’s character pays the price. The author’s back story, told in flashbacks, doesn’t deliver the poignant message it should which doesn’t soften the uptight prig she’s evolved to when she arrives at Disney’s studio.

As with most kids my age I grew up seeing Walt Disney every Sunday night and it was nostalgic seeing Hanks portraying the guy who fired so much imagination from my youth.  It was cool seeing the evolution of the story and songs for Mary Poppins also; but now I’ve got that damned “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” stuck in my head for another two weeks.  I’m going to have to self-medicate with a lot of Christmas carols to eradicate it.

The house fills up tonight – AM SO PSYCHED!!!!!